Monash University Speciality : Art & Design
programme: Arts

I did 2 years online due to covid and it was honestly not a great experience. then i moved to melbourne in my final year and didn’t really learn much unfortunately… there were no hands-on classes and everything was purely theoretical.

Monash South Africa opened its doors in South Africa in 2001. I joined the university in 2008, at a time when it was still relatively new. In 2019, Monash South Africa University was renamed as IIE MSA. What I noticed about the university at first glance was how diverse it was.

There were all types of people from different walks of life. The university especially attracted students from various parts of Africa, which made it unique. I got to meet people from countries like Burkina Faso, Mali, Togo, Sierra Leone, and Angola, just to name a few. It was easy to see that the university embraced inclusivity in all aspects.

I majored in Communications and Management, earning a Bachelor of Arts degree. It was a three year program, which I successfully completed in 2011, with the graduation ceremony held in 2012. Monash had a culture of paying attention to each individual by providing us with the necessary resources to excel.

Most importantly, I felt like I was part of a family a community. And while I may not have personally known every person on campus, I still felt that sense of unity and camaraderie.

My experience with Monash University was an overall positive one. It was a good starting place for my undergraduate degree, and my GDPA course was also quite well-run and well-structured. I do think, however, that the institution as a whole is quite focused on results and numbers and is not too accommodating for individual issues, and rather sees the student body as one entity, which can be damaging. I had a particular experience with some mental health difficulties during a tough time period; not only was it extremely difficult to find the right channels for help in the first place, but I was eventually denied any assistance whatsoever.
I enjoyed my time in undergrad at Monash as the culture and environment at the university was quite nice and welcoming, but as a long-term student there were definitely some issues.

Being the largest and most international university in Australia, I think that my experience at Monash was wonderful. Despite only spending 10 months on campus since I am about to graduate next month, I had some unforgettable moments and I would definitely agree that offline classes are so much better than the ones I did online for the entirely of 2021.

Monash Clayton is an extremely clean, diverse, and welcoming campus and I definitely love the overall nuance of the campus. However, I would argue that several classes I took are quite difficult or unclear due to the tutors not being able to explain well (sorry!), the academics aspect was something that I quite struggled in. It may be better to learn in an actual classroom compared to a computer, but sometimes the instructions are so vague and some tutors have different expectations of what the student writes in their assignments. As an upcoming Bachelor of Arts awardee, I feel like this is the most difficult aspect of being a student of that faculty.

Overall, being a Monash student is an extremely fun experience. Even though I was academically struggling sometimes, I had a great support system by my side. I also got to make lots of new friends from all over the world, which enhances the uni experience.