Details

• Australia
• MACEMS-25
• Graduate
• SoSe 2026
• Time spent at the partner university: 4 months
• Contact: Login to see contact information

1. Preparation

It is helpful to apply for your visa months (ideally 4-6 months) in advance as it can take some time for it to get approved. Also it usually makes sense to get a credit / debit card without or with very low fees for international currencies. You might need to get an Australian bank account nonetheless, for example as for paying rent, the university accomodation charges you extra for non-Australian cards. Check out the student offer of Turkish Airlines, which includes (at least when I booked) 40kg of checked luggage and one free rebooking and the price was good as well. In case your phone is too old for esim, you can find sim cards at every supermarket and oftentimes even get a promotion. I went with Aldi (they offer eSim and physical Sim) and it worked very well, even surprisingly well in rural regions. Note that Australia is very strict with what you can bring to the country and the checks can be very thorough, so definitively check the regulations. Also check the required vaccines. As you need to get multiple shots for some of them and they have to be a couple of weeks apart, start early!

2. Accommodation

I stayed at the university residence "Queen Mary Building". It is right next to the main campus, but it might still take you a while to get to your lecture hall as the campus is big and the walking distances are considerable. For CEMS students, the classes are mostly in the CBD, so you actually have to take public transport to get there. The accomodations is fairly easy to organize, you just need to be very quick to get a room. At some point you'll receive and email about it and you need to sign up immediately to have a chance. The rooms are quite small (about 10m²) but fully furnished. Blankets (duvets, covers, etc), towels, and kitchen utensils are not provided. There are shared bathrooms on each floor, mine were pretty clean. There is one big and one small kitchen in the building, which can be quite dirty and crowded, so you need try to cook before everyone else. I payed around 1000€ per month, which is on the cheaper side from what I have heard, but on the other hand the quality is only medium. The accomodation is well-connected to many buses, but getting around in Sydney generally takes a lot of time.

3. Academic life at host university

I mostly took (CEMS) program specific classes so the teaching style has been partially dictated by the program and might not be representative for the entire university. It generally was very pracically focused with many interactive parts like presentations, discussions and cases. All classes had different assignment types, some with a final exam at the end but not all of them. All included group presentations. The CBD campus where the CEMS classes took place is really nice, but does not feel so much like a university campus as it is in an office building. But it is very well-maintained with a nice office team and even includes a samm kitchen with microwaves and a fridge accessible to students. The main campus is very big and the buildings differ a lot. But it generally is really nice and offers a lot of food options. The prices are not much lower than in restaurants around it though. The library offers a lot of space to study and also group rooms and spaces that you can / have to book.

5. Every day life in the host country

Public transport is widely available in Sydney but only medium reliable. Also they use a lot of buses which are very inefficient and take ages as traffic usually is bad. For example, it oftentimes takes you an hour at least to get to any beach. So getting around in the city takes a lot of time. Sydney is very safe, even at night and as women I did not have any weird experiences. There are lots of events happening in the city. There is some kind of market or festival or similar (usually for free) happening in some part of the city each weekend so there is a lot to do. Sydney is a very sport city with lots of run clubs. the university also offers a subscription for sports classes on the main campus. I used class pass for pilates in different studios and especially loved "Peaches Pilates".

6. Testimonial

I had an amazing time in Sydney, which is a beautiful city with a lot to explore and many events. It also is a great staring point for trips in other Australian regions and south-east Asia or New Zealand. I can definitively recommend Tasmania (go in Summer/ late spring / early fall), Queensland (tropics & Great Barrier Reef), and the Melbourne with the Great Ocean Road (beautiful scenery & koalas). The university campuses are nice and I had a lot of choices when choosing my elective.