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Erasmus International Exchange- Difficult but worth it?

PhD student and Instructor in the Life Sciences Chris Hobbs takes us on his Erasmus year journey, and throws in some advice for good measure. 

During the second year of my undergraduate degree in Biosciences at Canterbury Christ Church University, I had the chance to engage with the Erasmus programme at Leuphana Universitat Luneburg in Germany. Erasmus is an EU student exchange programme that allows students to study a year of their programme abroad at an international university. During our recent applicant day, a number of students expressed an interest in this, and I thought it would be best for me to share my experiences of this, to help inform people’s decisions to apply for this.

The first challenge with choosing to go on an Erasmus exchange, is the actual decision! Leaving your country for an entire year, especially after potentially only living away from home for a year previously is a daunting choice. You’ve just made all of these wonderful (and maybe not-so-wonderful) friends during your first year, so you may be a little hesitant to suddenly up and leave them. However, they WILL still be there when you get back! Moving abroad by yourself will put you well outside of your comfort zone, something I personally enjoy, so it’s not for everyone.

The next challenge you will face is the language barrier. You do not need to be fluent in the language of your country of travel before you choose it. I’d taken GCSE German at school, and had a passable German vocabulary, but nothing spectacular, and had forgotten most of it by then! Leuphana offered online German language courses that I could engage with before I arrived to bring up my oral, reading, and writing skills.

When I was at Leuphana, there was the opportunity to engage with intensive language courses throughout the semesters there. There are many products around that you can engage with (such as Duolingo) that will allow you to practice your skills before you leave. I feel that these are vital, not to the courses (as many of the lecturers will be willing to discuss things with you in English), but with social life outside of university. This is an equally vital part of your exchange, it’s designed as an academic and cultural exchange. I knew a few students abroad who were only there to study, and did not socialise with the local or international students, and I found they struggled more with their courses. Throwing yourself into a new culture, and learning from it through integration is incredibly rewarding, and helps you make friends for life.

“Cultural Integration”

Accommodation is your next major hurdle to overcome. With this, you need to organise it early! As soon as you have got your Erasmus agreement in place, talk to the International Offices at both CCCU and at your host university. They will be able to aid you with this. With Leuphana, the international office there was the driving force behind this, and all payments, rental agreements etc. went through them. Even with this, it wasn’t plain sailing. My first house I was supposed to be in was being redecorated when I arrived, so I had to transfer to a different flat upon arrival, which caused so much confusion! As a part of this, the local student who was supposed to meet me at the station with my keys and show me around the city was not there when I got to Luneburg. I had to navigate my way to the university by bus (with the help of the friendliest bus driver ever, who went out of his way to make sure I got off at the correct stop) and find the international office to be able to get into my flat!

The view from my replacement flat- totally worth it!

Choose the right courses! Whilst you may roll your eyes at this, it’s incredibly easy to fall foul to this. Many of the universities that provide Erasmus placements have most of their courses in their native language, but host a smattering of courses in English. You are in charge (mostly), of the courses you take. You have to run them past your Erasmus co-ordinator at both host and home university, but ultimately it is down to you. Some courses are really relevant to your course, some are at a slight tangent, but will give you insight into new fields of science, and some are so far removed from what you are supposed to be studying that you could essentially be doing a different degree! For example, Leuphana had a course taught entirely in English called ‘Databases for Muggles’. I talked to the international coordinators and I COULD have taken this course, as the technical skills could be transferred to what I would have studied, and it being taught in English would have made my life a whole lot easier. However, taking it would have made my life harder upon my return to 3rd year at CCCU. Instead, I took a 3rd year course called ‘Laborprakticum Umweltchemie’ (practical environmental chemistry) that was entirely taught and assessed in German, which gave me an incredible amount of lab experience, that set me up for many of my third year courses, even though Google Translate became my best friend during this time.

Erasmus exchanges take a lot of work, both to set up, and whilst you are out there. You will be put out of your comfort zone, and have to work harder than you have even done before. It will not be easy. However, it is one of the most rewarding experiences you will have, and can make lifelong friends.

 

 

 

Life Sciences Applicant Day

Saturday 18th March saw Canterbury Christ Church’s invite-only open day, and the Life Sciences team jumped at the chance to give potential students a glimpse of what we do and how.  We had practical sessions in the Somerville labs on main campus, and had staff based in Augustine House to offer information about the courses and School.

Struggling to choose a University? You cannot possibly do a worse job than I did.

University Instructor for the Life Sciences Beth Gawthorpe tells us her experience in choosing a university, how everything doesn’t always go to plan and why that’s not as bad as it seems.

 

Struggling to choose a University? You cannot possibly do a worse job than I did.

I spent this Saturday in our teaching labs, forming a cozy friendship with some wax-moth larvae, and chatting with a stream of UCAS applicants- all of them attempting to make the ‘right’ choice about University, many also choosing a new town to call home.

Some of those who lingered near the larvae for long enough made some interesting points:

“I want to choose a good Uni, but I’m not sure what I even mean when I say good”

“How can I possibly tell if I’ll like living here without actually *living* here”

“I’m basically just wandering around trying to decide if people seem nice … that can’t be the way to make such a huge decision?!”

I found myself sharing the story of how I chose my own University. As you’ll see, it’s a Cautionary Tale more than a Shining Example. It did however seem to make people feel better; just to know that they weren’t the worst at this.

In the interests of ‘setting the scene’, it’s important that you know: I’m quite old. In 1999 there was no ‘Unifrog’; we had a massive book in the 6th form common room called the ‘UCAS Handbook’ which had a page for every university, arranged alphabetically. In 1999 you had to fill in an actual, physical, paper UCAS form … by hand. In 1999 you visited Universities by yourself, parents were not welcome. It was a very different time; like I said, I’m quite old.

I filled in my UCAS form with only three courses listed. I’m genuinely not sure why I chose not to fill-up the six available spaces. I remember excluding everything in the South-East of England (I was feeling the need for independence and adventure). I remember thinking that I ‘definitely knew’ that I’d go to Bath, so the others were pointless anyway. Mostly, I remember getting bored of staring at the 8-point font in the UCAS handbook.

My form tutor was having none of it; she sent me back to do it properly. Choices had to be listed in alphabetical order, I couldn’t face re-writing the whole thing. So, in a moment of genius, I turned to the back of the dreaded UCAS handbook and added Warwick and York.

Over the next term, I visited two of my original choices, and hated both. I missed the interview day at my third choice because it clashed with an exam; they wrote to me to make me a conditional offer of two ‘E’s in any subjects, based on my ‘impressive interview performance’. They were clearly desperate, I eliminated them.

So, I decided I should visit my two ‘end of the alphabet’ choices. The honest reasons that I liked Warwick were: it was a glorious sunny day, people were lounging out on the grass looking cool and sophisticated, the guy who led my tour was attractive and funny. The honest reasons that I didn’t like York were: it was January in Yorkshire, and it rained the whole day. I can remember sitting on the train home, snaking through endless grey towns thinking, “The North is a nightmare, I’m never going to The North ever again”.

I missed the grades for Warwick, and ended up at York anyway.

I never got used to Yorkshire winters. I never managed to fully educate Northerners that there is in-fact an entire county beyond London. I never lived-down mistaking my flat-mate’s Geordie accent for Russian.

I also had an amazing time; got a good degree; loved Yorkshire so much I stayed for four more years; and made some of the best friends of my life. There’s just no knowing.

Outreach, with a Bang!

Last Friday a team of lecturers and instructors from Canterbury Christ Church School of Life Sciences headed to Discovery Park for the annual Big Bang Fair. The Big Bang Fair is organised by Kent & Medway STEM, with the aim of inspiring a love of Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths subjects in students from local schools and academies. The format of the event ensures a hands-on experience for all students, with interactive workshops and exhibits held throughout the day.

(L-R) Emily Knight, Dr Gregg Macintosh, Chris Hobbs, Dr Chris Harvey and Dr Phil Buckley holding the fort

Our staff set up their ‘Magnetism in Rocks’ stall in the main foyer and discussed the magnetic properties in rocks, why this was important and how this drives research. They even held rock races, asking students to predict which rocks they thought would have stronger magnetic potential.

Dr Buckley and Dr Harvey presented a workshop- ‘Thermoregulation in Insects’ with Wax Moth larvae, Achroia grisella. Their workshop looked at the effect of temperature on the movement speed of the larvae and invited students to map the distances travelled over set times. During this the students observed the different heat signatures of larvae under different conditions (grouped by temperature) using the infra red cameras.

The team’s infrared camera

Our staff on the day found it incredibly enjoyable to engage with, and enthuse, potential future scientists. Dr Simon Harvey, Director of the Life Sciences, stated how important he felt the day was for the section, the university, and for the students we engage with:

“Many of the challenges facing us require scientific solutions. We need more scientists and more engineers. A more general understanding of science and of how to assess evidence in society is also critical. We work with both primary and secondary school children. This is important as engaging with and working with schools is critical in getting children and young people interested in science.

Getting staff and post-graduate students out to schools lets the children see that scientists are all different and that there is no standard background.”

Cancer and Height

By Simon Harvey, Director of Life Sciences

There’s recently been a lot of media coverage of work that has identified height as a risk factor for a number of cancers. Now it’s been many years since I’ve looked seriously at the scientific literature around cancer risk, but it’s been known that height is a risk factor for cancer, particularly breast cancer, for a long time. That this story was so widely covered therefore seems a bit surprising. What is the deal? Is this a new discovery, a confirmation of an old discovery or it is just that cancer, dementia and heart disease, the big three killers, are always newsworthy?

Cancer research and treatment; past, present and future

“Cancer is not a new disease”, said Professor Michelle Garrett, while speaking at a lecture organised by Kent Cancer Trust at Canterbury Christ Church University to an audience of over 100 people recently. She referred to the Edwin Smith Papyrus that was written around 1700 BC that includes descriptions of tumours that were removed by cauterisation with a tool called the”fire drill”! The word “cancer” is credited to the Greek physician Hippocrates (460 – 370 BC).