Lara: “Studying Global Sustainable Development (GSD) here at Warwick, you get the chance to participate in an integrated semester abroad in Monash, which has campuses both in Australia and in Malaysia.”

Amicie: “I didn’t hesitate for a second because I think it’s an amazing opportunity for us students to be able to learn from different cultures and from different disciplinaries at the same time by travelling and meeting new people.”

Lara: “When I first moved to Monash, I went to the Australian campus and I had an amazing experience. Everybody was super nice, super welcoming, and the atmosphere was really young and vibrant.”

Liam: “The style of teaching at Monash is quite similar to Warwick in terms of lectures and seminars (which they call tutorials over there).”

Lara: “The flexibility that we were given to choose modules at Monash from the wide range of choices that they offer was amazing. I, for example, took Environmental Law, which focused a lot on Australia, so I learned a lot about their environment.”

Liam: “I took a module called Prosperity, Poverty, and Sustainability in a Globalised World and this is one of the modules with interactive learning. It was really awesome and really beneficial to my learning. I learned so much about development, sustainability, and all of this in a globalised world.”

Amicie: “I think more than the teaching it’s also the fact that you are surrounded by people with different backgrounds. For example, talking about migration in France and the UK or in Europe in general, and in Australia it’s extremely different, so hearing from even the students’ perspectives and how they make sense of these global issues in their everyday life.

Liam: “Monash University has a great environment for student societies and clubs where you can join plenty of sports clubs and societies based on your own interests. I joined a club called Monash SEED, which is a society based on microfinance and social enterprise. When I came back to Warwick, me and my co-founder realised that there was a big gap here. We created a new society called Warwick SEED and partnered with them [Monash SEED], which promotes alternative career paths and social impact careers and social enterprise.”

Amicie: “I also took the opportunity to travel, notably doing some wwoofing (so it’s volunteering in organic and permaculture farms). Being able to learn from these farmers who are every day rethinking the way we connect with the land and interact with each other and learning from all these new sustainable practices has been really, really interesting and valuable for me.”

Liam: “It’s a perfect opportunity to explore new cultures, a new side of the world within your three-year degree programme. Given the organisational skills I learned at Monash University from its assessment structure when I came for my third year at university [at Warwick], I was more able to handle the workload with my dissertation and the variety of different modules that I had here.”

Lara: “Getting to know Melbourne and cities that I would have never gone to otherwise was such a great experience. I think everybody should do it.”

“My name is Amicie.”

“I’m Lara.”

“I’m Liam.”

Lara: “And I’m a GSD student at Warwick.”