Study Report ERASMUS+

faculty of arts

University of Groningen, NL Groning01 Erasmus+ KA1 Mobility

2020-2021

ERASMUS+

Study Report

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

Erasmus+ mobility.

Last name

Middeldorp

First name

Chinouk

RUG student number

S 3311430

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: 24/03/2021

1 Dear reader,

My name is Chinouk, at the time of writing this report I am 22 years old, and a Dutch student living and studying in Groningen. For the past couple of years I have been following the Bachelors programme International Relations and International Organization. Part of this programme is to go on an exchange abroad for a semester, which is why I decided to apply to go to Iceland and study there for half a year. In this report I will tell you all about my experience, so I can hopefully help you in making your decision a bit easier when applying for a semester abroad. Please do not hesitate to contact me if you have any more questions about Iceland or an exchange semester in general!

My study programme

As I mentioned above, my study programme in Groningen is IRIO, but my exchange with the University of Iceland (Háskóli Íslands), was an exchange with the Faculty of History and Philosophy, which is why about 60% of the credits I have obtained in Iceland were courses from that faculty, as that was a requirement to be able to go on exchange. Besides these courses I also took a political science course and a course from the Faculty of Humanities. In general there are quite a lot of courses suitable for exchange students that are taught in English at the university, and the information on which courses are available at which level, when and how to register for them were overall clearly communicated, but I’ll get back to that in a bit more detail below. In general I would say that there are very interesting courses taught at the university, and that there’s an option for everyone to put together a programme that suits them best. Every semester exchange courses can vary a little bit, but the university also clearly communicates about this. The only thing to keep in mind here is to make sure that if you, like me, are an exchange student with a certain faculty, you do take the required amount of credits within that faculty. This sometimes can be a bit of a hassle because of conflicting schedules between faculties, but the staff are very kind and willing to help you figure out which courses would work for you to follow.

Language

All courses for exchange students are taught in English, and there are also some non-exchange courses taught in English. This is always shown or mentioned in the description of the course in the course overview that will be send to you by the Icelandic exchange office. If you want to you can even opt to follow an Icelandic language course for beginners, or other language courses to improve your fluency. Basically all Icelandic people speak English very well, and as the university is a very international environment it is even more common to speak English as the main language there. Most information for students is also automatically send in both Icelandic and English, and institutions like student housing and covid-testing facilities also always send an English translation for their messages, so when your English is sort of up to date, you have nothing to worry about.

Finance and other conditions

As Iceland falls under the Erasmus network, you can apply to receive an Erasmus grant for your exchange semester. This will be the highest amount, as Iceland is quite an expensive country. Rents, groceries, and especially alcoholic beverages cost a lot more than in the Netherlands. Iceland does have a very well established social system in place however, so if you want to, you can apply for a kennintala (your Icelandic identification number), and with that ID apply for housing benefits for example. It is however not mandatory to apply for a kennintala if you are staying no longer than six months, so it is up to you to decide if you want to do that. If you are staying longer than six months it is mandatory to apply for it. If you decide not to do it, which is what I did, you will get a temporary kennintala from the university when you are officially registered there. With this one you can still access the online learning environment, exams, etcetera.

2

Preparations and contact with the faculty before, during and after my stay

The preparations for my exchange abroad overall went quite smoothly. Both with the mobility office in Groningen and the one in Iceland there was always clear communication and fast responses if I had any questions. Of course because of the whole covid situation it was sometimes a bit unclear what needed to be done or sent to be able to get my exchange period verified, but usually I still had more than enough time to make sure all my documents were in order. The University of Iceland was very fast and cooperating with signing necessary documents, and the Online Learning Agreement tool of the Erasmus website worked well too.

Housing

In Reykjavík you have different options for housing, as the University of Iceland will also tell you. You can apply for a spot for on campus housing (which I can definitely recommend if you want to live with more people and get to know other exchange students really fast), which goes through the university’s housing organization FS, or you can sign up on independent websites like housinganywhere or facebook groups to find a place to live. The latter option are usually a bit more smaller buildings, with fewer roommates, but if that floats your both it is definitely an option too. Rents are quite high for the amount of square metres you will get, but as mentioned above, you could opt to get a kennintala and apply for housing benefits. As I have not done this myself I do not know exactly how this works, but there will be plenty of people to help you with that.

Culture

Icelanders are a very interesting people for sure. They can seem quite distant and rude (a lot of staring on the streets is involved, but the common joke here is that they do that because the country has such a small population, so people are just trying to figure out if they know you because they are related to you in some way), but usually once you get to know them they will eventually open up to you, and this is especially true for people that are used to being in an international environment such as the university or anything tourist/travelling related. They will be very kind and helpful most of the times, and especially if you show interest and respect for their culture and habits, which they are very proud of, they are more than willing to tell you all about it. If you really do not know what to do, you can always talk about the weather, a huge favorite among people living in Iceland. Because from the start of the settlement on Iceland the Icelandic society has been through a lot to survive, they have their very own and specific set of traditions and beliefs that you still will come across in modern day life, which is super cool. Other than that it is a modern and Western orientated society, so you will not experience a huge culture shock if you come from that part of the world.

Free time

Workload wise for me the level was very very doable. As the university only works with semesters and not with two blocks per semester, you will have most of your courses for the entire semester, and you will only have exams at the end of the semester (so no exams after each block). This means that you can get a bit deeper into the subjects, and will also have more time to prepare for the end of semester examinations. It differs per course how they will grade you and whether they will do that through written exams, papers, oral exams or presentations (sometimes it can also be a combination of multiple of these), but this is clearly communicated, so as long as you keep on top of your deadlines you will definitely have enough time left for leisure activities. I can definitely recommend going to the (one of the) many pools located in Reykjavík (and all over the country for that matter), as the Icelandic pool experience is on a whole different level. It is for a reason that pools are described as the local “pubs”, as all kinds of people from different walks of life enjoy spending their time off there. Other than that there are of course many other activities to undertake, both in and outside of Reykjavík, of which the main things are usually nature/hiking related.

3

Travelling

For me personally, the chance to travel this beautiful country was one of my main reasons to sign up for an exchange semester in Iceland. The country’s landscapes are so different and all unique in their own special way, that everywhere you go you will be sure to be surprised and totally awed by the incredible things nature can do (or at least I was). And then once the weather starts getting colder and snow might fall, you get to explore it all over again, because it will look completely different. If you have the chance I can so so so recommend you to go on as many trips as you can, and explore all the different parts of Iceland. There is something out there for everyone, and you will surely find the people that are on the same page as you for things to go see. I could fill another separate report on all the cool places you could go visit, however I will keep those for you to explore yourself, but an insiders tip is to go visit Skool Beans café if you happen to travel to Vík (a small town on the South Coast). This is a really cool café in an old American schoolbus, with not just great coffee, tea, or hot chocolate, but also a lovely atmosphere because of the people working there, and the cat (Jeffrey) that semi-lives in the bus (you can follow them via Instagram @skool_beans). And of course the fact that your chances of seeing the Northern lights are also a once in a lifetime experience that you really do not want to miss out on.

My host and home institution’s response to Covid-19, and the extent to which the virus (countermeasures) affected my mobility

Of course my semester abroad was not the same as it would have been without Covid, but considering most exchanges got cancelled completely, I consider myself very lucky that I was still able to go anyway. The information on measures taken in Iceland was always very clearly communicated with students, and there were multiple options to ask any questions you might had. The official government websites on the matter were regularly updated and translated in English too, which made them easy to comprehend. Any measures that influenced me as a student were always communicated as clearly as was possible at that moment in time, both by the University of Iceland as Groningen’s mobility offices. In the beginning of my semester I even had in person classes in Iceland, even though this later switched back to online class again. However, because the Icelandic government was quite strict in taking their measures, I never experienced a full lockdown there, and there was still enough you could undertake outside of classes to have a satisfying semester abroad.