Vorheriger Bericht
Super Basis für eine internationale Karriere
Built to seem international to Germans
If you are not German, you will likely have a difficult time in this program. The best way I can describe the IB program is by saying it's a program which is built to make Germans feel like it's international. They boast the large percentage of international students, yet make very little effort to actually accommodate us aside from the lecturing language being English (mostly).
Warning: this will be a long and thorough review from the perspective of an international student who has recently graduated from this program. I have far too many thoughts about this program to summarize them shortly. There will be a tl;dr section at the very end.
First, let's address the categories provided here:
Content - Some classes were genuinely informative and helpful and were taught well. Some of the lessons taught are ones I am grateful for having learned. However, some classes or entire modules could've honestly been explained in a half an hour powerpoint or just left out of the program entirely. I also personally felt like the program was a bit more finance-heavy than it needed to be. Additionally, you have a very small number of credits for electives and specialization courses.
Professors/teachers - Like the content, this was a very mixed bag. Some of the professors are great teachers who genuinely care about their students and the content of their classes. They do their best to help and are available and open-minded if you have questions or concerns. Others are useless outside of reading badly translated/written slides and cannot rephrase a concept if you don't understand it the first time. Another category of professors are those who make inappropriate comments or berate you for not understanding the material that they haven't explained. You win some, you lose some
Lectures - Same as before, it's very dependent on the professor. I noticed that generally, smaller classrooms lead to more dynamic and interesting teaching styles. Electives are especially good for this.
Equipment - In the smaller lecture rooms, teachers and professors often had difficulty getting things to work properly. Additionally, classes were occasionally moved to rooms that were too small for the number of participants. However, most of the time this wasn't a huge issue.
Organization - Atrocious. However, the lack of communication - specifically timely communication - only exacerbated the terrible organization. So much important information for typical processes has to be found by the student by asking around until they finally get to someone who might know what they're talking about. Then, this information often criticized information available on the intranet (or the intranet is inconsistent with itself).
Library - the old library was badly laid out and not great for studying. However, the new library was recently finished and is honestly pretty nice.
Studying Digitally - During the beginning of the pandemic, this might have been possible. However, almost all classes are now being held in person again along with their exams. Additionally, many classes have required group projects and presentations which must be presented in class. Some classes also require attendance, especially language classes. Professors are reachable online, but often would rather schedule a time to talk during their office hours. Studying fully digitally is just not possible.
Now, my personal topics of choice:
Language proficiency (or lack thereof):
I'm a native English speaker, and I always did well in grammar, reading, and writing. So when I say that the English proficiency of several professors in the program was abysmal, you can believe it. Granted, if I simply had to have a conversation with them, I'm sure it would have been fine. However, when you have to learn from someone who makes mistakes that render sentences incomprehensible, it becomes an obstacle in your education and can certainly put you at a disadvantage. In some cases, exam questions had language mistakes which changed their meaning. In others, professors were unable to explain concepts in words other than the ones they had translated for their slides - which were often full of mistakes. However, the German students generally had an advantage due to the mistakes often being made by German professors whose mistakes make sense to those who speak German fluently. I found that the better my German became, the better I did in classes. In an international program, this should simply not be the case.
Another point to mention is that the classes were only MOSTLY in English. About half or more of the program specializations available in the last two semesters are only available in German. Even in core classes with the main lecturing language being English, professors would often switch to German to explain certain concepts because they couldn't explain them better or differently using English. Additionally, less formal conversations with students were usually conducted in German. In one case in a required module, the class was split into two different types of groups for a project - one would write a paper in German, and the other in English. During a pause in which the professor asked if there were any questions, I asked that, in the case I wasn't already, I could be put in one of the English groups. His response was, paraphrased, "You're in the 6th semester. You should be able to speak German by now." Although I did end up in an English group, the comment from the professor was uncalled for, completely inappropriate, and should NEVER have been said. This professor would also make inappropriate comments about his students and didn't care what people thought about what he said.
Difficulties as an international student:
I realized early on that very little effort was put into making sure that the international students actually adjusted to the foreign system and could do well in it. Classes are build on a structure that the German students are used to in school and have no problem with. They know they are expected to study and take notes in a particular way, and they do so. However, that structure was unknown to us and remained unexplained throughout the studies. In other words, we were basically just left to figure everything out on our own through trial and error while the German students had none of those struggles.
As a native English speaker, I was required to learn two foreign languages to the level of B2. Unlike my classmates who already had B2/C1 English and could take that as one foreign language, I had to start from A2 in both Spanish and German. Because the program isn't built for native English speakers, these classes overlapped every semester. But wait, it gets worse; my exams were also scheduled on the same day. Every. Semester. One time, I had barely enough time to walk from one exam to the other, let alone trying to switch my brain to the right language. The amount of extra time and effort I spent learning two languages from a basic level put me at a disadvantage for my other classes as well.
There are so many examples of struggles that international students faced during this program that German students did not. International students have to move everything with them everywhere they go during their semesters abroad because, quite simply, they have nowhere else to put their belongings. Lots of information is only available in German, making it inaccessible. And no, a "sorry, it's only available in German" does not excuse this if it's not backed up by action. Until recently, the TH's own webpage wasn't available in English. German companies are used as examples in classes without explanation, most of which I had never heard of before moving to Germany. I had to be sent from office to office asking different people for information that was necessary for my life and studies in Germany because no one knew the answer, despite my questions being standard for international students. While mostly small things, these add up to a huge disadvantage in comparison to German students in the same program. For an international student from outside of the EU, this is only more extreme.
As the most well-fitting farewell to us, the TH rescheduled our graduation ceremony via email 8 days before it was supposed to take place. Me and my international friends had family flying in for this event, and somehow the staff members that I talked to were surprised to find out that this was too short of notice to cancel or reschedule plane tickets. Many of the international students did not attend the rescheduled event due to the sunk costs, appalling organization by the TH, and disappointment. It is events like this which brings into question whether international students are considered much at all in such matters.
Tl;dr
This program is not built for international students, and they are at a disadvantage because of it. Good or fluent German skills, although not required, will make your studies much easier. Professors, as well as classes, are highly variable in quality. Don't expect amazing quality or English language skills in every class or you will be disappointed. Be prepared to struggle and figure things out along the way as organization and communication are sub-par.
For German students, I have no doubt that it's a great program and I would mostly recommend it. For international students, it is unfortunately still one of the best options for English-speaking bachelor programs in Germany. However, being the best in a group of programs which all need serious improvement is not the same as being an excellent program.
Warning: this will be a long and thorough review from the perspective of an international student who has recently graduated from this program. I have far too many thoughts about this program to summarize them shortly. There will be a tl;dr section at the very end.
First, let's address the categories provided here:
Content - Some classes were genuinely informative and helpful and were taught well. Some of the lessons taught are ones I am grateful for having learned. However, some classes or entire modules could've honestly been explained in a half an hour powerpoint or just left out of the program entirely. I also personally felt like the program was a bit more finance-heavy than it needed to be. Additionally, you have a very small number of credits for electives and specialization courses.
Professors/teachers - Like the content, this was a very mixed bag. Some of the professors are great teachers who genuinely care about their students and the content of their classes. They do their best to help and are available and open-minded if you have questions or concerns. Others are useless outside of reading badly translated/written slides and cannot rephrase a concept if you don't understand it the first time. Another category of professors are those who make inappropriate comments or berate you for not understanding the material that they haven't explained. You win some, you lose some
Lectures - Same as before, it's very dependent on the professor. I noticed that generally, smaller classrooms lead to more dynamic and interesting teaching styles. Electives are especially good for this.
Equipment - In the smaller lecture rooms, teachers and professors often had difficulty getting things to work properly. Additionally, classes were occasionally moved to rooms that were too small for the number of participants. However, most of the time this wasn't a huge issue.
Organization - Atrocious. However, the lack of communication - specifically timely communication - only exacerbated the terrible organization. So much important information for typical processes has to be found by the student by asking around until they finally get to someone who might know what they're talking about. Then, this information often criticized information available on the intranet (or the intranet is inconsistent with itself).
Library - the old library was badly laid out and not great for studying. However, the new library was recently finished and is honestly pretty nice.
Studying Digitally - During the beginning of the pandemic, this might have been possible. However, almost all classes are now being held in person again along with their exams. Additionally, many classes have required group projects and presentations which must be presented in class. Some classes also require attendance, especially language classes. Professors are reachable online, but often would rather schedule a time to talk during their office hours. Studying fully digitally is just not possible.
Now, my personal topics of choice:
Language proficiency (or lack thereof):
I'm a native English speaker, and I always did well in grammar, reading, and writing. So when I say that the English proficiency of several professors in the program was abysmal, you can believe it. Granted, if I simply had to have a conversation with them, I'm sure it would have been fine. However, when you have to learn from someone who makes mistakes that render sentences incomprehensible, it becomes an obstacle in your education and can certainly put you at a disadvantage. In some cases, exam questions had language mistakes which changed their meaning. In others, professors were unable to explain concepts in words other than the ones they had translated for their slides - which were often full of mistakes. However, the German students generally had an advantage due to the mistakes often being made by German professors whose mistakes make sense to those who speak German fluently. I found that the better my German became, the better I did in classes. In an international program, this should simply not be the case.
Another point to mention is that the classes were only MOSTLY in English. About half or more of the program specializations available in the last two semesters are only available in German. Even in core classes with the main lecturing language being English, professors would often switch to German to explain certain concepts because they couldn't explain them better or differently using English. Additionally, less formal conversations with students were usually conducted in German. In one case in a required module, the class was split into two different types of groups for a project - one would write a paper in German, and the other in English. During a pause in which the professor asked if there were any questions, I asked that, in the case I wasn't already, I could be put in one of the English groups. His response was, paraphrased, "You're in the 6th semester. You should be able to speak German by now." Although I did end up in an English group, the comment from the professor was uncalled for, completely inappropriate, and should NEVER have been said. This professor would also make inappropriate comments about his students and didn't care what people thought about what he said.
Difficulties as an international student:
I realized early on that very little effort was put into making sure that the international students actually adjusted to the foreign system and could do well in it. Classes are build on a structure that the German students are used to in school and have no problem with. They know they are expected to study and take notes in a particular way, and they do so. However, that structure was unknown to us and remained unexplained throughout the studies. In other words, we were basically just left to figure everything out on our own through trial and error while the German students had none of those struggles.
As a native English speaker, I was required to learn two foreign languages to the level of B2. Unlike my classmates who already had B2/C1 English and could take that as one foreign language, I had to start from A2 in both Spanish and German. Because the program isn't built for native English speakers, these classes overlapped every semester. But wait, it gets worse; my exams were also scheduled on the same day. Every. Semester. One time, I had barely enough time to walk from one exam to the other, let alone trying to switch my brain to the right language. The amount of extra time and effort I spent learning two languages from a basic level put me at a disadvantage for my other classes as well.
There are so many examples of struggles that international students faced during this program that German students did not. International students have to move everything with them everywhere they go during their semesters abroad because, quite simply, they have nowhere else to put their belongings. Lots of information is only available in German, making it inaccessible. And no, a "sorry, it's only available in German" does not excuse this if it's not backed up by action. Until recently, the TH's own webpage wasn't available in English. German companies are used as examples in classes without explanation, most of which I had never heard of before moving to Germany. I had to be sent from office to office asking different people for information that was necessary for my life and studies in Germany because no one knew the answer, despite my questions being standard for international students. While mostly small things, these add up to a huge disadvantage in comparison to German students in the same program. For an international student from outside of the EU, this is only more extreme.
As the most well-fitting farewell to us, the TH rescheduled our graduation ceremony via email 8 days before it was supposed to take place. Me and my international friends had family flying in for this event, and somehow the staff members that I talked to were surprised to find out that this was too short of notice to cancel or reschedule plane tickets. Many of the international students did not attend the rescheduled event due to the sunk costs, appalling organization by the TH, and disappointment. It is events like this which brings into question whether international students are considered much at all in such matters.
Tl;dr
This program is not built for international students, and they are at a disadvantage because of it. Good or fluent German skills, although not required, will make your studies much easier. Professors, as well as classes, are highly variable in quality. Don't expect amazing quality or English language skills in every class or you will be disappointed. Be prepared to struggle and figure things out along the way as organization and communication are sub-par.
For German students, I have no doubt that it's a great program and I would mostly recommend it. For international students, it is unfortunately still one of the best options for English-speaking bachelor programs in Germany. However, being the best in a group of programs which all need serious improvement is not the same as being an excellent program.
- Required semesters abroad, many partner universities for exchange, and people who are relatively open-minded
- Communication and organization are honestly terrible. International students are rarely considered past the point of novelty, yet are boasted about and often called on in class to come up with spontaneous examples and make it seem more international
Wie reagiert deine Hochschule auf die Corona-Krise?
They reacted acceptably, but not amazingly. Exams were moved online in the first two years or so. Professors reacted by either making their exams incredibly easy or virtually impossible to pass. The latter was probably done to discourage or prevent cheating, yet I saw among peers that it often had the opposite affect.
There was no deadline for deregistering from exams, so if you didn't show up, it was effectively as if you had never been signed up for it. "Tries" also weren't counted during those semesters, meaning that you could fail exams with no consequences. The TH offered this longer than the FAU, which I thought was surprisingly nice of them.
Because there were no consequences for failing or missing exams, the mentality was basically "well, you can take the class again next semester" whenever a problem would occur. Problem with accessing the exam? Unclear instructions? Administrative issues? Well, you can take the class again next semester since it doesn't count against you. Don't worry about the financial commitment of extending for a semester or the additional work of studying again for an exam that you already put months of work into because that's not their responsibility.
Overall mid.
There was no deadline for deregistering from exams, so if you didn't show up, it was effectively as if you had never been signed up for it. "Tries" also weren't counted during those semesters, meaning that you could fail exams with no consequences. The TH offered this longer than the FAU, which I thought was surprisingly nice of them.
Because there were no consequences for failing or missing exams, the mentality was basically "well, you can take the class again next semester" whenever a problem would occur. Problem with accessing the exam? Unclear instructions? Administrative issues? Well, you can take the class again next semester since it doesn't count against you. Don't worry about the financial commitment of extending for a semester or the additional work of studying again for an exam that you already put months of work into because that's not their responsibility.
Overall mid.
Kendra hat 20 Fragen aus unserer Umfrage beantwortet
Verglichen wird die Aussage des Rezensenten mit den Angaben der Kommilitonen des Studiengangs.
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Den WLAN Empfang auf dem Campus finde ich gut.Auch 71% meiner Kommilitonen sagen, das WLAN auf dem Campus ist gut. -
Ich bin der Auffassung, dass es nur selten organisierte Studentenpartys gibt.Auch 57% meiner Kommilitonen geben an, dass es nur selten organisierte Studentenpartys gibt. -
Ich finde es schade, dass es gar kein Sportangebot für Studenten gibt.71% meiner Kommilitonen finden, dass es zu wenig Sportkurse gibt. -
Manchmal finde ich keinen freien Sitzplatz im Hörsaal.75% meiner Kommilitonen haben keine Probleme, einen freien Sitzplatz im Hörsaal zu finden. -
Die Ausstattung der Seminarräume und Hörsäle könnte meiner Meinung nach moderner sein.58% meiner Kommilitonen freuen sich über die sehr moderne Ausstattung. -
Ich freue mich über die sehr sauberen Toiletten.59% meiner Kommilitonen bewerten die Sauberkeit der Toiletten als ok. -
Ich habe angegeben, dass das Sekretariat ausreichend geöffnet ist.Auch 53% meiner Kommilitonen haben angegeben, dass das Sekretariat ausreichend geöffnet ist. -
Ich bin der Auffassung, dass die Luft in den Hörsälen ok ist.Auch 94% meiner Kommilitonen sind der Meinung, dass die Luft in den Hörsälen ok ist. -
Ich finde es toll, dass es in unmittelbarer Nähe zur Hochschule Parks, Grünflächen oder Seen gibt.Auch 94% meiner Kommilitonen bestätigen, dass es Parks, Grünflächen oder Seen in unmittelbarer Nähe gibt. -
Auch wenn ich Student bin, gehe ich nicht jede Woche feiern.Auch 71% meiner Kommilitonen gehen seltener als einmal pro Woche feiern. -
Ich wohne in meiner eigenen Bude.38% meiner Kommilitonen wohnen noch bei ihren Eltern. -
In manchen Kursen habe ich eine Anwesenheitspflicht.Auch 68% meiner Kommilitonen sagen, dass es nur teilweise eine Anwesenheitspflicht gibt. -
Für mich ist die Regelstudienzeit nur mit Hilfe einer Zeitmaschine einzuhalten.50% meiner Kommilitonen finden, die Regelstudienzeit ist genau richtig bemessen. -
Neben dem Studium habe ich einen Studentenjob.Auch 80% meiner Kommilitonen haben einen Studentenjob. -
In unserer Hochschule gibt es nicht immer genug Orte an denen man ungestört lernen kann65% meiner Kommilitonen bestätigen, dass es genug Orte in der Hochschule gibt um in Ruhe zu lernen. -
Ich bin kein Vegetarier oder Veganer.Auch 71% meiner Kommilitonen essen gerne Fleisch. -
Ich erhalte hauptsächlich finanzielle Unterstützung von meinen Eltern.53% meiner Kommilitonen haben neben dem Studium einen Job, durch den sie sich ihren Lebensunterhalt finanzieren. -
Die meisten meiner Kommilitonen bleiben auch am Wochenende in der Umgebung und pendeln nicht in die Heimat.Auch 50% meiner Kommilitonen sagen, dass die Meisten am Wochenende nicht in die Heimat pendeln. -
Ich habe ein Auslandssemester absolviert.73% meiner Kommilitonen haben ein Auslandssemester fest eingeplant. -
In den Semesterferien fahre ich manchmal in den Urlaub.Auch 71% meiner Kommilitonen fahren in den Semesterferien manchmal in den Urlaub.