Applying for exchange

Next, some official stuff. It was quite a long process with too much paper work to get in the University of Western Australia – be on time with the papers... 

Application for Aalto

Firstly, being part of my BIZ-program I had to fill in an application for my school in Jan 2015. It is an online application in which you have to provide basic information about you and your studies, some documents (an official studying plan aka. HOPS, and a proof of your language skills) and select your preferred exchange destinations (1-10 destinations and a wild card). 

It took three weeks for the school to publish the results and I was going to UWA in Perth, spring term 2016! I was glad, it had been my second choice right after “UQ” in Brisbane, and even with the two I had struggled endlessly (“QUT” in Brisbane I had listed after UWA, there you see I had difficult time choosing the place). After the results it was a loooong wait.

During which I got impatient and booked the flights. With a friend of mine, who was heading to Canberra, we took a risk and bought flights to Australia and back before we actually received a confirmation from our hosting universities (1% chance you won’t get accepted by the host Uni). We decided to hit the road (and summer) at the east coast in January before the beginning of semesters in Feb 2016. It is a high season from December to February so we were afraid of the cost getting high while waiting.  At the end, bought in July 2015, my tickets cost 1450e including one-stop flight from Cairns to Helsinki, a straight flight from Perth to Singapore in July 2016 and (after a week in Singapore) a straight flight from Singapore to Helsinki. Later on I bought a flight from Melbourne to Perth for Feb 2016.

Application for UWA and getting a visa

Confirmations of acceptance from UWA arrived via email during fall (September?). For UWA, exchangers were required to do another application (and much more) in order to get a “Confirmation of Enrolment” that you need for a student visa. The whole process happened online, via email or a portal called “Oasys”, but there were several rounds which took time. Below I have listed all the steps with required documents for the whole proces.

1) Application for UWA 

• Online application of 15 pages to be filled in with basic information and preferred courses (“units”) in Oasys

• Study list confirmed by home university

•  Certification of English proficiency (for example a high school diploma) confirmed by home university
• A translation of the certification of English proficiency confirmed by home university
• Transcript of records 
• Copy of your passport confirmed by home university
• Signed and scanned cover sheet of the application (that you’ll be able to stamp from Oasys only after providing all the previously mentioned documents)

2) Letter of Acceptance and OSHC

• After submitting the application UWA sends a “Letter of Offer” for which you have to answer with
• A signed “Letter of Acceptance”
• Payment details for Overseas Student Healthcare Cover (price 322AUD)

3) Confirmation of Enrolment, CoE

• Finally the paper that you’ll need for a student visa. You can apply for the visa on the government’s site, for me it took 1 second to arrive (price around 550AUD). The student visa is valid from the day you receive it until the end of your studies (in my case until 31st of July).

Other docs

1) Learning Agreement for Aalto

• List of selected courses and a signed credit transfer -paper before leaving

2)  Accommodation application if you decide to live on campus house for example

• Once you get all this done you’re all set!

Greetings from the Hong Kong airport,

Anni

Hong Kong

Corner of Himalayas

rolling green hills around Hong Kong