Travel Report Minor ROYAL MELBOURNE INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY JULY - NOVEMBER 2015 MARK FABER, 4294157

Preparation My preparation was fairly minimal as I have family there with a spare room I could sleep in. I also have a New Zealand passport which meant that I did not need to apply for a visa. So most of my preparation was applying at RMIT. RMIT has an extensive website with lots of information (https://www.rmit.edu.au/study-with-us/international-students/) and they send regular inbound update emails to all exchange students. Another useful site is www.gumtree.com.au, which is used for everything second hand and also have a housing section. One other recommendation is to bring enough Australian dollars for the first week as it will take about a week to open a bank account, receive your debit card and transfer money across. I recommend opening a free student account at the Commonwealth bank and creating an account with an online international money transfer company. I used World First (https://www.worldfirst.com/au/) to transfer my money to Australia.

Accommodation I stayed at family who live in one of the inner suburbs of Melbourne (was still 8 km out of the center). Living in the CBD (Central Business District) close to the RMIT city campus where all of my courses were would have cost around $800 a month. You could find better deals if you didn’t mind taking a tram in to the Campus.

Funding For funding I used Studie Financiering together with the OV vergoeding from the Dutch government (DUO) and complemented with savings. I also received the STIR Scholarship. I was very lucky with the exchange rate as I managed to transfer most of the money to Australia while the exchange rate was between 0.60 and 0.65 Euro per 1 AU$ so the dollars were very cheap.

Income DUO STIR Savings

Amount in AU$

Amount in €

≈$580/month

€380/month

≈$600 ≈$1400

€400 €900

Costs Groceries Water/gas/electricity Travel Bike/lights/helmet Accommodation

Amount in AU$

Amount in €

$100/week

≈€65/week

$200 $2500 $180

≈€130 ≈€1600 ≈€120

$0

€0

Courses, level of instruction and examination Finding courses turned out to quite difficult and only 2 of my 4 originally applied for courses were approved by RMIT. I do recommend to apply for the maximum of 8 courses and then pick which courses you wish to follow once you start and also know the timetables and clashes. I found that the easiest way to find courses was through the program structure tab in the aerospace engineering bachelor of engineering page: http://www.rmit.edu.au/study-with-us/levels-ofstudy/undergraduate-study/honours-degrees/bh078/#pageId=BH078 The courses I ended up following:    

Airline Operations Airport Planning and Management Sustainable Aviation and the Environment Airworthiness Management Frameworks

http://www1.rmit.edu.au/courses/028893 http://www1.rmit.edu.au/courses/037931 http://www1.rmit.edu.au/courses/046908 http://www1.rmit.edu.au/courses/049729

All courses were undergraduate level. I had applied for a couple of postgraduate courses, however these were all rejected as I was an undergraduate. The airline course was very good as it was lectured by two people from the airline industry and was very industry focussed. The level of lecturing, assignments and tests were all aimed to make you understand the industry and were quite informative, while not too difficult or time consuming. The airport course was the only course that did not have mixed undergraduate and postgraduate students in the lectures. Unlike the airline course it was taught by a professor and it showed as the whole course was heavily based on one book. However the lecturer was knowledgeable and there were many practical examples in the slides. The sustainable course was good as it covered possible environmental gains and future/novel designs and configurations over the whole spectrum of aviation, from the aircraft themselves to air traffic control and airports. However as it covered such a wide range of topics it never really went into anything in depth and not a single calculation was involved. The airworthiness management course was surprisingly good. It did not cover the regulations themselves, but rather where the aviation regulations come from, the responsible organisations and the frameworks in place to implement the regulations and mitigate dangers. The lecturer had put a huge amount of effort into making such a dull topic accessible and entertaining and it turned out to be the course where I learnt the most. Overall the level of education was slightly lower than in Delft, but it was more personal and you were kept busy with the constant quizzes and assignments.

Student societies I didn’t join any student societies as my social life was already busy enough. The main society is called RUSU and will be present during the orientation and only costs $10 to join. They organise many events such as free lunches and parties.

Travelling during your stay At the start of my stay I did several trips through RMIT recreation, which organise single and multi-day trips (https://www.facebook.com/RMITRecreation). The trips I did were day trips to Phillip Island and the Great Ocean Road. Both I highly recommend, the great ocean road has some amazing scenery in the 12 apostles and Phillip island has thousands of tiny penguins.

Figure 2. Great Ocean Road trip

Figure 1. Phillip Island trip

I also went skiing at Mt Hotham, to Sydney for a long weekend, to Canberra over the mid-semester break, to Tasmania in the SWOT week (white week). The photo from the cover page is the view over Bruny Island from the top of Mt Wellington in Tasmania. I definitely recommend going to Sydney as it is an amazing city full of great activities and things to see. The capital city, Canberra, did not have much to do for tourists and was a little disappointing, however did have some great museums and nature reserves just a couple of hours of driving away. Tasmania I do wholeheartedly recommend as it is very varied, but is a place where a rental car is required to make the most of your time there. Having a car is almost necessary almost everywhere while travelling

through Australia as distances are huge. Melbourne to Sydney alone is 900 km and the west to east coast is the same distance as London to Moscow. You can rent backpacker cars at http://www.wickedcampers.com.au/, however to check if it is the cheapest option due to charging per km travelled. For flying domestically I recommend the low cost carrier Jetstar. Tigerair is generally cheaper, but has a terrible reputation for on time performance and customer service something I experienced myself with a 5 hour delay on the return flight from Tasmania. 1

The exam period finished on the 14th of November for me, which gives me a 2 month break in the down 2

under summer. I am using this time to do a large trip through the most beautiful country in the world, New Zealand.

Figure 3. View over Mount Tongariro and lake Taupo from the top of Mt Ngauruhoe on the Tongariro alpine crossing track in New Zealand.

Overall experience and learning outcomes Overall the exchange experience was amazing and something I definitely recommend to anyone who has the opportunity. I may have not gained much technical knowledge, however the industry focussed and managerial courses taught much more about the hurdles and requirements a potential design would have to go through to become feasible. So the aim to become a more well-rounded engineer is definitely achieved on top of having an unforgettable half year in Australia.