By: Seren Crowley

Hi! My name’s Seren and I am going on exchange to the University of Liverpool for second semester! I am a second year student studying a Bachelor of Communication majoring in Marketing and minoring in Applied Digital Communication.

I’ve always had an urge to travel the world and was always fond of the idea of exchange. I originally wanted to do a high school exchange but this idea was no longer viable for me when Covid hit. Later in year 12 the University of Waikato came to my school to do a presentation about what they offer, they mentioned exchanges and I immediately was intrigued. Fast forward 3 weeks into my first year of university, Terri came around during one of my lectures and gave us all a quick presentation about the global experiences department here at Waikato and the opportunities they offered. Instantly I started researching what partner universities were available. From then right up until November I was confident in choosing America, I was always interested in the College lifestyle and wanted to experience it for myself. I was fortunate enough to be able to travel to America in November last year with my family on Holiday, here was when I realised I was no longer invested in choosing America. Don’t get me wrong I loved it but I found it extremely expensive and I didn’t want to be limited to the things I could do being only 19.

I then started looking into Europe as I knew I wanted to do lots of travel while on exchange and everyone knows how cheap it is to hop from country to country. In terms of previous travel in Europe I have only ever been to Ireland, which was when I was 4 years old, so the excitement of being able to visit new places whenever I want was a big plus for me. I also have a lot of family in Ireland and an uncle in England so having those people nearby also enticed me into choosing a university situated in Europe.

Throw back to once I decided I was going to go on exchange. I knew that I wanted to be living and studying in an English speaking country. Although it seems fun and exciting learning a new language, I didn’t want to have the additional struggle of trying to adapt to a new environment and routine as well as a completely new language. I figured that since England is situated right in the middle of Europe and many other diverse countries, I would have plenty of opportunities to travel and immerse myself in those cultures that I otherwise thought I may be missing out on.

I’m also an Irish citizen which means I can enter the United Kingdom without needing to obtain an ETA and I have the leisure of being able to get a part time job if I want to.

I did a lot of research on the University of Liverpool and read lots of positive reviews on the University and the city. It has an airport which connects you to many destinations and Manchester is only a 40 minute train ride away, where there is a larger selection of countries to travel to. The university also has a strong business school with high rankings globally, which was something else that was important to me.

Now leading up to my departure which is only 2 and ½ months away, the University of Liverpool has created a facebook page for us incoming exchange students to build connections before we all arrive. I love that they have done this as it makes the move not as daunting and gives you a good idea of how many other exchange students there will be (197 during my semester!).

Overall, I’m looking forward to what will come of this experience and excited to put myself out there to create life long friendships and memories!