Российская Федерация – studying in the worlds largest country

From world’s smallest continent Australia, that I wrote about in my last post, to the worlds largest country, covering more than a ninth of the Earth’s land area – Russia.

I recently heard from some students that they are interested in spending the exchange year in Russia, so I thought it might be useful to write about the partner universities which are:

• St. Petersburger Staatliche Universität für Wirtschaft und Finanzen in St. Petersburg
• Russische Universität der Völkerfreundschaft in Moscow

I will go in to detail about the St. Petersburg University.

St. Petersburg is a historical city and one of the most beautiful in Russia. It’s certainly an honor to be studying in the city were best of Russia’s intellectuals studied and were most of the students nowadays desire to study at.

The way to Russia has some obstacles. The most important is the visa application; you will need two visa (on arrival and multivisa) and an invitation to come to Russia, which you will get from the university. The organization is very time consuming and complex, therefore start early.

I highly recommend reading the experiential reports, I found two very good ones: one from WS09/10 which describes in detail all you need concerning the visa, the process on arrival and the second report from WS08/09.

The University campus is located in the center of the city and the price for accommodation in the dormitory is moderate, with around 66€. Usually you need more or even less 250 € per month to get along.

The students also recommend to stay in host family to get a better access to Russian culture and traditions.

Basic Russian language skills are desirable or at least the knowledge of Cyrillic alphabet.  Studying in Russian is a challenge, but the professors are always ready to help and make compromises for e. g. regarding the written exam, they might make an exception and take a term paper instead, for that reason don’t hesitate to ask.

Most Russian students study in faculties, but for international students the doors to all faculties are open. The system at the university differs a lot; the best example is that they don’t have an online system to choose the courses, instead you will have to look on a big board on the day when the lectures start…no reason to worry! The students are ready to help!

There is an opportunity to take courses in English, but the information in the experiential report is not quite clear were and how, so ask the international office for more information.

The range of free time activities is very bright, you can visit so many historic places, museums, famous world operas, theaters, ballet, hockey stadiums, and of course the discos, bars, cafes.

All in all, you will have to get used to bureaucracy and long, time consuming visits to authorities in the everyday life.

Moreover, you will be confronted with a lot of contrast and differences in mentality, traditions and what you will see on the streets. Poor thrifty pensioners  clash on young rich wasteful Russians, next to old gorgeous buildings, beautiful  restored  Tsar city you find neglected deteriorating buildings and the gap between rich and poor is high.

Despite the differences, the students loved their exchange year, the experiences they gained, so they highly recommend it and one of them even returned to Russia for the internship.

Many people consider St. Petersburg one of the most beautiful cities in the world, the Russian Venice! No wonder the students liked it! So what do you think? Can you imagine to study in St. Petersburg?



 

Koalas,kangaroos and more…

Welcome to the smallest continent in the world!

Welcome to Australia!!!

Australia is definitely a dream destination to spend an exchange year!

3 universities are partners of HWR Berlin:

• La Trobe University in Melbourne
• Macquarie University in Sydney
• James Cook University in Townsville

Unfortunately the latter one is not available for us next semester; therefore I’ll concentrate on the first two.

La Trobe University is one of the top 10 in university ranking. The University is in the city compared to Macquarie University, which is 1, 5 hours outside the city center.

I couldn’t find any report on La Trobe on ILIAS, but I could grab some information during the International day, where we met an Australian exchange student and he gave us some insights and pointed out some differences between Sydney and Melbourne.

One of them is that Melbourne has a more European character as a city and that it’s not as tourist crowded as Sydney. He as a local preferred Melbourne, which is of course a matter of taste.

Concerning the university, he said that the level in Australia is higher, but one must mention that he was comparing the micro course, so some of us can probably understand his disappointment.

All in all, the University is nice and many complementary courses can also be accredited. Financially one should be prepared to spend $140-$200/week.

Macquarie University in Sydney is also nice. From the experiential reports one negative aspect is especially pointed out though, which is the time issue.

Although the professors are friendly and ready to help, they assign a term paper or group presentation due in 2 weeks, which is difficult to manage in big groups. But for people with good time management this shouldn’t be a huge problem.

From  the presentation on the international day, I found out that there is an extra course about Global Leadership , highly recommended for which you will get a certificate at the end.

Finally, regardless were you’ll  decide to go in Australia, you will need to calculate your finance well, since living costs are relatively high. One student even mentioned that you might need around 10 000 € for a semester. Nevertheless, all students agreed that it was worth the cost!

 

ESC Rennes vs. ESCE Paris

ESC Rennes Business School is an international Graduate School, part of the French network of “Grandes Ecoles“, the cream of French academic institutions.

Founded in 1990 the business school counts:

• 1 933 students in Higher Education

• 1 335 students on the Grande Ecole Programme
• 468 international students
• 12 PhD students

moreover, it has:

• 85 main university partners
• 100% of students enrolled in the Grande Ecole Programme undertake a placement abroad
• 80% of international faculty born outside France, 25 nationalities
• 42 student nationalities
• 100% of courses in English at master level
• 72% of Grande Ecole Programme graduates are in jobs involving international business.

Ecole Supérieur de Commerce Rennes is situated in the French north-west region – Bretagne, which is very famous for its coast line in the Atlantic Ocean.

ESC Rennes offers a Double Degree program and if you are interested in spending a year in Rennes, I recommend you to read the experiential report from 2009/2010 written by Konstanze Krüger posted on ILIAS, it’s the first post so u can find it easily

ESC Rennes vs. ESCE Paris

Both are part of the “Grandes Ecoles” network and both offer a great education on modern well equipped campuses with highly qualified professors.

Rennes

pro

• Location: Beautiful region of Bretagne
• Double Degree program
• Great support by the WellCome‐Team
• Very close to Paris and other beautiful cities
• Low rent (~425-350€) in comparison to other big cities in France

Contra

• Double degree program is challenging, consumes extremely much time and is very stressful
• Rennes is beautiful, but also relatively small and at the end of the exchange year one gets the impression of having seen everything

Paris

Pro

• Location: living in a huge metropolis, “the city of love”
• International surrounding, people and students from all over the world are gathered here

Contra

• Extremely high rent: 700-800 normal,  but you can also find accommodation for students for ~689€/ 15m² or even 460€ incl. WLAN, breakfast and 10 meals/ month in a catholic dormitory „Foyer Porta“

In general you should be prepared to face a very school similar way of learning and bureaucracy. The rules are much stricter in comparison to what we are used to at HWR, for e.g. one can’t go out of the room during the lecture, you’ll need to sign out and attendance is of course compulsory. You have to expect a lot of learning by hard, huge workloads during the semesters and a big number of exams, test and so on, but the finals should be easy to pass. Another important thing to mention is the grading system, all the students said in their reports, that none of them could really understand the grading system.

In both cases you can apply for CAF and get some money from the French government for accommodation.

Finally both business schools enjoy a great reputation and it’s an honor for French students to be studying there since the eligibility criteria are strict and the tuition with fees of 7 000€ is high.

No matter which business school you decide to study at a wonderful exchange year with a lot of new experiences is guaranteed!

 

Étudier en France

Ah… la France!!! Je t’aime!

I really do like France and not only because of it’s good wine, delicious baguette, cheese, mousse au chocolat, pain au chocolat, crème brûlée and other delicious food and french charms…

The language is beautiful and the country has so many different gorgeous landscapes, famous cities full of history and many other ineteresting things to discover, therfore France is a great destination for a year abroad!

HWR has partner universities in Paris (Ecole Supérieure du Commerce Extérieur (ESCE)), Paris/Bordeaux (INSEEC Business School),  Rennes (ESC Rennes Business School), Angers (Ecole Supérieure des Sciences Commerciales d’Angers (ESSCA)) and in Lyon (Université Catholique de Lyon / ESDES Business School).

Our fellow students have also posted some general information about France in their HWR Exchange Blog, maybe you want to take a look at it !

 

Iceland

Now I’m moving from the warm sunny South to the cold volcanic North…

Bifröst University

Bifröst is a direct descendant of the Cooperative School, which was founded in Reykjavík in 1918 and began operations in December of that year.  Jónas Jónsson the first headmaster, defined the school’s mission as the training of leaders, and used Ruskin College at Oxford (where Jónas had himself studied) as a model.

The number of students studying at Bifröst has grown quickly in recent years, from 120 students in 1998 to approximately 1200 at the beginning of 2008. Some are distance-learning students, but many students and faculty live on or near campus. Shops, the cafe, sports facilities, laundry and banking facilities, and a kindergarten are all on campus, and the elementary school at Varmaland is a short bus ride away.

The capital of Iceland – Reykjavík, is an hour and a half driving from the university.

Iceland as we all know is a very small country so as one may expect Bifröst University is really small in comparison to other european universities, but in Iceland it’s the second biggest university.

Why would I want to study at Bifröst?

Well, first of all , the beautiful landscape of Iceland is unforgettable! I listened to the presentation of a former HWR students about the university and I was immediately fascinated by the country just by looking at the pictures. I have to add  that the student has graduated already and his semester in Iceland was a while ago, but nevertheless he is still very excited while talking about his experiences in Iceland.

Anyway, another reason is of course the university itself. As mentioned before, Ruskin College at Oxford was used as a model, so the university has a very high level of education. Our former student also said  that it was very well-organized and advanced, but one can’t go there without a computer.

He told us a story where the professor asked once during the lecture if anyone had a pen, because he wanted to pass some kind of list to sign and no one had a pen so they had to send someone to the secretary to get a pen.

Also interesting is that during the lecture, the room is completely silent and if the neighbours want to talk nobody talks, everybody chats, even if you sit right next to each other.

Even though the level of education is very high it is so well-organized, that one can learn easily, therefore exams are not very hard.

The university of Bifröst has trimesters, applications must be submitted by:

15 March for summer term
15 April for autumn term
15 October for spring term

The university offers following service to exchange students:

• Icelandic language and culture course
• Free car for exchange students
• Free wireless internet access on campus
• Guaranteed housing on campus for exchange students
• Strong student union and active social atmosphere
• Free gym, hot tubs and sauna in the middle of campus
• Free access of library and laundry
• One weekend trip arranged by the university each semester for exchange students
• Organized trips by the Student Union
• Full summer term on offer — when the scenery is best (April – June)
• Classes and social life with Icelandic students
• Dramatic natural setting – Beautiful walking tracks
• Family friendly, ideal for students with children
• Soccer and basketball fields - Golf course within walking distance
• 90-year tradition of business and management education

A lot of good reasons to study in Iceland, not considering the volcanic ash problem

 

Applying abroad

The right application should be precise and professional. There is no way around certain rules and defaults, as for example the form of the CV.

Especially while applying for an international place it can get difficult, since each country sets its own requirements concerning the paperwork.

It doesn’t matter if you apply for an internship in French chambers, for a summer job as a web designer in the USA or for a position in a bank in Holland – with wrong documents chances are low to get the job. You can increase your chances of getting the job you want, if you inform yourself early enough. For German students, here you can find some rules for some countries.

So much to consider…

There are plenty of things that differ from country to country; therefore making a mistake can leave a wrong or bad impression. In worst case the application goes right away into the wastebasket. For that and many other reasons you should check upon the questions:

• Photo or no photo?
• Tabular or narrative CV?
• Starting the CV from the date of birth or from the present date?
• Bring the reports and certificates to the interview or attach to the application?
• Separate letter of motivation (statement of purpose), yes or no?
• Name german degrees or the corresponding degrees from the country of destination?

The “Europass-CV” – one for all?

Some of the above questions can be bypassed if using the Europass-CV, which was created by the European commission. It’s supposed to simplify the applications in EU and make them comparable. Who uses it for the application, avoids at least big errors. Nevertheless it doesn’t apply until Europass-CV becomes a regulation, until than one should apply in respect to the country specific features.

Europass-CV of the European Centre for the Development of Vocational Training (CEDEFOP) remains an advice. It is not yet established by the companies nor by the applicants. Still, it helps a lot to avoid embarrassing slips. The homepage of the CEDEFOP definitely contributes to it, because you can find on it Europass CVs in 13 languages.

Don’t you think we should consider it while applying?

 

Spain

If you’re interested in other universities in Spain, these are also partner unuversities of HWR:

Universidad Compultense de Madrid (UCM)

This university is a rather new one. The website is in english which is nice and they offer spanish as well as english courses.

Universidad del Pais Vasco

The university counts about 80 000 students with 3 campuses: Bilbao, Vitoria Gateiz and San Sebastian.

Bilbao offers a double degree programm, whereas the campus in San Sebastian is situated by the sea side and has few Erasmus students.In this region of Spain the dialect Basque is spoken, you can notice it also when you visit the homepage it says “euskara”, but for international students it’s not relevant, unless you’re interested in learning it.

Universidad de Zaragoza

In this region no dialect is spoken, so you can learn proper Spanish, but on the other hand they don’t offer classes in english, so you need to have very good language skills.

It also takes a while to find information for international students, but they’ve got it

http://www.unizar.es/centros/fccee/relint/eng/inicioi.html

Semester starts on 15. February 2011

Universidad de Las Palmas de Gran Canaria (ULPGC)

The biggest university in Gran Canaria with 24 000 students and very international.

For the english version of the website go on: http://www.english.ulpgc.es/  and look for Mobility programmes.

They offer also a Master programm ( 90 Credit points) with duration of only 1 year.

The semester in all of these universities starts in February either in the middle or in the last week of the month.

 

Spanish-speaking countries part II

Study in Spain:

Universidad de Alicante (UA) is a relatively young university founded in 1970. It is very international and counts around 1000 Erasmus students.

The homepage is in English but if you want to check the business faculty it’s in Spanish.

You can choose from a variety of courses and based on the report of one of our former students, you could take courses in English and Spanish. There is an opportunity to take Spanish courses, offered also by the Mobility Office, one learns in groups of 30 people and the professor seems to be good.

UA has an external English International Business Program which requires a fee of 150€ per month, so in case of problems in following the normal courses there is a way out and our former student could also recommend it. He especially liked “Economy in the European Union” and Cross Culture Behavior – Doing Business in Spain”.

The University of Alicante has a very big beautiful campus, one should be prepared for long walks from room to room you need often 10 minutes. There are 2 main buildings with different rooms, a large library with a computer room, 3 cafeterias and other small buildings and faculties. The food is good, you get a menu for 2,50€ with a salad, bread, a drink, paella and a dessert.

People in Alicante speak a dialect –valenciano- but in general this shouldn’t cause any problems, everyone speaks normal Spanish.

The accommodation is not difficult to find, it is advised to look on place and compare 2 or 3 apartments, because the differences in price and quality are huge.

The food is not very expensive, tapas are great and the café, restaurant affordable. The city has beautiful parks, shopping areas and of course the beach and mostly great weather, it’s close to other beautiful cities and the atmosphere is nice.

One has also nice opportunities to travel in the region and to the neighboring islands, for e.g.Ibiza. The mobility Office offers also a variety of trips for e.g. to Granada and there is a cheap airline Click Air which is really comfortable to fly with.

All in all it’s a nice region to study in the only minus is a lot of tourists but for some it can also be considered as positive.

 

HWR Exchange

“Wow, that’s whole lot of work they’ve put in there!!”

That was my first thought after I have come across one of our fellow students blog. I decided that it would be a pity to leave such a well-organized and very useful blog unmentioned, especially because we share the same theme. So here it is : HWR Exchange

If you consider to study in China, Denmark, France, Great Britain, Norway or USA, this site will provide you will all necessary information.

Moreover, the site contains information about the application process, scholarships, health insurance and everything else you need to know about an exchange, which makes me talking about all this become superfluous.

So I guess this is the end of my blog … wonderful!! I can just lay back and relax?!

…ehm…NOPE… unfortunately not!

I don’t know how about you, but if i really have to decide on something, I prefer to select all available information to be able to make a decision and obviously the information provided did not cover all the partner universities of HWR, so I think I still have a lot to work upon…

Resting will have to wait!

 

UADE

And here comes the next load of information…

I had the pleasure to listen to one of the HWR students who spent one semester at UADE and decided to summarize most important facts.

Universidad Argentina de la Empresa (UADE) is one of the partner universities of HWR Berlin. The girl had very positive experience and could only recommend it.

Basically what she said, is that the country and the people are fascinating and it was the best time of her life.

I found her presentation on ILIAS but it’s in German, so for my fellow students, if you are interested in taking a look at the presentation just click the search option and type in UADE you should get as a result Gruppen and Dateien, whereas the last one is what you are looking for. Unfortunately the groups don’t have any information.

The experiential reports I found were not very revealing and it took me a lot of time to find any reports.

What you need to know:

• the study period is divided in 2  semesters
• lecture period:  March – July, August – November
• each semester you will write 3 exams in each subject/ course (2 partials +1 final), which is actually an advantage, because you don’t have to learn everything at ones
• in general, it’s a lot of learning by hard in comparison to HWR, but it’s manageable and the professors and students are very helpful
• UADE has a wide range of courses (marketing, accounting, finance, etc.) to choose from,therefore no problems should arise with the learning agreement, all the details will be discussed with the international office.
• one should have good language skills, but all in  all, the language will not be a problem, at the beginning courses in english can be taken.
• spanish courses are offered by the university but are quite expensive (2x per week/ ~ 350 $ -> Argentinian dollars). An option could be to take a private teacher for the same price,  since in a 20 people group one wouldn’t learn as much as in a private lesson.
• a medical insurance is obligatory and costs around 70 € / month. You can’t really exempt yourself from the german one if you are self-insured, so be prepared to pay for both.
• dormitories are available but are not to be recommended, too expensive, too small, too uncomfortable, etc. What most students do, is stay around one week in a hostel and search on place for a n appartement, which dependent on the area can be cheap or more expensive ( e.g. 3-room appartement, downtown, ~ 580$)
• living cost are actually low, delicious food and taxi are affordable even for a student budget
• all in all, if you want to have a nice living, with going out often to restaurants, traveling (bus trips to Brasil, Chile are cheap but long but you will have the time, airplane tickets are usually too expensive), etc. you will need around 750 €/month incl. rent but this is really the extreme, one can get along with  less
• fortunately there is a scholarship one can apply for through DAAD
• last but not least, the food is great, the people are fun and affectionate and the environment just amazing!

I personally also had a good impression of the country after the presentation. What i missed was maybe more information on the university itself and the subjects, but logically we can find this information at the homepage, which is unfortunately only in spanish.

Hope you got at least a small overview about the university.