Erasmus in Granada

Erasmates!

We found a funny and informative video for all students interested in an Erasmus exchange to Granada. Listen to some information about Granada with it’s many Universities, Erasmus exchange students, insides on where to party and information about housing in Granada.

Watch the video here.

Erasmus in Finland

When thinking about Finland, what comes to most people’s minds first are saunas, reindeers in snowy winters, and endless midsummer nights! And, well, it is true, those are all characteristics of Finland, which you are about to experience when choosing for the land of the thousand lakes as your Erasmus destination!

While many people go to the University of Helsinki for their exchange period, we would like to point out that there are more universities that are happy to welcome Erasmus students! From the 10 multidisciplinary universities of Finland, two have now joined Erasmate. Both Jyväskylän Yliopisto and Turun Yliopisto (here’s your first Finnish lesson: Yliopisto = University!) decided to become Erasmate partners to help their students find accommodation abroad and offer rooms for their incoming students from all over Europe.

If you are going on Erasmus to Finland, create your search profile for a room now or browse the list of available accommodation.

Nauti Suomi!

For all Interns and Erasmus students in Madrid

Erasmates, readers, friends!

One of our readers and users of Erasmate.com, Britt, was so kind to share the following information on Madrid with us:

As you know, Madrid is the capital and largest city of Spain. The population of the city is roughly 3,3 million; the entire population of the metropolitan area is calculated to be nearly 6 million. Madrid is located on the river Manzanares in the centre of both the country and the Community of Madrid.  As the capital of Spain, Madrid is also the political centre of the country.

According to the Monocle magazine Madrid is the 10th most liveable city in the world. While the city has a modern infrastructure, it has preserved the look and feel of many of its historic neighbourhoods and streets.

The best known landmarks of the city:            

• The Royal Palace
• The Royal Theatre
• The Retiro Park
• The National Library
• The Prado Museum
• The Museum of National Arts, Reina Sofia
• The Thyssen Museum

Maybe you think that the city is very old-fashioned, but the culture aspects described before are very interesting. In one or two days you can visit many museums, most of them for free, where you can see various kinds of art. Madrid is also known by the highly developed architecture, with many different styles.

If you have finished your cultural trips in Madrid, you can start shopping. The city has several districts with their own shopping character. The most expensive one is the district of Salamanca, a luxurious area with exclusive boutiques. There you can find Gucci, Prada, Dior, Armani and so on. Also some small real Spanish boutiques are to be found in this area.

Another well-known area is Chueca, the gay-neighbourhood. Here you can find all types of shops, for him and her. This district is leaded by gays, but also for hetero people a cool area. The prices vary from very low to very high and especially shoes are easy to be found.

Gran Via may be the most famous street of Madrid. Here you can find many shops as well. It is an extremely busy area, with many cars and busses, but here you can find the most accessible shops like H&M, Mango and Zara. From this street you can walk down to Puerta del Sol, a famous square of Madrid with always lots of tourists. On the way to Puerta del Sol you can find many shops as well, which will take a lot of time to visit them all.

Madrid is notable for its nightlife and night clubs. The biggest one, el Kapital, has seven floors and every floor has its own music style. This one is very huge and always crowded. It is located in the city centre. Another big one is Pacha, a Spanish club for people who look for luxury. The entrance fee is high and you need to follow the dress code. If not, you cannot enter. Tourist chose very easily for el Kapital or Pacha. Another popular club is Joy Eslava, which is actually a theatre.

A lot of clubs are to be found in Madrid, but generally people prefer to go to bars. The district of Chueca, the gay neighbourhood, is also a popular place to have drinks for hetero people as well as gay people.

Having dinner in Madrid is affordable, compared to many other countries. For €25,- you can easily eat and drink a lot. Of course tapas are very Spanish, but most of the restaurants only offer them during the day. During the evening you can always order for example paella, meet and fish. Here some popular student restaurants:

• Wagaboo (6 restaurants, tasting menu for €23,90)
• Lateral (5 restaurants, 1 at e.g. Santa Ana Square)
• Bazaar (located in the district of Chueca, opens at 20h30)
• 100 Montaditos (>10 restaurants, Wednesday €-night)

We hope this information is helpful for all students going on Erasmus in Madrid.

If you feel like sharing information with other students on different Erasmus cities, feel free to contact us and send us your text!

Britt, thank you for this!

The Erasmus Programme

Dear readers!

Do you know the history of the Erasmus programme? Which countries participate and how many students participated in the Programme over time? Here are your answers:

The Erasmus Programme is a European Union student exchange programme and gives you the possibility of doing an exchange period between 3 months and maximum 12 months to one of your University’s partner Universities.

The Programme, together with a number of other independent Programmes, was incorporated into the Socrates Programme established by the European Commission in 1994. After ending on 31 December 1999, Socrates Programme was replaced with the Socrates II Programme 24 January 2000, which in turn was replaced by the Lifelong Learning Programme 2007-2013 on 1 Janauary 2007. An Erasmus exchange student receives a grant from the EU to help cover the additional expense of linving abroad. The hight of the grant is decided per academic year. Currently, the annual budget is in excess of 450 million euro and more than 2.2 million students have participated since it started in 1987. Lastly, over 4 000 higher education institutions participate and more to come!

For studies as well as internships the following countries offer the possibility of doing your Erasmus: Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Turkey and United Kingdom.

UK students educationally disadvantaged during Erasmus?

A recent article in The Guardian discusses the political proposition of introducing a new two year degree in UK university education. On a site note, the paper mentions an interesting fact with regard to the Erasmus program.

As UK students “traditionally take fewer years to complete their studies [and] their courses are also often shorter and they average fewer hours of study per week” compared to students in other European cities, they consequently find courses taught during their Erasmus year more demanding than in the UK, while incoming students to the UK find the education on the island less demanding.

If this gap in educational quality is indeed existing, one possible disadvantage for UK students is a harder entry on to the European labour market, as employers see their European counterparts to be better educated, the article summarises the problem.

We are interested in your thoughts on this. Have you experienced something similar? How was the quality of education on your exchange period compared to your home university? Have you applied for a job but were rejected due to a UK education? Tell us your story!

Erasmus exchange to Turkey? Read more…

We would like to share a valuable tip with all Erasmus students going to Turkey upcoming academic year.

During your exchange period you’re most likely using a local SIM card, as roaming is way too expensive. Very important to know is that all mobile phones that operate through a Turkish SIM card need to be registered. Make sure you do this as failing to register and using a local SIM will end up in your mobile phone being blocked.

The first possibility of registering is at the customs desk in the airport. In case you forget to do so, visit one of the stores of Turkish GSM operators like Turkcell, Vodafone or Avea. Bring your passport, pay the costs of registration (around 10-15 TL) and you can use your new local SIM card without any problems.

In case you have any other tips for students leaving to Turkey, feel free to share them as comments!

PS: If you still need a place to stay, check out our current offers for student accommodation in Turkey.

Erasmus & Erasmus Mundus

Ever wondered why you sometimes come across the term “Erasmus Mundus” when you search for information about your Erasmus stay abroad? Well, the answer is not all that difficult.

While Erasmus is the European Commission’s (EC) exchange program that gives Bachelor students across Europe the chance to spend a term of their studies abroad, Erasmus Mundus can be seen as its big brother. Launched in 2004, Erasmus Mundus was set up by the EC to enable Master students and PhD candidates to go abroad during their study program. Unlike the normal Erasmus prorgam, Erasmus Mundus is not limited to Europe but open to universities across the globe. Generally, up to 3 institutions from different countries and continents partner up to offer their students this unique study possibility.

To read some more background information about Erasmus Mundus and an example of how it has been picked up by British students so far, we recommend this article from The Independent to you.

Erasmate in Wageningen?

Today a news article was written about the expected shortage of rooms for international students in Wageningen. Real Estage Agency Idealis expects to be able to provide all first year students in Wageningen with a room, Erasmus students most likely have to search for themselves. Who knows Idealis wants to recommend Erasmate to all incoming students in Wageningen?!

Can you read Dutch? Check out the article!

Erasmate and Erasmus are climbing the ladder!

Mates,

On this very first day of July, we would like to share some great news with you!

Over the last time we have been working on Search Engine Optimization to climb the Google ladder. As you probably recognize of your own search behaviour, you’ll barely check second search result pages. We are happy to inform you about the fact that all hard working helped Erasmate showing up at the fourth position once people search for Erasmus Housing.

Not only internally it is going well for Erasmate, also externally interesting things are happening. Some days ago, the EU Commission announced that more EU students than ever travelled abroad for studies and company placements. With a total of 198.600 exchange students in academic year 2008/2009 we can celebrate an 8.7% increase compared to the year before. For more detailed information we would like to recommend you to read this article .

Enjoy the great day!

Your Erasmates