Application Process
The application process requires you to submit the following by the due date:
- an application form
- one academic reference
- an approved study plan
- an exchange essay
- a résumé
- a certified copy of the details page of your valid passport
- one passport-size current photograph
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Submit your complete application to your Faculty Exchange Advisor not to Melbourne Global Mobility.
Application Due Dates
Students should submit their exchange applications to their Faculty Exchange Advisor by the following dates:
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For an exchange in our semester 1, 2009 - Monday, 30 June 2008
Submit applications for the University of California (Berkeley, Davis, Irvine, Los Angeles, Riverside, San Diego, Santa Barbara and Santa Cruz campuses) by Friday, 20 June 2008. -
For an exchange in our semester 2, 2009 - Monday, 8 December 2008
Submit applications for the University of California (Berkeley, Davis, Irvine, Los Angeles, Riverside, San Diego, Santa Barbara and Santa Cruz campuses) by Friday, 28 November 2008.
Attention: If you are applying for the University of California as your first preference you must ensure that you are in Melbourne and able to collect the California application from the Melbourne Global Mobility office at least three weeks after the due dates listed above or you will not be able to apply to the University of California in time.
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Application Form
The application form asks you to list your personal details, preference destinations and course of study.
In completing this form you must also provide a financial plan. This is designed to make you consider where you are getting the funds from for your exchange and on what you will have to spend money and how much while you are on exchange. In some cases partner institutions or foreign governments will ask you, or someone else, usually your parents, to prove that you or they have sufficient funds to support you while you are on exchange.
Download a copy of the 2009 Application form (download four pages here, then scroll down to download the other pages, including academic reference form and study plan. There are eight pages in total,numbered A-H).
Application forms/brochures are also available at Melbourne Global Mobility.
Academic Reference
Obtain one academic reference using the Academic Reference form provided. The reference is confidential and must be from lecturers or tutors who have taught you recently in the faculty(s) for which you are seeking credit for your exchange studies. Combined degree students seeking credit for both degrees while on exchange should obtain one academic reference from either faculty (that is, one academic reference in total).
Referees may be lecturers or tutors. If tutors are also students at this University they should be at masters level or higher. We will not accept references from honours-level students.
Where you feel that you do not know enough of your tutors or lecturers sufficiently well to ask them for a reference, if you work in a professional capacity in the area of the degree being studied, you may get ONE reference from your employer. In some cases, however, the host institution application asks for two academic references so you may need to get a second academic reference later.
Referees must print the reference on letterhead, sign it and send it directly to the relevant faculty exchange advisor by the due date for exchange applications. It is your responsibility to ensure that your referee submits the form and their reference to the same faculty advisor who will be receiving the rest of your completed application.
Download a copy of the 2009 Academic Reference Form
Academic Reference forms are also available from Melbourne Global Mobility.
Study Plan
The study plan must list all subjects you would like to take while overseas, together with alternative subjects should your first subject choices be unavailable. Please read over the "Choosing Your Subjects" section below very carefully.
All prospective exchange students must submit an approved study plan for their first preference destination only together with the Melbourne Global Mobility application form by the due date. While you only need to get a study plan approved for your first preference destination, it is a good idea, while you are researching your second and third destinations, to at least jot down prospective subjects in case you need to consider that destination at a later stage.
Download a copy of the 2009 Study Plan
Study Plan forms are also available from Melbourne Global Mobility.
Choosing Your Subjects
Students must be enrolled for a full-time credit load while on exchange:
- for one semester overseas: a minimum of 37.5 points (preferably 50 points)
- for one year overseas: a minimum of 87.5 points (preferably 100 points)
In order to get the appropriate load credited to your degree at the University of Melbourne, you must successfully complete the equivalent load at your host institution as listed on the Credit Load Equivalents Table.
Choose subjects at the host institution in consultation with your Faculty or Departmental Exchange Advisor. Provide subject descriptions (including, where possible, reading lists and topics covered), information about contact hours (per week and the number of weeks), assessment, any prerequisities and the credit point value of each subject. You will find this information in the Melbourne Global Mobility Resource Room or on the institution websites.
Note: you are advised to choose and get approved more subjects than you will actually need to take as, in some cases, handbooks or timetables for your host institution may not yet be published.
Exchange Essay
Outline your reasons for applying to the Melbourne Global Mobility Exchange Program. Things you should include are “why you want to go on exchange”, “what you hope to get from the experience”, and “why you want to go to the destination you have chosen”. The essay should be one to two pages in length.
In some cases partner institutions ask for this type of effort as well so this can be seen as a first draft that you review with fresh insight later when you come to complete the host institution application.
Résumé
Provide a summary of your relevant personal, academic and employment history.
Passport Details Page
Provide a certified copy of your passport details page. A certified copy is a photocopy which has been compared with the original and endorsed as a true copy by a Justice of the Peace or a public officer such as a police officer. Alternatively you can bring your passport and a photocopy of the details page to the Melbourne Global Mobility office where the photoccopy can be verified and stamped as a true copy.
If you do not have a current passport you should apply for one immediately through Australia Post. If your passport is due to expire within six months of the end of your exchange you will need to renew the passport and you should begin that process as soon as possible. In both cases you should note that you are doing so in your application. When the new passport arrives you will need to provide a copy of the details page to Melbourne Global Mobility.
Passport Photo
Provide a recent passport photo with your name and student ID number on the back. You can have a set of four photographs taken at most pharmacies, for example, for around $12.
Don't throw the left overs away as your host institution application might need a photograph and they are also useful for things like an international driver's license.
Submitting Your Application
All students must submit their signed Study Plan for their first preference destination together with their Application Form to their Faculty Exchange Advisor by the due date.
Combined degree students applying to go on exchange for credit to both degrees should submit their application to the one of the faculties. Faculty staff will subsequently pass it to the second faculty for approval.
To find out what happens next, click here.