UK – Aydin
Student: Aydin
Course: Bachelor of Commerce
Program: Trimester exchange T2 2024
The UK is cold especially during winter and up north can get even colder. The culture in Liverpool is very much a people-first city [and I] always felt welcome wherever I went. The landscape's similar to most other cities in the UK, old buildings and landmarks that have stood the test of time, and this can be seen by Liverpool’s docks along the water. Differences to Australia are the student life, students over there have moved out of home and living away from their families. They only have the people that they go to university with and are always willing to make friends. Normal day in Liverpool for me consisted of uni during the day and then heading to the pub of an evening to eat have a pint and watch the football. I spent my weekends travelling to various countries across Europe with friends that I made while on exchange. I went to so many countries that it is hard to pick a single one that stood out the most, but if I had to it would be Turkey. Just a 4-hour flight from the UK, it is one of the most picturesque and beautiful countries in the world. Amazing food, people and so much to do wherever in the country you visit. My host university put on inbound exchange student events which is where I met most of my friends, so many Aussies from all over.
I knew that I wanted to go and explore Europe so I thought that exchange would be a perfect opportunity for me. Why Liverpool? Well, I love football, and Liverpool is my team so when it aligned with my course it seemed like a no brainier. Some advice I would give to students that are thinking of studying abroad would be just do it. Going in I was worried about making friends as I was the only Deakin student going over but if I could go again I would in a heartbeat. Challenges for me were being away from my family and friends but the people that you will meet are all experiencing the same thing. One thing I learnt was how to live alone, I have never lived out of home, and this was something different doing everything by yourself was challenging at first but again an amazing experience. I financed the trip mostly through my personal savings as well as using OS-help loaning adding onto my HECS. The trip added value to my studies as I completed units that gave me credit towards my degree.