University: Thompson Rivers University
City: Kamloops
Country: Canada
Continent: North America
Field of study: International Business Administration
Study type: semester abroad
On August 23, 2007 I reached Kamloops in British Columbia, which has a population of around 80,000, via bus from Vancouver. So a little more than a week before the official start of the semester! The following week was used as an introductory week by Thompson Rivers University (TRU) and was primarily used to socialize with other exchange students! However, I have to mention that the time was mainly used for administrative purposes and was less about fun activities. Check mcat-test-centers.com to see Universitat Autonoma De Barcelona UAB.
Since the courses had already been selected in advance and in consultation with the course management, the enrollment procedure was only of a purely formal nature. The TRU offers its own office for international students for these purposes. In general, I can say that the treatment of the international students by the university was excellent and the supervisors always tried to take care of you!
And then the eagerly awaited semester abroad finally began and it soon became clear that the teaching methodology differed from that at home in a few points! The weighting of the work relevant to the grading is particularly worth mentioning here! In contrast to the FH system, where usually only a single final exam decides on the grade of the student, at the TRU the main focus was on presentations, written work, class discussions, participation controls (quizzes), and up to three small exams per lecture! As the previous sentence suggests, it never got boring!
Maybe that’s why it never got boring because I used every possible free minute to explore beautiful British Columbia (BC) with my new friends from all over the world. For nature lovers, BC is arguably one of the best places to live! In addition to the Pacific Ocean, it also offers the Rocky Mountains, numerous lakes, huge national parks and breathtaking wildlife!
At this point it should be noted that last semester more than 1000 international students from more than 70 different nations were enrolled. The proportion of exchange students (only one semester) was around 10%. And it’s great to sit in a classroom with students from all over the world where different cultures collide. In a lecture, 14 different nations from all continents came together to learn international business. I will probably benefit the rest of my life from what I have learned about cultural differences!
In addition to experiencing cultural differences, improving my English language skills was a main reason for the semester abroad. And, especially at the beginning of my stay abroad, serious progress was made very quickly. There is hardly anything more important in our society than communication, and especially in a global environment that is interacting more and more quickly, communication is the foundation for successful business!
Finally, I would like to state that I can only recommend it to every student to do such a semester abroad during their studies! It should not primarily be used for the formation of school knowledge but rather for personal development! Because it forms immensely and opens up a larger horizon!
