University: Karl-Franzens-Universität Graz Programme: History Name: Nicky Tanke Email address: n.tanke.1@student.rug.nl
Personal Erasmus Report
As I have chosen German as my language during my IRIO degree, the choice of spending my semester abroad studying at the Karl-Franzens-Universität in Graz, Austria was quickly made. Since this university does not have an IRIO programme, I enrolled myself in their history programme. I was not a 100 percent sure of getting the spot because history students have priority in this regard and that scared me a bit. However, after being informed by the study advisors that history students rarely decide to go to German or Austrian universities, I decided to just go for it.
The Karl-Franzens-Universität in Graz does not require students to choose courses taught in German and offers plenty of courses in English as exchange students can combine courses from all faculties. As I already had a C1 level in German before going to Graz, I could both pick English and German courses. Yet, even with a B2 level, students could theoretically follow German courses. However, as I chose both German and English courses, in my experience having to follow German courses without a C1 level would be hard. The German courses went quite fast and in all those courses I was the only exchange student. The amount of help or guidance really differed per professor and course. Therefore, choosing a course in German is something to really think about.
Naturally when studying history, the courses were not immediately related to international relations, but in my opinion getting the chance of choosing your own courses that are linked to your field of interest was very interesting. The courses were namely very specific, yet very diverse with for example courses like “History and its Images - Significance and Meaning of Images as Historical Sources” or “The International Relations of Religion in Conflict”. I really enjoyed all of my courses as they were so different from what I have studied so far. Moreover, the quality of education was not higher than what we as IRIO students are used to. The only thing to take into account is that all the exams take place in January.
I managed to earn all of my 30 ECTS credits, but my main problems during my exchange also stem from the course choices. Right from the start when looking at which courses to pick, it was hard to even get to 30 ECTS as the Austrian system has an ECTS system of a wide variety of ECTS given to courses. This very often resulted in an unequal amount of ECTS. Austria recommended to do less than 30 ECTS credits, whereas for Groningen we need to get 30 ECTS. Therefore, it was quite the hassle to arrange timetables that did not overlap and to eventually get 30 ECTS in total. Moreover, the biggest problem when choosing to study in either Germany or Austria is the conflicting duration of the semesters. In Austria, the winter semester only starts in October and ends at the beginning of February. Consequently, there was the risk of having study delay when coming back in Groningen as I already needed to be back on 4 February, since the semester in Groningen started again.
Although this turned out fine, the courses by far did not end in February. The host university was not really helpful when it came to choosing my courses and was not clear enough about
University: Karl-Franzens-Universität Graz Programme: History Name: Nicky Tanke Email address: n.tanke.1@student.rug.nl the exact deadlines of the courses, especially when it came to courses that did not have an exam but ended with a paper. I had four courses for which the grade would be based on a paper and all four of them I had to write once I was already back in Groningen with the last deadline being on 30 March. I would not recommend anyone to have to write four papers with a minimum of 20 pages (in my case in German) at the same time as writing your thesis. Therefore, my main advice would be to choose courses with only exams, since the papers are generally due after the winter semester officially ends. In my case one course with a paper assessment indicated that the deadline would be on 31 January, but that deadline was only meant for final presentations after which we still had to write a paper. This was not specified in the course or said via email. In that way, I only received my Transcript of Records at 7 May, which was quite stressful as everything related to the exchange could only be dealt with from that time onwards. As I have learned, this is one aspect that is very typical for Austria: do not expect anything being dealt with by the university within a week because everything takes ages to process.
My story sounds quite negative so far as I want other students to be informed about the dangers of delay when studying in Graz. However, I have loved my time in this city as Graz is such a vibrant and small city full of students. I highly recommend joining the Erasmus Graz Facebook group and the ESN buddy programme to get into contact with other exchange students right from the start. The welcome weeks start in September and the university only starts in October. This “empty” month sounded scary to me at first, but it actually gave me a month full of opportunities to meet friends and do fun stuff before the seriousness of going to university started. Moreover, do not be scared of your German level. Exchange students speaking German was really the exception rather than the rule and the level of English in Graz was certainly good enough. Furthermore, the university offers a helping hand by providing German intensive courses at different levels before the semester starts.
The university does not have a campus and does not offer dorms. Therefore, the exchange students have to find an accommodation themselves. I have found my dorm by simply emailing the university. They were very helpful in this regard and even sent me a list of dorms I could consider. I have lived in a dorm at Zinzendorfgasse 19, which I would highly recommend because this street is called the student heart of the city with very nice cafes to have lunch etc. Moreover, from that street the university is literally around the corner and the park at the other end of the street leads you to the city centre within fifteen minutes walking. The city is small, so walking or biking gets you everywhere, but the bus system is also well arranged. The prices of dorms really differed. I paid around 400 euros a month, whereas other friends living a bit further from the university paid less. Generally, it is known that exchange students pay more than what regular students do in Graz. Moreover, going out for dinner was quite cheap, whereas the supermarkets were more expensive than in the Netherlands. The choice of food in the supermarkets was more limited than what I was used to and especially the meat section was small and expensive. However, the costs of living in Graz were totally doable and were not that different to the costs of living in Groningen.
University: Karl-Franzens-Universität Graz Programme: History Name: Nicky Tanke Email address: n.tanke.1@student.rug.nl All in all, Graz is amazing and the city is beautiful with lots of things to do. Choosing to do your semester abroad here would be such an adventure, but you have to make sure that your courses will be well arranged or that you know that there is the possibility of having to do work once you are back in Groningen.
