Overview

Summer School in Australia is an opportunity for students to take summer school in the southern hemisphere of the world; particularly Adelaide, Australia. This is an ideal program for students who find themselves unable to break away during the North American school year for a traditional semester abroad.

AustraLearn and the University of Adelaide are offering students the opportunity to enroll in 1, 2 or three summer school courses. Each course connects with the indigenous peoples of Australia on various levels.

Available courses include:

Course #1: Introduction in Indigenous Culture and History
Course #2: Fast Track Video Production: Australian Stories
Course #3: Footprints on a Fragile Planet

Location

Adelaide is the capital city of South Australia, an attractive, well-planned city of wide streets and boulevards, squares, and parklands which is often called "the city of festivals." A friendly and safe city, Adelaide offers tons of activities in a smaller, friendly, easy-to-get-around city. Visitors find themselves in theatres, at musical events, enjoying shopping; and with easy access to beaches, hiking and the wineries in the adjacent Mount Lofty Ranges. Further a field, the spectacular natural scenery of the Flinders Ranges, Kangaroo Island, and the Murry River provide plenty of choice for weekend excursions. Adelaide is also the gateway to Australia's Outback.

Course Content and Assessment

AustraLearn and the University of Adelaide are offering students the opportunity to take one or more of the following summer school courses.

Course #1: Introduction to Indigenous Culture and History

This course introduces students to Australia’s Indigenous (Aboriginal) culture and history. It will be taught by two indigenous educators from the university’s Wilto Yerlo Indigenous Studies Center. There will be weekly day-long fieldtrips with the course and an optional two-day fieldtrip to Camp Cooroong to participate in guided tours on Indigenous land use and cultural heritage. The course will consider traditional Aboriginal Society practices and structures, including religion and beliefs, and relationships to the land and environment.

Course #2: Fast Track Video Production: Australian Stories

This Introductory course in video production covers all aspects of video production processes and the technical operation of equipment, and will be taught by Philip Elms, a professor with 30 years’ experience in TV and video production and documentary filmmaking. Working in the production studio and through fieldwork, students will develop the basic production skills to create short narrative projects based on their own experience of Australian Culture. Students will work both on their own major video project as well as acting as a member of the production crew on the other’s projects.

Course #3: Footprints on a Fragile Planet

Through lectures and fieldwork experience, this course looks at the heavy footprint humans have placed on the Planet Earth. Students will examine the natural processes of habitable parts of the planet, the impact of Indigenous peoples and then the excesses of post-industrial humanity, to reveal the consequences of modern society. Topics to be covered include environmental assessment, management and degradation, sustainable development, human impact on climate and global warming, calculating your carbon footprint, the Kyoto protocol, seal level rise and ocean warming, loss of biodiversity, biological impact of wars, and more.

Each course’s assessment varies. They may include written assignment, fieldwork reports and group or individual projects. The University of Adelaide will issue and official transcript equivalent to 3-4 university credits per course.

Program Highlights

•This program is intended to provide an opportunity for Australian cultural immersion through academic courses that all contain a strong focus on Australian issues and contexts

•Opportunity to study with both Australian and international students at the University of Adelaide, with a choice of three different courses

•Take classes over your summer break, without having to undertake and entire semester abroad

•Each course is four weeks long. Student scan choose to enroll in one, two or all three in a 4-6 week summer period.

Who’s it for?

Open to undergraduate students of all majors with at least one year of university study. May be of particular interest to students majoring in fields such as communications, environmental studies, sociology, humanities, and social sciences.

Travel: Group Flights

Students attending short courses are required to fly with the group. Airfare is not included in program fees and payment of airfare is the responsibility of the student. However, AustraLearn seeks the lowest possible student rate before reserving seats for participants to purchase. Additionally, group flights have a flexible return date. Students may choose their own return date to allow for personal travel after the conclusion of the program.

Fees

Program Fees	$4,095.00
Housing
With Meals	0.0
Without Meals	0.0
Housing Deposit
With Meals	0.0
Without Meals	0.0

Fee Includes

Program fees include an official transcript, on-campus housing, lectures, airport reception, field trips and excursions. Meals and international airfare are additional costs.

*Students attending two of the 3 available courses will only pay $7200. Those students taking all three available courses will pay a fee of $9600.

Fee Semester

*This fee is for the 2009 program and for one course only. Students wishing to take two or three of the summer school courses at the University of Adelaide will incur different fees. Participation in two courses will result in a program fee of $6,270. Participation in all three courses will result in a program fee of $8785. Program fees are subject to change (in particular with regards to future terms).

Facts

Location: Adelaide
Overseas Students: 0
Staff: 0
Total Enrolment: 0

Entry Requirements

Open to Undergraduate students of all majors with at least one year of university study. May be of particular interest to students majoring in fields such as communications, environmental studies, sociology, humanities and social sciences.

Required GPA: 2.80

University Specific Scholarships

Participants of this program are eligible for scholarships from The Foundation for Asia Pacific Education. More information about these awards can be found at www.asia-pacificfoundation.org/.