Erfahrungsberichte

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Land:
Niederlande

Universität:
Hogeschool Rotterdam

Semester und Studiengang:
7. Semester Bachelor International Management

Aufenthalt:
Wintersemester 2013

Über die Universität:
At the Hogeschool in Rotterdam, two independent programmes for Erasmus students were offered: IBEX (International Business Experience) and IBaC (International Business and Career). IBEX is more about theory and they suggest to take the programme when you are in earlier semesters. IBAC, the programme I picked, is mostly about a group project, which is worth 15 ECTS. Students will work together in groups and develop an expansion plan for a local company. First the students have to make a reasonable choice on the country, then the Entry Strategy and Marketing Plan, and eventually develop an Action Plan.

The Semester is split up into two individual blocks, courses will also change when the second block starts. In addition to the project (supporting classes in export management, finance or marketing are also offered each semester), students can choose from 5-6 electives. Every student has to pick three.

I chose "European Business", "The Bottom Line" and "Art and Philosophy". The offered electives where quite different to the ones at my home university (which I liked). European Business, for example, includes a trip to the European Council in Bruxelles, a trip to The Hague (Peace Palace) and introduces the students to the practices and daily business of the European Union. Art and Philosophy was also very neat and included a brief introduction of all major periods of art history and a trip to the Boijmans Van Beuningen Museum in Rotterdam.

All available courses are fully taught in English, including all electives and presentations. Also, most presentations or reports are written and presented in groups. Individual assignments are rather untypical. Assignments and presentations are also done more frequently (workload is fairly large!).

About the university: The Commercial Management Faculty is very close to the student housing facilities. This allows very easy access by bike and even walking (you can also take the tram).

Betreuung vor Ort:
We have been well taken care of from the beginning! The IBaC programme starts off with an introduction event, where all professors, lecturers, assistants and the international office is presented to the students. This way it is quite easy to find out who you need to talk to in case you have questions or problems. We also had a programme assistant, who created a Facebook page for all the students of the programme - This allowed very easy and fast communication.

During the introduction event, all students would present a typical food of their home country. Afterwards, students have time to meet and greet. Part of the introduction programme is a team building day! This was very cool, in my opinion, since we could get to know each other much better.

Accommodation: I stayed with the Student Housing, organized by the university. You can directly apply at the university for a room. They may even ask you whether you would like to rent an apartment. Students share the apartment with one or two other students, but have their own bed room (very large, but few furniture!). All together, my stay was quite nice. You have very good access to the university, stores and Rotterdam downtown (by bike or tram).

In case you stay longer than four months, you will have to register at the City Hall, which is a quite time consuming undertaking. It takes at least one month to get an appointment. You will need to do this registration, if you want to open a local bank account, for example.

Tipps:
When you come to Holland, you should definitely bring your bicycle. You will find lots of gorgeous bicycle lanes in Rotterdam and Holland. They are almost like separate roads. This is the easiest way to get around in the city. The tram and the metro system are very good, you need to buy an OV chipcard to ride the trains. This can be done at all major stations.

I really enjoyed the international atmosphere of Rotterdam. Almost everyone will be able to understand English. Even movies in the movie theatre or on TV are in English. Rotterdam has a very broad nightlife, international cuisine and offers many fun and historic past time activities, like museums or a very nice zoo. It is very simple to get to close cities like Amsterdam or The Hague.

The programme at the Hogeschool Rotterdam is completely different from my studies at home, but the very close international cooperation and teamwork is a lot of fun. One major downside, at least in my opinion, is the Dutch grading system. Professors do not seem to give the highest grade at all. Grades in general are rather low.
But I enjoyed the very practical approach of the programme. It is very interesting to work on a complex project, all the way from the start to the final implementation. Professors and local students are always really kind and helpful in case you have questions. We could always contact them via email and we also had a Facebook group for all members of the programme to organize ourselves.