Exchange program with Hochschule Pforzheim University, Germany
Bachelor Program
January - June
2019 - 2020 Academic year
When I got my confirmation to go to Russia for my semester abroad, I first didn’t know what to expect. As Russia was honestly my second choice, I was still very happy about the unexpected. As I started to make myself familiar with the culture and of course IBS RANEPA, I got more and more confident about spending my semester abroad there.
As I’ve never been to Russia before, I was kind of nervous when I started my journey. When I landed in Moscow, I got picked up by a driver and immediately felt welcomed and taken care of. After arriving at the dormitory at the campus, I was warmly welcomed by other German students who quickly became close friends. Living in the dormitory was from the beginning to the end nothing but fun. I loved to make new friends, having cooking sessions in the kitchen and of course enjoying the Moscow night life.
Apart from the private life in Moscow, I was very positively surprised by the system of IBS RANEPA. As student you always feel supported by the teachers and of course Zemfira Galimullina and you don’t ever have to worry about or hesitate asking questions or for support. As you have quite some work to do during the whole semester, I wasn’t familiar with that. In Germany you have lectures the whole semester and an exam just at the end. Of course you still have projects that last the entire semester, but that is more the unusual case.
At IBS RANEPA you consolidate your knowledge with weekly homework, which first sounded like a lot of work to me, as I wasn’t used to it. But as the semester progressed further, I really started to understand the value of this system. With lots of essays, home tasks and presentations you really work with your gained knowledge and get a feeling for the practical application of it.
As unfortunately we had to leave Russia after just seven weeks at IBS RANEPA due to the global pandemic, I was really sad. Also, I started to get concerned about the ending of the semester and my credits I needed to gain. Luckily, IBS RANEPA managed to adapt really fast to the situation and immediately organized all courses online without any problems to continue our studies. For some courses I didn’t even get to meet the teachers in person, but nevertheless it didn’t feel impersonal.
In my opinion, all teachers managed to provide us their knowledge and experience even though it was all online and not face to face. Of course I personally would have been a lot happier to finish my semester abroad at IBS RANEPA in Moscow while still being there, but I’m just thankful for the teachers and people working in the background for making it possible for me to finish my semester abroad even though being back in Germany.
That’s why I just want so say „thank you“ to IBS RANEPA Moscow for making it possible for me to have such a great time in Moscow. It didn’t feel like just seven weeks, as the semester basically flew by. Even though it was such a short period of time in Moscow, I gained a lot of business knowledge and was also able to develop myself as a person.
