faculty of arts
University of Groningen, NL Groning01 Erasmus+ KA1 Mobility
2019-2020 Report Experience Abroad – UK (Brighton)
A. Mathijssen
My Study Programme
Within the study programme of European Languages and Cultures there is an option to go abroad in your third year of studying. Within our study programme we choose a language, so most students go to a country where the language they chose is their major language. As my major language is English I chose to go to the UK, more specifically Brighton University. At Brighton I had three courses of 10 ECTS each, two of them were linguistics related, one of them had more to do with teaching methods and styles. The work load was similar to that of ELC in Groningen, there were three contact hours per course: 1.5 hours lecture and 1.5 hours seminar.
Language
As I chose English there was not much of a language barrier when I arrived in the UK. My teachers were easy to understand and my written English was of a good enough level to have no trouble in class. However, most of the friends I made whilst I was in the UK were also international students, which made for some slip-ups in communication. This was not a big issue though, and I feel like I learned a lot from this and from living in another country. At some point I started to miss speaking Dutch, as I did not have that much contact with Dutch people where I would actually speak to them, but as English is my second language I never felt uncomfortable with the language.
Finance and other conditions
Erasmus gives you a “scholarship” for going abroad. This was not enough to pay for the full exchange, however, it was a very nice help to make everything possible. You get 70% before you go abroad and the other 30% after you have finished everything. For different countries they have set a different amount of money you should receive per month based on the costs of living per country. The UK is placed in the first tier of this system, meaning that you will get the highest possible scholarship per month that you are officially studying there. For me this meant that I got payed 5 months. Receiving the 70% beforehand made it possible for me to take care of housing before actually going to the UK. Moreover, it made it possible to buy my books and necessities for classes.
Preparation and contacts with the faculty before, during, and after
There is a lot that needs to be taken care of before you can go abroad. Once you have clarity on everything that needs to be done, it is not too hard to take care of. Just make sure you will keep all the forms you have filled out, as you sometimes need to hand them in several times or they will ask about it later. During mobility there is a high chance that you have to change the classes you initially signed up for. Don’t worry about this, it is very normal. I had to change classes three times, as they either overlapped, weren’t available or weren’t given at all anymore. Eventually, there were not that many options anymore, so I got the three courses that were left and had something to do with linguistics. After mobility there were a lot of issues to deal with. Brighton University had several strikes at the beginning of the year which
1 delayed the processing of my grades. Moreover, after I came back from the UK the corona virus spread quite fast across the UK, which made the process of getting my Transcript of Records very tedious en slow. It took me till the start of July to receive my credits, over two months after the initial deadline. The bureau for student affairs were very helpful and understanding throughout this process. As long as I kept them updated on everything, there were no issues for my Erasmus.
Housing
I found it very hard to find a place when I moved to the UK. The university did not really help, as they 0nly had accommodation options for students who would stay for at least one academic year. The houses that I looked into also had a minimal lease of a year, which made it more difficult to find something. Eventually, I had the option to move in with a host family. It cost me around 700 euros a month including breakfast en dinner. It was definitely not the cheapest option, but it was a nice experience. I was able to live with the host family together with a friend of mine, which made the transition much easier.
Culture
In general, the cultural differences between the UK and the Netherlands are very little. Furthermore, the university had several lectures and meetings, both mandatory and not, where we got the option to talk about the differences we have noticed and where they gave us a list of possible people we could go to and talk about issues we might have. As most of my friends were other international students I did learn a lot about different cultures, just not necessarily that of the UK.
Free time
In my free time, my friends and I have visited several other cities and must-see places in the span of my Erasmus. We, for example, went to Stonehenge, Bath, and London, walked the Seven Sisters chalkcoast, saw a theatre performance of Mary Shelly’s Frankenstein and over all enjoyed the new experiences. My one and only tip is to find like-minded people who you can take on these experiences with.
Travelling
As I went to the South of the UK, my parents were able to drive me over when I went away in September. However, I took a flight back home for Christmas with all my stuff. I should have thought about the weight-limit of planes before I packed with the mindset of “this will easily fit in the car”. Luckily, my parents visited me around the end of October, so they took some of my stuff back home for me. Travelling within the UK was fairly easy once I had figured everything out. The only issue was paying by card. It was not possible to get the public transport (bus) app and pay with my debit card, as I needed a credit card for that. I did not have one, as I assumed that my debit card would work for everything in the UK. Luckily my friend was able to pay it for me with her credit card, and I payed her back. The bus
connection was very good in Brighton, though there was no 9292-esque website or app to actually check when the bus was going to be anywhere. Google maps did very well though. Other
The main tips for anyone who will read this: Get a credit card, make sure you can actually take all your stuff back home by plane, and be part of the introduction activities they have planned for new students. All and all, going abroad was a great experience for me, and if it wasn’t that big of a hassle to figure everything out, I would do it again in a heartbeat.
