Travelling and meeting friends – an indispensable part of the exchange programme
“Ever since I enrolled Philology faculty of the University of Montenegro, I knew that student exchange within Erasmus + Programme is one of the best ways to experience student life abroad,” these were the words of a first-year student of Master’s studies in German Language and literature of the University of Montenegro Philology Faculty, Andjela Dobrovic.
By the help of the UoM’s International Relations Office and Vice-Dean for international communication of the Philology Faculty, Andjela spent the semester at Karl-Frances University.
“Traveling, getting familiar with different cultures, meeting people from different parts of the world has always been an indescribable experience for me. As a student of German language and literature, I applied for one of the countries of German-speaking area and spent the first semester of the third year at the University in Graz,” she said and added that the scale of the university center, with around 40.000 international students inspired her to apply for this city.
An interesting fact about Graz is that many worldly famous names such are Nikola Tesla, Ivo Andric and others stayed here.
The stay at the Graz University, as she describes, represents the most beautiful period that helped her become more independent, confident, as well as to improve academic skills.
The student says that before arriving at Graz, she spent a month in Mannheim, therefore, adapting to new surrounding wasn’t hard for her and the first impression was positive.
Her accommodation was only five minutes away from the university and the city center. According to her, the University organisation was praiseworthy and during Welcome Week, she received information about the first steps.
The first obstacle for her was the dialect, because, as she says, it is not Hochdeuctsch dialect she studied at home faculty. However, she managed to quickly overcome the problem through lectures and communication with Austrian students.
“People in Graz are friendly, kind, disciplined and take good care of the environment. Waste separation is obligatory and fines in case of contrary actions are high. Graz is not a big city, so students do their errands by bike,” she added.
When it comes to the choice of disciplines, the student says that she was able to choose the subjects that would be a proper replacement for those at home faculty.
“The advantage of studying at University in Graz was a lot of spare time I used for excursions in Graz and other cities – Maribor, Vienna, Bratislava,” the alumni added.
“I believe that every student should at least once study on the exchange programme because it is an unforgettable experience,” Andjela concludes.