I am a recent graduate from The University of Auckland who studied Global Studies.
I had a great time at The University of Auckland. Coming as an international student to a new country on top of this a new University was overwhelming. The support team for international students at the university was super helpful even with government visa/insurance sorted out for you through the university with fast inquiry responses to students.
However, there are some improvements that could be made. I believe that the university could be more considerate of visa processing times because during course enrolments as international students were waiting for visas other local students had already signed into new courses allowing them to choose the lecture times they wanted whilst international students didn’t get much of a chance to choose any time periods that were suitable and had to take times or even different subjects they didn’t want to in order to be enrolled into courses.
Global Studies was a fairly new program within this university. Despite this fact, the program was well organized giving lots of other opportunities other courses did not provide (i.e. Study abroad). This gives the students the chance to physically go and experience the specific area of study each global study student has undertaken allowing more in-depth knowledge that can’t be received within University classes.
However, a downside to the program is new limits on the knowledge of course directors or other lecturers for this course. I have had multiple incidents where students from this course felt they did not have enough support during assignments from the lecturers.
Overall, this university has provided me with all the knowledge and skills I was passionate to learn.