From a Knight to a Viking

Making the transition from private liberal arts to public university...

One of the biggest transitions that you will make studying abroad is a change of school. Coming from Saint Michael's College (a private liberal arts school with student population of about 1,800) and going to Murdoch University (a public university with a student population of about 16,000) has been a huge step in my life. Yet, it's not just the size that has my head spinning, there are many differences in college life abroad compared to home.

Professors, Professionalism and being on a First-Name Basis:

This first real change I noticed was in lectures with professors. You do not need to address them "Professor Smith" or "Doctor Adams" you would just call them "Dave" or "Susan". This has been an extremely weird transition of stepping out of a more professional relationship into a more casual one.

Along with the informality in how you address your professors, emails share the same traits. I needed to change the due date of an assignment so I wrote out a long email, requesting as politely as possible to be able to move this assignment a bit earlier. I received a simple "okie dokie" back from my professor. I can honestly say, that is not the response I expected.

I don't see anything wrong in the less formal lifestyle and relationships between students and professors, I find it almost amusing to be able to call them by their first name in lectures or tutorials, and a bit relaxing to know my emails don't have to be proof-read 10 times over.

Units, and Lectures, and Tutorials! Oh, my!

Another change is how classes (or units as they are called here) are structured. For starters, everything is broken down into different sections. My marine biology class has five parts, Lecture I, Lecture II, PreLab, Lab, and Field Trip. I have lecture I every Monday morning and lecture II every Wednesday afternoon. I then have PreLab and Lab on Monday afternoons, but only during weeks two and three. Field Trips happen weeks six, eight, and eleven. Confused yet?

When I was first signing up for my unit/lab/tutorial times I was super confused on why there were so many parts to each unit. At home you pick a class and you have it at the same time (for the most part, there are very few exceptions) either Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays or Tuesdays and Thursdays. Here units tend to only be once a week. For example, my public relations class has its lecture on Tuesday morning and the tutorial (when the class splits into a smaller group to discuss lectures and readings) that same day in the afternoon.

I'm slowly learning how to manage when I have a lab or tutorial, it's definitely a huge transition from SMC meeting times.

Hitting the Books

Studying and homework is very different here than at SMC. First of all, classes are usually broken down here with grading as follows: Midterm- 25%, Project- 35%, Final- 40%. Or some variation with added side projects and essays or presentations. You aren't graded on homework, participation, or attendance at all.

The next difference is reading assignments. It's all up to you to read as much or as little as you want. Professors usually give in the course outline the "required readings" (what you need to read to understand the lecture), the "recommended readings" (a bit of extra information to help you master what you have been studying) and the "additional readings" (can't learn enough about tectonic plates? Here are five more scholastic journals on them.) This in a way can be helpful, but also overwhelming at the same time.

The biggest difference I've seen so far is that assignments are your own responsibility. The professor doesn't end the lecture saying "read chapters 12-15 for the next lecture" or "I will email you your assignment" it's all on you. It is your job as a student to check each night what you need to read and have finished by the next unit meeting time. Whether it be reading a few chapters, finishing research for your lab, or writing in your semester long journal, it's up to you to find those assignments.

Now, I'm not saying that being responsible is a bad thing, I really like being in charge of my learning. I am lucky that here at Murdoch they have a website called "LMS" that has all your units broken down with the syllabus, important dates, unit timetables and links to textbooks and readings. LMS is definitely the most helpful website related to college classes I have ever seen.

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With every step in your life comes changes and transitions. The step I decided to make studying abroad in Australia has brought on not only cultural changes, but academic changes. When you are looking at studying abroad, don't let the transfer of schools scare you. Once you are a week in, it starts to feel as familiar as taking Monday/Wednesday/Friday classes. Except classes are once a week, with multiple meeting times, but only some of those times are during certain weeks, and you need to look up your assignments and.... ;)