UU Report form - Erasmus 2014-2015 faculty/college Social Science level bachelor s master s PhD name study programme Antropology destination city & country name university abroad start date end date Czech Republic, Prague Charles University 09 / 02 / 2015 (dd/mm/yyyy) 27 / 06 / 2015 (dd/mm/yyyy) exchange application process You are requested to write on the following topics. Text boxes will expand automatically while typing! PREPARATION There a re a lot staps to take before leaving to the country of exchange. However, those steps are made clear by the university very well, and i spoke with a lot of ather students who has to take the same staps. This is something i can highly recommend, not only because it makes it more easy to not forget something, morover it is way more fun! counselling & support at Utrecht University There is a lot of information online available. If this is till not clear and you have questions left, STIP is willing to give you all the providing information, ore sent you to the right person website or whatever. academic preparation For me it was not clear which conent to study abroad, therefore i was before my departure just busy with courses of utrecht university, wating what charles university would offering me. language preparation I haven't applied for any language courses. I also didn't nead it because everything was thought in english finances Prague is a good city to live. For 10 euros a month travelling is free. Groceries are of similar prices as in Dutch supermarkets. However, going to cinema's/theatre/musea/swimmingpool/sauna/restaurants and cafe's is at least 50 percent cheaper, especially if you avoid the most touristic ones. Housing costs depends highly on where you stay, but is still cheaper than back home. Nevertheless spending money is so easy that you have to be carefull! study programme (content and organisational issues) STUDY ABROAD PERIOD The period starts with the posibility to visit those courses you are interested in, before signing up officially. During the whole semester you will follow the same courses, which is different from the block system at Utrecht University. In the end you have to make some final tests/essays, and some teachers require you to present something half way. Moreover, students are able to choose within three different dates each final test a course to make. This makes it very easy to bring everything to a good end without overlapping unconvenient schedules. academic quality of education activities page 1 of 11
Every teacher creates their own course, so the quality of the course fully depends on the skills of the teacher. This makes some courses very good, and others very bad. In addition i have heard teachers god honored along the amount of passing students is high, which means that the tests are very easy to make, ore not seriously judged. This doesn't mean the content of courses are not interesting, they just don't often expect a lot of work from you. counselling & support at receiving university abroad Charles University has a very good ICCUNI organization, organising a lot of trips, information and the international office is very good organized and answers all the e-mails in time. transfer of credits When i am writing this, i have not got all my credits yet. I know it is no problem to transfer those to the system of University Utrecht, because the international office in Prague gave me all the information to do so when every credit is announced in the online student information system they work with. At Charles University most of the teachers work with a 1-4 grading system. 1 means very good, 4 means very bad, however 3 means passed as well. welcome & orientation programme STUDENT LIFE ICCUNI organized a lot of trips which made my start here very pleasant. During my trip to Bohemian Paradise i met a couple of friends i hang out whole semester with. They gave a presentation about Czech Culture and Habits, offered us guided tours trough the faculty buildings and organized buddy systems and tandem courses. All in all a great and complete programm, not only during the first week, but the whole semester. accommodation I stayed in Prague 2, in a shared flat founded on myflatshare.com. This flat I shared with a Slowakian girl, not doing erasmus, but here whole study in Prague. There are a lot of students staying in different Dormitories, i heard some good and bad stories about this. Good: Always accompanied with students, making friends very easily and living very cheap. Bad: distance to city center, less privacy, no possibilities to cook (hardly). I am very glad with living in the center, because prague is beautiful and i like walking home to my university more than take the metro for 40 minutes. The general costs a month for living in the center are about 300 euros, depending on which quarter and sharing yes or no. leisure & culture Prague is a very interesting city with a lot of history. I can recommend you to stay here at least the summer semester since from february till june everything became more beautiful with the increasing sunny hours a day. From drinking beers in smokey pubs (A lot of pubs, a lot of smoke, a lot of beer but also a lot of athmosphere) to a lot of grilling frisbeeing swimming and eating in parks made life here very good. It is interesting to see how the charles bridge became fuller and fuller with the coming of the summerperiod. People are friendly, down to earth and really into music (balkan/classical/jazz) and literature. In trams an metro's people are reading books rather than playing games on their iphone. You can see young and olders carying there guitar saxophone ore contrabass everywhere, and streetmusicians are very talented. suggestions/tips If you want to buy a bike, which i tried to do, please do so in wintertime, they are more cheap. You nead a tourike rather than a roadbike, because the wheels are thicker, which is more suitable for the stones on the streets. However, cycling is not always diminishing traveling time, because you have to be careful with tourists walking in your way, with traffic driving in front of you, or hills making you feel very exhausted when arrived at the place to be. However, i really liked cycling trough prague, even though it is quite rare to do so. CONCLUSIONS page 2 of 11
would you recommend this university/destination abroad to others? please explain I highly recommend you to go to prague for studying, because it is a small interesting citycenter, providing you a lot of good facilities to study in old historic libraries and buildings. Further arguments are written down before. do you have any additional advice or comments? For me my stay in Prague was really helpfull with taking distance from home, to think about what i want to do when i am back, regarding to studies, work, future life and everything. I learned besides some theories from scholars in the courses how to survive abroad, I learned to know new friends, to communicate in English/Erasmus language and the fact that life is about making descisions and accepting that you are not able to do everything. This last part is essential for erasmus exchange, since everyone is suggesting activities, everyone is nice, and every place in prague is beautiful in its own way, above all: Everything is possible! page 3 of 11
UU Report form - Erasmus 2014-2015 faculty/college faculty of social sciences level bachelor s master s PhD name study programme pedagogische wetenschappen destination city & country name university abroad start date end date Prague, czech republic Charles University 22 / 09 / 2014 (dd/mm/yyyy) 14 / 02 / 2015 (dd/mm/yyyy) exchange application process You are requested to write on the following topics. Text boxes will expand automatically while typing! PREPARATION At first I was very confused about the application process, but after I found the right information I found it was an easy process to go through. counselling & support at Utrecht University The international office of the faculty of social sciences replied fast on my emails, helped me out when I didn't know what to do and the people I talked to were very kind to me. academic preparation I didn't prepare myself and I didn't need it language preparation I didn't prepare myself and I didn't need it finances I had some savings from work study programme (content and organisational issues) STUDY ABROAD PERIOD When I got to the university I found out thati couldn't follow pedagogical courses since the department of pedagogy was at a other faculty than the faculty of social sciences. therefore I followed courses in media studies, american studies and sociology. At first I was annoyed but I actualy really enjoyed broadening my knowledge in diferent study fields. There were a lot of organisational isues at charles university (I couldn't get my studentcard at the time that I should, therefore I coudn't register for classes. By the time I could register for classes almost all of the english courses were full and I had myself on a waitnig list for 6 courses. Furthermore, one of the courses switched from englisch to czech the day befor the first lecture) academic quality of education activities The academic quality of courses differed a lot. SOme coursese were chaotic and felt pretty useless, other were really interesting and very well organized. I enjoyed the fact that the teachers were from different countries as well. page 4 of 11
counselling & support at receiving university abroad I didn't get much support at charles university, however I didn't really ask for it either. transfer of credits I haven't had my credits transferred yet since I still wait for one course to submit my final mark. welcome & orientation programme STUDENT LIFE Fun and clear accommodation I found my own accomodation in the middle of the city center, had a lot of fun and was very pleased with my apartment and flatmates leisure & culture It is insane how much fun things you can do in prague for cheap prices. I sincerely had the time of my life. suggestions/tips Don't miss out on anything because you want to save some money, that would be a shame CONCLUSIONS would you recommend this university/destination abroad to others? please explain Yes! The courses aren't hard and the studentlife in prague is amazing! Be prepared for a university that kind of lacks in organization though. do you have any additional advice or comments? page 5 of 11
UU Report form - Erasmus 2014-2015 faculty/college Social Science level bachelor s master s PhD name study programme Cultural Anthropology destination city & country name university abroad start date end date Prague, Czech Republic Charles University 07 / 02 / 2015 (dd/mm/yyyy) 30 / 06 / 2015 (dd/mm/yyyy) exchange application process You are requested to write on the following topics. Text boxes will expand automatically while typing! PREPARATION The preparation before leaving was quite clear, only the websites of different university really diverse. On some websites it was quite hard to find courses etc. thus it could take some extra time to search everything out. counselling & support at Utrecht University Support was fine, I had e-mail contact and that went very well and you need get a few signatures but you can get them at the international office hours. They were really helpful. academic preparation Academic preparation, before the start of the semester abroad you could already look online on the website to see which courses they offer. Nevertheless, all the courses that I put on my learning agreement before arriving in Prague changed and I choose other courses then which I thought I would follow in the beginning. language preparation Personally, I don't think you need language preparation before leaving. The English level of students are most of the time good enough and often even better incomparing with other countries. Futhermore, the teachers take into account that you are not a native speaker. finances Prague is a "cheap" city incomparisson with The Netherlands. Espacially going to the theater, musea, bioscoop, going out for dinner etc. The supermarkt prices are not really cheaper than back home. For 10 euro's a month you can buy a monthly travel card, which means that you can travel in trams, metro, busses the whole month for just one amount. The rent of houses are not really cheaper, maybe in comparasson with Amsterdam it will be, but my rent here is higher than in Utrecht but that is because I am leaving really centeral. study programme (content and organisational issues) STUDY ABROAD PERIOD When you arrive in Prague the first two weeks of the semester starts which enrolling for courses online. It is possible in these first two weeks to attend as many courses as you want to see which courses you prefer the most. After these two weeks you decide which courses you are going to follow for the whole semster, so for 5 months. I followed 5 courses for 5 months. Half of May the classes mostly finish and then the exam period starts which could take till the end of June. Normally there are three dates on which you can pass your exam, so if you fill the first time, you can go the second date and retake your exam, and even to the thirth date. So there are many options when and how many times you want to do your exam. For me most of the times I had to page 6 of 11
write essays which you after email to your teacher and then two weeks later you get your results. academic quality of education activities The academic level is in comparing with what you are used to in the Netherlands, "easy". Personally, I didn't study a lot in the first 3 months. In addition, in May most of the students are officially free and you don't have classes anymore. However, you will need to put effort in your exams and papers, which you need to write. The last month, I went everyday to the library to finish all my courses. Most of the people are in the beginning of June already free and finshed there semster. Thus quite a lot of people were already leaving in the beginning of June. counselling & support at receiving university abroad There is a lot of information given in the first introduction week but still after this week you can always go to the information office during the office hours and they will help out! Furthermore, Charles University organization, ICCUNI, which is organized by students who organize a lot of trips and where you can always as them for more specific information which is related to the university or about living in Prague. transfer of credits Every students has his own account on the Internet where you can see which courses you follow, your schedule of the week and in the end as well all your exams that you succeeded. If every teacher completed to put your grade into the system you can go to the international office where they will give you a paper with your credits. And normally you can then go if you are back home to your own international office, which are translating your grades to our system Osiris. Because the Charles University gives only grades between 1-4 thus they have to be translated to our grade system in Utrecht. welcome & orientation programme STUDENT LIFE At the beginning of your stay you got a lot of information and everything is a little bit chaotic, however I think that will be everywhere the same. ICCUNI organizes a lot of trips and games to meet new people in the first week. I got an email when I was still in The Netherlands where I got register for different trips from ICCUNI which you could attent in the first week of the semester. I think everything was good organized, some trips were quite boring but others were really nice, like the Bohemian Paradise trip! accommodation The first week of the semester I stayed in a campus, Hostivar. And after one week someone offered me a room in the centre of Prague which I could not resist. The campus are fine if there are a lot of people staying but most of the people move out after two months. The campus are most of the time 40 min. away from the city center and the rooms are really small and the area is depressing, but really cheap. For me, the people that I met all lived in the city and had found there rooms already before coming to Prague. I really can recommend to live in the city instead of a campus but I know a lot of people who had a lot of fun in the campus because they were together, with a whole group of people. leisure & culture The city is amazing, full of history and architecture. There are a lot of pubs where you can hang around and drink a beer, it is still normal to smoke instead pubs and restaurants. There are many musea and theaters are everywhere and still old and outshinning from the architecture inside. There are many parks which brings you back to the nature, where it is more calm then in the city city. Picknicking in the park and playing soccer outside is relly nice, so I would recommend to stay in the summer semster because the weather is great here! There are also a lot of interesting place close by Prague, such as Karlovy Vary, Theresienstadt and Cesky Krumlov. Futhermore, there are many things going on in the city, food festival, film festival etc. and there is every Saturday a really nice market at Naplavaka. suggestions/tips page 7 of 11
The farmer market at Saturday, Vysehrad, Cesky Krumlov, Bio Oko (a really cool cinema), Clear Head (Best vetetarian restaurant) Chapeau Rouge (Club to go out) Tricafe (Really nice place to get a coffee, close to Hollar building from social science) Café Neustadt CONCLUSIONS would you recommend this university/destination abroad to others? please explain Yes, the city offers a lot of culture and history and it is beautiful where every you walk. It is cheap and studying is not that hard, so if you want to go abroad because they offer amazing classes etc. then I would not choose Prague but for me it was good that the courses were not that hard as back home so you could more free time to experience life here and to meet new people instead of studying every day. I would recommend to go in the summer semester because I think the city is more alive when the sun is shinning!! do you have any additional advice or comments? Go abroad, it doesn't matter where you go but the fact that you leave your own save town! Experience live somewhere else, meet new people and create your own life on another spot in the world!! page 8 of 11
UU Report form - Erasmus 2014-2015 faculty/college Social Sciences level bachelor s master s PhD name study programme Psychology destination city & country name university abroad start date end date Prague, Czech Republic Charles University 22 / 09 / 2014 (dd/mm/yyyy) 28 / 01 / 2015 (dd/mm/yyyy) exchange application process You are requested to write on the following topics. Text boxes will expand automatically while typing! PREPARATION The application process was easy and organised really well. You had to chose your destination, and all steps and deadlines you had to take were explained well. counselling & support at Utrecht University The support from Utrecht University was good. They replied your emails really fast, and there were opportunities to meet them to answer your questions. academic preparation There was not really a academic preparation you had to do, only making a schedule for the rest of your study programme. language preparation You could take a lot of courses in English, so you didn't need to speak Czech. However, there was an option for doing a intensive language course before the university started, but I didn't take this. I followed a Czech for Beginners course during the semester to speak a bit of the language. finances You had to make a financial plan as part of the application, but besides that I didn't do a lot of financial preparation, because Prague is not more expensive than the Netherlands. study programme (content and organisational issues) STUDY ABROAD PERIOD I had a lot of problems with my study programme in the beginning of my stay. The problem was that in Prague the Social Sciences contain studies like economics, politics, media studies and sociology, while psychology is part of the Faculty of Arts. You should take at least 51% of your courses at the faculty you have an exchange with, which meant for me that I couldn't follow the courses I wanted to follow, because they were at another faculty. They told me that if you tell them a few months in advance, that it is possible to switch faculty, so I could really recommend to check at which faculty your courses are and with which faculty you have an exchange. Besides that you could enroll for the courses after you got your student card, and people who get this card earlier could enroll for the courses earlier, which results in the fact that a lot of courses were full. A good part is that in the first two weeks you could follow all courses and drop courses which you don't like. In the end my courses were okay, but it would have been nice if I would have know that I had an exchange with the ''wrong'' faculty. page 9 of 11
academic quality of education activities The courses I took were not that difficult. Teacher were really easy with exams and papers, and I also didn't read any books. I heard that for some other courses this was diffirent, but in general is the academic quality lower than in the Netherlands. counselling & support at receiving university abroad The coordinator of the International Office was really helpful, which was really nice. There was also another contact person, and when I emailed here about if it was possible to follow the psychology courses at the Faculty of Arts, she told me that this was only for students of the Faculty of Arts. However, when I went to the teachers of these courses, they told me that it was no problem to follow the course. So my advice is to just go to the teachers and ask them if it is possible to follow the course. transfer of credits The transfer of credits was well organised. When all you have got all your grades, you had to send them an email that you wanted to get your transcript of records, and one day after you could pick up the paper. welcome & orientation programme STUDENT LIFE They had a really nice and well organised orientation week. It last from Monday till Sunday, and during the week there were some parties, pub crawl, lecture about the Czech culture, some games in the city and a Czech lunch. In the weekend was there the possibility to go on a day trip or to a football match. I could really recommend to participate in the orientation week, because you really get to know the city and this is the first opportunity to meet people. accommodation There is the possibility to stay in the dorms, which the university offers. I stayed in the dorms, and I had a really great time there. You share a room with one other person, and you have bathroom in the room as well. You share the kitchen with 19 other people, and this is really small. It is a bit outside the city, but during the day it takes you 25 minutes and during the night 40 minutes by tram. The public transport is really good during the night, so that is no problem. The room is only 140 euros per month, and because there are a lot of international students it is really easy to meet people. There is also a possibility to first go to the dorms, and if you don't like it you can move out to a flat in the city center. There are a lot of Facebook pages to find a flat in the city center, so if you want a room for yourself and more in the city center, it is also easy to find a flat. Ofcourse you should be lucky with your roommate, but if you get along well, then it is really worth it to go to the dorms, because it is cheap and you get to know so many people! leisure & culture You have a lot of spare time to make trips, get to know a lot of people, do a lot of sightseeing and go to parties. I had about 10 hours of lectures during the week, but besides that I didn't need to do a lot for university. The culture is a bit different than the Netherlands, like that people working in shops are really rude and not helpful. But you get to used to this really fast, and besides that you get to know most international students in stead of locals. suggestions/tips It is good to realize what you want as accomodation. If you are easy with your privacy and do not mind to share a room. then I can really recommend to go to the dorms. If you prefer to have a single room, then I could recommend to participate actively in the orientation week, so that you meet a lot of people. Because the university was not that difficult, you have a lot of free time, so it is great to spend this with all the people you meet over there. CONCLUSIONS page 10 of 11
would you recommend this university/destination abroad to others? please explain I could recommend to go to Charles University. For me Erasmus was about meeting people from all over the world, and if this is your goal to Prague is perfect. The city is really beautifull and there are always things going on. It is really central so easy to travel to other countries, and the university organises a lot of trips and activities. Only if the academic level of the university is really important for you, then you should considerate to go to another university. do you have any additional advice or comments? The dates of the university are not totally true. Most of the time it was already possible to take your exam before the Christmas holiday. If you want to take it in January or the exam is in January, then it was most of the time in the second week of January. So it is no problem to be back before the university in the Netherlands starts again, although they say that the end date is the 13 th of February. page 11 of 11