Denmark – Josh
Student: Josh
Course: Bachelor of Commerce/Bachelor of Laws
Program: Trimester Exchange T2 2025
Describe a normal day in your life overseas: your university, your work placement or your study tour?
In the second semester of 2025, I pursued the extraordinary, life changing opportunity to study abroad in Copenhagen, at Copenhagen Business School. Living in Copenhagen brought forward some of the most rewarding experiences, from gaining independence and confidence living overseas, to making life long friends from all over the globe.
A normal day in my life would start off by biking to campus, which was quite different from the usual drive I would make to Deakin, but the bicycle culture is a huge part of daily life in Copenhagen and makes getting to class easy and social. CBS prioritises for university to be social, so classes were often collaborative focusing on group work and creative discussions, which further allowed for the opportunity to meet and gain valuable insight and opinions from classmates from all over the world. Once class or study was finished for the day, I would often meet up with friends and explore the city, head to a park for a picnic, or find a nearby bar for some social drinks. Copenhagen is a very dynamic city and there is always plenty to do, and CBS would often organise multiple weekly social events as a way to meet other students and try new things!
How did you make friends and what sort of things did you do together?
Copenhagen Business School hosted an amazing O-Week with activities running throughout the whole day and night of the week, I found this was the best opportunity to make new friends! It is important to remember that everyone is in the same boat in terms of looking to meet new people, so putting yourself out there and a simple conversation with someone can easily turn into a friendship.
A lot of time with friends was often spent visiting new countries on weekends, such as a quick 30 minute train to Sweden, or taking flights to places like Spain and Finland. One of my favourite moments with my friends was traveling to Lapland in Finland, where we got to see reindeer, go on snowmobiles and see Santa clause village, it was truly like something out of a Christmas movie!
Alternatively, if we weren’t traveling we would spend our free time swimming at all the amazing swim spots in the summer, having picnics in heaps of different parks, or baking together in the winter.
How did you finance your trip? How much did your trip cost?
Copenhagen is a very expensive city, so it is important to create a budget which can be used as a rough guide to track day to day expenditure. It took me around one and a half years to save for this exchange, where I was working 3-4 shifts a week. On top of my savings from work, I also took advantage of an OS-HELP loan, which was ~$8,000. In total, my trip costed roughly $30,000, with rent alone being ~$9,500. My day to day expenditure in Copenhagen amounted to ~$10,000, and I spent remaining funds on various weekend trips, so without all of the travel ~$20,000 would have been enough, but it is always a good idea to go over with extra money if you want to go on spontaneous trips with your friends. Alternatively, the Denmark residency permit allows for students to gain employment, so many students did work whilst over there to help cover living and travel expenses.
What is the one big thing you will always remember from your experience? Or one big lesson that you learnt?
Living in a new city with new friends was a feeling like no other, and I will forever cherish that. Sharing everyday moments with a diverse group of people taught me so much about myself and boosted my independence and confidence. Copenhagen, an unfamiliar place slowly turned into a home, with friends that began to feel like family. The transition from feeling misplaced, to feeling at home was an amazing part of my experience that I could never overlook.