So, as mentioned, I started off my semester exchange with 3 wonderful souls (Clara, Dong Ni and Jie Xin). Throughout the 4.5 months (~5 months), we’ve made really wonderful memories together mostly in our cozy home.

It’s called Little Gem as listed on the Airbnb site but even though it was literally quite small of a place, it was warm and cozy and a place we can safely call home during our exchange.

Not only did we spend much time together at home, we made sure to explore the whole of Melbourne together as well, which gave us much time to bond, laugh and get closer.

Here are just some photos from our many adventures in Melbourne:

So, as you can see, we spent most of the time in Melbourne together other than with our local friends, and I am grateful that this exchange has happened because without it, I don’t think I could have crossed paths with such wonderful souls.

Although our time as MELBOUND gang will end soon in just 2 weeks from now as we return back to Singapore on the 7th of July, I am sure the memories we’ve forged in our Little Gem, Melbourne and of course RMIT itself will stay with us for a really long time.

With that, I would like to give thanks to RMIT, for kindly sponsoring me with the Endeavour grant which gave me financial capacity to explore Melbourne freely with my friends and enjoy the city’s beauty. Other than the financial assistance, RMIT has also been a great school to study in, and I couldn’t see myself enjoying the courses more anywhere else because of the awesome classmates and teachers I’ve met here. The amount of knowledge and information as well as hands-on experiences have been nothing but useful, and I’ve been so pleased with the university thus far that I’ve been recommending it to people that RMIT is a place to come to for exchange!

Also, I would like to show my appreciation to MELBOUND, for being the best group of friends I can ever travel Australia and Melbourne with, and it has been a joy going through all sorts of adventures and experiences with them.

I guess, this shall be the last post of this blog – but the impact RMIT has made on me is definitely perpetual. RMIT is really a place of wonder, new experiences and joy, and together with Melbourne, will always be viewed as my second home even when I am back at home.

So long, RMIT. Hope to see you again ❤

Alright, after my pretty lengthy post about the welfare RMIT offers and some pretty nice photos, here is an informative post that summarises my thoughts and feedbacks on some of the courses I’ve taken during my semester exchange!

COMM2684 Communicating Brand Narrative

I took this as one of my three Communication courses (which is to be course-matched with another module back in my home university) and the lecturer is Prof Leah Li, who is also my tutor. Lectures are for an hour, while tutes are for 2 hours. This is actually one of my favourite courses because I really enjoyed doing the assessments, which I feel are pretty relevant to what I’m learning. Prof Leah also tries her best to make lectures engaging (and if you really can’t attend the lectures, there is always Echo360 for you to revisit the missed lectures).

The first assessment (20%) was a semiotic analysis on two brands of your choice, and I did one on Tommy Hilfiger vs. Dolce & Gabbana. This assessment was pretty good in a sense that it allows you to gain a deeper understanding on semiotics, which is a pretty huge thing in branding and a knowledge I think is extremely important for advertising. The way you want to present your analysis is pretty flexible – we were told to either do it in a video presentation format, or powerpoint slides or whatever we deem fit as long as we discuss with the tutor prior to submission. So, I did a website as I thought it would be more interesting and interactive to convey my semiotic analysis to the readers.

Second assessment (35%) was a personal branding plan which is formulated after a thorough analysis on 2 selected existing personal brands out there (can be someone from the field you are intending to work in, and another person who is completely irrelevant to the field). This was the assessment I enjoyed doing the most because I felt like such a plan can really come in handy in the future when I have to work out my personal branding for career advancements.

The last and final assessment is a group assignment (45%). 5% is for the group pitch and the remaining 40% is for the group report. The aim of this assignment is to rebrand a town/place/country/wherever and come up with a campaign or sorts with the help of CBBE model, SWOT analysis and evaluation methods (which are all covered throughout the syllabus of this course). Generally, this is quite manageable as long as you work well with your group mates because the instructions are delivered pretty smoothly and it’s also easy to get a consultation with Leah if you are having trouble!

COMM2336 New Media New Asia

Honestly love this class for the classmates I’ve met. Most of my local friends are actually from this class because they are just so sweet and make class times 10x more enjoyable ❤

Classes are arranged the same as Communicating Brand Narrative, with 1 hour lectures and 2 hours tutes. It is also an assignment-based course, meaning there are absolutely no exams yay!

First assessment is a Digital Ethnography Exercise (20%) which requires students to do up a digital ethnography report of around 800 words or so on an some phenomenon which capture the essence of “New Asia”. Rather manageable as long as you make the effort to take some photos encapsulating that essence (because you will be analysing using the photos you captured).

There is also an individual presentation component (25%) for this course and it depends on which topic you are presenting on to see which week you’re up for it. The topics are based on the weekly topics stated in the syllabus and some classmates really do come up with interesting presentations based on their research!

There are readings for this course too and you’ll be required to do up a reading journal (10%) but don’t worry because a template should be provided for you on Canvas if nothing has changed much for the syllabus! Furthermore, it’s just 100 words summary for each reading throughout 10 weeks so this is fairly simple and also helps to track your reading progress. Some readings are actually quite interesting so this shouldn’t be a chore!

The final assessment is also a group assignment (45%) with 5% for group pitch and remaining 40% for group report. The assignment requires the group to think of a campaign that helps out a client, while using some knowledge from one of the weekly topics and it must all be in an Asian society context.

COMM1081 Music in Popular Culture

Also another super enjoyable course thanks to Paige (my tutor!!). So, this is slightly different in terms of class arrangements, as it has a 2 hour long lecture and 1 hour long tutes each week. Like its name suggests, this is a course that delves into the role of popular music, be it in politics or in establishing scenes etc.

Although I don’t really know a thing or two about music (just an avid listener of music), but Paige is really encouraging and supportive throughout :”) it also helps that the course syllabus is filled with interesting topics (such as gender and music).

This course has 3 quizzes which are pretty spaced out and they are done via Canvas, taking up 40% of the course grade. If you do your readings consistently each week, this will be a breeze for you, especially when Kat (the lecturer) always sets a reasonable timing for the quizzes, giving you ample time to think through the questions and check on some of your notes.

Another assessment would be an Essay Plan (20%) for your final research essay, and a template should be provided on Canvas as well. It’s more for the teachers to see if you can do academic citations properly, and conclude if your academic sources are really relevant and reliable for the final research essay. If you do the planning properly in this, it will really help make crafting of your final essay easier as well.

Research essay is 40% and based on one of the 5/6 questions given to you, each focusing on a specific topic covered in the course syllabus. Doing this is pretty fun as you dive deeper into the topic you’ve chosen and sometimes you may even find new information and knowledge while researching for points to write!! So, generally, this course is also one of my favourites ❤

BESC1490 Introduction to Psychology

I took this course even though it is not a communication course because it seemed really interesting (could even course-match it to one of the courses back at home so why not right?!).

What makes this course even better is that it is an online course 😛

This means that you can effectively learn in the comforts of your own home as you read through a concise and informative set of notes from the professor!! The notes are good reads on their own and they aren’t boring if you’re really interested in the works of psychology and psychologists.

Even though there are 11 topics in the syllabus, you are only required to read and do up assignments for 7 of them, making this an even more manageable course!

So what you have to do is…

1. Read the notes
2. Do up the quiz on Canvas for that week’s topic (10 questions and out of 5 marks in total so each question takes up half a mark)
3. Do up the written assignment (like around 500 words in total)

Simple, right?

The professor is also really efficient in giving back your grades and feedback so kudos!

---

Well, these are the course I’ve taken in RMIT and they have definitely made my RMIT experience more knowledgable and interesting. If anyone is intending to take up communication courses, I would highly recommend these and also, do take up BESC1490 if you are able to take up an online module!! Even though it is just an online module, but you really do learn quite a bit about psychology through it and I really loved it.

Thanks for readinggggggg!!

Prior to my departure, I was actually pretty anxious because this semester exchange will be the first time I’m away from Singapore for THAT long.

To give you some context, I am a student majoring in Communication Studies @ Nanyang Technological University (NTU), and am planning to specialise in Advertising starting from my third year when I am back in Singapore.

As a student in Wee Kim Wee School of Communication and Information (WKWSCI) – that’s the name of my faculty in NTU – we are often encouraged by our professors to go for a semester exchange in our Y2S2 (year 2 semester 2) as we have to prepare for our professional internship’s interviews in the first semester of year 3. So, in my first year, I was frantically looking through the list of host universities available and I spotted RMIT! It ultimately became one of my three choices for host universities in my application form because of its prominence as a media school.

Afterwards, as I was the only person in my social circle going RMIT, I started looking for people who have been allocated the same school as well so we could start planning on accommodation and flight details. These people were Clara, Dong Ni and Jie Xin, who are also students in WKW too!!

Months of planning and settling our visas, finances etc. and we finally met on the 16th of Feb (our departure date!!) at Changi Airport. Honestly, we were a little awkward at first because we came from different groups of friends and had little interaction before this long departure together. However, we started warming up to one another (it was so easy because they are such sweet girls) and headed to our Airbnb together once we touched down in Melbourne!!

Oh, not to mention – RMIT provides chauffeur services for international/exchange students!! How cool is that?! And the best thing is – it’s of quality service and FOR FREE. That’s right – free AIRPORT PICKUP SERVICE in a sedan/whatever sleek car depending on your baggages and number of seats required KINDLY PROVIDED BY RMIT.

So, we took our sedans each and drove to our destination (our Airbnb) and we were just incredibly amazed at the service RMIT provides for their students :”) till now, I am still so happy I managed to avoid paying for Uber or the Skybus and could sit in such comfort because of the school’s generous offer.

My driver was also a really kinddddddd man who made sure I reached my DOORSTEP safely (and he also helped me with my luggages) before returning back to his car /grateful/

After settling down in our cozy home, we headed out to venture the neighbourhood and also to grab some essentials. Days then went past with us exploring the city, and before we knew it, orientation kickstarted on 20th of Feb!

Was part of Team Thongs and genuinely enjoyed the experience knowing people from different cultures and backgrounds hehe.

What marked the highlight of the orientation was actually the third day when students can choose which prominent places of Melbourne they would like to go with the school. The list included Great Ocean Road and Philip Island, which are monumental places of Melbourne but rather inaccessible for students who don’t drive (sadly, that’s the 4 of us HAHA). Also, the tour fares are (if i am not wrong….) 50% subsidised for RMIT students. That means going to Great freaking Ocean Road at half the price you see out there!! HOW MUCH WELFARE IS RMIT PLANNING TO GIVE?!?!

Of course, we chose to go Great Ocean Road and it was sooooo beautiful. Spam of many photos aheadddddd –

2 days later, we signed up for yet another RMIT Trip because everything was just so affordable and great (like so much cheaper than the tours you get from tour agencies because the school subsidises the tour fares and you get transport to and fro everywhere)!!! This time round, it was to Wilsons Promontory, one of my fave trips thus far :”)

If you are thinking that RMIT Trips only includes trips to monumental places, you’re wrong!! To help international/exchange students know more about the cafe cultures here or to simply make friends, RMIT Trips also hold trips to cafes, hidden places and laneways for brunches, lunch, and progressive dinners and all also at an affordable price.

We went for one brunch trip in Melbourne laneways and it was ah-mazing!! Ate all the fancy food and drank all the awesome drinks at the price of just $15 :”)

If you think that’s the end to RMIT’s welfare, you’re wrong!! RMIT also offers free lunches every Thursday noon for students (awesome burger pattys or hotdogs – and vegeterian options are also available!!!) and free breakfasts every Wednesday morning. PLUSSSSSSSSS…

There’s always RUSU/RMIT events going on with free food from external vendors and caterers and totally delicious :”)

Furthermore, you MUST attend an AFL if you’re in Australia and that’s what we did to tick this off our checklist with RMIT! If you sign up with RMIT Redbacks, they are constantly notifying you about the latest matches you can watch and also sick promotions like FREE AFL GAMES to watch.

The school’s campus store even reserves a free Essendon scarf for you if you register :”)

Okay so in case it was TLDR;

To summarise, RMIT is not just a university for you to study or to pursue your dreams in, but it is also a great place of welfare for the students. During my few months in Melbourne, the school and its organised trips have played a huge role in my semester exchange and I would highly recommend anyone who is intending to spend their exchange in Australia to consider RMIT if they are looking for a host university of warmth, convenience and great welfare!!!