Studying in other countries may become a bit tricky if you do not travel very well informed about their culture and systems. Educational values and systems are very different and exotic in Australia when compared to Brazilian/American ones. I loved the Australian system, and take it to be much more advanced and far more intelligent than the Brazilian/American ones. Simply LOVE IT. However, they also have their downside, which is customer service, non-uniformity in service provision (no cultural identity that is clear), eventual lecturers who do not hold formation which should be mandatory for their positions (educational, sociological, psychological, etc.), or are simply not charged enough on applying the theory of those formations in their classes. I have suffered quite a lot with the situations that are officially allowed in Australia in terms of postgraduate services (of course, nothing compares with being subjected to Brazilian people in any situation, once I have nothing in common with them, and refuse to even consider the opinion of someone who may think I do): differences are, indeed, striking. However, I would never swap my Australian experience in the Higher Education sector for anything else in the World. I truly believe I found my dream system of postgraduate courses and even undergraduate. Also believe I found my cultural identity. But just like a home sort of person, there are several things that need to be improved. About those, I make subtle remarks in this section:

1) DEST's official explanation to the general public on why my Brazilian qualifications are at least equivalent to a Bachelor of Science with four majors, as they have written, and, possibly, a Postgraduate Diploma in Education equivalent to the Melbourne University one, but they cannot assess the contents of the course so that it is not possible to consider that, in Brazil, courses do encompass more than one Australian Diploma.

2) M.R. Pinheiro's beautiful (made this way in 2007, after a bit of a hassle, not really compatible with First World class, but at least fixed) award from UQ:

See it, free!

3) M. R. Pinheiro’s marks from UQ (a few under protest which is now made public):

Look at my marks, daddy!

And my personal remarks about the unfair 5 - hi 5!