Undergraduate
Student Experience
This report summarizes my personal takeaway from the 1-Term study abroad scheme at the University of British Columbia (UBC), Vancouver, Canada. I will be sharing about my pre-departure preparation and the experience in UBC in this report.
-
Pre-departure Preparation
Canada is considered one of the furthest countries from Korea, hence if you don’t want to swim there, you’d better book the plane ticket ;)
Second of all, in terms of the visa/study permit matters, Korean students can just apply for the Temporary Residence Visa [TRV] (Tourist/Student). And the process of getting TRV (2-3 weeks) is way faster than a study permit (about 1 month). A study permit is not required for any study period less than 6 months. However, I’m holding the Chinese passport, so I applied for a study permit for my exchange program. A normal visa will be sufficient a 1-semester exchange. Although there is no Canadian embassy in Korea and will be reverted to process in Manila, but the visa/study permit application could be done easily via online. You have to apply for study permit if you are planning to work on campus, in which the application fee is CAD50 more than a TRV.
PS: Please do attach an explanation letter regarding your intention to work on-campus during your stay in Canada during your submission of the study permit application. For any visa application, apply it back at home country is beneficial for you than applying in Canada. (one of my Malaysian friends told me )
Third of all, the acceptance result announcement was very late (Early June) as the process of the supporting documents were stuck for certain reasons so was the accommodation result (very late June/July). I received on-campus residence offer (Walter Gage). You might need to look for off-campus residence by yourself if you do not get any on-campus residence offers. At that point of time, UBC Go Global Team is helpful and provided us a detailed list of available off-campus accommodations which appear to be near to the campus. Therefore, you are encouraged to apply as soon as you receive the application from UBC (Application fee of CAD 50 will be charged). Most of the exchange students will be allocated either in Fairview Crescent or Water Gage. Therefore, you may select these two residence areas as your top choices during the on-campus accommodation application. In addition, I booked a returned flight tickets via official website of Air China for the cheapest flight list ever, as combined flights are usually cheaper but less flexibility in changing the flight. You are encouraged to book the ticket as early as possible via official website.
UBC Go Global team will add every exchange student into a UBC Incoming Exchange Facebook group where all the exchange students will be communicating via the platform. This group is usually used for making enquiries (books, second hand items, etc) and trip invitations. It is important to check the weather beforehand in order for luggage preparation.
There are some difficulties that I have faced throughout the pre-departure preparation or even after I flew to Canada. However, all these difficulties are really worth it because I had an awesome experience during my exchange journey and I treated those as my precious lessons in life.
Second of all, in terms of the visa/study permit matters, Korean students can just apply for the Temporary Residence Visa [TRV] (Tourist/Student). And the process of getting TRV (2-3 weeks) is way faster than a study permit (about 1 month). A study permit is not required for any study period less than 6 months. However, I’m holding the Chinese passport, so I applied for a study permit for my exchange program. A normal visa will be sufficient a 1-semester exchange. Although there is no Canadian embassy in Korea and will be reverted to process in Manila, but the visa/study permit application could be done easily via online. You have to apply for study permit if you are planning to work on campus, in which the application fee is CAD50 more than a TRV.
PS: Please do attach an explanation letter regarding your intention to work on-campus during your stay in Canada during your submission of the study permit application. For any visa application, apply it back at home country is beneficial for you than applying in Canada. (one of my Malaysian friends told me )
Third of all, the acceptance result announcement was very late (Early June) as the process of the supporting documents were stuck for certain reasons so was the accommodation result (very late June/July). I received on-campus residence offer (Walter Gage). You might need to look for off-campus residence by yourself if you do not get any on-campus residence offers. At that point of time, UBC Go Global Team is helpful and provided us a detailed list of available off-campus accommodations which appear to be near to the campus. Therefore, you are encouraged to apply as soon as you receive the application from UBC (Application fee of CAD 50 will be charged). Most of the exchange students will be allocated either in Fairview Crescent or Water Gage. Therefore, you may select these two residence areas as your top choices during the on-campus accommodation application. In addition, I booked a returned flight tickets via official website of Air China for the cheapest flight list ever, as combined flights are usually cheaper but less flexibility in changing the flight. You are encouraged to book the ticket as early as possible via official website.
UBC Go Global team will add every exchange student into a UBC Incoming Exchange Facebook group where all the exchange students will be communicating via the platform. This group is usually used for making enquiries (books, second hand items, etc) and trip invitations. It is important to check the weather beforehand in order for luggage preparation.
There are some difficulties that I have faced throughout the pre-departure preparation or even after I flew to Canada. However, all these difficulties are really worth it because I had an awesome experience during my exchange journey and I treated those as my precious lessons in life.
-
Experience while studying abroad
-
People
Vancouver is an international city where you can meet a lot of nationalities from around the globe especially Asians mainly from Mainland of China, South Korea, Japan, Hong Kong, Taiwan etc. There are also a small population of indigenous people called the First Nations living in Vancouver, who are quite being respected by the local Canadians. English is the main language used in Vancouver. Generally, Canadians are very nice and friendly. Greeting is a common culture, in which people will say “Hi there, how’re you doing today?” then naturally start a small talk instead of saying “Hi and Bye”.
-
Culture
First of all, Vancouver is moving toward a cashless city in which card payment is very common for all kind of transactions. Moreover, debit card service is free of charge for students, therefore you are highly encouraged to apply for a debit card to ease the transactions. Second of all, tipping is a culture. Customers are expected to provide tips in the range from a minimum of 10% to 25% based on the total bills before taxes when dinning in restaurants or the waiter/waitress would look at you with weird face or ask you for the reasons. If you think the services are bad, you could make suggestions to them. Thirdly, the driving ethics in Canada is very polite and pedestrian-oriented. Vehicles will stop for pedestrians at every crossroad patiently without honking or complaining. You might have the perception that drinking must be a culture in Canada, however there is an age limitation to start drinking alcohol. Citizens are allowed to drink alcohol after 19 years old. Alcoholic drinks can only be sold in licensed premises (drug stores) and 2 photo IDs (passport, IC, or license) are required in order to purchase any alcoholic drinks. Fourth of all, Vancouver is a green city. The citizens are well educated regarding the environmental protection awareness and sustainability of the city. Categorized recycling bins (food waste, plastics, papers, etc.) could be seen everywhere in the city and users are highly expected to trash accordingly as research showed that 25% of the food in North America are being thrown into garbage bins. In addition, clean public toilets are accessible around the city. Last but not least, Asian food (Korean, Chinese, Japanese, and even Malaysian) is also accessible in Vancouver especially in the downtown due to the large population of Asian immigrants into Vancouver.
-
Activities
I’ll be categorizing the activities into 2 phases.
-
When Entering to The University
During the first day of school, there will be an Imagine Day in which all the student runs clubs and societies will set up booths around the campus to promote their clubs and to recruit new members. It is common for the club and society to collect member fees (CAD10) from their members in order to join the club and the membership card provide benefits to member for joining the club activities for free or at a lower rate. Throughout my study exchange in UBC, I participated in the events held by UBC cooking club, UBC sailing club and Astronomy club as if you don’t support, who else? Yet, there are a lot of Korean student unions as well!
Volunteering : There were a lot of local community events to attend for free (from Eventbrite or Sauder’s Email). A few friends and I were always actively participated in a lot of on- and off-campus volunteering events with Race Force, a non-profit organization who runs various of sport, running, activities, and events for fundraising and Vancouver Asian Film Festival (VAFF). Volunteering opportunities are easily accessible in Vancouver, and in return volunteers can acquire free meals, gifts and networking opportunities. It is a rare experience in abroad that you can make friends from different nationalities yet contribute your effort back to the society you are living in
Activities on Campus: During exchange, you will be having fun meeting new people every day and build last long friendships with those you are mingling around for most of the times, you could do various activities on campus as well like (Ice-skating since UBC offers the facilities at cheap cost, and annual biggest event, Homecoming at Thunderbird Stadium, where you will shout together with thousands of people in supporting UBC team, The day of Long Boat) and do invite them to go together since the more, the merrier!
There is an optional clothing beach which is very near in UBC (5-10mins of walk from central of UBC), it will be full of people during summer (June-Sept). Canadians always do things with consensus, do ask for permission in taking pictures there since it would expose your eyes to a new level once you are there since this type of beach is common to be found across the North America.
Travelling : There were a lot of exchange students asking for companions to go for travelling trips in the UBC Incoming Exchange Student Facebook group, they are always the best reference to explore Canada. Since Canada is known for its beautiful natural parks, nature, Rocky Mountains, and all kind of wonderful creatures like Canadian Goose, Elk, Grizzly Bears etc.
Personally, I always formed the road trip group ourselves as we do have a large team that is coming from different countries and they are hungry for vacation at all times since studies and exams make us crazy sometimes.
Hence, we planned plenty of road trips to Banff and Jasper at Alberta (which is the state next to British Columbia), Vancouver Island, Bowen Island, North Vancouver (Quarry Rock, Garibaldi Lake, Lynn Canyon, Grouse Mountain, etc.) and even to the United States of America (Seattle, Portland, etc.) since it’s so near to Vancouver to cross the border!
Volunteering : There were a lot of local community events to attend for free (from Eventbrite or Sauder’s Email). A few friends and I were always actively participated in a lot of on- and off-campus volunteering events with Race Force, a non-profit organization who runs various of sport, running, activities, and events for fundraising and Vancouver Asian Film Festival (VAFF). Volunteering opportunities are easily accessible in Vancouver, and in return volunteers can acquire free meals, gifts and networking opportunities. It is a rare experience in abroad that you can make friends from different nationalities yet contribute your effort back to the society you are living in
Activities on Campus: During exchange, you will be having fun meeting new people every day and build last long friendships with those you are mingling around for most of the times, you could do various activities on campus as well like (Ice-skating since UBC offers the facilities at cheap cost, and annual biggest event, Homecoming at Thunderbird Stadium, where you will shout together with thousands of people in supporting UBC team, The day of Long Boat) and do invite them to go together since the more, the merrier!
There is an optional clothing beach which is very near in UBC (5-10mins of walk from central of UBC), it will be full of people during summer (June-Sept). Canadians always do things with consensus, do ask for permission in taking pictures there since it would expose your eyes to a new level once you are there since this type of beach is common to be found across the North America.
Travelling : There were a lot of exchange students asking for companions to go for travelling trips in the UBC Incoming Exchange Student Facebook group, they are always the best reference to explore Canada. Since Canada is known for its beautiful natural parks, nature, Rocky Mountains, and all kind of wonderful creatures like Canadian Goose, Elk, Grizzly Bears etc.
Personally, I always formed the road trip group ourselves as we do have a large team that is coming from different countries and they are hungry for vacation at all times since studies and exams make us crazy sometimes.
Hence, we planned plenty of road trips to Banff and Jasper at Alberta (which is the state next to British Columbia), Vancouver Island, Bowen Island, North Vancouver (Quarry Rock, Garibaldi Lake, Lynn Canyon, Grouse Mountain, etc.) and even to the United States of America (Seattle, Portland, etc.) since it’s so near to Vancouver to cross the border!
-
Accommodation (Walter Gage)
I was staying on-campus in one of the resident areas (Walter Gage Residence) where most of the exchange students will be assigned. It is a six-in-one apartment unit in which each of us has our own bedroom with shared toilet, bathroom, kitchen and living room. It is the considered the best residence in UBC considering I was living in the highest floor of 17th, getting the nice campus and sea view whole day from my room. Generally, the facilities and equipment of the unit are in good condition, and chargeable laundry service and table tennis facility, a small convenience store, and study rooms are available in the common-spaces and common-block respectively.
Sometimes we will be sharing our culture and sometimes we do some local food cooking together or potluck with other friends from other apartment blocks/rooms. We were responsible to keep the unit clean by sharing the household chores together or you would have to pay cleaning fees. I lived with 5 other roommates from Swiss, German, Turkey, Mainland of China and Canada. Only me and another Chinese girl were on exchange and others are full time student in UBC. We had a really great time living together.
Sometimes we will be sharing our culture and sometimes we do some local food cooking together or potluck with other friends from other apartment blocks/rooms. We were responsible to keep the unit clean by sharing the household chores together or you would have to pay cleaning fees. I lived with 5 other roommates from Swiss, German, Turkey, Mainland of China and Canada. Only me and another Chinese girl were on exchange and others are full time student in UBC. We had a really great time living together.
-
Learning Environment at UBC
I took 4 courses in UBC which are Business Ethics Leadership, International Business, Introduction to Systematic programming and Ancient Egypt History. A full-time exchange student is required to take a minimum of 9 credits. A side note here: Only full time student with endorsement on the Study Permit is allowed to work for 20 hours a week in Canada, it is a strict process and the law is highly executed by the local authorities. Prior to reaching at UBC, we will have to select the courses we want to enrol through Go Global notifications in emails and Sauder’s School of Business helped us to register those courses. Hence, you will need to check the requirements if you decide to take courses from other schools. The learning environment in UBC is very knowledge-oriented and hungry for more learning opportunities as students study for widening their horizons, not aiming for A’s.
Pre-reading is a culture where professors will upload all the related materials on Connect (like e-learning) for students prior attending the classes. In terms of the classroom culture, professors emphasize on class participation and engagement with the students and there are coursework marks associated with that as well. Students are expected to share their opinions and perspectives in the classes. Furthermore, every professor has a TA (Teaching Assistant) to assist them and students are welcome to visit the professor or TA during office hours for any inquiry regarding the course or assignment.
Pre-reading is a culture where professors will upload all the related materials on Connect (like e-learning) for students prior attending the classes. In terms of the classroom culture, professors emphasize on class participation and engagement with the students and there are coursework marks associated with that as well. Students are expected to share their opinions and perspectives in the classes. Furthermore, every professor has a TA (Teaching Assistant) to assist them and students are welcome to visit the professor or TA during office hours for any inquiry regarding the course or assignment.
-
Tips for future students of KUBS Study Abroad Programme
First and foremost, I would advise the future exchange students to have plan things well before hand especially for this study abroad programme when you have decided to apply for it. While it meant to be a programme in abroad, there are many procedures, timelines and guidelines to follow and many documents to be prepared prior for submission. There may be some unexpected situations that occur which you will need to get it done urgently especially when you are on deadlines like the on-campus accommodation. We were applying for it one day before the application deadline. Hence, note it down and put into timeline on what you need to do at this point of time are actually recommended, or you would miss out something crucial as there are a lot matters in your mind. Besides that, in order to go through all these processes smoothly, you have to be courageous to question and seek for the answers by being self-proactive because there is no spoon-feeding nor someone is going to provide you the response. Moreover, you have to get prepared on the news, foods, specialties, festivals, and etc. about your home country because as an exchange student, you are effectively an ambassador for your own country. Other exchange students from different countries might ask you about your country and it is very embarrassing if you do not know any. At the same time, you could ask for it in return in getting to know the genuine and first-hand information about other countries especially from the local students, personally they would give you some legit advices or even connect with them when you are interested to travel to their country in future.
Overall, I am thankful to be selected to have underwent and experienced through this programme, which exposed me with a different perspective regarding diversity and cross-cultural differences. I met people from all over the world, whom I never have this chance in my entire life which I usually mingle around Asians or especially Chinese at most of the times where the environment has made up to be so. I have learned to adapt to the culture especially in a new and strange place by finding more companionships and friends along, explored diversity and learned to go through the barriers or challenges while it popped out in the middle way. Although during the application process, I have faced a lot of problems which hit me down and feeling to give up, fortunately, we have strong determination and family supports to keep us moving forward. I really appreciate that I had the opportunity to go for this exchange programme and I believed that this experience would enhance my experience and something I would proud to have as memories in my life.
Overall, I am thankful to be selected to have underwent and experienced through this programme, which exposed me with a different perspective regarding diversity and cross-cultural differences. I met people from all over the world, whom I never have this chance in my entire life which I usually mingle around Asians or especially Chinese at most of the times where the environment has made up to be so. I have learned to adapt to the culture especially in a new and strange place by finding more companionships and friends along, explored diversity and learned to go through the barriers or challenges while it popped out in the middle way. Although during the application process, I have faced a lot of problems which hit me down and feeling to give up, fortunately, we have strong determination and family supports to keep us moving forward. I really appreciate that I had the opportunity to go for this exchange programme and I believed that this experience would enhance my experience and something I would proud to have as memories in my life.