Student Evaluation Form. Please provide an estimate on how much you spent on your exchange (in your host country s currency). $50

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1 Vic OE Student Evaluation Form A. Student Information Degree(s) enrolled in at VUW LLB Major(s) Laws Exchange Institution National University of Singapore VUW Trimester(s) and Year of Exchange Trimester 1 & 2/2011 B. Finances Please provide an estimate on how much you spent on your exchange (in your host country s currency). Food & personal spending SGD $600 per week Accommodation $250 per week Return Airfare $1300 Local Travel Books, misc. levies (e.g. student association) $10 per week $50 Visa $60 Insurance $125 Other (please specify) Excursion trip $1000 Total = approx. $3500 How did your financial expenses compare to what you originally expected to spend? Quite ok, I could save money on food because food is a lot cheaper, but accommodation is staggeringly expensive if not staying at university accommodation. All my savings goes to excursion trip during school holidays. By what means did you maintain your finances? (Credit card, foreign bank account, travelers checks, etc)? Cash. Opening bank account in the host country and get cash card. What financial advice would you give students attending the same university as you? Don t go shopping too much! Were there any extra or unexpected costs which future students should be aware of? Should prepare extra money if planning to travel to other countries. What was the average cost of a can of coke or coffee in your host country? SGD $1.50

2 C. Visas & Insurance Do you have any advice for future students when applying for visas to your host country? Follow host university s advice and mind the deadlines. What insurance company did you use and would you recommend it to future students? NUS insurance scheme. C. Academics Which courses did you take while on exchange? Please rate the difficulty of each course (1-5, 1 = Very Easy & 5 = Extremely Difficult) and leave any comments you may have. Course Title VUW course VUW Rating (1-5) Comments equivalent points/credits (if applicable) value Human rights in Asia Foreign direct investment International commercial arbitration Japanese corporate law Tax planning and policy 15 3 Brilliant professor Fun 15 4 Not recommended if not really passionate about the topics Business Finance lawyers & for 15 3 My most-love course of the year Foundation of IP law International projects

3 How did you find the teachers at your exchange university? They are inspiring! How did your academic experience differ from your time spend at Victoria? Students there are super competitive. Make sure you speak up in class to prove your existence. How did your academic experiences differ from what you expected? I love NUS law school. Do you have any advice for future students when choosing and applying for courses? NUS law electives are business-focused. Very limited choices for other areas of law. NUS Law students are highly competitive, due to the fact that Singapore limits the number of law graduates each year, so it's very hard to get into law school there. I assume that students there must both work really hard and be really passionate about what they do. I was only allowed to enroll in elective courses, which are open for 3rd and final year students. We can tell from their course listings that the faculty cares a lot about commercial world even though they are supposed to cover the social/philosophical aspects of the law. I was prepared for this as it's the reputation of Singapore (very pro-business), so I was happy to find myself among many courses that I want to explore. But I was worried that my successors from Vic Law School, if they are not aware about this Singapore attitude or if they are not too keen on commercial stuffs, will find that the options available for them is really limited. The non-popular classes (like the 'law and society' type) are mostly held at the non-popular schedule such as Friday evenings, which is very discouraging. Class size for electives is limited to 40 students, not more than this, and is held in a comfortable size seminar room. So it's easy to know other students after some weeks. It's also very easy to identify who has spoken regularly and who hasn't. Even at Vic Law School we adopt the 'socratic method', but it's still really different. There, professors have their class list with students' ID photo, so they will call you by your name on the first class. This could be my 'culture shock' in VicOE sense! I didn't expect this, and was not prepared. It took me a while to adapt to the learning pace of students there. I told myself not to panic, and to commit a lot of time at the library. Eventually, I think I enjoyed this, because I feel that I was there to learn something new out of people's opinion streams. And I do love the way the teaching is conducted. Their law professors are highly acclaimed locally and internationally in the area they teach. D. Accommodation What form of accommodation did you stay in? Private apartment

4 What were the pros and cons of this form of accommodation? Pros: city centre Cons: took up half of my annual budget What accommodation would you recommend to future students? University accommodation Do you have any tips of advice for future students when applying for accommodation? Choose U Town, the newest building Due to my error, I failed to pay application fee when I first submitted my application to NUS student housing. Yes they are bound to give priority to exchange students, but in my case my application was processed AFTER everyone else. So I was rejected from NUS student housing. (They advised me to find private accommodation on my own.) I learned this 3 days before I flew to Singapore. I stayed at the hotel for my first 3 nights in the new country. Luckily I have some local friends who accommodate me, so my first 3 days was not too bad. (I behaved like tourist.) I found a room in one apartment not too far from NUS Law School, so I rented it and stayed there for 1 year. NUS has its main campus at the outskirt of the island, whereas the Law School is at the heart of city centre. It's within Singapore Botanic Garden, and few minutes bus ride to shopping area. So the rent in the vicinity of law school made me broke. I paid $1500 SGD per month (= $1500 NZD) for a bedroom in a 3-bedroom apartment unit. I shared kitchen, bathroom and living room with my flatmates. We are 8 people altogether from 4 different countries, which reflect the stereotype of living in Singapore so well. It was expensive in money terms, but the experience was worthwhile. F. Culture What were some of the hardest cultural differences you faced while abroad? Sing-lish (English language, but sounds very much like Chinese) How would you recommend students to prepare for these differences? Open your mind Did you face any issues regarding discrimination in your host country? What were they, and what advice would you give to future students? No, I felt like part of the community.

5 G. Personal Response Please write one paragraph about your exchange experience. Plus, don t forget to submit some photos to the exchange office!!! Apart from study, I travel a lot. I went out with both exchange friends and local friends, went trekking because I like the tropical forest, went shopping, eat out, attend church on Sunday, organised a trip to Malaysia, clubbing, made pizza etc etc. I love Singapore. I love NUS. I love the friends, fun, food, freedom that life brought me along the year. After a year, I ve become a new person. I m not afraid of uncertainty. I m ready to move on. I love my time while on exchange. Thank you for your responses, please leave any additional suggestions you may have for future participants below! Join VicOE and you ll feel that the world is actually small.