Asked if she never been to see a counsellor or course adviser for advice about her future studies, Diane said no: not that she didn't think she needed it, but because she didn't know about those resources in her first semester. Only in her final semester did she go to see a course adviser. She said she didn't go to any orientation information sessions – she didn't know about them, and missed out.

— Diane

Are course advisors are available to help enrolling students?

Probably there is a course advisor you can consult with; but from my experience, I just asked my friends who had done the course in the previous semester – asked them if this subject was easy or difficult, how you deal with it, and how about the lecturers – are they easy or strict, easy or difficult to understand... I think students can ask the unit leader or course co-ordinator... But normally the students just ask other students who have done the subject.

— Faith

Did you have any choice about the units you took, or were they all prescribed by the Faculty?

There was a choice – most of them were options. But they were all Finance subjects, restricted to Finance areas – It was pretty hard to know which ones to choose.

Why didn't you choose a course that was closer to your previous experience?

When I started it wasn't clear to me that Finance and Accounting were two different disciplines. …In that first semester I didn't know, I wasn't clear what courses I should choose. And then in my third semester I failed everything.

Were these compulsory units?

In the first semester I – no, they weren't compulsory units. They were compulsory units for Applied Finance, but not for my course.

So you could have chosen other units to make up –

But I didn't know that. I just looked at the list of units –

Did you discuss it with other students?

I didn't know anybody at that time. I only knew one or two people, and they didn't know any more about the courses than I did.

Do you think the University should have advised you about which courses to do?

I suppose so. I had a look on the Web, where they have all the course descriptions, to see what they said. But at that stage, those course descriptions, they didn't mean a thing to me. It's different now: now I can read them, and I've got enough knowledge to be able to make a good guess what the course is about. But back then I didn't have a hope. I'd look at one and think: "exporter – what on earth is that?"

Was it because of the technical terms that you couldn't read them?

The technical terms – for example, what an "option" was: I had no idea what that meant; or if you add "forward" to it – what did it mean to say that an "option" was "forward"? I didn't have the slightest concept. So, yes, I could choose what units I would take, but I had no idea what I was choosing. Later I got to know some students who were very bright: they would go and audit a course for a week or two; then they might decide, this course is not for me, and go and choose another one…

– but in your first semester you didn't know you could do that?

Well, it seemed to me to be a waste of time. I felt that if I missed the first lecture of a course I'd never be able to catch up later on; so I wouldn't dare change from one course to another.

— Mary

So, in general, the problems you've had coming to Monash, would you say they are due to language, or culture, or what you're used to?

Your course structures are so different from China. We didn't even know we would have three essays in one semester and that's all [i.e., no exam]. We expected to have exams, and the exams, at the end.

At the beginning of your courses, did your teachers not explain to you…?

Before they explained to me, I didn't know that that was the usual structure in Australia.

— Nana

Do you think, in the courses that you're doing, that they give you enough information at the beginning of the course to make a good plan – a time management plan.

Some of the lecturers they give you a good idea, but some – I don't think all.

In the bad cases, what information didn't they give you, that you needed to know?

The overview of this unit, the objective, what will we do in these 13 weeks, what topic[s] we will focus on, what you need to do to prepare, how to prepare it, how to prepare for the exam – yeah.

— Nova

Can you think of any ways in which the University could help you better?

Oh – I think the lecturer should talk exactly what they want from the beginning, not to confuse students. If the student have a question they need to explain very detail [so that the student is] not surprise[d] when they get the result and [discover that it is] not negotiable!

— Susy

What was it that you had to get used to in writing assignments here?

Every teacher has different requirements; and according to those requirements you have to go and find the right materials for yourself. And usually they don't tell you in much detail how to prepare it; and if they do it's likely to be just one or two weeks before you have to hand it in; and then you have to start finding the references....

Are all the courses like this?

Pretty much. The course outline tells you what assignments you're going to have to write, but it doesn't tell you in any detail what the lecturer wants, or how to go about writing them. Usually the lecturers will talk about this in class, and tell you what they want; but it's usually quite close to the deadline, so your preparation is pretty rushed.

— Jade