The UNSW Business School casual English Conversation Classes are a great place to meet other students and gain confidence in spoken English. In these classes, a fellow student will host the discussion, making sure that conversation is easy for everyone and covers a diverse range of topics such as current affairs, friendships, Australian culture, and university life in general.
Conversation classes FAQ
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This is a program is designed to help students build their confidence in English conversation skills. We aim to help students cultivate friendships with other UNSW Business school students and develop practical conversation skills for use within university and outside of it.
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The main goal is for students to chat, build confidence in English speaking, have fun and make friends!
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This isn’t like your regular classes at university, in fact, it isn’t so much a “class” as a place to come together and practice English with other non-native speakers. We talk about what interests us, play games, and always have a good time! A mentor will be there to make sure the conversation flows smoothly, and everyone is comfortable – so you can relax, enjoy, and make new friends from around the world!
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Classes are available at different times during the week, and these fluctuate week to week depending on mentor availability. Classes run all through the year.
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Classes are available at multiple locations around the campus. The schedule of available classes will be available on Moodle each week.
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This program is sponsored and run by the Business School, though students from other faculties are also welcome to attend upon application.
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The schedule is released on Moodle and you can register for a class there. Use the following link and the password Academic-Student to access the site.
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There is no limit to the number of classes you can attend, and we encourage you to come to as many as you can.
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The maximum amount of students in a class is 12, this is so everyone has a chance to contribute.
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How much you participate is up to you, sometimes you might want to work on your listening skills, while other times you might have a story to tell! However, being present means actively listening, asking questions, and putting the technology away for the hour.
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From T2 2026, points for the English Conversation Class have been updated and each attendance from this term onwards will attract a total of 6 experience points distributed evenly across PLOs 3 and 6 (3 points per PLO). A new earning limit has also been introduced; this activity can be earned a total of 5 times in the COMM1999 rank and then 10 times in the COMM3999 rank.
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That’s great! All of our classes are run by volunteer mentors and we welcome new mentors each term. To mentor, you should have some proficiency in English and be keen to make a difference to our lively campus community through the art of conversation! You can find out more about being a conversation class mentor below.
Class schedule
Classes are available face-to-face, take only 1 hr and require no prep. Our class schedule is available on our Moodle site. Use the link below and the password Academic-Student to access the Moodle site.
https://moodle.telt.unsw.edu.au/course/view.php?id=44210
For more information email the Academic Communication Program Director, Dr Imogen Waugh (i.waugh@unsw.edu.au).
Past student feedback
English conversation is a good experience for me. I have mastered a lot of new words and local slang in a relaxed conversation, which allows me to better understand the local culture and form English thinking.
Weihang
The conversation class provided us a relaxed and friendly talking atmosphere. I learnt a lot about culture and interesting attractions from different countries’ classmates. I highly recommend future students choose this conversation class.
Chang Qu
This program has helped me a lot to build my confidence in speaking English. Through the weekly conversation classes, I learnt many different cultures from new friends and Australian slangs I have never heard before. Therefore, I really encourage students to join this class as they will not only improve their English skills but also expand their networks by meeting new buddies throughout the class.
Richa Ryanto
Conversation class mentors
Are you interested in becoming a Business School Conversation Class Mentor?
The Business School Conversation Classes bring together students from various backgrounds to encourage networking and friendship, while fostering continuing conversation and communication development. We are always looking for mentors to deliver our conversation class program.
Conversation class mentors are part of the UNSW Advantage program and participation in this leadership opportunity is recognised on the Australian Education Graduation Statement.
Find out more about volunteering to become a Conversation Class Mentor.