Details

• Australia
• MACEMS-17
• Graduate
• WS 2025
• Time spent at the partner university: 5 months

1. Preparation

I can't really talk much about the application process as my exchange was organized through the CEMS office. For preparing in general, I would recommend to apply for the VISA about 3-4 months before your travel date. I have heard from various other students that the whole process can take a bit, even though for me it only took 1 day. Please also pack enough winter clothes - I know Australia sounds like sun and warm temperatures but it was really cold, rainy and windy in the Australian winter (July/August). For flying: The best way is probably with Emirates, they also have a nice student discount and I believe you can take up to two luggages as a student. I flew with Thai Airways which is also a nice alternative.

2. Accommodation

I lived in QMB (Queen Mary Building). It is probably the best accommodation you can get if you don't want to spend huge sums of money (Sydney can be quite expensive housing wise). The building is right next to the main campus and a huge student housing with about 1000 students. It was always clean, I felt absolutely safe and you have your own room. There are always lots of exchange students which is a great way of meeting others.

3. Academic life at host university

The campus is super beautiful and the libraries as well. Other than that I was not super happy with academic life. The quality of teaching is definitely way worse than at WU and also the other students are way below what you would know from WU students. My classes felt like WU STEOP courses even though they were Master's level. I would not expect to learn too much but then at the same time you also don't have to put too much effort in. You also should not expect to get the best grades. Australian universities just don't hand out A's. I had multiple assignments where I put in a lot of effort and only got the best feedback from professors "this was one of the 3 best presentations I have ever had in the class" and then we got a an 83%. It's all fine but you should just manage your expectations and to be fair I can only talk about the 5 classes I took - maybe others are different.

5. Every day life in the host country

Sydney is amazing, there is sooooo much to do and explore, especially when the weather gets warmer. You meet up with friends at the beach everyday and go surfing, or you read a book in the botanical gardens, etc. Of course you should also spend a good amount of time of your semester traveling the country. Australia is soooo big and there are so many cool places to visit. I went on a road trip along the east coast, the south west coast, the great ocean road and to NZ. I can definitely recommend spending as much time as possible visiting all of those places.There are also two gyms on campus and lots and lots of food options. Public transport is not the best in Sydney, however. It takes forever to get from A to B because there are only buses pretty much and the bus system is not organized very well. You can take Ubers instead (they are insanely cheap compared to Vienna) but I always just took the buses because I didn't want to spend extra money.

6. Testimonial

The best thing about the exchange is definitely Sydney as a city and everything it offers. There are more than 300 beaches in the city so go and explore them. The second best thing is all the traveling options you will have. Go to all the social events and connect with all the people you will meet, there are soooo many internationals in Sydney at the uni, boat parties or just at the beach.