My name is Johanna and im third year Bioproduct engineering student from Tamk. I spent five months on exchange in Austria in a small town called Wels. The name of the school was University of Applied Sciences Upper Austria. The field I studied there was Bio- and Environmental Technology. The language of studies in all my courses was English, but I also studied the basics of German. My courses focused on sustainable development, management and communication in an international environment.
The courses were very different compared to Finland, because they were all courses worth only 1-3 points and there were a lot of jobs and tasks compared to the few points. Even the 2-point courses had two separate extensive tests and additional tasks. In addition, there were presentations in almost every course. Austrians appreciate being on time, so there was a reason to show up to lectures on time. Assignments also had to be returned on time or they were no longer accepted. The lectures were also usually in the afternoons and there were hardly any morning lectures. The rhythm felt strange to me because I’m not used to going to school at 6 o’clock in the evening. In addition, teaching was also organized on Saturdays. I think the lunch organized at the school was quite expensive. The price for the meal consisted of 5-8 euros, depending on what you took.
There were quite a lot of events on behalf of the school, and especially for the exchange students, a lot of activities were organized together. In my opinion, it was also special that in the canteen and school cafeterias you could get beer and wine, which you could also drink during lectures. In my free time I traveled around Austria a lot in different cities, also went skiing in the Alps and went hiking. There was also a lot of traveling to nearby countries.
I recommend Austria as an exchange destination, especially if you like to travel, because it was easy and cheap to get to all parts of Europe.
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