Study Report ERASMUS+

faculty of arts

University of Groningen, NL Groning01 Erasmus+ KA1 Mobility 2019-2020

ERASMUS+

Study Report

This form needs to be completed by every student who has completed an

Erasmus+ mobility.

Last name

Weimert

First name

Patrick

RUG student number

S 3601773

Please enclose a 2-page report on your experiences abroad, using the

following headings:

1. Your study programme

2. Language

3. Finance and other conditions

4. Preparation and contacts with the faculty before, during and after

your stay

5. Housing

6. Culture

7. Free time

8. Travelling

9. Your host and home institution’s response to Covid-19, and the extent

to which the virus (countermeasures) affected your mobility

10. Other

I hereby give permission to the International Office to publish my report on the Faculty of Arts

Repository to inform future students

Yes No Future students may contact me for additional

information Yes No

Signature Participant

………

Date: 13/02/2021

1

University of Bologna – Campus Forlì

First of let me start this report with a warning. If you are studying at the faculty of arts in Groningen then your exchange will not bring to the historic red city of Bologna with the legendary fountain of Neptune, the astonishing red buildings everywhere and the sunsets at San Luca. However, you will go to the city of Forlì with 117.000 inhabitants and a vivid student life. Hence, you should be ready to spend the majority of your time here, even though Bologna is one hour away by train and you can visit it quite easily.

My Study Programme

Even though you will not study in the city of Bologna, you will still study at the University of Bologna. It is one of the oldest Universities in the world and globally known. Once you get accepted you have to craft a Learning Agreement and the University of Bologna will provide you with a mentor, which is a student. So, don’t be surprised if he is asking you to hang out and grab a beer together. You can ask your mentor anything and he will help you operate the course catalogue. There is not that many Bachelor courses in English available and you also have to watch out not to take too similar courses like the once you already took in Groningen (example: if you take the course Theory of International Relations you will perhaps not receive another 10ECTs because the IRIO programme’s course is too similar). Therefore, I can highly recommend you to look into the Master courses in English because they can also help you to look into possible future Master programmes and it is allowed to take them. Personally, I took two Master courses on Eastern European studies. One of them is

History of the Soviet Union and Russian Foreign Politics and the other one was called Economic Transition of Eastern Europe. Those courses really offered me a greater

insight on the EU – Russian relationship and can help you if you want to go into this direction later. Furthermore, I took one Bachelor course called International Politics

of East Asia, which can help you to understand the complex relationship between

China, Japan, Korea and the ASEAN countries. Furthermore, keep in mind that nothing you write into the Learning Agreement is set in stone, if you want to change a course after two weeks of class it is usually no problem. So, do not hesitate to take more classes than you need in the beginning and just finish the ones that you prefer. Additionally to my other courses, I have taken an Italian class offered by the University of Bologna for foreigners, which brings me to the next aspect.

Language

If you are coming from the comfort zone of the Netherlands us foreigners often forget that not everyone speaks English. Therefore, you have to be aware that not everyone in Forlì can or even wants to speak English with you. If you are asking if they speak English in most of the cases you will get “a little bit” as an answer, even though most people there can speak English very well. Keep in mind that it is a different culture, which has not internalized English as much as the Dutch. Therefore, it can prove to be useful to learn some Italian not as much as to become fluent, but more to show that you are interested and that will make a lot of people happy. Furthermore, the people in Emilia-Romagna are among the nicest in Italy so even if they do not speak English many of them are very friendly and will try to help you.

2

Finance and other Conditions:

If you are a foreigner in Groningen then Forlì might seem like paradise for you. Finding a room was relatively easy for me and my friends and none of us paid more than 300 Euros per month. However, if you never paid rent before it will be more challenging. You should definitely apply for the Erasmus Grant and it should be enough to cover your rent completely. Nevertheless, you will have other expenses like food and travel, for which you should calculate about 400 Euros a month.

Preparation and contacts with the faculty before, during and

after your stay

When you get accepted for the exchange, the first contact you will receive is the one of the exchange coordinator. However, the coordinator is covering a lot of students and is also a professor so they usually have a lot of things to do and might not reply as fast as some other instances. Once you receive your university email you should regularly check this because your mentor will contact you here first. Once you have made contact with your mentor you should direct your questions to him/her because they have the most time. If you need any information before that you should contact the office for international students (campusforli.uri@unibo.it), which are always fast to answer and very helpful. They will provide you with all the necessary information before and after the exchange.

Housing

As said before, the housing situation in Forlì is more relaxed than the one in Groningen. You have several options. The University of Bologna usually recommends Koine or Serinar (https://www.serinar.unibo.it/) to find your apartment because they are connected to the University and therefore the safest. However, Koine does not seem to exist anymore since 2020 and I am not sure if they are closed indefinitely. There is also the Tower Campus (http://www.towercampus.com/it/), if you prefer to have privacy for a higher price. It can also be useful to look on AirBNB because they sometimes offer contracts for half a year, which most landlords do not.

Culture, Free Time & Traveling

Due to the Covid19 situation I will have to cut this part short. In general I have to say that Forlì and Groningen are quite similar, but Groningen is way more student oriented. Forlì only has one fitness studio and the prices are incredibly high compared to Groningen. Coming from one of the most student oriented cities in the Netherlands we are quite spoiled with activities and organizations being constantly thrown at us. This does by no means mean that they do not exist in Forlì, but you will have to put additional effort in finding them. Especially during the corona situation it proves useful to have friends that are engaged in finding the activities that you can do. I can assure you that there are plenty of things to do and especially travelwise the city is in the perfect location. You are actually closer to the beach than Bologna so you should make use of that! Emilia Romagna offers real treasures like Bertinoro, Rimini, Bologna and San Marino being all less than one hour away. Furthermore, you

3 are right in between Venice and Florence, which gives you the perfect opportunity to see both. That does not sound too bad right?

The culture in Emilia-Romagna is genuinely one of the most welcoming I have ever been to and if you pick classes in English you should have no trouble in finding friends easily. Also, don’t be surprised if the salesman/woman in the bakery wants to talk with you and asks where you are from.

Your host and home institution’s response to Covid-19, and

the extent to which the virus (countermeasures) affected

your mobility

In this part I have to put out a huge thank you to the University of Bologna. They have done an incredible job to make my experience as comfortable as possible and it is amazing how much they did given the circumstances. While all my colleagues in the Netherlands were having online classes, the University of Bologna offered a blending teaching method in which you as a student can decide whether you are comfortable going to class or not. The teachers would always be connected to Microsoft Teams and everyone would be able to follow the classes online and ask questions via chat, but simultaneously a limited amount of people (usually 30) were allowed to enroll for classes in presence, while wearing a face mask and sanitizing your hands before and after class. The teachers and the stuff have done an incredible job in supporting their students and I cannot imagine the bureaucratic process they have gone through.