THE EXPERIENCE REPORT E-mail: Study Program: Liberal Arts and Sciences Major Law Exchange semester: Fall Academic year: 2017-2018 Host University: Copenhagen University Country: Denmark I GENERAL INFORMATION ABOUT THE SCHOOL Copenhagen is a beautiful old city in the north of Europe, situated directly at the Baltic sea, a bridge and a tunnel away from Sweden. Copenhagen has beaches, bars, restaurants, museums and a multitude of universities and faculties of which many have their own campus. The campus of the Social Sciences faculty is called CSS and is placed in a former hospital in downtown Copenhagen, between the famous square lakes and the botanical garden. The old buildings are nice from the outside, like almost everything in Copenhagen, with convenient backyards, grass and bike-spots and multiple entrances. From the inside the University is quite run down, but the educational system does not require a lot of attendance at the facilities with a rather extensive course-load, but merely one lecture a week. Copenhagen is a bicycle city, with broad lanes for bikes and bicycle highways. It is therefore unnecessary to enter into the realm of public transport in order to reach the Black Diamont, the old royal library or the Studenterhuset, a bar, café, club that shares a building with the Copenhagen version of I*ESN and offers great weekly events especially for new comers. Apart from that everyone should explore the city in their own pace, be it to party in the meatpacking district or to do a game night in places like the Bastard Café. For sports it is useful to look out for Facebook groups of the other Uni s as well. Copenhagen offers a variety of social events and unlike Tilburg, people show up. In general Copenhagen is just much more attractive that Tilburg in any regards. Tilburg can only score with its Sports Centre, the quality and structure of teaching in the University College, and the fact, that it is affordable With almost 40,000 students and more than 9,000 employees, the University of Copenhagen is the largest institution of research and education in Denmark. The purpose of the University to conduct research and provide further education to the highest academic level. It is divided into six faculties, which are subdivided into departments and research centres: Faculty of Social Sciences: The Faculty conducts research and offers education within the disciplines of Anthropology, Economics, Political Science, Psychology and Sociology. Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences: Research and education in medical and health sciences, including pharmacy, public health science, humane biology, odontology and veterinary medicine. Faculty of Humanities: Research and teaching in the humanities and arts deal with human language, forms of expression, culture, living conditions and history; from Antiquity to the present. Faculty of Law: Research and education in the field of law concern all legal relations between people, organisations, states, etc. both nationally and internationally. Faculty of Science: Research, education and public outreach at the highest international level within all natural- and bioscientific disciplines. Faculty of Theology: Research and education in Theology focus on a profound theoretical and practical understanding of Christianity past and present.
Total number of enrolled students: 38,615 Undergraduate students: 21,764 Graduate students: 16,818 International students: 3,676 (exchange, guest and full-degree students) Most English courses on offer are mixed classes of Danish and exchange students, as well as Bachelor and Master students. Courses usually contain 10 or 15 ECTS with a standardised structure. Lecturers have little influence in deadlines which requires a high amount of selfdiscipline as all deadlines of one form of assignment will fall on the same period. Written Assignments like papers (between 5000-10000 words) have a common deadline and requirements for every course, currently at the 10 th of January for exchange students, that can work either alone or with up to 2 partners that also have to be exchange students. Courses contain mainly reading (about 100 pages) to be done before each lecture and one lecture per week for courses that are spread over the semester. Some courses are organized in just half a semester and require attendance twice a week. Attendance is usually voluntary. Oral examination is also possible and will take place before Christmas. II PRACTICAL INFORMATION Information before you left I received the pre-arrival information in May/June with plenty of time to ask questions and adjust any issues. There were however also plenty of difficulties. Of the 10 courses I chose during my exchange application period, I was not able to do a single course. The Faculty of Theology only admits theology students, some courses were Masters only courses, that are not accepted at Tilburg University, others were changed or transferred to the Spring semester. Some courses were not open to foreign students at all. The fact, that the Board of Examiners takes an average of 3 weeks to decide over the validity of a change in the minor curriculum created a lot of additional stress and uncertainty, that I did not know if I could actually study abroad until short before my departure. Visa procedure and arrival The administration in Copenhagen is very well organized with opening days and events, where you can meet other exchange students and locals. It is useful to arrive a few days before the semester starts in order to organize all the little things. Denmark requires you to register a CPR-Number which is the equivalent to a registration in the Netherlands. Getting it however, takes a lot of bureaucratic effort and a day of waiting. You have to get this number in order to stay legally in Denmark for longer than 3 months and to receive Danish free healthcare. Copenhagen is easily reachable by plane, with an airport just in the city. Who looks for more environmentally friendly ways can take the Train or Flixbus or in rare occasions also use Blablacar. I drove myself and took the bridge for 34. The ferry from Germany is 76 for a car including the passengers. Orientation/Introduction activities There is an official introduction by the faculty and an orientation program organized by the local students. It is voluntary to join but if you do you get a mentor. All the information will send to your email well in advance. Housing Everyone is responsible for their own accommodation and there is no help whatsoever from the University. The only support you get is the link to the Housing Foundation, that rent out overpriced rooms of different categories all over Copenhagen. The Foundation does not adjust
to your needs, so you will have to start paying rent about 1-2 Month prior to the start of the semester until about 1 Month after the semester is over. Additionally, you pay a fee. I found accommodation by myself using the multitude of Facebook groups, but it does require you to start searching well in advance (4-5 months) and you need to be original in your approach. Copenhagen has one of the worst housing situations in Europe with an average of 600 for a 10m² room. I got lucky by meeting a Danish woman during my summer holidays that organized me a place in a dorm, where I had a 10m² double-room for single use with a shared kitchen for 540 a month. It was a horrible living situation, but I had great housemates and was relatively lucky. Living Costs I receive a loan over 750 a month from the German government. Since the Erasmus grant was cut short by almost half and due to the fact, that I do not smoke or drink alcohol, the money was enough to pay for the absolute minimum. Additional money I received through small additional involvement in the education committee as well as by renting my flat in Tilburg out including my furniture and bicycle which allowed me to charge additionally. Copenhagen is about twice as expensive as Tilburg in every aspect. I personally spend most money on food and accommodation, while I usually cooked myself. Eating out was not in the budget. It is possible to join a facebook group called foodsharing Copenhagen. Here people bring food they do not use or need, and anyone can collect it for free or exchange with own food. Its very sustainable and useful for a tight budget. Eating and cooking together with friends is also great solution. For a general overview: My rent was 540 monthly, food cost about 240 a month. Books I could not afford but prices are similar to the Netherlands and there is an extensive online library access. Transport was not necessary because I found a lady that lent me a bike for the semester. I used savings to pay for trips to Stockholm, Oslo and around Denmark. Academic Calendar I arrived in the last week of August 2017 of which half was scheduled as Introduction days. The semester started in the 01.09. Last day of classes was the 15.12. Oral exams can be any time between then and Christmas. The deadline for the online submission of written assignment is the 10.01. There was a week of midterm break in the end of October. The International Office There is an international office, but I had nothing to do with them. Each department has their own person responsible for exchange students. The lady at the Political Science Department that was responsible for me was extremely timely and helpful and ready to deal with any form of inconvenience to be at my service. She provided me with everything I needed and was always reachable. Exchange promotion I actively promoted my course Liberal Arts and Sciences during classes and private discussions with other students. I also recommended Tilburg University as an educational institution with an excellent teaching structure. Social Activities Copenhagen has an I*ESN that organizes general events for international students. Apart from that each department has their own mentor system organizing dinners, parties, and social events. Although I had contact with local students the focus was on international students. The Danes are not the most social and prefer to spend their free time at home or in bars,
which was not part of my budget. I used my savings to travel around Denmark, to Sweden, and Norway. Culture and Language I had no culture shock. Denmark as well as other Scandinavian countries are quite similar to the Netherlands. Everything was just as I expected it to be, apart from the fact, that Danish people spend a lot of time at home during the winter month. Also, the language is impossible to understand or pronounce. I did not know such a language exists. Personal Development If I could choose again, I would probably choose a warmer and cheaper place. The host country was to similar to the Netherlands to actually speak of personal development. What I learned however is how well structured the education at the University College Tilburg is and I gained new appreciation for my Bachelor at home. I learned how important an individual approach is for an educator and for the students and how a strict system can destroy the learning outcome for certain students. III ACADEMIC INFORMATION Academic level at a host university Most courses in Copenhagen are offered in Danish. The others are in English. An overview can be found in the online course catalogue. After all my choices were unavailable as stated earlier I decided to take only courses in Political Sciences as this subject was best suited for my minor and offered the only remaining courses I was interested in. I joined the courses Social Media and the Politics of the Digital Age, Introduction to Political Psychology and the Politics of Crisis and Austerity. The latter I cancelled during the Exam period after the course left me unimpressed and bored. The first course I can recommend as the lecturer Michael Bossetta does a great deal to customize the learning experience. From podcasts and guest lectures to seminars on coding to introduce the student into the world of social media research everything was offered. Interesting was how this new perspective made me realize how important Social Media have become and how little we know about it. The course left me with the feeling that I have a concise understanding of the field. The level of English and the literature seemed much higher in Copenhagen. The courses seemed to be aimed at a Master level with an extensive part of self-administered readings and a high focus on theory. The courses have a workload of 10 ECTS compared to Tilburg s 6 ECTS system which requires mental adjustment because there is still just one class per week for each course. In the Liberal Arts and Sciences program it is mandatory to do an additional online course at home which is annoying due to the fact, that the courses then do not add up to 30 ECTS a semester. In general, I was not very happy with the teaching in Copenhagen. I had one oral exam and on research paper to assess my knowledge, but I did not feel like it was necessary to actually attend any of the lectures. I could have done the entire semester online, saving a lot of money Other Every student gets access to the extensive online library as well as to the physical libraries all over Copenhagen. I did not look out for public computers, but I believe they were available in the library.
Description of Courses Courses are both BA/MA Prerequisite Exam ECTS Comments Introduction to Political Psychology Excellent English paper 10 Not open to exchange: exception Social Media and the none oral 10 Highly relevant and useful Politics of the Digital Age Politics of Crisis and Austerity Interest in Economics paper 10 Boring and unstructured (subjective) Please fill in all the courses you have taken Tips for future students: I would generally always recommend and exchange period. Regardless of the destination an exchange is an experience, students should make. I would not go to study at Copenhagen University, but Copenhagen is a great city for example for an internship. Students should not forget to arrange affordable accommodation and to check if their financial situation allows them to enjoy it to the fullest. It would be useful to do an extra course in the semester before in order to be able to only do one course abroad. This allows students to look for a part time job without stressing and missing out.