The destination of the exchange studies was
selected to be University of Regensburg in Germany. The consideration of the
exchange destinations began from New-Zealand, because of its beautiful nature,
Canada, Nordic countries and Europe. Also, we considered more exotic destinations
such as Asia.
The Nordic countries were excluded, because
when we really go to exchange, it is a bit unimaginative, not getting farther
away than Nordics. New-Zealand and Canada would have been good choices, as the
family could develop their English skills and getting along would have been easier
for my wife with local language. Anyway, my university doesn’t have an
agreement with a university in New-Zealand, so I should have acquired one by myself
and addition to that the tuition fees are rather high. In Canada there was one
destination ready, but here also the tuition fees would have been rather high.
At this point the choices were limited in
practice to Europe or some Asian destination. The practical means started to
guide more the selection. Maybe the most important criteria were, that with
kids the destination must be safe. Because of that the exoticism of Asia wasn’t
so appealing anymore. The only exotic choice left was Las Palmas, which was rejected
because of requirement of Spanish skills.
For myself one important criterion was the job
possibilities of the future and the impact of the exchange to the job
possibilities. My big dream is to have a job from BMW in München Germany. For
this goal the exchange in Germany would be the most useful. We could learn the
language, experience how the living in Germany feels, get to know the culture,
people and places, and to get a foot in the door of BMW. The exchange would
work as a test for the whole family, how the life in German would be. Based on
that experience we could decide of possible permanent living in Germany. Because
of these reasons we chose Germany.
There was variety of universities in Germany, of
which to choose from. I picked those options, where BMW has production or other
offices. Our university has mainly two choices: Leipzig and Regensburg. In
Leipzig there is two alternatives: private top-university Handelhochschule
Leipzig, in which the teaching is held in English, or the public university Universität
Leipzig, which requires min. B2 German skills, because there are no courses
held in English. In Regensburg there were also courses held in English.
So, the destination was selected to be
Regensburg. Regensburg is located in south Germany in Bavaria 125 km to north
from München. In Regensburg there are 166 000 residents, so its size is in
halfway between Jyväskylä and Turku. Regensburg is known of its old town, which
survived well of the bombings of World War II. There is also a big production
plant of BMW, where they produce for example 1-series and X1 & X2 models.
In the university of Regensburg there are 10 faculties and 21 500 students
yearly.
Until next time!
Until next time!
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