HAYMISH Constable Baltra will celebrate his University of Newcastle graduation by taking a well earned break from the books.
"It's a relief," Mr Constable Baltra, 21, said on Monday, after he received his Bachelor of Commerce.
"We don't want to do anything, we don't want to think, read, do anything for the next few months!"
He plans to do casual work for three months, travel and start his career next year.
His friend Jacob Young, 21, who graduated with a Bachelor of Business, plans to rest for a few weeks.
"I'm pretty pumped, I don't have to do another exam which I'm really happy about. If it looks like an academic paper I don't want it anywhere near me!"
Mr Constable Baltra said it had been a "challenging few years" studying through the pandemic.
"We didn't get to socialise much," he said.
"We'd never learned online before... they suggested 40 hours a week for a full-time student and sometimes you had to go over that, you really had to go above and beyond during the online period."
Mr Young said the pair had to put a "fair bit" of effort into reaching the finish line.
"The uni was testing out a lot of new different systems so it was a learning curve with the university as well," he said.
Mr Constable Baltra enrolled in his degree after excelling in economics at high school and wants to work for the government or a not-for-profit, while Mr Young studied for a Certificate IV and Diploma of Business at TAFE before UON and wants a role helping people, hopefully with The Smith Family.
"I never found it boring, you were always learning different things," Mr Young said.
"There is a wide array of subjects that business pulls from, whether that's marketing, finance, you're looking at how businesses are run, how to help people, it's really all interesting - there was never really a boring class."
Zimbambwe-raised Takudzwa Blessing Madzivadondo and Indonesia-raised Santa Putri Lukita were among the 19 students that made up the first cohort of UON and BINUS University's two degree program, which sees students complete one program of study in Jakarta and receive one degree from UON and one from BINUS University.
Mr Madzivadondo received on Monday his Bachelor of Commerce with Distinction from UON, to add to his Bachelor of Economics from BINUS. He achieved full scholarships for both.
"I was pretty good at mathematics and accounting during high school, so I think I was just destined to be dealing with numbers," he said.
The program offers students the opportunity to participate in an immersion trip, study abroad or exchange programs and experience studying in Australia, but COVID-19 prevented the first cohort from travelling before now and meant they completed part of their studies remotely.
They arrived on July 7 and have visited the Callaghan campus, Newcastle Beach, Nobbys Lighthouse and will go to Oakvale Wildlife Park on Tuesday.
"To be honest for me I feel like I've achieved so much," Mr Madzivadondo said.
"I know this is an undergraduate degree and I'm looking forward to a Masters or maybe PhD, but with this right now I feel I've achieved so much and I feel so proud."
Ms Lukita received a Bachelor of Business through UON.
"I feel so happy to finally be here because we've been studying online," Ms Lukita said. "To finally capture all these moments here together, be graduating together is really exciting, it's like a new chapter for us."
Katelyn Bennett said she was "really really happy" to have graduated with a Bachelor of Business with a double major in human resource management and leadership and management.
She starts her new role with PerformHR in The Junction, where she did her internship, next week.
"I put a lot of hard work into this and it's been really hard being away from my family in Parkes," she said.
"I just wanted to make my family proud and go into my dream career, it's something I wanted for a long time. I like working with people and helping them in their own careers."
