Europe

Richard Steigauf (FIS) – Özyeğin University, Turkey

„All my courses at OZU are taught both online and in-person, so I have the opportunity to participate either way. Midterm exams and project presentations are/were face-to-face. The university is very modern and is able to deliver teaching in both ways in a high-quality manner. The final exams are face-to-face for me, so I still have a few months left in Turkey in total. I’m very satisfied with the academical content, although it’s slightly different from VSE. There is a great emphasis on individual and team projects and on essays as well. So almost all of my final exams have weight of 30/100 maximum.

The integration within international students was not problematic at all and after 3 days spent in Istanbul we’ve met a lot of students that we’re travelling with now during the semester. I was also surprised that there are only around 22 Erasmus students at OZU, which is very few in comparison with other universities, so the interaction with students from different universities is definitely higher there than here.

I have to say that from the beginning of our stay in Turkey, we aren’t affected much by COVID restrictions apart from mandatory masks on campus and in interiors in general. So with other Erasmus students, we’ve agreed that Istanbul was probably the best choice during the COVID pandemic. Istanbul is very affordable destination, so for example dining out in restaurants is possible every day also thanks to weakened Turkish lira. Even a few days ago we’ve been enjoying pleasant 20 °C although it’s December already.

Generally speaking, Istanbul exceeded all of our expectations and I’m very satisfied with the stay and the university and for us, it will be really hard to leave.“

[December 2021]

 

Alexandra Miklóssyová (FIR) – Universidad de Málaga, Spain

„Classes at Universidad de Málaga are face-to-face from the beginning of the semester, I have to say that all students and professors are very responsible and measures are respected everywhere. Concerning restrictive measures related to Covid, only masks are mandatory, which we barely notice anymore compared to the beginning of the pandemic. In Spain, the situation is very good and everything is open, travelling is without problems and we’re not experiencing strict measures.

Concerning classes at the university, it’s very focused on team and individual work, both of them are in each course and usually, once we have finished one project, we have been already assigned other, which is something that I feel is a big difference from the VSE.“

[December 2021]

 

Eliška Lichtenberková (FBA) – University of Manchester, United Kingdom

„I’m very happy in Manchester, there is always something to do! Classes are usually at university, we scarcely have lectures or seminars online. It differs from week to week, but in general, I’m satisfied with the teaching, although sometimes it’s more demanding – especially during this period of submitting essays I’m constantly in a rush. Yet, with other students, we try to travel at least during weekends and discover other cities.

The situation here is similar to the one in the Czech Republic, but we don’t have any restrictions apart from mandatory masks at the university. There are not as many new international students as there used to be because of Brexit, so most of the exchange students live with the Brits. Including me, but it’s easier to get to know them better this way. They’ve accepted me very nicely among themselves and it feels like home here.“

[December 2021]

 

Veronika Kolářová (FIR) – Lomonosov Moscow State University, Russia

„To be honest, I was completely mesmerized by Moscow. I think that Russia is underestimated a lot from us, the Czech. When I arrived, I was fascinated by how big everything is here – buildings, distances. The student society has planned a lot of activities for us, so we had the opportunity to go to various excursions each Sunday, which was great, because we had the chance to meet many interesting people and places, of course. That’s probably the difference between Erasmus in Russia and in Europe. Here, I got to know girls from Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan and it was very interesting to learn about different culture.

Concerning classes, they’re officially blended. In the end, I only go to school to Russian language, everything else is online especially because of some students that couldn’t come. Even though I chose courses in English, some are only in Russian and there are only Russian students. On one hand I don’t mind, I understand them well, I just sometimes need more time to express myself. I can’t imagine how people who don’t know Russian manage here. Russians don’t want to speak English, most of them can’t (shops etc.) and they’re quite impatient.  At the beginning, it was a little bit of a challenge for me to get used to their style of communication, which is more straightforward and blunt than we’re used to, so it could seem to us that they’re unpleasant and not as friendly. But I don’t see it that way anymore. In fact, there are lots of nice people willing to help.

I’m reminiscing a bit our university system. Concerning the administration, everything here seems very chaotic to me. Russian students have told me that even they can’t make their head or tail of it. At our university, we have one timetable that doesn’t change, clear requirements and deadline, and that suits me more than this chaos, when everything is changing while on go.

Concerning covid – only masks are worn here, not respirators. They’re mandatory in public transport and inside, but then again, half of the people don’t wear them anyway. The lockdown was for 10 days, everything went back to normal after that. Only when visiting a culture place such as museums, theatres etc., they want QR code with vaccination. The European vaccination is not accepted here, of course. I read that it will be in February.

Otherwise, I don’t feel alone here. I’ve become good friends with my roommate in the dormitory who’s from Germany, but her parents are from Kazakhstan, so she speaks Russian well. She helped me in the beginning, when I needed to arrange something. Gradually, we’ve created sort of our little group here and I feel we’re close, so that really facilitates the culture shock. We’ve been to so many places here, and still, there is plenty to discover. So much that I’m sorry it’s only for one semester.“

[December 2021]

 

Pavlína Müllerová (FBA) – Talinn University of Technology, Estonia

„Everything is working as it’s supposed to in Tallinn. Most courses are both face-to-face and online and we have one out of four courses online completely, but that’s only because the teacher decided so. Until last week, masks at the university were mandatory only for the non-vaccinated, now it’s mandatory for everyone, but so far, no further restrictions are planned given that the overall situation in Estonia is slowly getting better again. In general, TalTech’s approach is perfect in this regard and we’re being regularly informed about all changes and possibilities by the local coordinator (Kerti), such as the provision of the third vaccination dose for all students for free right next to the university.

Concerning the teaching itself, personally, I’m extremely happy with it. I really like teachers’ approach and mostly practice-focused teaching. Although in comparison with VSE, it seems to me that everything is gone through more slowly and less in detail than I anticipated, given the 16-week long semester. Teamwork is included in all of the courses I have and it’s really nice. When we’re speaking to other students, they usually have similar opinion on the teaching.

I try to make use of the possibility to travel around Estonia and neighbouring countries to the fullest (Helsinki, Stockholm, Riga, …). During these times, we unfortunately haven’t figured out how to obtain visas to Saint Petersburg yet, but we’re working on it! 🙂

Generally, I’m very satisfied with my stay and studies here and I’ll be praising Tallinn and TalTech everywhere!“

[November 2021]

 

Štěpánka Jónová (FBA) – University of Porto, Portugal

„Everything is according to expectations. The only thing I’m sorry about is that I still don’t have my tests results, in some cases, it has already been three weeks since I wrote them. The classes started as blended (face-to-face as well as online), however, very soon – after approximately 2 weeks, it was switched to fully face-to-face with masks permanently on, but I’m infinitely grateful for this opportunity to attend classes normally.

I’m satisfied with the academical content – I’m learning new things or revising old ones, which is always useful. Teachers are performing very well.

I don’t really feel any restrictions connected to coronavirus, the mask has become something natural and that’s it, of all the things I could be limited by in Porto. Thanks to the large percentage of vaccinated population, the situation is very mild. I didn’t have problem with integration within the students thanks to my communicative nature. At FEP, I’ve only met bachelor students from the Czech Republic.

Generally, I really like it here in Porto, the weather is beautiful all the time, although already a bit colder. On Tuesday 23rd of November 2021, I’m representing the university during international fair of opportunities at FEP, I hope that I’ll mange to attract someone to us to Prague. 🙂 I manage to travel alongside the studies as well, which was also one of my goals.“

[November 2021]