Personal Erasmus Report
University: Universidad de Deusto, Bilbao Programme: International Relations
In the first semester of 2018-19 I went on an exchange to the university of Deusto in Bilbao, Spain. The university of Deusto is a private university in the centre of one of the biggest cities in the Basque country. It is located next to the river and opposite of the famous Guggenheim museum of modern art.
I chose this university because of its interesting selection of courses. During my time at the university I followed five courses, 6 ECTS each. These courses were all part of the bachelor of international relations and they were: Civic and Professional Ethics, United States Foreign Policy, Latin America in the World, Promotion and Protection of Human Rights and Global Governance. All of my courses were taught in English, but it was also possible to follow several courses in Spanish or follow language courses, including on the Spanish and Basque language.
The teachers that I had for my courses were all able to speak good English. The courses were all of good standards, and provided me with new information. All of the courses I followed were fourth year courses at that university, and they were easily understandable for a third year IRIO student from Groningen. I did not try to follow any courses from previous years, therefore I cannot judge on their content.
Classes in Bilbao are different to the ones in Groningen. There are no large-scale lectures, all classes are in a small classroom and they are usually a mixture between a normal lecture and a seminar, including a lot of discussions. A pro about this was that it was a lot easier to ask questions to the professors, however a con was that the structure was a little bit unclear, as there was not just one topic discussed per week, which I was used to from Groningen.
Before I arrived in Bilbao I had received sufficient information from the university and its international relations office to know what I had to do when I got to the university.
The university office was open every day in the morning and from Monday to Thursday also in the afternoon and they were always able to help you if you had any problems.
They were the ones that provided all exchange students with Deusto university student cards, that allowed access to the library, and helped us with signing up for the courses. A small difficulty of the process of signing up for the courses was that the university did not have an online registration progress, therefore to sign up you had to visit the international relations office multiple times as well as visit the secretariat to ensure that you would be enrolled and were able to access the online material. As it was only after 2- 3 weeks that you were officially enrolled and therefore these first few weeks were a bit chaotic, as you had limited access to materials online. Luckily, all Spanish students are very helpful and it was always possible to obtain course materials via them.
One of the best things of the university was that they helped exchange students with finding accommodation. Via the university website you could apply for flats that had and this way you could ensure that you would have a house to live in when you arrived in Bilbao. I used this and it provided me with a very nice flat that I was able to live in for the whole semester. If you did not use this possibility online, you also still had the possibility to visit the international relations office when you arrived to the city and they were still happy to help you find a place to live.
Besides going to the university, Bilbao has a lot of other things to offer. There are a couple of museums in the city, including the famous Guggenheim museum of modern arts. As a student of the university of Deusto I had the possibility of signing up for a membership of the museum for only five euros, which gave me the possibility of going to the museum whenever I wanted for free. Besides daily museum trips the Guggenheim also offered parties. Every month on a Friday night the Guggenheim would have a couple of DJs in the museum and, with the membership, for only 11 euros it was possible to go and party in the museum for three hours.
Besides the museums the city is also famous for its great food. Everywhere around the city there were bars and cafés where you could buy “pintxos”, which is, simply said, the Basque name for tapas. These pintxos ranged from Spanish tortilla to small hamburgers and they are all over the city.
For exchange students in specific the city also has a lot to offer. There are two big Erasmus organizations in the city: Happy Erasmus and ESN Bilbao. These two groups organize events, including a welcome week, where you could meet a lot of other students, and weekend trips all around Spain and some even to Portugal and France. Via these two organizations it was very easy to make friends and meet other people from all over the world. They also organized parties in the biggest clubs in Bilbao every week, which made no week boring.
In general, I would say that I did not encounter a lot of problems in the university. As said before, the university was happy to help and the majority of the staff was able to speak in English. However, I would still recommend having some primary knowledge of the Spanish language or follow Spanish classes while studying at the university, as the rest of the city is primarily Spanish (or Basque). One thing that probably takes some getting used to, especially for my Dutch and German friends, is the organization and tempo of the university. It is all a bit more laid back and sometimes responses to emails can take days, while exam and presentation results can take weeks. This can be annoying at times, but it is best to be patient and if there are any important questions it is always possible to visit professors during their office hours at the university.
All in all I can definitely recommend an exchange at the university of Deusto. The university it self is very nice and interesting and the city of Bilbao and the coast of the Basque country is incredible. You have the option to stay in the city and enjoy some nice drinks, while you can also go for long hikes in the mountains around the city or along the beaches of the Basque country.
