Learn about exchange at the University of Oldenburg from Christine Trappe, Incoming Exchange Coordinator.
Alright, so hi folks. My name is Chelsea and I’m the exchange and study abroad coordinator for Acadia University. So thank you, Griffin, for tuning in live with us. And this recording is obviously going to be available online for folks to watch at their leisure as well.
So today we have the pleasure of Christine joining us from the University of Oldenburg, and Christine is the incoming coordinator. So if you choose to go to Oldenburg, you’ll be working with her directly. So, Christine, I’ll hand it over to you. Thank you very much for the introduction. Chelsea Griffin.
It’s nice to meet you and I’m quite excited that you’re interested in coming to Oldenburg. Umm yeah, I would like to introduce us. So as now you can see a picture of me. I’m the second person. I’m. Yeah, I’m part of the welcome service of the International
Office and together with my colleagues, we tried to make sure that everything runs smoothly when new international students are researchers come to Oldenburg. We have a team of international tutors. They are students themselves. And they always help us with the welcome week. They organize events in the evening just to make sure that
Everybody gets all the information they need and that they have social contacts and make friends within the first days of their exchange, because especially in the beginning, it can feel lonely and we always try to avoid that. So we offer a lot of social events in the beginning and also during the semester.
So you might already know where Oldenburg is located, but some don’t, and This is why I have this little map. It’s in the north of Germany, quite close to the Netherlands. Actually we can go there on a day trip. But also Hamburg is not far away.
It’s also easy to get there for a day trip, and Berlin is around here, so that’s perfect for a weekend trip. And so we are close to the North Sea, which is nice. I don’t know if you’ve heard about this phenomenon. It’s called.
We have quite strong tides in Germany, especially in this sea and the sea sometimes disappears and there’s just mud and you can walk in the mud for quite a long time and it gets dangerous because the water is coming back at back at some point.
But we actually did some mud eggs with our students last summer. And what? It was quite nice and. That’s awesome, Christine. That’s actually quite similar to where we are, where our Oh. university is located, because we’re on the Bay of Fundy. So the tide comes in and out twice a day. OK.
So you you would know this, OK. Yeah, we love walking in the mud. OK. Perfect. Then you have to get spotted out and work. So this is what aldenberg looks like and it’s quite a nice little town. It’s it’s, it’s not too big, but not too small.
We have a historic city center where there’s even a little castle there, about 170,000 inhabitants living in Oldenburg, and about 15,000 students at the university. So the student population in Oldenburg is actually quite big and shared. Chelsea visited us last November. December. I’m somewhere around there and she might have noticed that
There are people riding their bicycles all the time, and today it has been snowing and people are still on their bikes in the snow and some are carrying around the umbrellas in the snow and everybody is cycling everywhere. So it’s easy to get to all places by bike, but you can
Always also use a bus. That’s not a problem either. And this is what it looks like right now. I’d say it’s not a picture, not a live picture, but actually when I look at it, the window, it’s exactly like this. Right now it’s getting dark and it’s quite frosty at the moment,
So this is the city center of Oldenburg. There’s some pedestrian areas and the Little harbor, and this is the castle which does not really look like a castle, but it is a castle and this is more important. This is the University of Oldenburg, and you can see that
2 campuses, and depending on what you’re focusing on in your studies, you probably be based on one campus. And yeah, this is a picture from above and this is one of the main lecture holds. So Christine Griffin and his friend Riley are business students. What campus would they be on?
They would be on the main campus campus, happened tour. It’s called, but if you’re interested in doing some sports alongside with your studies, you might also visit the other campus because there’s there’s a huge sports field there. But this is the building where I am in right now and you can see
There’s a basketball court basketball court here. And we also do have a swimming pool. University swimming pool, which is in the main building right there. So, but you would be and this building mainly I guess. So our already said we have about 17,016 thousand, 17,000 students and 1400 international students.
Of course, we do not have so many exchange students every semester. We have about 5060 exchange students here and all the other international students are here studying for a degree. We do have some international study program. This is why we have so many international students.
And these are the key research areas of the university. If you’re business students, it’s probably not very interesting for you, but maybe it’s nice to see. So this is important. These are our semester times. We have two semesters in Germany. The winter semester always runs from October till March and the summer semester.
From April to September and I know that this is not ideal for you. Maybe it is important to know that the lectures do not end at the end of March, but they already end in the beginning of February and then there might be some exams or other students.
Some students might decide to write a term paper and they don’t have to do that in Oldenburg. And if you need to return home earlier than that, most exchange students leave in the beginning mid of February and it’s the same with the same summer semester.
The summer semester officially ends at the end of September, but lectures usually end mid end of July. So most students are gone at the beginning of August. Some like to stay longer, and that’s perfect be fine, but this is what our semester times looks like and felt. The nominated.
The Christina I just had a question about that. Yeah, yeah. Umm, so the latest exam would happen at like in March in the for the winter semester and then the latest exams would happen in September for the summer semester, correct? Yes, but not it.
It always because every exchange student can can create their own schedule and in the beginning of the semester we always recommend to talk to the lecturers and explain, OK, I’m going and I’m an exchange student and I need to return to my home country in case that’s the case.
And and they usually come up with other solutions. If they’re really as a time conflict and most exams happen within the first two weeks after lectures end, so there will be some exams in July and maybe some early August, but usually then everybody wants to go on holiday.
The lecturers as well, so there’s not much happening then and if there really is a problem with the date then it’s always. Yeah. Ohh, a lot of lecturers agree that students can do an A presentation instead or something else. Or write a paper. There’s some flexibility for exchange students. Yeah.
And we have in the past with other partners like proctored exam. So if they couldn’t do the exam at the host institution, we can Proctor it in person at Acadia, when students are back. So that is something that we can work with faculty and of course the exchange office with two.
If there are academic calendar conflicts. Yeah, we’ve, we’ve never done that before, but I’m sure that would be an option if that’s possible for you. So that’s great. The If you are interested in coming to Oldenburg in the winter semester, it would be the 15th of July, which is the
Deadline for applications and nominations. So we always have some, some, some time to to to process all the applications, but also for the there are a lot of exchange students who need to apply for a visa. You don’t you you could cut if you have the Canadian city of
The citizenship, you can come to Germany without a visa, but you would have to apply for a residence permit when you’re in Germany. This is this sounds complicated, but we give you all the information that you need and we are always there.
If you have questions about the process, but the main, the good thing is you do not need a visa to travel to enter Germany, which is good. And is that if they’re only coming for one semester, or if they were coming for the full academic year? Here.
Both his personal both if students are coming for the full academic year, they’re usually starting in the winter semester and staying for the summer semester. There are also some who come for the winter semester and then they decide they would like to extend.
It’s always an option as well and some start in the summer semester and stay for the winter semester so everything is possible. Yeah, we love that. We try to be as flexible as possible, so and exchange students are enrolled for in, in, for one for at one school,
For example, of the school for for business administration and law. That would be the one in your case, but you are free to choose from the entire list of modules now if you want to do something in chemistry, you might need to have some previous knowledge to
Be actually accepted into the course, but basically you you could choose from social studies or you can do a German course and the language center and you can create what what is what works best for you. Yeah, that is really appealing for our students because I know
A lot of them do most of their core classes out Acadia, and they’ve really saved up their electives to do exchange and explore their interest. So they like that flexibility. Yeah, I’m. Are you and are you bachelor students or do you already have a degree batch less students, right? Yep, I think.
Yeah, bachelor students. OK. Thank you. So as you might have guessed, most study programs run in German, but there are always some courses in English as well. We only have one bachelor program. That’s mainly in English, and that’s engineering physics or the others, mainly in German.
But when we do have quite a lot of students studying business administration or business, and there are some courses in English and advanced bachelor students are also allowed to join the master courses. So if that’s an option for you, it would be possible on our side.
And for the master programs there some more student study programs that run in English and this is where our international students come from. They are mainly enrolled in these programs. There is one problem, yeah. And I believe, Christine, when I I believe when I visited
Christine, you might have given me a list of the courses that were taught in English. So perhaps we can pass that along and we can add it to our website too. Yeah, we do have a course catalog that lists all the courses taught in English, and it’s usually updated about six
Weeks before the semester starts. But if you are interested in coming in the winter semester, you can just refer to an earlier winter semester and you get an idea. This is especially study program that we have created for our exchange students and it might be interesting for you. It’s called European studies.
In global perspectives, we always talk about Eagle. That’s our original program and it has two clusters, and. The first one, it also includes economy, society, economy and politics, and it can be studied for one or two semesters and it is taught in English.
It is mandatory to do a German course, which we always recommend anyway, and there’s one seminar on Germany which is quite interesting, and it’s about the past and the presence and it it’s a weekend seminar that also includes. Yeah, a trip to a museum about German. What’s it called?
And do you have any? Is it immigrants, not immigrants, the ones who left, the ones who left Germany for for the US or for Canada, like, especially about 100 years ago? I guess so. This program is really popular and yeah, it includes that business.
I think in economy classes and it’s not these classes are not for oil students only. These are the normal classes, so you would be mixed with the other students with the with with with German students and all the other ones studying business anyway.
And if you complete it, you have to study for at least 24 credit points per semester, which is average for an exchange student. I guess we like a regular German student, would study for 30 credit points, but because you are in a different culture and
Everything is new, 24 is more realistic and a lot of exchange students study less actually. So 24 is good. So when the semester starts, we always have a welcome week for the international students and this is our team of international tutors and these are some of the new students last October.
And we always create create a program where we have info sessions during the day and then social events in the evenings. And we try to make sure to cover everything we talk about creating your timetable, your schedule, but also about the residence permit or we have now we have introduced an
Intercultural training because it is a different culture and Germans as any other culture can be very funny. There’s some special well specialities in Germany now. It’s just just get to to be aware of intercultural differences and and so this is something we’ve now included in the work and we get as well.
And all exchange students get a local buddy and one local body is usually responsible work for one, two or three exchange students or other international students. And they always try to arrange picking you up at the train station. Outlook does not have an airport but Boreman which is not far
Away, has a little airport or Hamburg is another airport where a lot of students arrive. So after arriving by plane, they usually take the train to Oldenburg and then there the bodies always try to make it possible to meet you at the train station and they get your
Keys for the student dorms before that so that you can just get on the bus with them and they take you to your accommodation. I will say a few words about accommodation in a minute and these are some events that we organized during the semester. There’s usually one event every second week minimum.
Sometimes there’s even more. There’s one larger excursion, for example to Berlin, but we have not done that in the past semesters because everybody’s going to Berlin anyway and we thought it might be nicer to go to places that are not as popular so that it can be more
Like a group experience as well. And the group stays together because in Berlin everybody’s just doing their thing and it it was. And students go there anyway, and in the summer, if you come to arbok during the summer, there’s the couture. Zuma, it’s like a cultural summer there.
Concerts all over the town and everything is free. It’s really nice atmosphere. Well, you have to buy your drinks and everything. What the concepts are free and we organize international dinners or movie nights or karaoke nights and stuff like that. And also during the summer, we have the International summer
Test and that’s an event at the University of Oldenburg and it’s we organize it for our international students and international international researchers and students usually have a little booth in sell food from their home countries. And it’s really nice and I always eat far too much.
We have a stage and there’s dancing and it’s it’s it’s actually a really nice event and it’s I always recommend to come here during the summer, although the winter is nice as well because we have a lovely Christmas market in town. So that’s also nice to see.
So it’s best to come here for an entire year. And accommodation that nine different student domes. And when you apply at the university, you always can hand in an application for accommodation and we do have rooms for exchange students. The the housing situation in Oldenburg is really bad, but
Exchange students usually get a room and they are partly furnished, and they’re the contracts always lasts for six months. So you sign a contract for six months and then if you want to extend it, you could extend it for another six months, even if
You’re only here for four months or five months, it’s always a six months contract and you have to pay everything in advance. So six months need to be paid in advance and it’s about €1500 for the sixth months for so. UM, yeah, it’s about 200.
And Christine, I was wondering, uh, we obviously get a lot of Oldenburg students coming to Acadia for exchange. Umm. And we’ve connected Griffin and Riley and our other out perspective outbound students who are Oldenburg students here, do most of your students like live in town and Oldenburg, or do they commute?
Because perhaps if we keep them in contact over the next year or so, we’re maybe as they’re getting closer to their exchange, they can help out with some off campus housing if they’re looking for alternative options. Yeah, most most students live in town. They are some that commute, but not too many.
Most try to get a place and Oldenburg, and because it’s it is not too big. You can get anywhere. By bike or bus easily or even work so. Perfect. So about the costs, they are no tuition fees in Germany for exchange students. You only have to pay a so-called semester contribution every
Semester, and that’s about it’s. It’s a bit less for exchange students. It’s €324.00, but you get a public transport ticket that’s included and it allows you to use the regional public transport for free. And there’s a discussion going on that it’s even extended beyond the regional area.
So that might change, but it might change for the better. As I said, accommodation is at least €200 per month and staying in the student dorms is the cheapest option and finding accommodation in town, especially at the beginning of the winter semester, is very, very difficult.
Last winter semester we had I only know of the international students and we had about 100 international students without accommodation. All exchange students had a room, so they were safe, but all the other ones? Ohh it was not nice so I always recommend to hand in an
Application and then you get a room offer and then you can still say Oh no, I found something else and it but applying for it is always a good idea. So in the end, you need to plan for €950 per month and this is also the amount that is basically demanded for the
Residence permit. I said that after three months or within three months after your arrival, you will have to apply for a residence permit and to to get it. You need to prove that you can finance your living here, and they expect 300. No €934.00 per month for an entire semester, or if you’re
Staying for a year for a year. And that was it. That was my presentation. Did you have any questions right now? Thank you so much, Christine. Her. If you could send that presentation over, I would love to add it to our website too. Yes.
So people can kind of click around again, but I’ll pass it off to Griffin. To ask some questions. Yeah, you pretty much covered everything that was really great. Umm, the one thing I will ask though about the residence is that’s most likely what me and my friend would end up doing.
How far is that from the campus? And you said you could just find a bike or even walk to the campus. Yeah, it depends on the student residence you end up in. There are some that are quite close to the campus.
They are about 5 minutes to walk and there’s another one which is directly name. Well, more or less directly next to the train station in the city center, which is good as well. And that’s about 15 minutes by bus or 10 minutes by bike, so it’s not far.
It depends on if you want to be in the city center or close to OK, cool. campus. Right. Yeah. Yeah. And I forget to forget to mention that you always have a single room. You share your bathroom and kitchen, but you have your Umm. single room. Yeah. Yeah.
And if me and my friend were to come together, how difficult is it to get into the same residence? And how would we like go about that? In the application you can write a note and the the, the, the person who’s responsible for doing the accommodation service. She always takes this into account.
So this is very likely possible. OK. Umm, one other thing about so looking at the winter semester, it being from like October to March that takes up most of our school year. So we were trying to figure out something that maybe get the
Same credit hours as you would a full academic year here. And you said that a semester in Germany was 24 uh credits. And I believe a semester here is 15. Is it? Is it possible to maybe do like 30 credits over the term there?
Yes, yes it is possible and it is what is expected of regular German students as well. But and I had exchange students who even did 36 or 40 or whatever. But yeah, I think it it is possible, but you would really
Have to focus on your studies the if you am I interested in taking a German course. The German course itself is 9 credit points already, so you get a lot of credit points doing that and if you do one or two, we can seminars. That’s another.
So weekend seminars are good option to to add credit points and what is also possible is that you can talk to lecturers and ask them if you can do more to get more credit. That’s also possible. Yeah. And we’re working on the back end of things just to make sure
That the equivalencies will match up for a full time, like credit load. So we’ve done that with other partners as well as long as you’re doing like full time at Oldenburg, you’ll get full time back at Acadia. So easiest would be if you go for the full academic year,
Because then there’s less of that calendar difference. But we are having those conversations and we can chat about that. Again. Right, alright. Well, that’s all the questions I had like. Yeah, Christine, I just had one more question that I’m sure Griffin might be interested in, too. Yeah, sure.
Is does university help with like bike rentals or is there somewhere in town? Or do people like buy used bikes? What’s the best way to kind of get off your feet and riding in town? There’s a bike rental in town which we always recommend because it’s really cheap.
They I think it’s about €15 per month and they offer that if you’re, if you’re bike breaks, then they replace it and you don’t have to take it back. They just get, get, get you your new bike and you can just continue cycling. Any.
And even if it is stolen, because bikes get stolen a lot. If it had been locked the the you are not responsible for it as long as it it has been locked before. So we always recommend that and our international tutors who are
There during the welcome week, they all always do a city tour and they always point out that place. But it’s also possible to buy a used bike. Some do that as well. So, well, thank you so much, Christine. And if Griffin, you don’t have any other questions, we’ll sign off. Yeah.
Thank you very much for having me. And if any questions pop up later, you’re always welcome to contact me, both of you. So I’m I’m here to answer. I will send you the presentation and I’m sorry for the camera, but at least you got to see the presentation.
It was more important than seeing my face. Nothing. It’s thank you very much. Thank you. It was nice talking with you again, Christine. Have a great day. Have a great day. But. You tell you thank you. Bye. But.