Practicalities

While this is by no means exhaustive, here are some of the things you’ll need to action/consider as your program is coming to an end. Again, not all of these will be relevant to you, depending on the type of overseas experience you’re taking, but worth a look regardless.

Travel and Living

• Finalise all arrangements and payments to move out of your accommodation
• If a house inspection is required before you move out, try to arrange it for a day or two before you leave
• Sell any furniture/belongings you purchased and can’t take with you, or consider donating them to the next tenant/accommodation office
• Pay any outstanding bills
• If you opened a bank account, close it and make sure no fees are outstanding
• If you entered into a local phone contract, cancel it or make arrangements to be able to use the remaining time/data either travelling or once back home
• Confirm your flight(s) home and the airport check-in time
• Check luggage and carry-on baggage requirements, including weight restrictions or associated fees
• Organise how you’re going to get yourself, and your luggage, to the airport
• Check Australian customs requirements to make sure anything you’re planning to take home complies with Australia’s customs regulations

Host Institution

• Ensure you don’t owe any fees (your transcripts won’t be released if you owe money!)
• Return all library books and university equipment, including keys
• Consider how you'll transport artworks and materials home

For semester and short-term exchange students & students on programs with Mobility Experience Providers:

• Make sure you know how you’re going to access your transcript,
  • If the host sends it directly to the Global Opportunities team, make sure they have the correct contact address (either email or post)
  • If it will be sent directly to you, you’ll need to remember to forward a copy to the UniSA Global Opportunities Team
• You may need to pay a transcript fee for it to be released (particularly in the USA)
• Complete your UniSA Returned Student Report so that the UniSA Global Opportunities team can process your exchange grade
• Let the Global Opportunities Team know if you intend to graduate soon after returning home.

For study tour students:

• Complete any requirements for your Study Tour course, which may include feedback surveys or post tour assessments

UniSA Arrangements

• When you’re back in Australia you'll need to update your address and contact details in your MyUniSA student portal. This is extremely important for both Insurance and Graduation purposes.
• Make sure you enrol into your next semester of on-campus courses at UniSA, ready to re-join campus as soon as semester starts.

Readjust and Reflect on Your Experience

• Give yourself time to re-adjust to life back home. It might take a while to feel settled again.
• Read back through your journal or blog to see how far you’ve come.
• Catch up with other students at home who have exchanged to your host university or host country
• Join clubs or societies that are related to your host country in some way
• Look into further study overseas programs you could incorporate in your remaining studies
• Join the UniSA Buddies and help welcome incoming exchange students to Australia!

Depending on your program type and enrolment status, your transcripts and grades will be managed slightly differently, and you’ll have different requirements to complete before having your results finalised.

Transcript or certificate

Exchange (short term and semester)
At the end of your program most institutions will automatically send your academic transcript directly to the Global Opportunities team either via email or in hard copy. Some host institutions send transcripts directly to your address only (and not to UniSA). If this is the case, you’ll need to make sure to provide a copy to the Global Opportunities team.

If the Global Opportunities team receive a hard copy you’ll be notified by email and you’ll be able to collect it from the International Office in the Adelaide CBD. Please collect your transcript as soon as possible as it will be destroyed if not collected within twelve months of completing your exchange.

Mobility Experience Provider & non-partnered Programs
At the end of your program, most providers will send evidence of completion to you directly. Please make sure to send evidence of completion to the Global Opportunities team.

Study Tours & Placements with a UniSA enrolment
Grades for your Study Tour or your UniSA-arranged placement are managed by your Academic Unit staff. You may not receive evidence of completion for a Study Tour such as a certificate, as it will likely be considered the same as any other UniSA course.

Returned student report

Your Returned Student Report (RSR) will help inform students who are thinking about studying overseas and want to hear about another student’s experience at certain host institutions, universities and countries.

Exchange (short term and semester)
As part of your exchange participation, you are required to complete an RSR (otherwise called a student testimonial). We’ll contact you towards the end of your exchange asking you to complete your RSR and provide instructions on how to do so.

All other study overseas programs
While it’s not mandatory, all study overseas students are encouraged to complete an RSR upon completion of their program. Study Tour students should be aware that many tour leaders will ask you to complete a feedback survey, as well as reflective piece. This is not the same as the RSR requested by the Global Opportunities team (though you can duplicate your responses if you like).

Credit transfer

Once you’ve completed all required post-experience tasks, the Global Opportunities team will be able to finalise your grade/credit.

Exchange (short term and semester)
In order to have your grade processed, you’ll need to make sure the Global Opportunities team have recieved your completed RSR, and an official transcript from your host university.

The Global Opportunities team will assess your completed (and passed) subjects against the courses that were approved by your Program Director. If everything lines up, we can process your grade without further discussion. If there is a discrepancy between what you’ve completed and what was approved, or if you failed any units or completed fewer/more units than what was approved, we will have to negotiate credit recognition with your Program Director.

Approved courses (that you've passed) will be recorded as a Non-Graded Pass (NGP) against your exchange enrolment. Any Failed courses (or units initially approved that were not attempted) will show as a Fail (F) grade on your record.

The name of your host university and the list of courses you undertook on exchange will show on your final UniSA transcript as ‘transcript text’ only. The grades you obtained overseas will not be shown on your UniSA transcript.

You don’t need to submit anything to Campus Central (unless specifically instructed) to have the grade processed.

Mobility Experience Provider & non-partnered Programs
Once the Global Opportunities team have evidence of completion for your program, we will arrange for the credit to be added to your record. You won’t receive a grade for this; it will show on your transcript as ‘external credit.

You don’t need to submit anything to campus central (unless specifically instructed) to have the credit processed.

Study Tours & Placements with a UniSA enrolment
The grades/credit for these programs are managed entirely by the Study Tour facilitator/placement office. You may receive a Non-Graded Pass (NGP) for the enrolment, or you may receive an assessed grade for the enrolment, as standard.

An important part of the success of the University’s Global Opportunities program is valuable word-of-mouth from past students. While you’re on a Global Opportunities program you should be talking about UniSA and Adelaide to potentially encourage others to visit. Once you get home, please talk to your friends and peers about your experience and encourage them to take up a similar opportunity.

One of the conditions of participating in a Global Opportunities program is that you’ll make yourself available to help out at promotional events and student-facing workshops. These events are a fantastic way to encourage and inspire other students to take up a overseas study program, and to answer any questions or address any concerns they may have. In all honesty, it might become one of the last places people are still happy to hear you talk for hours about your experience overseas after you’ve exhausted your friends and family.

We run a number of events throughout the year, so the Global Opportunities team will contact you directly to see if you are available. The major events that we run each year typically include:

• Global Opportunities Fair
• Acceptance Workshops
• Pre-Departure Sessions
• UniSA Open Day
• Information Sessions

Stand out as an exceptional graduate and prospective employee by participating in UniSA+. All undergraduate and postgraduate coursework students are eligible to participate.

Although your Global Opportunities program itself won’t count towards UniSA+, you may take part in non-credit-bearing extra-curricular activities which could be eligible!

You can record your participation eligible activities online through CareerHub. You’ll be required to provide evidence in the form of a certificate or statement of participation / achievement for each activity. Contact the team at UniSA+ for more information.

The UniSA Buddies program has been developed to welcome incoming exchange and study abroad students to Adelaide and UniSA, and to help them engage in local culture and have a great experience. When you first arrived at your overseas destination, there was probably (hopefully) a team of students available to help you settle in, and a calendar of social events designed to help you make friends quickly and easily. These programs are such an important part of the exchange experience and can often make the difference between someone having a great time abroad, or someone feeling lonely and isolated.

While any UniSA student is welcome to join the UniSA Buddies program, it’s an added advantage to be a returned mobility student taking part. Not only can you relate easily to what these newly arrived students are going through, but you might also meet students who are from the city/country/university you exchanged to!

Possible activities during the semester include:

• Welcome Party
• Beach Day
• Exploring the Adelaide Fringe
• Handlebar tour of Adelaide
• Surfing Camp
• National Park visits
• Heading off on excursions to different parts of South Australia

What other benefits can you gain? The program gives UniSA students a great opportunity to meet new people from all over the world, and to become familiar with exchange and studying abroad.

The program has been designed by students so that the activities and events run by the Buddies are engaging, relevant, and above all, fun.

Get in contact with the UniSA Global Opportunities Team to learn more.