Study Abroad University of Newcastle

Housing

Housing will be provided in self-contained apartments or houses and will typically be furnished and have two to three bedrooms with a lounge, kitchen, bathroom and laundry access.This accommodation will be within easy reach of both the University and the city as well as having close proximity to the patrolled and beautiful beaches that form part of the city’s attractions.

Meals

Meals are self-catered.

For More Information…

For more information, email a study abroad representative. To schedule an advising appointment, contact the Office of Study Abroad at 336.841.9280.

Cost Breakdown for Fall 2013 & Spring 2014

Application Fee: $500.00

The application fee is non-refundable. Due at time of application.

Program Fee: $17,987.50

The program fee is payable to High Point University and includes tuition, fees, and housing. Participants are billed at the HPU All-Inclusive Fee rate of $20,800 with a less of $2,812.50 for meals not included.

Note: Total may vary due to currency exchange rate and tuition costs

Additional Costs:

• Meals
• Round-trip airfare
• Ground transportation
• International medical insurance
• Trip cancellation insurance
• Passport
• Immigration visa
• Textbooks
• Personal travel, expenses, and souvenirs

IMPORTANT: High Point University affiliates with the University of Wisconsin at Platteville (UWP) to provide this educational program to HPU students. Students looking for information online may find discrepancies in program fees between what HPU charges and what UWP charges. Due to the terms agreed upon in our affiliation agreement, HPU students cannot apply directly to UWP for this program, nor can they opt to pay program fees directly to UWP.

For More Information…

For more information, email a study abroad representative. To schedule an advising appointment, contact the Office of Study Abroad at 336.841.9280.

What will I experience at Newcastle?

Excursions

Many trips are included with your program fee such as:

• Sydney Harbor Bridge and the Sydney Opera House - Two of Australia’s most famous landmarks, students will have the opportunity to experience both up-close. A guided tour which takes in the concert halls of the Opera House will be offered, as will be as the very popular Bridgeclimb over the grand arch of Sydney Harbor Bridge. Students will have ample time left to explore the exciting city of Sydney and accommodation will be provided in the inner city.
• Glenrock Lagoon - Newcastle’s coastal national park located within the city’s boundaries is preserved as a showcase for the stunning natural beauty of the region. Aboriginal rangers are able to guide students through the history of the area and to the significance of the flora and fauna to the local indigenous people.

For More Information…

Read about Elementary Education major Melissa Wagner’s experience in Newcastle below:

I studied abroad in the Spring of 2012. When I was in 5^th grade, I got asked to go on a People to People trip to Australia. I had turned the offer down because both my parents and I felt like I was too young to go that far away. I have always heard of so many great things about Australia that I knew that was the place I wanted to go. Ever since then I have always been dreaming of studying abroad when I went away to college. Every time I looked at schools I made sure it was possible for me to go abroad. My expectations of going there were pretty high; I knew I wanted to travel to every place I possibly could and I was so excited to meet people from Australia and learn about their lifestyle.

Newcastle, Australia: After arriving in the Sydney airport my study abroad group and I traveled 2 hours north to reach the city of Newcastle. Newcastle is located in the state New South Wales and is more of the southeastern part of Australia. Newcastle is actually the second most populated city in New South Wales. This city was more of a local city rather than a tourist city, which I loved because this was a place I was going to call my home for 4 months. The city is made up of people who live there and people who study at the University of Newcastle. There were local beaches that were just a 10-minute walk away, a strip of restaurants from all different cultures, and a beautiful lighthouse view to overlook the water.

University of Newcastle: The UoN was definitely a different experience compared to what HPU is like. For starters the school is much more populated and has about 35,000 students and about 6,800 are international students. The education system is much different than what I expected as well. First of all, their semesters are backwards compared to ours because our seasons are opposite of theirs. Their semester one classes are what we consider to be our spring semester and semester two classes are what we consider to be our fall semester. Students can take up to 3 to 4 classes a semester. Classes consist of lectures and tutorial classes. The lectures are usually 2 hours long and made up of an average of 200 students. Tutorial classes are much smaller classes of about 20 people. The tutorials are meant to have discussions about what happened in the lecture. Over the course of the semester in each class I had about 3 or 4 big assignments. Students were always around campus, whether they were just hanging out, doing homework, or playing games on the fields. UoN also provides many student clubs to join and in the beginning of the semester they have like an “activities fair” so people can walk around and see what they might be interested in. The University of Newcastle is a pretty diverse campus where I made friends from both Australia and other countries.

Accommodations: I went through a program through the University of Wisconsin-Plateville, where my study abroad group was made up of 7 other American students who were mainly from the Midwest. The program that I went through provided us with off campus apartments where the 8 of us lived together. Between the 8 of us, we lived in 3 different apartments but they were all right next to each other. Our apartments had 2 bedrooms, a living room, a full kitchen, a dining room, and a bathroom. There were also two laundry rooms attached to the buildings. We were even provided with free wifi and if we wanted a quieter space we would go to the towns local HUB, which is like a library and computer lab for the students who lived off campus. Everything in town was pretty close; nothing was more than a 10-15 minute walk. We always made trips to the grocery store and mainly cooked our own meals. Even the walk to the train was 10 minutes and than it took about a 12-minute ride to campus. It was interesting because I felt like a commuter. There were always students on the train though when heading to class and when heading back home.

Travel: Traveling up and down the east coast of Australia was so incredible. In my 4 months there, I had traveled to 7 different cities. I went to Melbourne, Sydney, Byron Bay, Brisbane, Surfers Paradise, Fraser Island, and Cairns (Great Barrier Reef). I traveled by taking planes and busses and traveling there wasn’t anymore expensive than traveling here, it might have even been a little cheaper because I stayed in hostels rather than the hotels. I always traveled with people in my study abroad group. My hostel experiences were never bad either, when I stayed in a hostel up in Cairns I had 11 different hostel mates and became friends with all of them. Melbourne is a beautiful city filled with different types of art, Byron Bay and Fraser Island were both really relaxing trips that I took where I hung out on the beaches. Brisbane was another city I saw for a day, which contains a lot of history. Sydney is a very touristy city where I got to climb the Sydney Harbour Bridge and toured the Opera House. Surfers Paradise was a fun trip where I got to hold a koala, feed kangaroos and see all of the different animals they have in Australia that aren’t found in the states. My favorite and longest trip was when I traveled to Cairns where I went snorkeling, and scuba diving in the beautiful and colorful Great Barrier Reef. I even took a chance and jumped out of a plane over the Great Barrier Reef and landed on the beach. I would highly suggest traveling when in Australia, I had done things I never thought I would do and I met people from all parts of the world.

Advice for future students: Australia is a beautiful country that helped me grow as a person. After living there I learned so much about myself; I learned how to cook, clean, and depend on myself to live. I am so thankful to be blessed with the best family and friend’s back at home that supported my dreams to live in Australia. I mean, how many people can really say that they have lived in another country for 4 months? Get out there and go see what else this world has to offer. I promise you wont regret your decision.

Students who arrive on the recommended day and within the recommended time frame (provided upon acceptance) are met by a shuttle service (named “Happy Cabby”), which will take them from the Sydney airport to the accommodation in Newcastle. There, they will be met at their accommodation by the onsite coordinators before beginning orientation programming.

For more information about the University of Newcastle, visit the University of Newcastle website or email a study abroad representative.

For an idea of what your semester at the University of Newcastle may look like, schedule an appointment with a study abroad advisor. Contact the Office of Study Abroad at 336.841.9280.