MQU students accommodation

University accommodation for overseas students is a really good chance of contact and integration into Australian life. University dormitory subs male dormitory and female dormitory. 

Source: http://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-02-26/man-arrested-over-university-campus-rape/4540500

MQ dormitory offers 240 rooms, there are three accommodation options: a single room with separate toilet, single room with shared bathroom and use of single roommates between public health. In the dorm, students have the opportunity to live together with undergraduate and graduate students from different countries and cultural backgrounds, this is a perfect opportunity to quickly improve your English ability. Meanwhile, each of the quarters has a priest and two instructors responsible for providing support services, room cleaning once a week, and the restaurant of Macquarie University offers 21 D meals per week.

Source: http://mq.edu.au/study/undergraduate/why_choose_macquarie/our_vibrant_campus/accommodation/

Student dormitory is also equipped with a modern kitchen, a lot of students from different countries can choose to cook together, not only can increase the feelings between us, but also to enjoy the cuisine of other countries, learn about different countries of food culture. It will be very interesting and very fascinating life.

Meanwhile, students from different countries live together, it is inevitable there will be friction, we have to learn to control their emotions, always remind myself to do a kindly person, so as to better and students from different countries live together.

Source: http://www.macquarieuv.com.au/the-village.html#

Compared to live off campus, to choose to live in campus dormitories, do not worry about the safety aspect. However, students must comply with some campus dormitory’s rules, once the violation of certain provisions, in a particular case is to be forbidden to live on campus dormitory. In other words, off campus to get more liberal than the school dormitory.

Source: http://www.bigaircb.com.au/student-accomodation

We would love to hear your comments, leave them below or tweet us @mqmadness and email us at mqmadness1@gmail.com.

- Chelsea

International Students - Settling in at MQ & Student Groups

This one’s for you our exotic friends! We definitely embrace multiculturalism in Australia and MQ is a university that really embodies this unique charm of Australia. Many students who go to MQ are not local students but come from foreign lands which is exciting for everyone at MQ. Despite our cultural differences, Macquarie brings us together as a special little community. If you’re planning to study at Macquarie and you come from afar, look forward to studying and bonding with your future fellow counterparts as there are groups you can join to help you easily adjust to your new life.

Image source: http://rainbowbridge.org.au/basics/multicultural-australia/

MQ Website in different languages

Macquarie University is known worldwide and if you are more comfortable reading more about MQ in your own language, click this link http://www.mq.edu.au/study/international/macquarie_in_your_country/ and click the flag of your country on this webpage to learn more about MQ in your native language.

Accomodation

For more information about accommodation at or near MQ, please visit this link http://www.students.mq.edu.au/support/accommodation/home/ .

Student Groups

So, let’s say you’ve arrived at MQ or you’ve been here for quite a while but you still feel absolutely clueless about EVERYTHING. Even as a local, I was so lost because I felt I had no one to depend on but myself. However, I was wrong about that. There are student groups in MQ you can join to make your transition into MQ less stressful and more fun.

Joining a cultural student group can help you feel more at home because you’ll find friends who come from the same country as you. 

Image above: Embracing culture in Australia - Muslim women wearing Australian flag hijab. 

Image source: http://mjkfoodjourney.weebly.com/australian-food-history.html

For example: There is a cultural group called Chinese Students Society (MQCSS) which aims to help Chinese international students learn and adapt to Australian culture.This is just one example out of some many different cultural groups to join. Remember you can join more than one group! Don’t limit yourself if you don’t want to because there’s so much to explore at MQ. There are faculty, humanitarian, performing arts, political, religious/spiritual and social groups you can join. For the student group directory and contact information of the groups, visit this link for more https://www.mq.edu.au/on_campus/get_involved/student_groups/student_group_directory/!

Enjoy!

Joyce

MQU campus --- A "green" place for relaxing

Macquarie University is a vibrant campus. Campus covers 136 hectares, of which more than 50% green area. Beautiful campus scenery, there are large areas of green space, students at lunchtime like hordes of sitting on the grass for lunch, which is a great place for relaxing. 

Source: http://www.aen-online.com/UNStudents/MacquarieUniversity

For relaxation, I must mention the enormous courtyard located on the northwest side at the building E7B.Location of most large courtyard is located in the center of campus, there are many trees in the courtyard, under a tree has some tables and chairs, patio way MQ northeast of food court, so this is the students''s lunch and chatting area. Every day at noon there is many students in skateboarding and playing Frisbee. Meanwhile, the courtyard surrounded by buildings of MQ very distinctive, and around more than a green surrounded, therefore, the courtyard also photographed many graduates’ land of nostalgia required.

Source: http://global.arizona.edu/study-abroad/program-search

In addition to green, MQ has some artificial rivers and artificial lakes. Simulated river located in the southwest side of the campus, from northeast to southwest extension, while the artificial lake is located on the north side of campus, named the Macquarie Lake. These artificial river and artificial lake surroundings are very beautiful and refreshing, especially in summer time. Many students prefer to sit in the shade by the river or lake.

Source: http://www.educationbrochures.com/University/Macquarie%20University

~Haha, this is our member Crystal, looks really enjoy the feeling of lying on the grass.

MQ's campus relaxation landscape is far more than these, there are many places not covered, such as MQ's sports center, golf courses and historical and cultural museum. These are students who want to go to places where leisure time. Grateful pleasant and fortunate to study at Macquarie University.

We would love to hear your comments, leave them below or tweet us@mqmadness and email us at mqmadness1@gmail.com.

Chelsea

Social Life at MQU

UNI is not all about study, at MQU, uni is also about fun, making friends and being involved socially!

MQU is one of the universities with an active student association which participates actively in facilitating social involvement within students through different social activities, social clubs and different campus activities that give students the opportunity to have fun and get involved.

SOCIAL CLUBS

MQU has a diverse range of social clubs- ranging from cultural clubs, social clubs, religious clubs and special interests clubs. If you have any special interests, hobby or sports, joining a student group is a great way to meet like minded people. Who knows these people you meet could be your  BFF's or friends for life!

Example of MQU student groups are:

 Social

Anime MQ

Chess club 

I heart Macquarie

Cultural

Chinese Students and Scholars association

Deutsche Ecke Macquarie

Indigenous Collective

Religious

Atheist league

Catholic Asian Students Society (CASS)

Hillsong Campus

Make sure you check out these student groups and don’t hesitate to join. This a great opportunity to share your interests and have some fun. This is  great not only to meet new friends but this is something that would make your university life much interesting besides all the lectures, tutorials and assignments!

For more information on MQU student groups please visit: http://www.mq.edu.au/on_campus/get_involved/student_groups/student_group_directory/

SOCIAL ACTIVITIES

MQU students  are very active in organising social events. Throughout the year plenty of social events are up in campus. 

UBAR theme nights   

source:http://mq.edu.au/on_campus/food_and_shopping/food_drink/ubar/

If you are into partying all night, throughout the semester Ubar has organised great themed party nights. 

This is a great opportunity to socialise and have fun with friends. 

Great way to enjoy drinks and unwind in campus after accomplishing major assignments or if you are free on a friday night or the weekends.        

Social activities at the ATRIUM

Everyday MQU students find ways to have some fun that’s why you will be surprised of what students have come up with to entertain themselves during their free time. If you are into action, the right place for you to go is the ATRIUM. 

Different student activities are set up in the ATRIUM. We have table tennis, jenga, air hockey and even dance dance revolution. 

The atrium is also a hub for some music performances throughout the semester. Students perform live music with their guitars, pianos and any musical instrument. Such a great way to entertain students and showcase the amazing talents of MQU students. 

Social event this week!- It's multicultural week!!

A showcase of MQU diversity! 

Get involved and enjoy the diversity and immerse yourself in our universities rich and multicultural environment. 

Plenty of events are organised by students particularly student cultural groups to give you a taste of their culture imparting their food, knowledge and fellowship. 

There will be live performances - live bands, dance showcase and multicultural performances. 

Charmaine

Taking Care of Yourself: Holistic Health

University can be stressful for your body and your mind. Stating the obvious here… At MQ, there are support services provided to keep you in optimal health when you’re busy with heaps of activities and/or loading your brain with information coming from all directions! These services are also open to the wider community. 

Image source: 

http://students.mq.edu.au/support/health_and_wellbeing/welfare_service/health_and_wellbeing/

Support services at MQ include:

        Medical

If you have an enquiry about your health but do not know which service you need, seek a GP at Macquarie University Medical Services. 

Opening hours

Monday - Friday, 8:00am - 6:00pm

Closed on public holidays.

To make an appointment with Macquarie University Medical Services, call (02) 9812 3944. Click on this link http://students.mq.edu.au/support/health_and_wellbeing/medical_services/ for more information. Image is also from the website. 

         Chiropractic

Call the Chiropractic Clinic telephone numbers to make an appointment. You can also just walk in to any of the clinics during opening hours and make an appointment.

Opening hours

Monday – Thursday, 12:00pm – 8:00pm

Friday – 12:00pm – 4:00pm

Saturday – 8:00am – 12:00pm

Sunday – Closed

Closed on public holidays.

To contact the campus Chiropractic Clinic at the EMC building, call (02) 9850 1350. Visit http://chiro.mq.edu.au/Clinics/ for more information.

         Reading and spelling difficulty

Opening hours

Monday – Friday, 9:00am – 5:00pm

For more information or to contact Macquarie University Cognition Clinic for Reading, call (02) 9850 6889 or visit http://www.mq.edu.au/on_campus/clinics/cognition_clinic_for_reading/.

         Psychology

Macquarie University Psychology Clinic offers specialised psychology services to the local and wider community.

Contact this phone number (02) 9850 8000 find out the clinic’s opening hours or more information. Also, check out this link http://www.psy.mq.edu.au/clinic.htm to read more about the psychology services that MQ provides.

Image source: http://themindunleashed.org/category/consciousness/page/2

         Emotional Health

The Centre for Emotional Health at MQ is a research centre dedicated to furthering the understanding of child and adult emotional disorders. The Centre’s Emotional Health Clinic provides treatments and support to children, adolescents and adults. If anxiety, depression or any other emotional disorder is stopping you from being yourself and achieving your goals in life, please don't hesitate to visit the Campus Wellbeing and Health Centre at MQ to make an appointment or visit this link for more information http://www.centreforemotionalhealth.com.au/default.aspx.

         Speech and hearing

Macquarie University Speech and Hearing Clinic specialises in speech and audiology and provides services to children, teens and adults.

Opening hours

Monday – Friday, 9:00am – 5:00pm

Call MQ’s Speech and Hearing Clinic, (02) 9850 2900, to book an appointment.

For more information, click here http://www.mq.edu.au/on_campus/clinics/speech_and_hearing_clinic.jsp. Image is also from the website. 

I hope that you treat your mind, body and spirit well wherever you are at, school, university, work or home. 

Joyce

Tutorials at MQ

Tutorials are different from lectures. They are made up with small groups, generally 20 to 30, comparing to lectures. Attendance is compulsory, and sometimes class participation would be a part of your assessment. For example, in BUSL301, 20% assigned to class participation. If you missed the class, you would loss the marks.

(Source: Macquarie university website)

During tutorials, tutors normally will go through the homework questions so it is the best time to ask questions about last lecture content. Some tutors would even nicer to give a summary of the last lecture, and then you can have a better idea about the content. Some units will assess students’ ability of presentation and in most cases it will be hold in tutorials. Tutors will assign all of you to several small groups, 3 to 5 in general. The class tests are hold during tutorials as well if any. Furthermore, if you are still confused about some content, then tutor’s consultation is your best choice. It is running every week, for some units, it runs at mid-break even.

(Source: Macquarie university website)

Alright, enjoy you uni life J

If you still have questions about borrowing books at MQ library, we would love to hear from you. Please tweet us @mqmadness or email us at mqmadness1@gmail.com.

Crystal

Lectures at MQ

Lectures

This post is specially made for international students as in some countries there is no difference between lectures and tutorials. For example, in China, universities combine lectures and tutorials so they will hold only one class per week for students who registered that specified class.

(Source: Macquarie university website)

At Macquarie, the capacity of lecture rooms generally is over 200. This room is wheelchair accessible and equipped with audio recording- echo360 recording. Students who enrolled in that unit have the access to the lecture recording which allows them to watch or listen to it at home.

Lecturers generally will only talk about the scheduled content (maybe a chapter of the textbook) of this lecture, no working question, and no class test. If you have any questions about the content, you may ask lectures during or after the lecture, or go to lecturer’s consultation if you have lots.

(Source: Macquarie university website)

One more thing deserving mentioning is that lecturers will not call the row so you can go with any lectures available that week. It does not have to be the one you registered. Of course, I know some of you would skip the lecture sometimes, but it is better if you catch the pace with others by watching lecture recordings at your own time. J

If you still have questions about borrowing books at MQ library, we would love to hear from you. Please tweet us @mqmadness or email us at mqmadness1@gmail.com.

Crystal

MUSE- coolest building in campus!

MUSE

Have you heard of MUSE in campus?

MUSE is the coolest place to hang out at Macquarie university. 

MUSE is the newest student space in MQU campus that opened this year. With its modern and quirky architecture it is the new favourite space for students to hang out if they don’t like the dead silence and restrictions of the library. It is my favourite place to hangout and study! 

What’s cool about MUSE- Design! 

Muse is a representation of a great 21st century architecture and great use of the repurposed old library. It is very colourful incorporating modern and eco-friendly design featuring repurposed material. The picture on the left are actually old classroom desks, repurpose as wall dividers separating individual study rooms. 

 Continuing on the colourfulness, this is one of the study spaces in muse and it is totally BLUE, perfectly suits its name as the Blue room. Muse has also its green, orange, pink and yellow room

Cool things about MUSE - the PERKS!

Compared to the library, MUSE offers more freedom. There are no silence signs and you are free to bring food and have it with you while you are studying. Several areas are dedicated for reheating food and water refilling. 

If you are tired and needs some break, this recharge area is at your reach at level 2 of MUSE. There is another area with microwaves and a water refilling station at level 2 within the BIG DESK area.

SLEEPY? Did a study session until 3am or had an overtime at work until midnight? No problem, muse can offer you the comfort of your own home.  

Nowhere in uni you can this but in MUSE :)

A lot of beanbags are scattered around MUSE, if you feel like lying on your back go grab one.

Often you’ll see students are too relaxed and comfy on these giant beanbags and treat it as their beds. On a monday, I have this 4 hour break, and i’ll go to muse at around 2 pm and  have a nap:)

As u can see on the left, a student is comfortably lying on a green comfy seat. This is totally fine as long as you don’t disturb everyone else with a loud snore. Don’t worry about security, they won’t wake you up, unless your snore can be  heard 2 blocks away:)

A lot of beanbags are scattered around MUSE, if you feel like lying on your back go grab one.

Often you’ll see students are too relaxed and comfy on these giant beanbags and treat it as their beds. On a monday, I have this 4 hour break, and i’ll go to muse at around 2 pm and  have a nap:)

As u can see on the left, a student is comfortably lying on a green comfy seat. This is totally fine as long as you don’t disturb everyone else with a loud snore. Don’t worry about security, they won’t wake you up, unless your snore can be  heard 2 blocks away:)

Cool things about MUSE - Amenities!

MUSE is the new home of Student Connect. Student Connect is the uni’s students admin that deals with everything regarding student enrolment, subject enquiries, timetable clashes, concession card issues and any problem regarding your studies.  

MUSE has also dedicated easy access to printing stations in both levels 1 and 2. In 2014, MQU introduced wireless printing, and printing is so much better and hassle free.

All photos taken from: http://iconosquare.com/tag/mqmuse

OPENING HOURS:

Monday - Friday 8:00 am - 10:00 pm (after 5:30 pm access requires student ID to be scanned at entry)

Unfortunately, MUSE is close on Saturdays and Sundays.

For more cool things about MUSE, please visit: http://students.mq.edu.au/services_and_facilities/services_facilities_a-z/muse/about_muse/

Summer coming, all about MQ swimming!

Macquarie University's swimming pool has a staff held weekly cleaning, and completely replace the water, ensuring clean water. MQ's swimming pool several times starting in 2008 to be trained venues for the Australian national swimming team on, and prepare for some world-class event. In addition, Sport and Aquatic Center also offers a swimming school, and the establishment of five levels: Babies Program, Pre School Program, School Age Program, Stroke Development and Swim School Squads.

Summer is coming, and Macquarie’s swimming pool will become the most popular place for relaxing in MQ. There is a large outdoor swimming pool surrounded by grass, many people like to lie on the grass in the sun after swimming, this is a very comfortable choice. Last summer my friends and I went to MQ outdoor pool to swim, found that almost the entire summer pool is filled with people, this situation until the winter comes when it no longer appears. MQ swimming pool, the best place in summer.

Source: http://www.international.mq.edu.au/globe/2007-27/breaking-news

There are for two swimming pool in the center: the 50 meter FINA-compliant outdoor pool and the 25meter indoor pool. 50 meter pools and 25 meter pool’s trading hour’s from 9:00am to 12:00pm. Two pools charge the same price. For single entry MQ student pays $4.60, child and staff pay $4.80, guest pays $5.00. For 10 times entries (3 months expiry), MQ student pays $41.80. Child, staff and guest pay is $45.00. For 20 times entries (6 months expiry), MQ student pays $79.00. Child, staff and guest pay is $85.00.

 Source: https://www.mq.edu.au/on_campus/sport_and_recreation/sport_and_aquatic_centre/view_the_virtual_tour/

And to read more about swimming pool of Macquarie and their experience go here https://www.mq.edu.au/on_campus/sport_and_recreation/sport_and_aquatic_centre/swimming/

We would love to hear your comments, leave them below or tweet us@mqmadness and email us at mqmadness1@gmail.com.

Chelsea