Nanyang Technological University, Singapore

Hi, my name is Andrew and I am currently an Exchange student studying in Singapore.

Overall, life in Singapore has been a blast. Upon arriving here, I have been surprised by the high standards of safety, cleanliness and friendliness the city has brought. Coupled with the cultural diversity brought by its assortment of South-East Asian food and cultural festivals with its tendency to host worldwide events such as F1 and the South-East Asian games, it truly is the official East-meets-West destination to go.

My arrival to my host university, NTU, has been a smooth ride. The local student executives and staff were extremely helpful in my settlement to the university, where I checked in to my on-campus student hall in my 3rd day of arriving to Singapore.

The facilities at NTU are extremely abundant. We have two fully equipped gyms, an outdoor lap swimming pool, an athletics track, hundreds of lecture theatres and tutorial/seminar rooms, so many hall canteens and supermarkets, it really is such a pain and an adventure to navigate around the campus.

The teaching style in NTU is generally quite similar to UTS. However, some lectures have a very long duration, up to 4 hours, which can be exhausting at times. Teaching style is well-structured, with content introduced in a timely manner. There is more focus on theory, rather than practical work, which I think is the main teaching style at UTS. I also do have tutorials, which reinforce and consolidate the content taught during lectures. These function quite similar to UTS style teaching.

The subjects I have undertaken at NTU are quite interesting. I have taken an introductory course in Artificial Intelligence, which is great as it will provide me with solid foundational knowledge of what I want to research for my Capstone project.

I have also taken a few activities while on exchange. I have joined my hall’s table tennis club, where I play competitively every school week. I also have undertaken some cooking classes, where I could experiment with new cuisine that I never thought I would be able to do. I even got out of my comfort zone, and decided to take beginner salsa classes which, despite my lack of body coordination, I was able to make a few moves in the end.

The most surprising thing to me about Singapore is how well-developed it is. Despite the country’s small land mass, the government’s well-thought out city planning and urban development of residential and commercial infrastructure; coupled with the vast greenery it provides with its national parks and recreational areas; has made the city such a wonderful environment to live in. I am also in awe of the high standards it places in hygiene. A great example is reflected in their hawker centres, where authentic south-east Asian cuisine can be enjoyed without hesitation for an economical price. And at last, Singapore is the geographical hub of Asia. This means that travelling anywhere in Asia is at most a 3 to 6-hour flight away. This makes it such a great starting point to explore the greater neighbouring region within a short timeframe.

If you are interested in travelling to a modern, clean and friendly city within the heart of Asia, I highly recommend Singapore as your next destination for exchange!

Andrew Cai
Bachelor of Engineering / Bachelor of Business
Nanyang Technological University
Singapore

Australian Government New Colombo Plan Mobility Grant recipient.

For more information about the UTS Global Exchange program please visit: www.global-exchange.uts.edu.au