Reserapport - KI-student
Lärosäte: The University of New South Wales
Utbildningsprogram: Biomedicin
Utbytesprogram: INK
Termin: Vårtermin 13/14

Innan avresa

I chose to go on exchange because it's a great opportunity to travel ​​and to experience what it is like to live for a longer period in another country. Australia felt as an exciting choice and the University of New South Wales is a good and reputable school. 
I began to search research  teams when the spring semester ended in June so that I had plenty of time contact as many supervisors as possible and decide which one I would choose. In the end, I chose one of the first groups I contacted, so there was really no hurry. I know many how contacted their supervisors in the last minute and still got an internship, so don't panic if you are bit late. Anyway, it's always better to be out in time to be on the safe side. I also recommend you not to settle for a group just because they where the first to reply or you don't feel like you have the effort to ask several groups. Instead, take contact with as many as you can (that seem interesting to you and try to find out as much about the projects they offer as possible. Since you are going to be there for six months, more or less, it is important that you enjoy what you are doing and the people you work with. It is a good idea to ask a bit about the group and maybe choose one that have students or young PhDs since you are going to spend a lot of time in the lab this will make the whole exchange a lot more fun. 
Once you have found a group that accepts you, you have to apply to the school as well. This is just to get you signed in as a student and for you to get a student number that you later on can apply for your visa with, since you more or less already got accepted to the school trough the nomination from KI.  This online application was quickly done and easy to understand. Things to consider when filling it in is that the passport number must be the same as the one you apply for a visa with. Therefore, make sure that your passport is valid for the entire period you intend to stay in Australia. 
After you have received the acceptance letter from the school, you can begin to apply for student visa. You usually receive your visa within a couple of days after your application (I got my visa for less than 12 hours), but they recommend that you apply at least a month before departure. This is because they do random 'extra' controls which can take up to 4 weeks to complete . There are lots of different visas to choose from but I would recommend a student visa because it is cheapest (costs around 1700). I applied for student visa subclass 507.
Something that is important to be in good time with is flight tickets, as they often rises quite dramatically in price. I would also recommend  to buy tickets from one of the more exclusive airlines as there isn't that big difference in price and it's really worth the money for the comfort when you fly for 20 hours. I flew with Emirates and was really satisfied. They had comfortable chairs, "good" airline food, and lots of new movies / series you could choose from on your private TV screen.

Ankomst och registrering

Because UNSW does not offer any accommodation to Practicum Exchange students and then it's very difficult (if not impossible) to find accommodation without going on interviews and meet the landlord, it can be good to be in place a week or so before starting your internship. Having that said, once you are there and can go to interviews it is really easy to find a place to live.  

At UNSW you will have to book a meeting with the international student counselor during your first day of enrollment. This is just to give you more information about stuff that you need for the school. They will tell you how to get your student card and where to pay your enrollment fee and so on. 

Ekonomi

Australia is not a cheap country and both accommodation and food (in supermarkets) are quite expensive. A typical rent is around $ 180 a week and the price of food in supermarkets is more or less as in Sweden. Eating out at the resturant is nhowever cheaper and there are lots of nice and cozy places to go to. 
Fast food is also very cheap, where a Subway meal costs $ 5 for example. Of course is the nightlife and prices on alcohol also cheaper. 
Public transport is quite expensive and exchange students does not get the ordinary student discount. All universities in Sydney are trying to get Sydney council to change this, so its probably going to be cheaper in the future. They do have a different (not nearly as good) discount for exchange students. It is a three month card, which is valid for all means of transport (bus, train, boat, etc.) and for the entire Sydney area (which is really big. I bought this kind of card and it costed me about $ 560. One thing that is good with the three-month card is that you do not have to think so much about the mode of transport or how far you go, because it applies everywhere. For the 'normal' tickets you can only go by bus (which is called mybuss clip card) or by train (mytrain travel card). With these tickets you have to know in which zone you are traveling to, as it is a clip card and not like for example the English oyster card, where you sign in and out and pay automatically. The zones your are traveling in can be quite difficult to figure out, as they are not set zones but depend on which station you get on and which transport take and so on. Because of this I would recommend the three month card, even if you live relatively close to the uni.  

Boende

As I mentioned earlier UNSW does not provide housing so this is something you would need to find by yourself. It is easiest to start looking and answering to ads when you are in Sydney as most landlords want to meet you and let you look at the place. It is however fairly easy to find a room to rent once you get there. Ther are a lot of houses rented by students or backpackers where people move in and out all the time.  
One should however be very careful because there are many scams. A friend and I were cheated of around 5000 each of a guy who according to police had managed to fool about 80 people before us with the same ad. It is common to pay with cash in hand and that deposit is approximately 2 weeks rent which makes it easier to be fooled. I guess the best advice I can give is to always go and look at the place and it is a good sign to get to meet and talk to other people living there. 

Because Sydney is such a big city, and the traffic in rush hour is awful, I recommend to stay near UNSW. First part of my exchange I lived at Bondi Beach, which was absolutely wonderful. It took me about 10 minutes by bus to school and then I had walking distance to the beach. In the second part I lived in Newtown, which is a bit more of a student (or hipster) part of the city which is full of nica bars, restaurants and shops. It was a really nice area but it could however, take me up to 1.5 hours to get to / from school during the rush hours. Both of my homes, I got through gumtree.au, by responding to the ads that was already up there, which is totally free. You can also upload your own ad, but I think you have to pay a small fee for that. Then there are a number of other sites with housing ads that might be good to check out as well, but most of the ads end up at gumtree anyways. 

Studier allmänt

Since I was on practicum exchange I had no courses and spent all my time in the lab. Just like Sweden, Australia has a fairly relaxed teacher student relationship, and you always use the first name. I felt no great difference between being in the lab at UNSW or a lab at KI. The experinace you are going to have depends greatly on the supervisor you have, no matter if it is in Australia or somewhere else. This makes it very important to spend time on choosing the project and supervisor.

Kurser under utbytet

Kurser motsvarande termin 6 på KI
Had no courses. 

Språk och kultur

To have the exchange in an English-speaking country was very nice, because it is easy to communicate with people and it makes it incredibly much easier in everyday life. Cultural Australia and Sweden are very similar and  I instantly feelt at home.

Fritid och sociala aktivteter

Sydney is a wonderful city and there's lots of fun to do. Firstly, there's a bunch of uni clubs you can join, for example sailing, diving, culture club and lot more. All clubs have their own stalls during oweek (introductory week) So have a look around and see if there's anything interesting you. 
  Besides that, I highly recommend a visit to all of Sydney's beaches when the weather is nice. Manly beach is really beautiful  and a must see. If you like hiking and want to see some of Australia's nature life  Blue mountains is a good option, as it takes about 2 hours by bus from Sydney (train too). 
The most important is however to travel as much as possible to see as much of Australia as you can. Therefore, a good idea might be to take a few weeks of before you start school and travel the country while it is in the summer. You can also stay after your project is done (if the visa allow it). 

Sammanfattning

conclusions from this: 
Do not expect everything to be really cheap and make sure to have a good budge, especially if you want to do some traveling. All in all I would say that Sweden is more expensive and you can definitely have more fun for your money over there.  Make sure to choose a research group that you think you will like, maybe with a lot of younger masters or PhD students, and a project you can be happy with. Be sure to travel as much as you have time for!

Absolutely worth to go and it will be half a year that you always remember.