A Blog about Education Abroad

Category: Study Abroad Advice

Ruth O’Sullivan at Trinity College Dublin, Ireland

Ruth O’Sullivan

BCom International Business Student

Semester Exchange in the Second Semester, 2022 at the Trinity College Dublin

Pre-departure:

Before I left to travel abroad for my semester at Trinity College in Dublin, Ireland, I made a list of everything that I needed to prepare. Something that I did not need to think about, I am so grateful to say, was a visa. My grandfather was born in Dingle on the Southwest coast of Ireland and because of this, I was the last generation to receive an Irish passport in my family. Little did I know how valuable this would be. I therefore cannot advise anyone on the logistics of applying for a visa, but I do have other tips for those preparing to study abroad.

My biggest tip would be to apply for accommodation early. I left mine last minute (although I thought it was a reasonable time to start looking) only to find that most student accommodation rooms in Dublin had been booked and the only ones left were astronomically expensive. So, in order to find affordable, nice accommodation in a good location, start searching as soon as you get your placement from Stellenbosch (maybe even get yourself on a few waiting lists beforehand). Some good rooms in Dublin can be found at Kavanagh Court, Point Campus or any of the Yugo buildings. I was too late to secure a room at any of these places but was lucky enough to find a room in a lovely lady’s house in the suburbs of Dublin 7. The area is more relaxed than the city, I am a three-minute walk from the train station, my room is much cheaper than the student accommodations that my friends are in, and I have more amenities as well as free laundry while they have to pay for this. So, while student accommodation is fun, don’t rule out homestays if the things I listed sound more enticing to you.

Ireland, and most of Europe, is a lot more expensive than South Africa, to say the least. I recommend sitting down with your parents or guardians, whoever will be funding the majority of your time abroad and decide on a weekly or monthly budget for this time. Budget for items such as groceries, public transport, coffee and eating out, entertainment, shopping and travelling. This will help you stay on track and avoid overspending when you get to your destination. My final pre-departure tip is to pack for the weather! I knew coming into this time that Ireland got quite chilly and was known to be rainy, but I didn’t take this information as seriously as I should have. Umbrellas do not last long here so a good-quality raincoat is essential. During the winter months, thermal clothing comes in handy to wear under your normal clothes and some durable, waterproof boots will do you well. Good luggage is crucial if you are planning to travel around Europe during your stay as you don’t want it to break after the first trip.

Ruth on a trip in Paris

Experience at the host university:

My experience at Trinity College has been one I will never forget. One thing that I wasn’t expecting was to make friends with more international students than local students. This is mostly because international students arrive a week earlier than the local ones in order to tour the campus and go through a sort of “orientation”. Naturally, this means you will often make friends with the people that you meet throughout this time. Also, we are studying with those who are in their third year at Trinity College and have probably had the same friends since the first year–it is understandable that they wouldn’t feel the need to make friends with international students. Another thing that adds to you making international friends (and was a bit of a shock to me) was that student accommodation here is filled with about 95% international students because the cost of rent and living in Dublin is so high that most of the students live at home.

I thoroughly enjoyed the academic programme at Trinity College, to equate credits I landed up taking five modules and one elective. Each has two hours of lectures per week, and some have an extra one-hour tutorial slot. Each faculty had its own building – the business building was incredibly advanced and had its very own café where you could buy coffee and lunch and sit down to work at a table or in a cubicle. The campus itself takes your breath away, there is even a contemporary art gallery at Trinity! I found the modules here to have a majority assignment-based approach to the syllabus as opposed to Stellenbosch’s primarily exam-based approach. Only one of my modules has an in-person exam, two have online exams and the rest have only assignments.

I actually really enjoyed this as it allows one to plan out their workload more efficiently and brought a nice practical aspect to the module content. For example, in my Creative Thinking, Innovation and Entrepreneurship module we had four main assignments where we had to elevator pitch an idea for a business, come up with a Minimum Viable Product (or demo) for the business, perform actual customer research for the business and then create a Business Model Canvas to finalize the business idea. It was so enlightening as I have learnt the theoretical side of entrepreneurship for three years but actually had no idea how to go about starting a business until now. I found classes to be smaller than at Stellenbosch as well. The teachers are so passionate about their modules that it is inspiring. Societies play a big role on campus, there is a whole society fair at the beginning of the year where students can join societies ranging from horse-riding to scuba-diving to political parties – it was incredible fun.

A castle in Ireland

Apart from the academics, I cannot recommend enough to travel while you are abroad– Ryan Air flights will be your best friend. If you come to Trinity College, do make an effort to go and see the rest of Ireland, it is such a beautiful country that you will find Dublin to be the least impressive of it all.

Return to Stellenbosch:

I return to South Africa in about a week and I am so excited. I think that it is going to be a weird adjustment going from cold, rainy Ireland in winter to sunny South Africa, but I can’t wait to lounge by the pool and soak up the rays. I am not, however, excited for the long plane trip from Dublin to Dubai, Dubai to Johannesburg, and Johannesburg to Durban followed by another two-hour car drive back to my little farm town called Greytown.

I can already see how my perspective of South Africa has changed since I have been abroad. Many people back home speak about Europeas this magical place where everything is perfect and runs smoothly and so it has been eye-opening to experience it for what it truly is–Europe has problems just like South Africa. Governments here also have disgruntled citizens, there is still crime and an energy crisis. On my return, I do think that I will be equipped with more practical knowledge–in life and academics. I think that I have had so much exposure to other cultures that my self-awareness and awareness of the sensitivities of others have increased a lot. This experience has taught me critical thinking, to be open-minded and has made me even more willing and excited to learn about the experiences of others as I go forward.

Academically, I’m excited to go into my final year at Stellenbosch with all of the new knowledge that I have gained during my semester at Trinity College. I wish to major in marketing during my final year and the marketing module that I took here this semester has given me a completely different perspective on marketing management by analyzing the digital, artificial intelligence and automation aspect of contemporary marketing– it is brand new information, and I am so excited to apply it to my marketing modules in 2023. Going forward, I think that this time will allow me to see South Africa through new eyes – when you live in a country for your whole life it is easy to take for granted its beauty and cultures and only remember the bad things about it, that is until you have to leave it for some time. I will be less harsh on my beautiful South Africa, this time away has only grown my love for her. As for my future plans, being away has made me realize just how much I want to eventually settle and raise a family in South Africa.

September 12, 2023
Sarah Selkirk at University of Klagenfurt, Austria

Pre-departure

I attended the Algorithmic and Enumerative Combinatorics Summer School which took place in Hagenberg, Austria from 29 July to 2 August 2019. Along with this summer school, I decided to extend my trip to visit the University of Klagenfurt which is also in Austria, and spent a few days sightseeing in Vienna, Graz, and Salzburg as well.

I am an EU citizen, so I did not need to do any pre-trip administration such as obtaining a visa to enter Austria. However, since I was travelling around Austria quite a lot (the Austrian desk attendant at my accommodation in Vienna told me I had visited more places in Austria than he had), I needed to plan my train travel. This was a new experience for me, as I had never been on a train (or public transport) before this trip, and some things which seemed obvious to regular public transport users were very confusing for me. This can be made even more confusing when information is in a foreign language, so I would recommend contacting people at your destination who are familiar with train or bus schedules.

To make things easier (and cheaper) for train travel within Austria, I was advised to purchase a ‘vorteilscard’ which is a card which gives a 50% discount on all train travel. In addition to this, I bought a Summer Ticket for the train, which allows you (provided that you have a vorteilscard) to travel for free on all trains for a month. This worked out significantly cheaper than buying all of my train tickets individually, and also saved the stress of having to plan which trains to book tickets for – I simply got onto a train and showed the conductor my Summer Ticket. In total, the vorteilscard and Summer Ticket cost 80 EUR, while the total cost of all the train trips I took would have been just under 160 EUR.

Travelling from the southern to the northern hemisphere resulted in me leaving South Africa mid-winter and arriving in Austria in scorching heat. Of course I expected it to be warm, but I didn’t expect how hot it would be. While all buildings in Europe have heating for the cold winters that they have, it turned out that most buildings did not have air conditioning in 35 degree heat, so it is important to be aware of the heat and pack accordingly. Finding accommodation which has fans or air-conditioning is highly recommended.

Since you are dependent on public transport, I recommend getting day or week passes for the buses. In Vienna they have a transport pass which gives you discounted access to all trains, trams, and busses within the city. Public transport can sometimes only get you so far, and so there can be a lot of walking to do. I would recommend packing good comfortable shoes for walking long distances.

Experience at Host University and Summer School

I spent from 20 July to 28 July in Klagenfurt, visiting some researchers at the University of Klagenfurt. Klagenfurt is a beautiful town, surrounded by mountains and next to a large lake (the Wörthersee) which is a popular tourist attraction. I had a number of interesting mathematical discussions with the researchers at the University of Klagenfurt and gave a talk about my research to the mathematics department on 23 July.

In Klagenfurt I was regularly taken to Strandbad, the place that people go to swim or do other water sports on the Wörthersee. At the end of the week I went paddle-boating on the lake which was one of the highlights of the visit for me. Another popular attraction in Klagenfurt is a place called Minimundus which has miniature models of various landmarks of the world. This was really fascinating to see, and by the end of the tour of Minimundus it felt like I had been on a world tour. There are not just miniature models of attractions of the world, but also reenactments of historic events, such as the moon landing. Here a miniature reenactment of the rocket launch drew quite a crowd.

After spending a week in Klagenfurt, a postdoc from Klagenfurt and I travelled to the summer school in Hagenburg together. Travelling via train in Austria is a great experience since the Austrian landscape is very beautiful, with picturesque views of the mountains (including the Austrian alps), lakes, and rivers. In Hagenberg we arrived at our accommodation in a university residence close to the Research Institute of Symbolic Computation (RISC), who were the hosts of the summer school.

At the summer school there were three invited speakers who each gave a daily lecture along with a tutorial, and on the first day some other attendees gave talks as well. The invited speakers were Nicolas Broutin, George Labahn, and Alan Sokal, who were speaking about random trees and graphs, order bases, and continued fractions respectively. I particularly enjoyed the talks on continued fractions, and learned a lot from the various talks and experience.

One of the most enjoyable aspects of the summer school was the opportunity to meet and interact with other researchers in my field. I had heard of a number of people who were at the conference by seeing their papers online or through mutual friends, but it was nice to actually meet them. On Wednesday evening everyone at the summer school was transported to Hirschbach for the conference dinner.

A big highlight of the summer school was that one evening a summer school attendee who is a celebrated combinatorialist and former professional pianist, gave an organ concert in a church next to the venue. I have not often heard an organ being played, and never as well as that. It was really beautiful. One of my favourite things about Austria is how much classical music seems to be part of their culture.

After the summer school ended, I spent a few days in Vienna to do some sight-seeing. Vienna was a really magical city, with some beautiful architecture and a really excellent public transport system. While I was in Vienna, I went to the Albertina art museum which had some really interesting exhibitions on (including some of Picasso’s art).

I also went to several the famous Viennese restaurants or cafes as recommended by one of the people I met at the summer school. At the famous Hotel Sacher I had their specialty Sacher Torte which I have since tried to make myself in South Africa.

All in all, visiting Austria and the summer school was an incredible academic and cultural experience!

Return to Stellenbosch

I came back to Stellenbosch in the second week of the second semester, and so I quickly became quite busy afterwards. Regardless, I missed Austria a little bit and even found myself missing parts of my trip that I was scared to do before I left – such as navigating the public transport system. Since experiencing an effective and convenient public transport system with trains and buses to anywhere you could possibly want to go, I have often thought how nice it would be if South Africa would also have such a system.

I realised that we are quite fortunate when it comes to the costs of living in South Africa. In Austria it would cost me 2 euros (R32) for a 500ml bottle of Coke, and a simple burger at a standard restaurant would cost around 9 euro (R144). At one point while I was abroad I stopped trying to convert currency because the cost of normal items could be quite expensive, particularly in tourist destinations such as Vienna. The price of accommodation was also very expensive compared to costs of staying in South African university dormitories for a summer school, or in affordable accommodation in a large city.

One of the biggest contrasts for me was coming back to South Africa and seeing the poverty that people in our country face. During my three weeks of travels in Europe I encountered only two homeless people, but on the streets of Stellenbosch it is not uncommon to encounter even two homeless people on the walk from your car to your university building. I found this difference quite sad.

I finished my masters degree a few months after visiting Austria and the summer school, and my experience abroad made me really like Austria. As a result, I decided to take a doctoral position at the University of Klagenfurt, which I visited during this trip. This was partially as a result of me having the opportunity to visit – the people there were so welcoming and friendly, and I really enjoyed their mathematics department.

I would really recommend international summer schools and international travel to anyone doing a postgraduate degree at Stellenbosch University. It is really an opportunity to grow academically and experience new places and cultures.

August 4, 2020
Rea Legadima at Maidstone & Tunbridge Wells Hospital, UK

Greetings and salutations to you, future S.U. ambassadors and travelers. I’m an MBChB V student who just experienced the most incredible, educational endeavor of my life to date.

I cannot express enough gratitude to Stellenbosch University for being part of this journey. Thank you for the immense effort you contribute towards the dreams of your students.

Last year November 2019, I was blessed with the opportunity of doing my MBChB IV elective at Maidstone & Tunbridge Wells Hospital in England.

This wasn’t an easy journey as I started to apply at various universities at the end of my MBChB III academic year in 2018, however, I was too late to be considered for the 2019 elective process as most faculties has closed in July of 2019. I was, of course, tremendously disappointed at this outcome, however, not enough to deter me from my dream. I then decided to email various hospitals across the United Kingdom. To my delightful surprise, I received a number of responses from hospitals.

I chose to work at Maidstone&Tunbridge Wells Hospital due to their efficient correspondence and the location of the hospitals were deemed to be safe and welcoming. . I applied from my UK Visa in September 2019 and processing only took approximately three weeks. By October 2019, final examinations were the only hurdle left before my departure.

I arrived at Heathrow Airport on the 27^th of October 2019 after a 14 hour flight, not to mention a 4 hour lay-over in Dubai, with extreme exhaustion. My loving relatives, whom I hadn’t seen for ages where kind enough to fetch me from the airport. I arrived a week prior to the commencement of my elective to sort out the all the administrative enquiries like blood tests and acclimatizing to the new environment.

I was able to rent a room with a lovely Zimbabwean family through the assistance of a relative. I would have used studentspareroom.uk.co. If things had not materialized.

My elective comprised of a two week rotation in Ophthalmology followed by another two week rotation in Anesthesia. Maidstone&Tunbridge Wells Hospital are sister hospitals; I decided to do my Ophthalmology rotation at Maidstone Hospital and thereafter my two week rotation of Anesthesia at Tunbridge Wells Hospital.

Ophthalmology was pleasant in many aspects such as learning from various eye specialists, orthoptist and opticians and the early hours of course, however, it was at times too specialized of a programme especially for a student who aims to achieve the basic skills. Then, when I thought things couldn’t get better, Anaesthesia walked into my life. I enjoyed the hours, the various departments in which Anesthesia works with, and the staff. One could note the disparities in curriculum of U.K. medical students compared to the South African medically trained students. As South African medical students, more specifically, Stellenbosch medical students, we are given the opportunity to perform skills at a much junior level than the U.K. students who may need to wait till they are Foundation 1/2 doctors or fellows-registrars- but every moment was an opportunity to learn. I was able to meet and greet students from King’s College London during my rotation in Anesthesia, who were able to jovially share their experiences as medical students from a different side of the world, and I too shared my own. This was a great exchange as both parties have a bit more insight and perspective of the world through the lens of healthcare.

I, of course, took every opportunity to see the cultural history and background of England with its beautiful architecture and I was tremendously fortunate to be in England during the Rugby World Cup 2019 Final- it was a proud moment to be South African. Using such an efficient transport system was so profound- trains and buses were usually on time and if not, you would be notified of how long the delay would be; something very baffling for this South African. Meeting various English characters and indulging in English nuances and culture was pleasant and more so being able to meet diaspora in England was refreshing. One needs to emphasize the need to save when going to the U.K. as our rand to the pound is significantly weak and one must be good at budgeting one’s finances well.

I spent a total of 5 weeks in chilly, affluent (and I mean AFFLUENT), breath-taking beautiful England. As a female, travelling alone to a new destination, I felt a lot more safe walking home or to hospital and using various forms of public transport at night than when I’m here at home. This is not to say that England is 100% crime-free, however people in England make it a point to live harmoniously. An advantage to studying medicine in South Africa is the practical skills we acquire at a young age in our professional careers, allows us to effortlessly thrive in any given healthcare climate; I am not encouraging another season of “BRAIN-DRAIN” from our young professionals, this is just to compliment S.U. academia as we’re able to compete and/or be integrated with students on an international level without feel inferior due to the fact that we hail from Africa.

I would love to venture the globe especially in conjunction with my career path as I believe travel creates an in-depth worldview of aspects known and unbeknownst to me. This experience also highlighted how I need to pour these skills into my immediate South African community and contribute towards its betterment and advancement in healthcare and other social entities that contribute towards a substandard healthcare system.

August 4, 2020