[quote=“tsukinodeynatsu”]I’m the only westerner in my department so the department was fairly helpful, but I think mostly what I had trouble finding out was:
The amount of classes per week (hours etc.). I think this might vary from school to school, but it was really hard to find out at mine.
Living conditions (of myself, my classmates etc.). How dorm life here differs to places like the US or Australia.
Rather than the great things (the school has XX events, the area has XX to do etc.) it was the more daily-life things. How do I get about in school? How does grading work? (In some countries it’s 100% objective.) Do schools offer additional services - clubs, medical, counselling etc.? Are there any general conduct rules and how strict are they (or is it pretty much free range)? Is the material taught in class generally available online, or do I have to attend every class? (e.g. in my course, we don’t even use the online learning platforms. If you don’t attend class, you better have a good friend. Other departments do use them though, and everything’s online.)
And things like the buddy programmes that they set up in the school for students (for example, my department sets everyone up with a 學長/學姐 but I didn’t know anything about that - my orientation was the one specifically for foreign students and since my department only had me, it wasn’t particularly relevant - but then my classmates/department didn’t realise that I didn’t know about those sorta things). My school also does a first-year camping weekend, which is fun (even if you don’t speak Chinese).
But then that might all be school-specific.
One of the things that attracted me to schooling here is that it’s very structured - the courses are still pretty innovative (though I think this differs from school to school and department to department) but it feels more like I’m in education. The teachers actually care if you turn up or not, and if you make yourself known to them they do care if you learn. In Aus I often found myself without any pressure to go to school, and classes were so few you kinda felt like you weren’t doing much. It’s all right if you live at home and do nothing or are a bit more mature and motivated to go, but when you’re 19 and out of home you tend to fill your time working or sleeping… and just check the course notes online and do the assignments (100% objective grading - you could be the snottiest toerag ever, but the teacher doesn’t know your name).
In Aus I felt like there was very little support available. I made appointments to see people (counsellors/teachers) and didn’t really end up feeling more motivated. The office staff you had to go through were right dragons, too (80% Aus admin staff are - wonder why?). Here there’s a lot of support, and you can see it everywhere you turn - the office staff are generally willing to help you, the teachers are willing to help you, then you have the foreign office & the counsellors etc. I suppose it’s because the school benefits if you pass and enjoy your time there, which is kinda sinister - reverse racism - when you think about it.
I’m studying something that I can’t really study overseas, though, so my ‘I-really-can’t-see-the-point’-ness o/s might’ve been to do with the subject I was taking.[/quote]
I agree in Australia the onus of education is very much on the student, with not a whole lot of voluntary support. But it is there. At my uni they offered study technique classes, free counseling, housing assistance to name a few. I feel that all information was readily available via the intranet/internet and was all very clear. Plus learning material and techniques were relevant and applicable. Also It was my experience that if you took the time to see your course coordinator they were interested in helping you out and providing support, plus i got to know my tutors pretty well, and it certainly was not 100% objective marking in regards to tuts.
I know this is fairly trivial but i find the websites for uni’s in Taiwan egregiously bad! I am doing my BA at NTNU and find website navigation and content (and aesthetics) subpar. I also found it impossible to work out what uni in Taiwan was going to be like…would i be selecting my own units, the amount of credits for units, how many credits did i need to maintain to be considered fully enrolled, how many hours of attendance per week etc. So for me if they could have created a portal where all this course related info was easily accessible it would have made the process a lot easier.
:aiyo: :aiyo: :aiyo: