University: Griffith College Dublin
City: Dublin
Country: Ireland
Continent: Europe
Field of study: business administration
Study type: semester abroad
Since I really wanted to do a semester abroad and the alternatives of the partner universities from my university’s Erasmus program didn’t appeal to me, I had to come up with another way of fulfilling my wish for a semester abroad. During my internet research, I came across MicroEdu.com relatively quickly. The contact with MicroEdu.com went smoothly from the start. Questions were always answered very quickly and very friendly. Communication with the university via MicroEdu.com – especially during the application process – also went smoothly. Check toppharmacyschools.org to see Vancouver Island University study abroad opportunities.
Personally, I really wanted to go to a country where English is the mother tongue, because I thought the chances of improving my English skills were the best there. Due to the many overlaps between the start of the semester abroad ( Australia, USA, Canada, Great Britain, etc.) and my examination period in Germany, as well as the sometimes very high costs for academic training in the countries mentioned, the selection of the countries in question was quickly minimized. In the end I chose Griffith College in Dublin.
I planned my semester abroad very early on (10 months before the start). After sending in all the documents that were forwarded by MicroEdu.com, in December 2014 I was accepted for the following winter semester (from September 2015).
So I went to Dublin as a free mover as part of my business administration master’s degree. At first, the responsible faculty (Graduate Business School (GBS)) at Griffith College had no idea what that meant. Attempts were made to force the timetables of the exchange students at the two German partner private universities on me. However, some of these did not correspond at all to my profiling priorities. At some point, however, it was known that I (and other free movers) could choose the courses freely, as long as they were also recorded in the learning agreement with the home university.
I looked at several courses in the first two weeks and quickly realized that the workload was significantly higher than at my home university. And in the end there are unfortunately only 5 credit points per course for this very same course. According to the module description, GBS estimates 20 hours of time per credit point. These also correspond absolutely to the time frame that is needed for attending the lecture, writing assignments, preparing (group) presentations and preparing for the exams. So if you’re hoping for a relaxed semester in the master’s program, you’ll quickly be taught otherwise.
At least one assignment and a 3-hour exam had to be written in each subject. As already mentioned, there were also some presentations. Since the semester at Griffith ended in January and I was therefore able to take part in the exam period at my home university in February, I ended up only taking three courses at Griffith. With a little more “desire” a fourth would certainly have been possible. From five courses, however, the total effort is so high that you almost get lost in assignments. Fellow students, some of whom had taken up to 8 courses, were no longer to be found in the private sphere. Here you should think carefully about how much you want to take with you outside of the university.
The lectures took place in a very school setting. So the lecture was interrupted in order to work out questions about case studies together with the bank neighbor. Then you watched at least one YouTube video in each lecture to better present the facts. Not a problem in itself, but it quickly became apparent that the lecturers were unable to present certain topics in an understandable way in their own words and therefore accessed these videos. In marketing However, this method is quite useful and interactive. Academic work, which is always emphasized and of great importance at my university, was completely ignored here (constantly changing slide layouts, no date, no page numbers, no name of the event on the slides, etc.). In some cases I even found the slides used by a lecturer 1 to 1 on the Internet. So here the work of third parties was simply used, without any effort by the lecturer. The level itself is then set relatively low. Personally, I didn’t find it as easy in the Master’s program as it is portrayed in the reports of the Bachelor’s students. The grades for assignments and exams were not thrown after you either. If you really put in the effort that the module handbook specifies, you will have no problems achieving good or very good performances here. Be careful when working in groups. Many of the foreign students – especially from the Indian and Asian region – are very big fans of “Copy & Paste”, without then marking it as a reference. It was not uncommon for the German students in the respective groups to have to rewrite the assignments at the end. So in addition to your own effort, there is an increased effort for correction, especially in group work. In the end everything should be nice and right. without marking this as a reference. It was not uncommon for the German students in the respective groups to have to rewrite the assignments at the end. So in addition to your own effort, there is an increased effort for correction, especially in group work. In the end everything should be nice and right. without marking this as a reference. It was not uncommon for the German students in the respective groups to have to rewrite the assignments at the end. So in addition to your own effort, there is an increased effort for correction, especially in group work. In the end everything should be nice and right.
Especially in the first two weeks, the communication from the university was just terrible. I’ve been to the faculty several times to register for courses. These were then written on a piece of paper, since the course registration was not possible at the moment due to the old, slow system. A few days later same game. It wouldn’t be a problem if you didn’t miss important information. So I came to the university several times and found out there that a course was starting late or had to be cancelled. Since this happened to other students as well, one can certainly speak of a great disorganization here. You can certainly see it more loosely than I did. However, as a student you want to have the necessary information right away and not have to wait weeks for it.
The university itself is very small compared to my home university. Unfortunately, in my master’s course, there were sometimes >80 students, and a handful of Irish students. Nations tend to keep to themselves, which is a shame. However, it is also somewhat understandable somewhere.
The campus itself offers a beautiful green area where you can spend your breaks. Some of the lessons took place in containers that are on campus. These containers look a lot like the containers on construction sites for their workers. Together with the sometimes quite weak level of the lecturers and the disorganization, one often wondered what one paid 3,000 euros for.
The cafe is just overpriced. I ate lunch there once. For 7 euros there was a “children’s plate”. The taste was absolutely fine, but the price and the quantity you get are out of proportion to each other.
I don’t want to say anything about Dublin, the search for an apartment there, etc., because I think that these things are presented very clearly in other reports, both positively and negatively, and I would only repeat these experiences.
All in all, the stay abroad was worth it for me – even if it doesn’t look like it due to the criticism of Griffith College. I was able to significantly improve my language skills, both oral and written, made many new contacts and friends with whom I am in regular contact after Dublin, and was able to go on many trips through Ireland and neighboring countries with them.
