Kia ora! My name is Pauline (25), and in 2023 I spent two semesters at Lincoln University in New Zealand. That was during my fourth and fifth year in my master’s degree of landscape architecture.
Overall: Are you satisfied with your exchange stay, and would you recommend other students to do the same?
Yes, I am satisfied with my two semesters of exchange to Lincoln. The professors are caring and knowledgeable, Lincoln itself is a peaceful place, and amazing nature there is in proximity. I liked it so much that I extended my stay there from only one to two semesters.
Student visa/University application: E.g. Paperwork? How much time did it take? Tips for other students?
Unfortunately, the amount of paperwork was huge and impractical. Uni started in February, and I started the process of enrolment, applying for visa etc. in October the previous year. The same goes for ordering flights. I spent an hour or two each week from October-December to do the paperwork. That was ok amount of time to get it all done.
Lincoln did reply on questions regarding the paperwork, but it all took a long time as NZ’s time-zone differs 11-12h from Norway and the mail-correspondence is delayed because of this. In the end, enrolment in the right courses was less stressful than I had expected, and I got it all settled when I arrived at Uni for the introduction week. Even after the semester had started, I was able to join and drop a few classes, almost like shopping to find my right fit.
The tuition fees at Lincoln are rather high, and I was dependent on getting the student-loan from Lånekassen to be able to pay for them. At the same time, Immigration Service (regarding NZ visa) needed proof that I had the money to stay there, and both things needed to be done before I had got my loan from Lånekassen. I got the loan in January, only a few weeks before I would arrive. This was stressful but worked out as I had saved up money.
About the university: E.g. Facts? Facilities?
Lincoln itself is a small township in an area dominated by agriculture, quite like Ås. They offer a lot of courses within forestry, ecology, and agriculture, and a huge amount of the students are farmers. Their ecology-courses are very interesting, as NZ has lots of endemic species and a rather aggressive strategy to get rid of introduced flora and fauna.
Subjects/Subjects: E.g. What subjects did you take? Was it easy to get into the courses you wanted? Exam forms and number? Academic quality?
The classes are generally small, and the semester is filled with smaller assignments additional to final exams. This system leads to studying evenly throughout the semester rather than “skippertak”. The facilities are great and spacious. Lots of my friends in various degrees liked this way, but others were overwhelmed because they had to study more than they were used to.
I only had electives and more easy-going courses the first semester (DESN101, RECN341, LASC410), and the second semester I had master courses (DESN698, DESN603 ) that challenged me more. This was third year-classes even though I was in my fourth year, but that didn’t matter much. Together, DESN603+DESN698 equalled LAA360 at NMBU, but DESN698 covered most of LAA370 as well. Particularly DESN603 made me stay at Uni during weekends and study-breaks, which I was accustomed to from NMBU. I had to spend as much time as the kiwis had to on the projects, which created a good environment where we helped each other and hung out a lot. But the workload was unpleasant as I would have preferred to spend the weekends on hiking or travelling. The kiwis claimed that semester was the hardest they had ever had, and I would honestly not recommend doing those studio-courses because of the workload. Doing the third year-student’s studio-course for semester 1 is better. The studio-courses for the second year-students are also a good, but focus heavily on plants you cannot find anywhere else than in NZ. Anyway, this taught me that landscape architecture is time-consuming and rather similar regardless of the nation you study in.
It was not a problem to get into the courses I wanted. Lincoln has a high academic quality with a strong network connecting them to other international universities. The projects we worked on had a more global perspective, more theory, and more mandatory papers to read through than courses at my degree at NMBU.
Personal development: E.g. Why did you choose to go on exchange? Learned something new about you self? Strengthen job and career opportunities?
Figured out what you want to do next?
I chose to go on exchange for many reasons. I wanted to challenge myself, test out if I liked living in a different country, make connections with people from other parts of the world, and to change up my impression of being a student. I wanted to develop myself academically too, and see what kind of work landscape architects do, and who they are, in NZ. To learn new methods, tools, get new perspectives and references to projects tempted me too. Lincoln had a small faculty for landscape architecture, which offered awesome facilities and small classes. Compared to NMBU, studying there was better because each one of us got more attention from the professors, and we had lots of room. These things made me extend my stay to a whole year. The experience at Lincoln has made me interested in doing internships in other countries and applying for work abroad.
Lincoln is rather quiet and doesn’t have a community of volunteers and “Samfunnet” as Ås does. To me, that meant a very calm lifestyle, little partying, going to the Gym more often, nurturing myself and my own interests. You must make things happen, join whatever you can, and still take your time to sit back and process what you experience. Being abroad can be overwhelming. This balance was easier after some months. I got to see a therapist in the wellbeing-team at Uni for free throughout the full year. This service is available for all students there. Seeing the University’s GP (doctor) was not a problem either, and most of my visits there were covered by the student-insurance Lincoln offers to all their exchange-students. It was good to know that Lincoln had my back when I needed help.
Housing: E.g. Private? Student housing? Cost and ease of finding? Quality?
I lived in student-housing called “Farmroad”, which is literally at campus. It’s a cabin in a garden of similar cabins, and all of them are filled with exchange-students and foreigners taking their degree at Lincoln. It was a community that offered barbeques, sports, and a very low-key way to meet others. We were about 80 people, 4 in each cabin, and that was where I found most of my friends. It is also next to the Gym and an arboretum, which was convenient.
However, the standard in Farmroad is bad. The flats are not isolated, very simple, and quite dark. From June-August, it was way too cold for my liking, and heating was expensive. We exceeded the electricity-budget, still it was not warm enough. The flat was overpriced, but worth it because of the social aspects. During summer, it was an awesome place to live. “The Crecent” is another student-house, just like Farmroad, but closer to the grocery-store. A better alternative is the student-house called “The Junction”, but it’s slightly more expensive. Some people rented private flats. That was expensive too, and I noticed that they had a harder time making new friends as you effortlessly expand your social network when living in Lincoln’s student-housing.
Language development: E.g. Improvement along the way? Language course?
I had never lived in an English-speaking country before. Firstly, I was a shy when doing my presentations and expressing myself academically in classes. In most of my courses, I was the only foreigner, which made me develop quickly and adapt to the kiwi-slang. I was living with other internationals too; I got immersed in English. When my second semester started, I felt comfortable about not only speaking the language, but also that life down under. If it is possible, I would recommend a whole year of exchange. It was a bit sad to see most of my international friends return to their countries of origin when the first semester was over in July, but the second semester brought lots of new and nice people.
Cost of living? E.g. food? Entertainment? Transport? Leisure activities? Travel?
NZ is an expensive country to live in. Compared to Norway, everything is slightly cheaper apart from veggies and fruits. Public transport is ridiculously cheap, which was great for having the bus to Riccarton, Rolleston, or Christchurch. In the weekends and semester-breaks, I had a flexi-card on Intercity-bus to get around and discover the country. That one has approximately the same price as local buses in Norway. I chose not to buy myself a car, although many others did, which gave them way more flexibility. NZ is a “car-country”, a bit like USA. I was dependent on the Intercity-bus, hitchhiking, or joining friends with cars to get around in the country.
Money-wise, the loan I got from Lånekassen was enough. I spent most of my money on food. Additional to money I had saved up, I ended up being able to do two months of backpacking in Asia on my way to and from, and three weeks in Australia between the two semesters.
The local food is quite British and focused on dairy, which was uninteresting to me. The scones and coffee were the highlights. However, NZ has a lot of Asian inhabitants, and therefore lots of nice Asian restaurants.
The university has a wide variety of clubs you can join. I was in the pottery-club, tramping/climbing-club, International-club, surfing-club, and met up for a few events with the Māori-club and SPACE (LGBTQ-club). The tramping club was quite active and offered multiple weekend-tramps during my first semester. The second semester they hosted nothing. The pottery-studio at Uni is so affordable, great fun, and was what I enjoyed most at my leisure time second after hiking. The International club had quiz, movie-nights, and was good for meeting not only other exchange-students, but also all the Asian students that were there for their bachelor’s or master’s degree. Joining the clubs is easy, and they have a showcase in the introduction-week where you’ll get an overview.
Experiencing nature was my main reason for choosing NZ. Apart from what Uni and the student-clubs offered, I tried to go hiking as often as possible with fellow internationals or locals. I did not go to NZ for visiting galleries, enjoy the urban life, or partying. The cities in NZ are young and rather undeveloped, they have very few bigger concerts, and the nightlife is almost nothing - apart from Queenstown down in Otago, which was wild and crowded with Australians during the snowy season. The nearest city to Lincoln is Christchurch, which has a great botanical garden. Also, the newer landscape architecture-projects there are good, and they do great after being shocked by a tremendous earthquake in 2011. The local pub (The Famous Grouse) had lots of events (sheep-shearing, eating-competitions, karaoke), and was nice just for hanging out. The kiwis love to have a beer. The student housing doesn’t allow bigger parties, but I had some relaxed pot-luck dinners in the flat with the other internationals now and then.
Fig 2: In the studio - a design-competition with other landscape architect-students
Fig 4: Tramping on Stewart Island for three days. Such a diverse nature!
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