My name is Julia and I am studying for an MA in business psychology at the HMKW University for Communication and Economics in Cologne. For my last master’s semester, I decided to spend some time abroad.
Organization:
London has always been my favorite city. After the time I had spent there as part of a language school program at the latest, I knew that one day I wanted to live in London for a longer period of time and what could be better than a semester abroad at a London university . Unfortunately, my university does not yet have any partner universities in London, which is why it was initially quite difficult for me to find the right university.
Canditature:
I quickly had the necessary documents, my letter of motivation , curriculum vitae, course selection and a transcript of my current grades, and then I had to wait … Regent’s University first collects all applications from exchange students before making its decision in November. It was quite a long time for an impatient person like me, but I was all the more pleased when I received confirmation that I could start at Regent’s University.
Accommodation:
As soon as I had secured my place at university, I started looking for an apartment. While there is the option of staying on the Regent’s University campus, which some of my later friends did (especially the rooms in the Oliver Suite are very nice), I decided to look for somewhere off-campus to be able to to have the opportunity here again to make new contacts.
My choice very quickly fell on Pure Student Living in Hammersmith. The accommodation is very modern and well equipped. In addition to many common rooms, it also offers a cinema, a launderette and a fitness studio. Everything is very clean and well maintained. I decided on a small room with a kitchenette and bathroom on the ninth floor, from which one had a great view over London. An important point when choosing my accommodation was that you could receive friends at any time, who were also allowed to stay overnight, as many visitors from Germany had already announced.
During my time in London I was really very satisfied with my accommodation, unfortunately after my return there were some disagreements regarding the repayment of my deposit, which is why I can unfortunately no longer recommend the accommodation unreservedly.
Orientation week:
According to top-mba-universities, the first week at Regent’s University served as an orientation week. The international students were offered a variety of programs, some of which were voluntary, some of which were compulsory and which helped you to find your way around the university and the surrounding area very well. But above all, this week helped to make contacts. On the second day I got to know my closest friends in London, with whom I have experienced a lot of great things in the five months we spent together. It is certainly not always that easy, but if you approach the other students openly, use the offered program as an opportunity and are sociable, then real friendships develop very quickly. Here, too, you shouldn’t be too impatient.
Study program:
The study program at Regent’s University, as I perceived it, is very demanding , although it certainly also depends on the respective lecturers. A course at Regent’s is always divided into a seminar part and a lecture part per week. The two-hour seminar courses usually consist of 10 to 20 students and are designed to be very interactive. If you trust yourself and actively participate, they will help you a lot to improve your vocabulary and especially your pronunciation. The one-hour lecture courses are usually held in larger groups of up to 70 students and are therefore sometimes a bit chaotic.
It often happened to me that I had to submit exams in a course, e.g. in weeks 4, 6, and 10, so that you never really got out of work, but the workload was still absolutely manageable and I had the weekends always time to explore the city. It should also be said that many of the full-time students at Regent’s University, despite being required to attend, often did not show up for the courses and also did not appear to be as challenged by the learning workload as the internationals, which is certainly not a better one Level of knowledge was. So to this day it remains a mystery to me how the full-time students passed their courses.
Regent’s offers:
In addition to an interesting course schedule and an unbelievable internationality (130 countries under one roof) , which were the decisive points for me to choose the Regent’s, the university offers a lot of additional offers, such as excursions, museum visits, yoga, trade fairs, lectures and a lot more . I took advantage of many of these offers and got to know a lot of people, topics and places that would otherwise probably have remained hidden from me. Just check out the Student Hub program every now and then. There you are sure to find something that interests you.
London:
What can I say, living in London is just a dream! I really enjoyed my time there and just learned to love the city even more. Every day there is something new and exciting on offer and it is a lot of fun to discover the many great places and the surrounding area such as Brighton, Oxford and Bristol. What I can really recommend is Time-Out London . The website always keeps you up to date on the offers in London and the surrounding area and occasionally even offers vouchers that bring you discounts. The printed version is always distributed free of charge to the Tube Stations on Tuesdays, but it is also worth simply subscribing to Time Out on Facebook.
Conclusion:
After my time in London, I can only recommend everyone to use their time at university and gain experience abroad . Not only the foreign culture, the new city and the university change the perspective on some things, also the possibility to move confidently in a foreign country and to master challenges independently help one to develop personally.
