Student’s Name: Sayuri Hishikawa
UL Course: Joint Honours (of Arts)
Academic Year: 2016 / 2017
Semester: Autumn
Spring
Full Year
Name of Host University: Cape Breton University
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Introduction
My international exchange experience was overall very fruitful and gave me a different
perspective of the world as I encountered various kinds of cultures that I had not known
about during the exchange period. I studied in Cape Breton University (CBU) which is
located in Sydney, Nova Scotia in Canada during the autumn semester 2016. CBU is a
small university and it is located in a quiet place in Sydney yet it offers not only highlevel education but also exciting experiences which will be introduced in the following
chapters. The campus is surrounded by beautiful nature and Cape Breton Island is known
as one of most scenic places in Nova Scotia. CBU likes calling its students ‘capers’ and
encourages them to get involved with events held on campus such as sports matches and
house competitions.
It is easy to blend into CBU students as it shares many aspects of the living side with
Irish culture such as food and entertainments since it is an English spoken country.
Although there are many similarities between the two countries, I had invaluable
experiences which I could not have gained outside CBU. For example, students can see
the influence of Scottish immigrants in its music and culture. Also, they can experience
the great nature of Canada as shapes and colours of trees and plants are different of those
of Ireland. In addition, Cape Breton Island is famous for an annual Celtic festival called
Celtic Colours International Festival which celebrates Celtic music and culture. It is a
great opportunity to experience how traditional music lives on the island and meet people
from all over the world.
Student Experience
CBU offers students many occasions to help them settle in a new environment and
establish social contacts with other CBU students. For example, the frosh week, which is
a welcoming orientation week organised for new CBU students, took place one week
prior to the commencement of classes offering students not only useful information about
CBU student life but also enjoyable activities. Such events included BBQ, a day out at a
beach, a movie night, yoga sessions, a scavenger hunt, laser tag, sports events, open mics
and a paint battle. In regards to informative sessions, there were an international student
orientation and an orientation session aimed at all the new CBU students. These events
and sessions provided students with opportunities to meet primary members of the
student union and staff members of student services such as the International Student &
Study Abroad Centre, the CBU Residence Office, Academic Advising Service and the
Writing Centre. During the semester, a number of events and activities were organised
for students, for example, day trips, trivia nights, lip sync battles and house competitions
in which students compete for each residence (Alumni Hall, Harris Hall, Cabot Residence
and off-campus accommodation).
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While there are not many clubs and societies available at CBU, there were plenty of
activities that students could get involved with during the semester to meet new people
and entertain themselves. I recommend that students take as many opportunities as
possible to take part in these events in order to blend into the CBU community.
Should students have any problems, they can always ask their fellow students, the
International Student & Study Abroad Centre, the Residence Office, House Council
members or the Student Union. The members of student support services are friendly and
willing to help students. Also, students are advised to make use of academic support
services such as the Writing Centre, Academic Success Coaching and the Math &
Science Centre.
Institutional Practices, Support
CBU is located in a quiet area of Cape Breton Island, therefore, students may find a few
aspects of the living side a bit inconvenient. For example, while there is a bus stop on
campus, busses are available only hourly and there are not any other public transports
available from CBU beside busses. While there is a small convenience shop on campus
called Caper Convenience, there are no big shops where students can buy groceries or go
shopping within walking distance. Therefore, getting a way of transport could be a
concern for international students. On the positive side, to make an incoming
international student’s travel to CBU easier, the university offers new international
students a free airport pick-up service from the Sydney airport in Nova Scotia on their
arrival.
In regards to accommodation, I lived in the Cabot residence, which is one of the oncampus accommodations in CBU. Students can easily apply for on-campus
accommodation online and I highly recommend that international students choose to live
in one of the on-campus accommodations for various reasons. Firstly, public transport
services are poor and not reliable as mentioned above. In addition, climate conditions on
Cape Breton Island can sometimes be severe in winter, for instance there may be snow
storms, which may affect travels to the campus. Secondly, CBU is a small university and
everything on campus is so close to each other that students can walk from one place to
another within 5 to 10 minutes. Also, there are a few facilities which are available to
students for free, for example, a gym and fitness classes such as Zumba, karate and yoga.
Students can also get food in a meal hall in the Harris Hall where a wide range of food is
offered from breakfast to dinner.
In association with academic aspects of the exchange experience at CBU, the class size of
most courses is much smaller than the majority of classes in UL, that is, there were
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around ten people or less in each class that I took. Some popular modules may fill up
quickly at the beginning of a semester but in general it is easy to register for modules.
Staff members at CBU are friendly and willing to help students, thus, it is easy to seek for
some advice on the selection of modules. There were no tutorials, however, lectures were
very much interactive and as classes were small in size, it was easy to ask questions
during classes. Some classes employed a discussion style where students spoke up in
classes. I was required to write my opinions in many of the assignments that I had and
while the number of assignments seemed to be more than the amount of assignments I
would receive in UL, each assignment was relatively easier to approach and it was a great
practice to write my opinions academically.
Cultural Differences
The university has an interesting mix of nationalities including about 1000 international
students from over 40 countries. As Nova Scotia has many immigrants from all over the
world, a wide variety of cultures co-exist on Cape Breton Island. Students can experience
not only Scottish influences in their culture but also influences from other nationalities,
for example, Indian culture at CBU. That is, there was a festival called Diwali at CBU,
which is a celebration of lights in India. Fortunately, I had an opportunity to take part in
the festival along with some international students and performed Indian traditional
dance. Another relative example would be a powwow which was held on campus in
October. Powwow is a social gathering of First Nations and they are called Mi’kmaq in
Nova Scotia. Traditional Mi’kmaq dancing and drumming were performed and
traditional Mi’kmaq food was served to give students a taste of Mi’kmaq culture.
One of the things that stands out about CBU is that the university is very supportive about
its own sports teams. The students union encourages students to go to watch the
university’s sports matches and support their own teams. Pre-parties are organised before
sports events and students often paint themselves in CBU’s colours, orange and green,
and call themselves ‘orange army’.
There are not as many music events held on CBU campus as the Irish World Academy in
UL, however, Celtic Colours International Festival is a large-scale international Celtic
festival of music and culture and held annually in October on Cape Breton Island. Not
only traditional musicians but also people who love traditional music gather on the Cape
Breton Island from all over the world to celebrate Celtic music and culture. In 2016, the
festival was held between the 6th and 14th of October comprising various kinds of events
located all over the island. One of the events that characterises Celtic Colours is the
Festival Club which opens as evening events finish and continues until the early
mornings every day during the festival. The festival club offers a place for musicians to
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perform in a casual setting and for the audience to enjoy more traditional music and
drinks with their friends.
Hint & Tips
In conclusion, there is plenty of opportunities in CBU for gaining invaluable experiences
in association with study, music, culture, sports and so on. Since CBU is a small
university and has small class sizes, the distance between students are close, therefore, it
is easy to communicate with people that they do not know. I recommend that students
take as many opportunities as possible to meet and talk to new people who may not bump
into each other if they were in a big university like UL. Also, my advice is to make use of
the student supporting facilities and not to be afraid to seek for some help whether from
fellow students or staff members.
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