Summer in Australia
University of Newcastle

This summer program is intended for visiting study abroad students to enjoy courses that highlight some of University of Newcastle’s top disciplines. The curated course selection features field trips that provide experiential-based learning.

You’ll take one of the following courses over the four week program.

Course Offerings

TOUR3003 – Destination Management and Marketing (includes field trip)
EXSS2030 – Sport, Exercise and Performance Psychology (includes guest lectures)
ENVS2006 – Ecology and Management of Wildlife (includes field trip)
CHEE2935 – Resource and Energy Optimisation (includes field trip)

Course Descriptions

College of Human and Social Futures

TOUR3003 – Destination Management and Marketing (includes field trip)
The marketing of tourism is a planned and progressive strategic priority to ensure sustainability and enhance global competitiveness. Building upon theories and models unique to experiential tourism marketing, this course investigates a range of approaches and challenges associated with destination marketing.

The course examines the challenges of contemporary tourism marketing in the context of the management and marketing of sustainable destinations. Key topics also include the role of destination management organisations and destination communities in experience creation and promotion, and the role of governments in destination recovery following crises.

Working through experiential exercises you will undertake research and develop marketing strategies reflective of professional practice in tourism marketing. Work integrated learning is embedded in the curriculum with specialised insights further gained through industry engagement in course delivery.

On successful completion of the course students will be able to:

1. Examine and discuss the key concepts and principles of marketing as applied to destinations and the tourism experience
2. Demonstrate an evaluative understanding of current issues associated with destination marketing
3. Access, examine and assess the effectiveness of marketing strategies applied to tourism
4. Engage in tourism and marketing research and inquiry to inform strategic decision making and problem solving
5. Demonstrate skills in oral and written communication as well as critical and analytical thinking in accordance with professional contexts
6. Work independently and as a team member to collect and analyse information to guide your problem solving and decision making

Topics include but are not restricted to the following:

Strategic marketing and sustainable tourism
Destination marketing and branding
Understanding tourist markets
Tourism marketing, communication and promotion
Tourism marketing and information technology
Tourism product and price
Collaborative approaches to tourism marketing
Tourism marketing and crises

College of Engineering, Science and Environment

EXSS2030 – Sport, Exercise and Performance Psychology (includes guest lectures)
Sport, Exercise and Performance Psychology is a fundamental element in empowering learning, well-being and athletic performance of different individuals and teams. This course introduces students to various fundamental constructs that impact on adherence, participation and performance in sport, exercise and physical activity. The content provides a basic overview of key concepts that help to recognise, explain and interpret human behaviour within sport, exercise and physical activity settings. The course will provide students with an ability to recognise the broad and inter-linked influences that psychological factors have within sport, exercise and physical activity settings. Students will need to demonstrate an ability to interpret and modify such factors to enhance one’s performance and wellbeing. By the end of this course, students will develop sound understanding of key concepts in Sport, Exercise and Performance Psychology and will be able to identify and apply evidence-based behavioural techniques needed to increase exercise adherence, improve health and fitness, and
performance needs.

On successful completion of the course students will be able to:

1. Describe the role of exercise, physical activity and sport in mental health and wellbeing, and best practices in the delivery of health, exercise and performance advice (ESSA 13.2.2);
2. Explain and interpret behavioural theories in relation to common social determinants of health that influence health, physical activity, exercise and sport for individuals and groups/teams (ESSA 13.2.1 & 13.2.3);
3. Identify and analyse psychological factors and behavioural strategies that influence and predict participation and adherence to exercise, physical activity, sport and performance settings (ESSA 13.2.4);
4. Select and employ the appropriate methods and tools, including professional and communication skills, to evaluate client’s needs and monitor their progress towards achieving realistic goals in exercise, physical activity, sport and performance settings (ESSA 13.2.5);
5. Identify, interpret and apply behavioural strategies in relation to client’s needs, preferences and goals in an exercise, physical activity, sport and performance setting (ESSA 13.2.5).

Topics include but are not restricted to the following:

Personality, motivation, self and exercise adherence and sports performance
Individual and group, psychological factors affecting sport, exercise, wellbeing and performance
Evidence-based behavioural strategies and mental skill training
Psychological growth and development through sport and exercise
Practical skills and assessment in sport, exercise, physical activity and performance
Diversity, inclusion and cultural competencies

ENVS2006 – Ecology and Management of Wildlife (includes field trip)
Wildlife around the world are increasingly heading toward extinction. One method governments use to avert this extinction crisis is to create threatened species recovery plans that outline what we know about a species and how we can keep it alive into the future.

This course will develop your understanding of the ecology and management of wildlife via the creation of a species recovery plan. Students will work in groups to identify why recovery plans are important, and then to collect the information necessary on their chosen taxa to compile a recovery plan.

In doing so, students will develop skills on species identification and survey methods to ensure they can make appropriate recommendations in their recovery plans. Students will summarise published data on their focal species and related taxa to generate sections of their recovery plan on the species ecology and evolutionary history, unique adaptations, threatening processes and fully costed management solutions.

On successful completion of the course students will be able to:

1. Create a fully costed recovery plan for a threatened species.
2. Assemble information relevant to the creation of the recovery plan, including that on species taxonomy, distribution, status, population trends, ecology, habitat and threats.
3. Translate lessons learnt on a threatened species that is relevant to other species.
4. Debate threatened species management from a range of perspectives.
5. Identify the strengths and weaknesses of methods of surveying wildlife.
6. Work effectively independently and as part of a team.

The Theme of the course revolves around creating a recovery plan for a threatened species. Specific emphasis is given to processing key components of the recovery plan including:

What is in a species recovery plan and why are they important?
Understanding the ecology of your focal species
Determining critical habitat and identifying critical threats for your species.
Paraphrase the national and international legal obligations that may affect your species.
Methods to study, identify and describe the diversity of animals.
The importance of your study taxa to indigenous people.
Social and economic interests associated with the conservation management of your species.
Decide what the broader benefits will be from the successful conservation of your species (ecosystem services).
Describe the existing conservation management practices that are being implemented for your species, and evaluate how successful this has been.
Compile recovery goals, objectives and actions to improve the conservation success of your species and the cost the recovery actions you propose.

CHEE2935 – Resource and Energy Optimisation (includes field trip)
This course introduces you to the concepts of sustainability and cleaner production as applied in an industrial context. The course explores the potential role of engineers in the development of sustainable technologies, with a focus on energy and resources. Process impacts including atmospheric pollution and water use are also considered in addition to greenhouse gas emissions from a variety of energy technology types. Quantitative tools to optimise chemical processes are outlined to increase resource use efficiency.

On successful completion of the course students will be able to:

1. Demonstrate a thorough understanding of the concepts of sustainability and cleaner production, and the challenges that engineers face in applying these concepts in an industrial and societal context
2. Show familiarity with the concept of cleaner production and how to apply it to real life applications
3. Exhibit an understanding of basic principles of green engineering applied to product design and manufacturing processes
4. Quantify environment flows using appropriate mass and energy analysis
5. Assess different energy sources in their ability to deliver clean and reliable electricity and heating/cooling utilities
6. Optimise industrial heat exchanger systems in order to reduce overall energy consumption
7. Critically analyse environmental emissions and develop simple methodologies to reduce these emissions
8. Present clear arguments to support the findings of analysis undertaken as part of an open-ended Case Study

Topics to be covered in this course include:

State of the world, role of engineers and sustainable engineering principles.
Life cycle analysis (concepts and application).
Analysis of fossil fuel and renewable energy technology impacts.
Pinch technology and Heat Exchanger Network (HEN) analysis.
Evaluating and comparing energy technologies for sustainability.
Sustainable hydrogen production and use.
Case Study.