Student stories

Working on a real-time renewable energy project of biogasification has helped engineering management student George, to understand the potential management issues around the renewable energies sector and how to make projects more economical.

My name is George. I am from India. I have done engineering in electronics. Now I am here at Southern Cross University doing Master of Engineering Management, MBA.

I am working on a real-time renewable energy project which will be really helpful to analyse and understand the management issues around the renewable energies sector.

The project which I will be working with is the waste wood which can be used to produce the synthetic gas which will be converted to produce electricity so that we don’t need to depend on the fossil fuels. Working on this real-time project of biogasification helps me to learn different issues about the renewable energies sector and how we can make the project more economical.

One of the reasons why I wanted to take Master of Engineering Management was to help the engineering projects to be environmentally friendly and how we can ensure the sustainability of projects.

Strategic Asset Management helps us to learn how you can maximise the utilisation of an asset and to reduce the wastage.

Stakeholder analysis helps to learn what are the different stakeholders inside a project.

All of our tutors are industry experts in their different fields of activities helping to ensure the sustainability. These experts give us ideas about how each industry measures different kind of outcomes or their targets which is related to the environment and the well-being of citizens.

So I have been here for the last 1 ½ years and coming from India our assessment methods are different. Here assignments are a lot more important, particularly how we approach our assignments, we have to refer to some academic articles. These things are particularly new to me so I went to the academic skills and they helped me a lot.

My dream is to reduce the carbon footprint and I am interested in the renewable industries sector. Studying at Southern Cross University has helped me to gain valuable skills which will help me to achieve my career goals.

For Indian student Sebi, Master of Engineering Management, Master of Business Administration builds on his existing skills as an engineer and makes him think beyond the basic management to how well a company can manage from an engineering perspective through sustainability, asset management and stakeholder engagement.

Hi, I’m Sebi, I am from the southern part of India. I have 5 years of experience in mechanical engineering in the field of aero-engines and turbo charges. My projects on that engineering included monitoring the compliance of the project and how much the money is used over the budget.

I chose the MEM MBA programs because if an engineer wanted to enter management role, it is not just be basic management understanding but it also has to be an understanding of how well you can manage from an engineering perspective. It has sustainability, asset management. Stakeholder engagement. With my experience I understood that these are the points that are more relevant than compared to a business management perspective.

I also work at the Lismore campus of SCU where there is great infrastructure, good lab facilities, good testing facilities, and a home-grown degasification unit. My industry research is to be on from the plastics to fuel which is the next step in the degasification process where plastics is being heated and turned into fuel. With this project I could see a scope and potential of eliminating plastic waste and turning all the plastic wastes into fuel and you can even use the capital which get from the fuel for future projects for the community.

The Southern Cross University Gold Coast campus is in a very beautiful location. You can just walk to the beach when you are so tired. And (the) Gold Coast is a great place to stay because it is very active. It is a place where you can really live and enjoy your studies. So the university has given me an opportunity to work more closely with the people around in the industry as an industry research and also gain experience which is hands on not just theoretical.

I am very sure that with the course and my experience I can reach the top level management, which is one of my career aspirations in the near future.

Firstly I took an English course in the English College and after graduation I am studying at the uni.

We’re going to kick off with a song called “Drifting” and it’s written by a Swedish lady called Anna Begurlof.

I was born in a little town in the middle of Sweden. My mum always listened to Pink Floyd, had Bjork like CDs and I was a big mess when it came to music.

I was enrolled in Environmental Science and during O' week I realised there was a music program here and I was like ‘Oh my god’ I can’t not do it.

I think I’ve always know that I want to do music. It’s always been there but I think coming here and deciding to do music here has really been good for me. Getting more routines and actually starting to climb up to get up to a professional level. My favourite classes are the one-on-one's with our vocal teacher here.

Right now I am doing stage management which is making sure that everything runs smoothly and it’s on time and making sure things that are meant to be on stage are on stage. I’m also doing more things later, working at festivals. We have really good contacts with festivals around the area.

Every Wednesday I run open mic at the Unibar. If you want you can sing a song, play guitar. I am the open mic lady.

First up on stage we have my beautiful friend Dylan Peate. I go to the library a lot because they have a really good sections for both music, mixing and production and they have a whole area with just CDs that you can borrow too. It’s one of the best libraries I’ve ever been to.

What I like about Lismore is it’s a very diverse and accepting community. I’m vegan and a lot of people here really care about that and a lot of 'whole food' shops and really nice cafes and the nature is just amazing. Just here at the campus its really nice to step outside for a bit and have a short walk, see some koalas.

I’ve really had the space to grow and choose my own way and have always been supported, all the way.

Giselle is a Brazilian student who has found that studying English at Southern Cross’ Lismore campus has been the perfect environment to study English.

One of the reasons that I chose here is because to study at a University I can focus more on my English and my skills and I really feel that here I can be different than the larger cities. I can share my house or share some moments here at university with local people with the Australian people.

One of the activities I like here was the group presentation when I did a task with some classmates and we did the research about another country.

I feel that I have really improved some skills and the university here offers an amazing library. It’s a place where I really like to spend the time after class when I am really read to focus on my studies.

The Lismore campus is an amazing campus there are lot of green areas here that you can relax or choose silent places to study.

There a lot of beaches near here, one of them is Byron Bay so many activities like waterfalls.

I think I have the perfect environment here to study English

Portuguese

Então, pros brasileiros que estão pensando em estudar na Southern Cross University, eu realmente recomendo!

É o lugar que tem o perfeito ambiente para estudar o inglês. Você vai estudar numa universidade que tem toda a infraestrutura, tudo que a gente realmente precisa!  

E aqui no campus de Lismore é mais fácil ainda desenvolver o inglês porque é numa área regional, a gente realmente se força a estudar e a falar o inglês porque é muito nativo, muitas pessoas da região.

Então eu realmente recomendo! Eu estou tendo uma experiência maravilhosa aqui e aperfeiçoando muito o meu inglês.

Translation

So, for the Brazilians who are thinking of studying at Southern Cross University, I really recommend!

It is a place that has the perfect environment to study English. You will study at a university that has all the infrastructure, and everything that we really need!

And here at the Lismore campus it is even easier to develop English because it is in a regional area, we really force ourselves to study and speak English because it is a place with many people native to the region.

So, I really recommend it! I am having a wonderful experience here, and greatly improving my English.

Juwon is from Korea and studying English at Southern Cross. She loves the koalas on campus and sharing her culture with other students. Learning English away from the major cities has forced her to speak English all the time.

Studying English at Southern Cross University has been a wonderful experience. I met a lot of nice friends and the teachers are very friendly and they try to make us improve our English. I like the Koala hospital at Southern Cross University.

I can see a lot of koalas and they are so cute I was a university student in Korea and I had to write a lot of reports and I was not good. I learnt a lot of new skills about how to write good academic reports.

I live in share house in the city of Lismore, like downtown in the centre of Lismore and I could meet a lot of people in my share house and some are Australians and some are European and they are very friendly. We share our cultures and it is so good. People that live in Lismore are very friendly and they will talk with me when I walk on the street.

(Back in Korea) I was in a big city and there were a lot of Koreans and sometimes I spoke Korean but I can speak English every day (now) so I think it has been very good for me - improving (my) English.

The library is very good, (it has) a lot of computers and we can use (them) whenever we want. (The library also has) a lot of books, so sometimes I read a book, some English books and it helps me to do my homework.

Studying English at Southern Cross University has been a wonderful experience.

Brazilian student Alex is studying Clinical Exercise Physiology at the Lismore campus of Southern Cross University and feels totally embraced by the university community. Alex loves the accessibility of the campus, close to Byron Bay and the Gold Coast beaches. As a huge soccer fan Alex is impressed by the Liverpool Football Club International Academy in Lismore, a partnership with Southern Cross University and the Liverpool Football Club.

If I were to choose one word to describe my experience at this university wouldn’t be difficult, it would have to be “gratitude”. I had the opportunity to study at other universities but my experience at Southern Cross University was unique.

When I’m around campus I don’t just interrelate with student in my field of study, but I get to know other students from other areas of study as well, especially international student.

We become a community, and this helps us adapt in a new town. Probably in other institutions located in big cities, this relationship is not as intimate and close as it is at Southern Cross.

When we decided to move to Lismore we thought: “Where is Lismore? Wow it’s a small town”, but when we checked the map and saw where Lismore is located we got extremely excited with the possibility of being so close to Byron Bay.

We are at 40km from Byron Bay, 30 minutes’ drive from Ballina which is fantastic! We are very close to the Gold Coast and only a little further (2.5 hours’ drive) we are in Brisbane!

So, all of that helps us feel like part of the Australian culture. This university is very well structured, not only when it comes to innovative technologies as you can see in this room here, we have cutting edge equipment for analysis, but also, I believe it is one of the only universities that has a partnership with one of the greatest clubs in the world, Liverpool. This provides an opportunity for the student to learn a different philosophy, from a professional football club, integrated with the academic life.

The Health Clinic has a team of Doctors, Nurses, Psychologists, and the Clinical Physiologists working together with this multidisciplinary team. This was one of the things that caught my attention when I was researching about this university and its program. This is the future of chronic disease treatment and improvement of health in general, it all comes down to how we integrate physical activity into the medical treatment plan.

They embraced me and didn’t treat me as just another international student, here I feel valued, and the only word I can use to describe my experience at this university is “gratitude”. 

Living close to Byron Bay has provided, Steffen with a good study, lifestyle balance. His location also allows him to make the both of our Gold Coast and Lismore campuses where he enjoys the small class sizes and the interactive format at Southern Cross University.

I quite enjoyed studying at Southern Cross University. I recently finished my Bachelor in Accounting and I enjoyed the small class sizes.  They were always really interactive and great support from the tutors and lecturers and now I'm about to complete my honours.

And also the academic support in completing this research thesis is quite amazing my supervisors are really switched on really helpful.

I'm feeling confident with my honours degree that I can progress to the next step and do my PhD. Hopefully at Southern Cross University.

Living close to Byron Bay is quite an amazing thing to me. I'm close to the beach. I can go scuba diving. If I feel like it I can go surfing or just for a beach walk and it really gives me good study and lifestyle balance.

It's only about 40 minutes to the Gold Coast campus and I can just drive onto the highway and I'm pretty much there. There's never a rush hour on the highway, it's always free it's perfect. Yeah the Gold Coast campus is quite modern and you can see the beach and it's literally 300 metres from the beach so if you need to study break it just walk to the beach go for a swim and you're refreshed.

It's quite convenient for me to come here to listen or to use the facility here such as the library and it's quite relaxed learning environment and I've got all the facilities I need. Computers, research facility, databases.

Studying at Southern Cross University was a quite unique experience for me.

It certainly improved my English and I also got a lot more confident and the study life balance as I mentioned before is quite unique and it helped me definitely, getting through my degree.

Being able to do the whole thing, having Lord Ganesha and celebrate him in the right way in the right traditions, it makes you feel proud and it makes you feel more rooted and grounded to the culture that you come from.

The current place that I live, it’s easier and accessible to go the Indian grocery as well as the farmer’s markets to get cheap food.

Studying internationally gives you the opportunity to meet a lot of international students and to learn about their culture and their traditions. That experience in itself is very good because I have a lot of Filipino friends and a lot of Spanish friends, which in fact I can speak a bit ‘como estas’, yeah ‘como estas’, ‘how are you’?

I have also been International Ambassador for Southern Cross University and it’s more like a buddy-up program, where you become friends with the new ones and tell them, you just guide them through. I did this because when I was new at this University I saw other students helping me out and you are very new and you don’t know how the course is going to treat you and I reckon it’s the best place to come I feel. Coming to university makes me happy.

The education system in India is not assessment orientated. It’s just exams so for me it was very necessary to understand what am I supposed to do in an assignment. They are structured in a way that bit by bit your getting prepared for the last exam, the final exams so that you don’t have study everything just at the end.

So the system is different but it is good and it is quite adaptable. So we have a service called Academic Skills where if you are struggling with an assignment you can just book an appointment and even the toughest of the units that we had I reckon even the professors make it easy for you. Because if you are not comfortable asking questions during the class you can always ask the question after the class and they are always happy to answer you.

The people that you meet over here, it gives you a perspective for life that makes you believe that you can definitely make a mark in the world. It’s just amazing. I love every bit of the decision that me and my husband made to come to Australia and we are living it.