Nawal Jamshid
Aston University is home to many exchange students and in this article, I interview Pierre and Cass about their experience at Aston.
Pierre is 20 and from “a beautiful country called Belgium”. He studied at Aston on a 1 term exchange and in a short time made lots of impact around the Aston community, especially in hockey!
What do you study in your home country and what have you been studying here?
I study at the KUL (Katholieke Universiteit Leuven) a well-known university in
Belgium. KUL is in the Dutch speaking part of Belgium, but I live in the French speaking part. I am currently finishing my 3rd bachelor’s in business engineering and at Aston I’ve been studying in various modules.
How is the style of teaching and learning compared to back home? What do you prefer or dislike in either country?
The learning experience has been totally different for me! At KUL, I spend up to 24 hours in classes a week. My classes are at least 2-hour long lectures where we listen to a professor talk in front of 200-300 students. We hardly have seminars and therefore there isn’t really any contact between the professor and the students, you just sit in the auditorium and listen.
Here at Aston, I’ve had 8 hours of class a week, with lectures that last 1 hour and a lot more seminars; smaller classes and more contact with the lecturer.
I prefer the type of learning in the UK as you don’t have a lot of classes, but you need to do a lot of independent work before the lecture or after which I prefer as I am not the type of student that goes to class a lot.
I also like the more informal interaction you can have with professors in the UK as in Belgium it is strictly formal, and students are often afraid to ask their questions.
I also like the fact that here there are a lot of during the term assignments that count towards your final grade and that you don’t only have on campus exams.
In Belgium, you almost only have on-campus exams at the end of the term, and these are your final grades.
During your time at Aston, have you joined any extracurriculars and how have you found them?
Yes, I joined the Aston Uni Hockey Club. It is the best choice I’ve made
during my exchange. It gave me the possibility to make lots of friends, go out
a lot and have a lot of fun while discovering the culture of UK students and
playing some sport.
I also joined a ‘real’ Hockey Club during my exchange called Barford Tigers
HC. I found out about BTHC as they coach the Aston training. I joined their club too because even though AUHC is lots of fun, the hockey level could be better and joining BTHC gave me the opportunity to play ‘real’ UK hockey and play the sport I started 13 years ago.
*As someone who has had the pleasure to watch Pierre play hockey, I can confidently say that he’s like a rocket on the Astro and can confirm that he was awarded MVP at the Men’s Hockey Christmas Meal and will be greatly missed both on and off the pitch.
How did you feel before moving to Birmingham? Did you have any preconceptions about what it would be like, and did you find these to be true?
I think I had the same preconceptions as a lot of people: Birmingham is a little
bit ‘Ghetto’ and going here, you are going to get stabbed or robbed. But I have to
say that I was expecting a lot worse as a city. And even though it isn’t the
the most beautiful city, I think it is worth it to go on exchange here.
Did it take you a while to adjust and settle into life here? In general, how have
you found it?
I didn’t take much time to settle in as I was part of a community of a lot of exchange students at Aston and we all came with the same mindset: make some new friends
and have fun for 1 term. It has been a great experience for me and one of the best choices I have made in life (going away from home and living on my own for 1 term). It is going to sound a lot like rubbish and a cliché, but I think I would say that I’ve learned a lot about myself by doing this experience.
What have you missed the most about home?
Friends without hesitation and the extracurriculars (hockey, coaching of my hockey teams etc.) that I had in Belgium. I missed them but not that much as I knew I was only leaving for 1 term which isn’t that long, and I think I needed to go away from home for some time.
What’s been your favourite thing about being at Aston University?
Firstly, I have to add that I find the campus and SU really beautiful, and I don’t know
why, but it gives me a better view of Birmingham. But my favourite thing is the
fact that we have a less class hours and therefore have a lot of free time to go out, join
clubs and societies etc. For this reason, my best experience during my exchange is without hesitation joining AUHC and playing together and going out with them. I think they made my exchange better than I could have hoped or expected.
Cassandre is from France and is studying at Aston for the whole academic year. You may have heard Cass sing at Gosta or during the Christmas Concert at the Church at Carrs Lane with the Aston Music Society.
What do you study in your home country and what have you been studying here?
In my home country I mainly study politics, but I also study law, economics, languages and sociology. For my first semester at Aston, I chose two politics modules: Elites, and Politics of Development and two English Literature modules: Post Apocalyptic Fiction and Reading and Society.
How is the style of teaching and learning compared to back home? What do you prefer or dislike in either country?
I find the teaching style very different: it really resembles the American movies' teaching style, nobody is wrong, all answers are accepted… The teachers tend to have a broad approach with certain subjects, which is good to get students interested when they aren’t familiar with the topic. However, sometimes I feel it would be good to go deeper on some aspects, which is the way scholars teach in my university back home as opposed to broadly covering a topic.
During your time at Aston, have you joined any extracurriculars and how have you found them?
I joined the music society as a band member and started performing with them. It has been very fun, and I look forward to meeting them each week to practice or go for a drink. I have made good friends in the society, and I get to play music, so I am really happy that I joined.
How did you feel before moving to Birmingham? Did you have any preconceptions about what it would be like, and did you find these to be true?
Honestly speaking, from the rumours I’ve heard and been told about Birmingham I was expecting something terrible, but in the end I have found the city to be rather interesting and it is definitely not as bad as people told me it would be!
Did it take you a while to adjust and settle into life here? In general, how have
you found it?
The fact that there is an Erasmus society at Aston really helped me to adjust to my life here. I made friends on the first night and connected with people who were living here this year as exchange students too which was nice to have a community. I have really enjoyed making connections here, and it definitely made living here easier.
What have you missed the most about home?
What I miss the most about home is most definitely the food. No shade but British food is not it lol. I obviously also miss my friends and family too, but the food can’t text or call.
What’s been your favourite thing about being at Aston University?
My favourite thing at Aston has been the fact that the campus life is so rich, there’s always something going on. I really enjoy playing music with my friends from Music Society as well, it’s making my Aston experience so much better. I play music back home and I was afraid to really miss it here, but I found some really cool people to share my passion with.
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