A Blog about Education Abroad

Category: Semester Exchange Postings

Blog Postings by Returning Stellenbosch University Students

  • Nina at the University of Amsterdam, The Netherlands

    Nina at the University of Amsterdam, The Netherlands

    Pre-departure preparation: To Amsterdam!

    Thanks to the support offered by both the International Office at Stellenbosch University, and my host University in Amsterdam, the administration aspect of my preparation was very easy. I was also really lucky to have a European passport, which meant that I didn’t have to deal with any of the stress and admin related to the process of applying for a Visa. The following things are important to take note of in terms of pre-departure admin:

    • Find out whether you need to apply for a residence permit. Since I had a European passport, this did not apply to me, but I did need to register with the Municipality when I arrived in Amsterdam.

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  • Lené at Ghent University, Belgium

    Lené at Ghent University, Belgium

    Pre-Departure:

    How exciting the news was when I first heard I was accepted to go on an exchange!! It was something like a distant dream that came true (even though you have been busy with paperwork and application processes for aaaages)

    The first tip of all – create a Dropbox folder and keep all your checklists, application forms and ALL scanned documents together. It really made my life easier knowing that I have all the documents together and I can access it anywhere with internet.

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  • Jane at the University of Antwerp, Belgium

    Jane at the University of Antwerp, Belgium

    Pre-departure:

    I was extremely excited pre-departure but I also had a long list of things to do and the list was continually growing…

    I would recommend organising all visa applications as soon as you can. Fortunately the whole process went very smoothly for me. In order to get my visa for Belgium I had to have x-rays done and a doctor’s certificate to certify that I was in good health. Unfortunately the Belgian’s only allow for Belgian-certified doctors as I had previously made an appointment with my local doctor only to find that she was not Belgian-approved and thus had to organise an appointment with one that was. The police clearance can take quite a bit of time but the University of Stellenbosch helps to organise that whole process which makes it a lot easier as you do not have to send it to Pretoria yourself. The actual visa appointment also went well although it does require coughing up even more money and having proof that you’ll have enough money to survive in Belgium. This can be quite expensive for a South African converting Rands into Euros. At the time of my trip it was just under R15 to one Euro.

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