Pre Departure:
My exchange programme took me to a small town 50 minutes away from Frankfurt, namely Wiesbaden in Germany. Given that my course was focused on Transnational Commercial Law, it was apt that we were a group of 40 students from different parts around the world. My exchange experience, thus, does not only leave me a bit more clued up on commercial law in a cross-border context, but also with amazing memories and cultural insights. With too much to share, I guess it would be best for me to start at the beginning – that is preparation! Hopefully some of what I mention here will be of help to you!
- Context
First and foremost, it is important to delve into the why of your intended exchange. Why go? Once you’ve established that, best you do this analysis properly by following up with: where to go; what to study once you are there; how to get there. And you need not really think about the when to go, as this will almost always being decided for you by your faculty.
- My Why
Well any opportunity to travel is an opportunity to learn. Which means any opportunity to travel for the main purpose of learning is just all the more fruitful Practically also, as a final year Law student, I saw it as an opportunity to ready myself for my articles of clerkship.
- Where to
A few tips:
- Consider what type of course you are interested in
- Consider your budget (the Rand has plummeted even lower than 2015 so the place you choose will impact your cost of living tremendously).
- The national language will matter! – Even if your course is in English, which it would likely be, best you assess how you would cope with the host language in light of what is generally spoken in your host country because the moment you leave your lecture hall, you can be sure to find every second source of communication in that language!
- Consider the distance from South Africa and whether you have any relationship ties there. Believe me, staying abroad can get lonely even if you are surrounded with your new friends / new “family”.
- What
Your choice of course, as noted above, will influence where you should go, as well as what you would have to do to get there (the how). It’s important to be very clear about this aspect because it will ultimately influence the rest of your plans. When thinking about this, it always helps to think about your long term career plan and how the exchange may factor into that plan. For instance, if you are planning to go into the commercial field, best you don’t choose a course focused on human rights. The exchange will be reducing your academic time in Stellenbosch, though it’s main purpose is academic. Hence, you should choose an academic stream that will benefit your future legal career in as much as completing courses at SU would have done.
Once you have done the above, you will finally be able to formally apply for the exchange, after which hours of logistics will be invested in securing financial aid, the necessary transport documents, housing, booking of flights, and and and! A few tips in this regard:
Finances – You can never have too much money so apply for funding anywhere and everywhere! I even attempted crowd funding, though it proved hugely unsuccessful.
- Visa Application – Apply as soon as you can.
- Housing
Housing is generally expensive and scarce, so the earlier you start looking, the better. The lease agreements are typically in the host language and you are typically required to pay a deposit before you arrive in the country. Ask someone who is familiar in the language to assist you by vetting the lease agreement, corresponding with your prospective lessor, etc. Oh, and if you were not in a hostel in Stellenbosch, hostels are definitely the way to go. It’s cheaper and many of your fellow exchange students may very well be your neighbours!
- Flights
Etihad is generally the cheapest with no compromise on comfort!
Enjoy!
Experience At EBS:
The course which I completed at EBS was one focused on Transnational Commercial Law. This area of law deals with internationally unified law in areas of particularly high relevance to international commerce. Given my location, a focus was placed on European commercial law. This drew me to select commercial subjects such as company law, intellectual property law, trade law, and even economics. This course is definitely for one who intends to pursue a legal career in commercial law. And if the the terms mentioned here (or in the EBS prospectus) seem to intimidate you, you really ought not to be because the course is really introductory. Hence, you will be fine!
The first few weeks of the course are structured in a way in which to get the exchange group on a similar footing. All lectures are introductory in order to provide one with an overview of the core elements of transnational commercial law. One is not even formally assessed in these first few weeks! After about three weeks, however, the pace picks up and one begins to engage with the work more actively by considering legislation and to a lesser extent case law. Throughout the course, one is constantly solving problem questions which are typically set in a European Union context. Also, depending on the lecture style of a particular lecture, one could encounter a subject which requires a lot of pre-reading and even more class participation, and conversely a subject which allows you to learn more passively. I generally preferred the interactive classes – especially when it was on a Saturday morning, or when the class continued for more than five hours (which was commonly the case)!
The course was very differently structured to the LLB course at Stellenbosch University. We had numerous guest lecturers who were proficient in the particular fields in which they came and lectured. The lecture style was typically a workshop atmosphere carried out in small intimate classrooms with a handful of students. This allowed for active engagement to take place amongst students and the lecturer – an element of learning which is often lost in the big lecture hall settings at SU.
At EBS, a big emphasis is also placed on student learning by means of research and group presentations. Assessments were often in the form of orals as well. Hence, unlike SU, at EBS one gets a good balance between developing one’s written and oral skills, as well as one’s ability to work effectively both independently and as part of a group.
As an exchange student, one does not only go abroad for academic purposes, but to travel and explore one’s host country as well. One’s host university generally understands this, and thus, tries to incorporate non-academic activities into one’s exchange programme. EBS was no different in this respect. Considering that the course they offered focused on law in a transnational setting, the trips they arranged were well suited. Because these trips took one to the major European institutions as far as France and Luxembourg, it tended to be a bit pricey. Other activities were more social oriented, however, such as an international food evening, a few gatherings at reputable legal firms, and numerous ad hoc student parties arranged by the EBS student body focused on international students.
Overall, the programme was certainly a good balance between a focus on academics and leisure. Though, because the programme is only three months, an exchange student is to be aware of the last month which is packed with academic assessments. Hence, any travelling is certainly to be completed in one’s first two months!
I wish you well!
Return to Stellenbosch:
After three months abroad I was finally making my way back home. Many of my fellow exchange students thought that my leaving on the last day of the EBS programme was way too early, though this was certainly not the tune that my family and close friends sang. Frankly put, I too was happy to return, though I certainly would not have mind travelling a bit with a few of the others! But because my ticket was already booked, there was no time for my mind to wander, and I was truly excited to get back on to South African soil.
Leading up to my last days, I was extremely busy. Not only did I have to juggle my return logistics, but I had to set aside enough time to study as well. A few tips in this regard:
- Do not book your flight for the last day of your academic programme thinking the official programme would probably have ended by then. Mine certainly did not as I had to write not one, but two exams on the day that I had booked my flight for!
- Do sort out your immigration admin a week before you are supposed to leave. If you leave it to the last week, it may just so happen that you don’t have enough time to sort it out at all as unforeseen things always seem to come up at the worst of times.
- Likewise, greet your friends a few days in advance as well, as the closer to your time for departure, the busier you’ll be – and before you know it you may be sending a friend a message via Facebook conveying how much you regret not having had a chance to properly greet him or her.
- In the same breath, I cannot stress enough how you should pack in advance! Again this has everything to do with your time which will seem all the more less the closer to your time of departure.
It goes without saying that I could go on with tips for days, so I’d rather not. I’d much rather share some thoughts with you about how my time abroad affected me personally and professionally . . .
So before I went to Germany, I never really thought of it as a country that I would love to visit as it was one of the countries that I just knew I would probably go to some time or another. It would usually be developing and culturally rich countries that I always thought I’d enjoy visiting first. Nonetheless, when the opportunity came for me to go to Germany, I obviously took it with both arms stretched wide – and boy am I happy I did!
The discipline of the Germans is probably what stands out the most for foreigners, and with me it was no different. The garbage system; one’s usage of electricity; rules of the road; time. . . These are only a few ways of German life that initially annoyed me, later to have grown upon me so much so that I now annoy my fellow South Africans with it. On my very first day in Wiesbaden, for instance, I experienced what wrath would come my way if I were to jay walk; I was introduced to two bins, one for recyclables and the other for waste; I witnessed a bus system that was swift, punctual and safe; and within a few days to follow, I was lectured about how expensive electricity is in Germany, so much so that I spent the rest of my stay switching off the light of the oven’s extractor each time I left the kitchen even if I were not done cooking! Needless to say many of these traits have now become a part of me too – though I believe jay walking is a part of me for good, apologies to my strict German friends!
I cannot say that my experience influenced my career path significantly, though I did realise that it is actually easier to travel while being a student than most students realise. Numerous funds are made available for travelling in this way, and thus, it’s merely a matter of students finding these opportunities. If I knew this earlier, I would definitely have travelled earlier. Hence, I can only encourage students reading this to ask around at their universities, or browse around on the internet to find these opportunities – and to do this especially if their academic standing shows that they would be a good investment.
Now hurry and start planning your academic exchange!