Go on exchange! Ever thought about studying abroad? Here Roman and Maëlle will share with us their experiences about going on exchange abroad. Roman is an International business student who graduated in december 2020 and did his exchange in Germany. Maëlle is a French exchange student that is currently on exchange here at VAMK. HEY! MY NAME IS ROMAN, and I graduated from VAMK International Business Bachelor’s programme in December 2020. Today, I would like to tell you a little bit about my exchange studies. My program was a special one: I took an entire year as part of a double-degree programme which took place in Mannheim, Germany. My university was a private institution called Mannheim HdWM and the program I chose was very close to what I was studying already: International Business Management. THE STUDIES were very professional and interactive in a way that reflects Finnish educational model to some degree. Our class size was pretty much the same, around 15-20 maximum. What I liked the most was the way the schedule was formed. Instead of having one subject, for example Debating, 2 or 3 times a week for 1h45min sessions or smaller it was formed into one big 3-4h long class just once a week. On a lucky day, I had just 1 class and left the school at midday. This really allowed me to flexibly distribute my time as I spent quite a lot of it in the Erasmus community and travels. I got to meet a lot of really amazing people from all over the world. In my 2 years before that in Finland I almost never met people from countries like Canada, Australia, US, or UK. But here I met so many of them. Especially enjoyed my time with my Canadian friends from Montreal. The student life was vibrant and colourful: there were events, festivals, and conferences going on all year round, and especially in spring/summer. Besides that, I dedicated some time to learning German in the language school that was just next to my university (how convenient!). I am 40 Nivaska I 2021
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