A Blog about Education Abroad

Tag: Germany

  • Eryn Treherne at Frankfurt School of Finance and Management, Germany

    Eryn Treherne at Frankfurt School of Finance and Management, Germany

    Eryn Treherne

    BCom International Business

    Semester Exchange in the Second Semester, 2023 at Frankfurt School of Finance and Management

     

    Pre-departure:

     

    The initial planning for going to Germany involves plenty of organisation, especially for your visa application. The German Consulate provides a checklist of what is required on their website, most is fairly easy to gather, but the most challenging is to open a blocked account. This account is a requirement where you need to set aside around 900 euros per month and deposit into this account that will be paid out to you once you are there. I would recommend using Fintiba to do this, and they also have many other services to help you in your preparation. The easiest current account to set up would be with Revolut as you don’t need to have your registered address for this, as with any German bank account. I would also recommend booking your flights as soon as possible, as this will also work out cheaper for
    you.

    Further, your accommodation also needs to be sorted out early, especially if you plan to stay in the student dorms. As soon as your acceptance comes through from FS, apply for this to ensure you can get a spot. There are other options as well, I would recommend places like Yugo. Finally, when you get the dates to register for your modules, you need to log on as the time opens so that you can get a spot in the classes you want to attend (some of them filled up for me within the first 5 minutes!).

     

    Experience at the Host University:

     

    My exchange semester at the Frankfurt School of Finance and Management offered a unique experience quite different to the other options available, that are more traditional and quite larger. This smaller, private university had a mix of pros and cons. Frankfurt, which is a vibrant and growing city and home to one of Europe’s major airports, was an ideal place to stay if like me, you want to see as much of the area as possible. What also makes the travel convenient is that the university provides a Hessen state travel card, which can be upgraded for a small fee to the Deutschland ticket, allowing free travel on regional transport throughout Germany.
    Beyond having the ability to travel easily, Frankfurt itself is a lovely city to live, rich in cultural activities with an impressive array of museums, offering many diverse and enriching experiences.

     

    Christmas market in Frankfurt.

     

    Arriving in Frankfurt is quite an experience when you don’t know the public transport system very well, and I did get lost on my way to my accommodation, but I did find my way eventually. The week before classes start there are two days of orientation which I would recommend attending to meet other exchange students (as it is easier to form relationships with the internationals more than the locals as they are also looking to meet new people). The university also arranges socials and parties during this week and throughout the semester which can be a lot of fun and a great way to meet new people and spend time with the friends that you have already made. Some of the activities included a boat party, pub crawls, or even a picnic in the park.

     

    Eryn at the Boat Party.

     

    As I mentioned, FS is a smaller university, with about 4000 students in total. I quite liked this because your classes are smaller and that makes it easier to meet and talk to people, but you will have to engage in the lectures more. The lectures are also scheduled differently to SU. For each module, there are 2 sessions a week either on the same day or on 2 consecutive days of 3 hours each (you will have to take 5 in total, split between 2 terms to make up the credits at SU). The change in length can be daunting, but it doesn’t take long to make that adjustment, and you are able to choose interesting modules not available at SU (for example, I did Healthcare Business).

    Germany is an expensive country to live in. Rent can be quite pricey if you want to stay close to the university. There is also the health insurance cost to think about (compulsory), as well as liability insurance (optional but recommended). Groceries are slightly more expensive than South Africa, but mostly when it comes to meat (including chicken), so it’s always good to set up a meal plan for the week so that you know what you need to buy when you do go shopping. There are scholarships available as well. I received the Erasmus+ Scholarship, which is about 850 euros/month. This however is not enough to cover all your costs, for me it only covered my rent and my health insurance with a couple of euros to spare. With this scholarship they also cover your transport ticket that you receive from FS.

    Also, depending on where you stay, you need to be aware of the extra things that you may need to buy, such as household cleaning equipment, crockery and cutlery (as a lot of places require you to provide your own), bedding, etc. My advice with this would be to head to an Ikea and get everything you need there, as there are plenty of cheap options. Overall, I would recommend sitting down with whoever will be funding your exchange and create a clear budget that accounts for the increased costs of being in a new country.

     

    Return to Stellenbosch:

     

    I returned to South Africa just before Christmas, which was really nice to be home and spend some holiday time with my family. As I start classes next week, I am sure there will be an adjustment coming back to SU. For one, my classes will be a lot shorter again, but I will be going back to class 5 days a week. The workload is also much more at SU so I know that I will need to be aware of getting back into my old study patterns. Coming back to Stellies is a really good thing, as you can catch up with friends that you haven’t seen for a while. While it will be easy to fall back into the old patterns of your life before exchange. I think it would be important to remember to keep what you have learned while being overseas and try to incorporate those changes into your life back at home.

  • Christiaan de Wet at Bucerius Law School, Hamburg

    Christiaan de Wet at Bucerius Law School, Hamburg

    Christiaan de Wet

    LLB Student

    Semester Exchange in the Second Semester, 2022 at Bucerius Law School

    Pre-departure:

    The pre-departure preparations were daunting at first, but if one follows the steps provided by the International Office, everything should run smoothly. The International Office was very helpful with any questions I had, and they helped where they could. It is definitely advisable to start preparations as soon as possible, as leaving fundamental requirements, like visa applications or accommodation to the last minute will only add to the already stressful atmosphere of leaving the country for a few months.

    Even though pre-departure is full of excitement, it does come with a lot of unavoidable stress, so make sure to have everything in place as early as possible. I personally left my accommodation to the last minute and ended up paying a LOT more than I originally budgeted for, so I would definitely advise that one sort it out as soon as possible. DISCLAIMER: if you decide to go to Bucerius Law School and you want to stay in their dorms, fill out the form within the first few seconds, because I filled it out within five minutes, and it was already full.

    The visa application for Germany was pretty straight forward, and I received my visa within a week of my appointment, but I guess it depends on the country you’re visiting. You just have to make sure that you follow the directives given for the application and that you have all the necessary documents. But again, I would definitely try and sort out the visa application as soon as possible, because you never know what might happen. I visited Bucerius Law School in Hamburg, and they were very helpful with giving us all the information with regard our pre-departure preparations. This included information about housing, insurance, module registration etc. So, I would advise that one utilizes all the information and make sure that you stay up to date with any new information that the host university might send your way. What worked well for me was to make a list of everything that I needed to do before I left and to systematically tick the boxes. You just have to make sure that you actually do what’s on the list (unlike me with my accommodation…). And then lastly, just enjoy the last few months with your friends and family and don’t let the nervous excitement eat you up, because I can promise you, you are going to miss them.

    Christiaan with friends at Volkspark Stadion
  • Marion Kretzschmar at Reutlingen University, Germany

    Marion Kretzschmar at Reutlingen University, Germany

    In December 2017, which was the end of my third year of my bachelor’s degree program in Industrial Engineering, I started to conduct some research about Stellenbosch’s partner universities in Germany.  My dream was to either complete my full masters at a German university or at least attend one semester.  Throughout my research, I coincidentally stumbled across Reutlingen University.  This university works in close collaboration with the Industrial Engineering department, offering a relatively unique opportunity for the master’s students:  a double degree program.  The Digital Industrial Management and Engineering master’s program is an exchange program where students have the opportunity to attend three semesters at their home university and one semester as an exchange student at the host university (German students would come to University Stellenbosch and the South African students would go to Reutlingen University).  In my view, this was a WIN-WIN situation, as I would be able to commence an exchange semester, while also receiving an additional master’s degree from a European university as well as one from Stellenbosch.

    Pre-departure

    Fortunately, I have a European Passport, which spared me from the tedious Visa application process.  Since I am also an international student at Stellenbosch, I was relatively well prepared regarding the application and registration process in a foreign country.   With help from our German study coordinator from Reutlingen, the application process was relatively simple.  He also put us South Africans in contact with the Reutlingen International Office (RIO), who contacted us regarding the accommodation.  We were lucky enough to apply for the student dormitories, situated directly on the campus grounds.

    Once I was accepted, I started conducting my research about the university.  One disadvantage was that the program we enrolled for is a very small degree program, and therefore only limited information could be found on the university website.  However, the German study coordinator was very helpful and helped a lot with all the arrangements in Germany.  He also informed me about all the different documents I need for the registration process at the university at the beginning of the Semester.  Surprisingly enough, even though Germany is a first world country, no documents are accepted in a digital format, only as a hard copy.  Luckily, throughout my past five years at University Stellenbosch, I have found it to be very useful to keep a digital backup of all documents, but also a file containing all the hard copies of all the documents that might be required by the university.  Through this, I was able to handle all unplanned and unforeseen situations successfully and seamlessly.

    The admin part aside – now the actual travel arrangements had to be done.  Since I was not entirely sure when my semester in Germany would start nor end, I only booked a one-way ticket to Germany.  I was lucky, and for me, it worked out relatively well regarding the pricing and time, but I would recommend to all the future exchange students to rather book a return ticket and also do it far in advance as it will, most likely, turn out cheaper.  It now seems like a girly thing to say – but packing turned out to be rather challenging.  One piece of advice – don’t bother to pack too much of your South African wardrobe – you won’t be able to use them.  Rather buy a nice winter jacket and a pair of boots in Germany, as they are geared for such temperature drops.

    Experience at the Host University:

    As I mentioned earlier, I am an international student at Stellenbosch as well, so I am used to being far away from home.  Therefore, the far distance from home did not bother me at all.  An additional advantage was that I also speak German fluently, so I did not experience any language barriers at all.  When I arrived in Reutlingen for the first time, thanks to google maps, I found the university very easily, without experiencing any problems.  I have arranged a meeting with the study coordinator in advance, who assisted me with the registration process as well as the key collections for the dormitories.  He showed me around the campus and also informed me about the different courses I will need to attend in order to meet the prerequisites of the program.

    Stating with the accommodation, I lived in a relatively new and modern building, directly on campus.  I shared a kitchen and two bathrooms with five other international students, two of them being the other South Africans attending the same course as me in Reutlingen.  We did a lot of different activities together, such as hiking, visiting different Christmas markets, or attending various events organized for the international students.  The university did not only offer events for international students, but also for the local students to join.  This made it very easy to meet new people.

    The academic courses that I attended were mainly focused on the new topic Industry 4.0 – digitisation, digitalisation, and digital transformation.  The classes were relatively small, ranging from five to twelve people per session.  Because I was enrolled in a double degree program, I was put in contact with one of the German professors, who became the co-supervisor of my master’s thesis.  He assisted me with my research project.  The courses were very interesting and informative as the subject matter is directly related to my research topic.

    As expected, because of the exceptionally well-functioning public transport system, traveling has been made very easy.  I have purchased the Naldo semester ticket, which is a ticket you purchase once-off and can travel throughout the surrounding areas without additional costs.  For longer distances, I would recommend Flixbus or BlaBlaCar.  Reutlingen has the advantage that it is situated relatively convenient – Stuttgart and Heidelberg are very close, and Munich is not too far away either.  Furthermore, Switzerland, as well as Austria, are also travel destinations, I would recommend to everyone, especially if you would like to have the full winter wonderland experience.  There are a few shops and pubs to visit in Tübingen, which is only 10 minutes by train and has a great nightlife.  It reminded me a lot about Stellenbosch, as it is also a rather smaller city and very student oriented as the whole city mainly consists out of the university.

    Return to Stellenbosch:

    Once I came back to South Africa, I had to make use of my car again in order to get somewhere further away.  The accessibility of long-distance locations is definitely made so much easier in Germany with public transport.  However, I have missed our beautiful Stellenbosch, the fact that all shops and clubs are within walking distance away from the university and my flat, my friends, our campus and also the beautiful Winelands and mountains.  I am grateful that I had the opportunity to go to a foreign country, meet new friends, widen my network, and also experience some kind of personal growth as well.  I have learned to be more open towards meeting new people and also not being too shy to ask for help if needed.