There are two universities in Groningen: RUG and Hanze UAS. The first one is a university where the teaching is very academic and theoretical. I study at the second one at Hanze University of Applied Sciences in the department of Business, Marketing & Finance where the learning is done through practice. The campus is located in Zernike, in the north of Groningen.
The university campus
The campus is very large, modern and comfortable, with huge windows taking a lot of light from any room you are in. It is 15 minutes from the center by bike, which is very easy to reach. There is a large library in the main building where I study where it is very comfortable to study in silence. The rooms are always open and available to the students. This is very convenient if you want to work in a group or study in a more dynamic environment where there is some noise around.
The courses
The University offers three different minors for exchange students. When I enrolled at Hanze University, I had to make a choice (not very complicated in my case) between two minors: International Sustainable Entrepreneurship and Consumer Behaviour & Marketing in a Digital World. As I really wanted to continue my studies with a master's degree combining the international dimension and the ecology, it was obvious that I was going to choose the first one as it had motivated my will to do this DUETI. For the second semester, the minor is imposed for Erasmus students and it is called International Marketing Management.
I haven't started it at the time I write these lines so I can't talk about it yet.
However, I can tell you how I feel about the one I'm finishing right now. The courses I had were Sustainable Financial Management, Business Models, Social Entrepreneurship and Skills for International Business. These were really interesting and took me to concepts that were unknown to me at the time. The teaching was mostly practical with little theory. I would have liked to have had more in-depth readings on the concepts of circular economy and sustainable finance but these courses were a good introduction which confirmed my choice to turn to sustainable development in my Master's degree and in my future professional life. I reinforce my knowledge on these subjects on a daily basis by listening to podcasts and watching documentaries.
The teacher-student relationship
The relationship that students have with their teachers is totally different from what I experienced in my high school and IUT years. In France, I was used to calling my teachers "vous" and to feeling the hierarchy between teachers and students. This superiority relationship was not felt at all during this first semester. The professors did not show any authority and left us completely free. It was however a little disconcerting to see students arriving 30 minutes late and not getting any comments from the professor holding the class. I found it entertaining to observe the cultural differences in an environment conducive to interaction and I had fun seeing the differences of time perception from different countries (special shout-out to my Spanish friends for whom being on time is just a concept). All in all, I enjoyed studying in a completely different environment than the one of the IUT. These cultural differences in education take me to a deeper insight into educational models. If I ever become a manager, I will make sure to take into account the positive and negative aspects of the French and Dutch educational system in order to take the best of what I have seen in terms of education and leadership.
The workload
In the first semester we had about 12 fixed hours of classes per week. This amount of coursework is very small compared to what I had been used to at the IUT. However, even though a large part of the lessons were dedicated to the realization of our group projects, we still had to study outside. You have to stay organized because it's easy to get lost in the numerous projects to do. I have a student job and I do a lot of activities besides, so I had to quickly set up a routine where I would study from 6-9pm when I got home from university. This way I was able to stay on top of assignments while still managing my various activities. I like to be busy and optimize my time as much as possible, so my extracurricular activities did not, in my opinion, have a negative impact on the quality of my work submitted to the University.
In conclusion, I am satisfied with the courses I took this semester, which I believe were a good introduction to the means we have to think about our sustainable and ethical business. I would have liked to have acquired more concrete knowledge, but the simple experience of having carried out numerous entrepreneurial projects on sustainability with foreign students is very enriching!
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