2014-2015

University Attended - University of

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INDUCTION/ORIENTATION PROGRAMME What did this involve, how long did it last, was it useful?

Induction was carried out during the first week we arrived, the last week of August. There were a number of events during the week to welcome students and provide information of how to register for courses, who to contact and how to find your way around (the campus is very large). On the first day we had to register in the International Office and provide a number of documents. As there were a lot of students all doing the same thing, it did take a while but was to be expected. On the second day, we had a presentation by some of the head of departments, outlining their roles as well as in-depth information and deadlines for course registration and local activities. During the week, we were also given a tour of the main campus buildings, which is essential if you intend on finding anything. These were all very useful to attend as the registration process is not the easiest to understand and get correct. There were also time slots for us to attend in order to help with this process.

ACADEMIC EXPERIENCE Style of teaching, courses, ease of access to courses, methods of assessment, teaching support

The range of courses offered in Mannheim are very slim, and the majority involve finance or mathematics. Registration of the courses was difficult as it is much different to Manchester, and it takes a while to organise your timetable to ensure you do not have clashes. Each course has three different classes; A Lecture in a large hall; A Tutorial to review the lecture content; and an Exercise class to run over homework questions. This therefore involves a lot of organisation and again restricts your choices of what you can take. Some of the exercise classes are also needed to be ranked by priority, due to so many people attending, and so you may need to reorganise your timetable after you have been allocated a slot. Methods of assessment is largely based on 100% exams, with only a few courses having a small amount of coursework to contribute. The exams are largely based around memory, and building knowledge around the subjects is rarely required. Lectures need to be memorised and regurgitated in the exam. If possible I would recommend intensive courses although these are filled very quickly. Teaching support is available although fairly minimal. Questions can be asked during the classes, although there is a large volume of content and is often only briefly explained by the student reps taking the class. Email contact is available if needed, although Q&A sessions are carried out towards the end of each course. Course Materials were mostly provided through a portal style website called Ilias, although some courses require you to purchase the materials in the form of a booklet at a charge of €10. One note to make is that in order for you to gain a seat in most of the classes, you need to be outside the rooms 15 minutes before, or your will not get a seat.

MBS INTERNATIONAL ADMINISTRATION SUPPORT TEAM Level of support, additional information that could have been useful

Help was always available regarding any problems or queries that we had regarding the many forms required to be completed. Many emails were also sent reminding us of deadlines, which was very useful, because as mentioned there are a number of forms needed for various reasons and they are not necessarily the easiest to understand what information to provide.

MBS SECOND YEAR MEETINGS Any additional information that you feel could have been provided

In the second year meetings, a general overview of the year abroad was well presented and very detailed. Although of this, previous exchange students to Mannheim did not turn up for us. Slightly more information or emphasis on accommodation may have been helpful as this was a problem for us in Mannheim, although I will discuss this in more detail later in this f