Since I English and Education on teaching study, it was clear from the outset that my course a semester in English speaking countries heard. However, it was up to you whether you study at a university or do an internship. Since I was interested in both options, I decided on a mixture of both. It quickly became apparent that if I decided to study, I would choose to study in the field of education. Unfortunately there was only one place from the Faculty of Education in Münster, which is awarded annually. So the probability that I would be accepted there was too low.Fortunately, a friend pointed me to MicroEDU, so I was able to make an appointment with Christiane that same week to find out more about MicroEDU. With a lot of patience she helped me to find the right university for me. After a few more conversations, it was clear to me: I want to study at York St. John University ! This university not only made a very good impression, but also had a great number of courses that had to do with educational sciences. The application was thanks to the help of Christiane really very simple and has not taken too much time.
Education
Before I flew to England, I gave various course preferences. In the end, I took three courses:
Educating Children, Young People and Families
Inclusion and Special Needs
How we learn
It probably doesn’t sound like much. However, since a very detailed examination of the topic and more intensive preparation and follow-up work are required, three courses are completely sufficient. I also had to write at least one term paper in each of the courses, which took a lot of time.
In contrast to Germany, according to existingcountries, most of the courses take place in the form of seminars. This means that the course size varies between 15 and 20 students, which made the working atmosphere very pleasant. In addition, the lecturers take a lot of time for their students. Emails are answered in great detail and additional appointments are organized. Every employee at the university is very friendly and happy to help with problems. Since I my courses for my studies in Münster have me not get credit, I fortunately did not have as much pressure.
Accommodation
During my stay in England I stayed at Robinson House in the student residence “The Grange”. This is about 10 minutes’ walk from the university and is therefore very easy to reach. I shared the house with 3 other people (an Irish woman, an English woman and a Norwegian woman). We had a shared kitchen as well as a bathroom. Unfortunately, my roommates didn’t attach great importance to cleanliness, which is why we never cleaned properly despite my repeated request to set up a cleaning schedule. Of course, this is very dependent on the respective roommates. One can be very lucky and very unlucky.
Another thing that increasingly bothered me was the location of the room. Since my room was facing the inner courtyard and the windows were very leaky, I had to endure an enormous background noise every evening. So I would definitely recommend finding out about the location of the room beforehand.
Unfortunately my heating broke after about a month, which meant that it was very cold in my room. I then filled out a complaint sheet several times. For reasons inexplicable to me, however, it took almost 4 weeks for my heater to be repaired. Overall, I was therefore not particularly satisfied with the accommodation.
Leisure time / excursion possibilities
In my free time I enjoyed taking part in the very diverse range of sports at the university. There are so-called “societies” for which you could register for a fee. I chose the Volleyball Society and the “SW5” Society. I can especially recommend the SW5 Society to anyone who would like to be active in sports, but does not want to commit to a particular sport.
For the evening program, the “Students Union”, which is comparable to a student council, offered a variety of events. These included, for example, a pub quiz evening, a comedy evening or a karaoke night. This way you quickly get to know other students and spend fun evenings together. York is a magical, well-arranged city that gave me a lot of wonderful moments. I would recommend to any student to visit the York Chocolate Museum. In addition, it is really worthwhile to treat yourself to a “Tea for Two” with a friend in the Valerie patisserie.
Conclusion
My stay in York was wonderful and I would do it again anytime. Due to the diverse support that you get, you don’t have to worry about not being able to keep up academically. I had a lot of fun studying. The only thing I didn’t like for various reasons mentioned above is the accommodation. In my opinion, the property is not value for money. However, it has to be said that it is bearable for a three-month stay. However, if I had studied longer at the university, I would have opted for other accommodation. Nevertheless, the university convinces with its varied leisure time opportunities and the great learning atmosphere. I won’t forget these three months anytime soon.
