Details

• New Zealand
• BBE-18
• Undergraduate
• WS 2025
• Time spent at the partner university: 4 months

1. Preparation

The preperation for the Exhcange Semester can be a bit Stressful, as courses start in Juli meaning there will be not much time between the End of the Semester at WU and the start at the University of Otago. Be prepared for the colder weather and idealy bring a lot of layers as temperatures change rapidly. On the academic side, the University website does a Good Job explaining which courses are available. Selection of the courses can be done all the way up to arrival. There is a need for a Visa in New Zealand which can take up to a few weeks.

2. Accommodation

I stayed in the suggested Accomondation from the university called Uniflats. The experience was quite good. I lived in a house with 4 other internationals and one "Kiwi" Host, a local that helped with tips for everyday live in New Zealand. The buildings are not comparable to Austria, so very bad insulation was normal all around. The Area was very safe, but not super nice, as many students live there and regualry littered. There was a lot of Fast Food places around and the closest Supermarket was a 10 min walk. The Uni is quite big so the neares builduings were 7min away from the house while some lectures were about 25min by foot away. The accomodation was easy to book and covers all esentialls (Fully furnished, Gas and electricity included), plus the organisation organized a bunch of Events for exchange Students.

3. Academic life at host university

The Campus is quite large and therefore has all kind of facillities, the walk between courses and home can be tedious as all routes normally take 10-15min by foot. In a lot of the buildings around campus they have info points where friendly staff will help you with anything from directions to resetting your E-mail or changing courses. The academic cultures is not as competitive as at WU, people seem more relaxed about their studies. The teaching style is very dependent on the courses you take, but normally all lectures are recorded and in class participation is minimal. The courses are of a similar difficulty if not a little bit easier than comparabel courses at WU with the only difference being they are worth substantially more ETCS. The Grading is also comparabel.

5. Every day life in the host country

I did not really use Public Transport, as everything in the town is reachable by foot and a lot of people bought cars so that helped when doing larger shopping hauls. The town is very safe, as is all of New Zealand, but it and especially the student area is not very clean. There is a gym that is available for all Otago students for free. The everyday life is not super exiting, but there were usually some student parties every week, events organized by Uniflats and there were a lots of clubs to join aswell. Overall there was a lot of Free Time, as the Courseload was not the toughest. The coolest thing about Dunedin was doing day or Weekend Trips to other places in New Zealand.

6. Testimonial

Overall the experience at the University of Otago and New Zealand in generall was very adventurus. I liked engaging with the content covered in my courses and the more relaxed pace was a good change to the sometimes intenses phases at WU. The best thing about the exchange was not the University though, it was being on the other side of the world and trying to see as much as possible. I was on weekend trips 8 out of 12 Weeks while I was in New Zealand and also spend the break in Fiji and continued traveling after to Australia.