For my last semester of the master’s degree in Accounting, Finance and Taxation at the University of Leipzig, I decided to spend a semester abroad in London.
Already during my first visit to London I became an absolute fan and since then it has been my greatest wish to be able to live in this fascinating and dynamic city – so what is better than spending your semester abroad there ?! In addition, my major is more than appropriate, because there is no better place to go for a finance student than the metropolis of London.
Now I had this wish, but no opportunity to study in London for one semester through an Erasmus program. Due to numerous recommendations from fellow students, I turned to MicroEDU for help and found how the fact that I am writing a field report shows. The support was professional and absolutely smooth from the first to the last contact – a huge compliment at this point to the whole team, especially to my supervisor Christiane Bastian! Christiane was at my side with advice and action in every phase of my application process and so I was able to quickly get an acceptance from Regent’s University London after submitting my documents looking forward. Read more experience for studying abroad on Ejiaxing.
To apply to Regent’s University, a letter of motivation is required in addition to a CV in English. A TOEFL test or other tests are not required – language skills are of course required, but you can learn or improve these very quickly in an English-speaking environment… so don’t worry. MicroEDU staff will also review these documents to ensure positive feedback.
After receiving the confirmation, the search for an apartment, or rather, the search for a room, was on the agenda. Anyone who knows London knows that we have come to an important point here, because rents in this city are very, very high. An accommodation on their own campus did not come into question for me, because there the rental rates in comparison to a room in a shared flat but again are higher. I also got in touch with Christiane here and received quick help. You can also look for accommodation on the Internet. I used an agency myself and got a great room at an affordable price(700 euros per month) at the border to the 2nd zone. However, if you want to live directly in zone 1 or 2 (London has 6 zones), you can quickly get a room in a shared apartment at 1,000 – 1,500 euros. Personally, however, it was worth the rent for me, because London is a wonderfully beautiful city and you can take away a new, exciting experience every day. There are no limits to how much you can spend your free time and even after 5 months of intensive exploration tours through London, I haven’t seen everything yet. Of course, many things are associated with high costs, but I would like to clarify one thing… you can also experience an incredible number of things for little or no money. Here I would like to mention the countless markets (Borough Market, Portobello Road Market or Camden Lock Market), which are not just worth a visit. You can also visit the Skygarden – one of my highlights in London – for free if you stick to specific times. Furthermore, the countless museums offer an abundance of excursion destinations and these are almost all free of charge.
Now to my experience at Regent’s University. I have completed 15 CP in the fields of international management and finance. As different as the fields of study, as different (unfortunately) as the level. While the finance courses almost correspond to a German standard (less mathematical content), the level in the other field of study disappointed me. I have had consistently positive experiences with the teachers in all of my subjects. Receiving feedback or sitting together during the breaks and talking about God and the world is something that, unfortunately, I was almost never allowed to experience in Germany and that I really appreciated. Events are also often organized by the chairs and you come into close contact with practice partners of all kinds and you can have very interesting conversations at eye level. If you show your teachers that you are interested in the topic, the lessons in small groups (max. 20 people) are great fun. What I also really appreciated is the exchange with students from all parts of the world. In my globalization course we were 18 students from 17 nations, which led to many exciting discussions.
I got to know a lot of nice and open people in these 5 months and quickly made friends. In the first 3 days, the university offers a variety of programs for exchange students to get to know each other better. As always in life, you force yourself to be aware of these and also to face any language barriers, so you quickly become part of a group. In addition to study groups, many cool parties and pub walks were part of everyday university life;). During our Easter holidays we flew 8 people to Scotland and rented a car to explore Scotland.
So, as you can read, I tried to make the best possible use of my semester abroad in one of the greatest cities in the world and with the right attitude you can combine both excellently – get good grades on one side and enjoy life in such a city to the full the other side. Personally, I can only advise you and highly recommend MicroEDU as a suitable partner.