Experience rapport

Please write this report in English The student report will be published on the: HYPERLINK "http://www.tilburguniversity.edu/students/study/abroad/" Study Abroad website (under “Experiences” from partner universities) TSH study abroad blackboard page I am fine with my report being published online: YES

Exchange semester: Spring 2016

Academic year: 3rd

Host University: University of Limerick

Host country: Ireland

1. General information about the school

I lived in Limerick, Ireland from mid january to mid may. While I was there, I studied at the University of Limerick, called UL by all of the students. Ireland doesn't have that many universities, I believe only five or six in total. So UL is quite well known all around the country. The campus is quite big, especially compared to Tilburg University. It has different buildings for all faculties. The lectures aren't always in the building of the faculty tough, so you're still walking around a lot from one lecture to another. This can sometimes be a bit hectic, since the campus is so big and you only have ten minutes in between lectures to walk from one building to another. But after a while, you will know your way around. On campus you basically have everything you need; there's restaurants, pubs, shops, the students union, a religious room, study rooms, a library, a gym and even a concert hall in which you can have lectures but there's also shows and concerts given here. Almost every building has its own cafeteria. The prices for food on campus are a bit higher than we're used to at Tilburg University, but you do get a lot for your money. As I mentioned, you are spoiled for choice on campus when it comes to restaurants. In my opinion, the best places to get good food were the Health sciences building cafetaria, the Kemmy bussiness school cafetaria and the Paddock (which is located in the student courtyard). The student courtyard is the central place / meeting place on campus. The supermarket (Spar), students union, pubs, restaurants, other shops and religious centre are located here. There's two pubs on campus; the Stables club and Scholars. Scholars is a bit more quiet, a nice place to get some coffee or tea. The Scholars club is the most well known pub on campus. There's parties held there every weekend. The supermarket on campus is Spar. I wouldn't recommend shopping there, since they don't have a lot and it's really pricy. I did almost all of my shopping at Aldi, which is a lot cheaper but a bit further away from campus. The gym that's located on campus is a nice place to go if you like to workout. It is a bit more expensive than we're used to in Tilburg. A membership for one semester (4 months) costs 200 euros. Something you'll definately notice while studying at UL is that many of the Irish students wear jogging pants or gymwear all day. This was something that seemed strange to me at first, wearing sweats to school all the time. But it seems normal in Ireland, or at least in UL.

The location of the campus is really beautiful, it is located near the river Shannon, which flows all the way into the city centre. Most buildings are at one side of the river, but there's also a few more on the other side. You can take the big bridge across to get there. This bridge is called the 'Living bridge', because when you walk on it you can feel it moving sometimes.

Picture: The living bridge, UL

UL has five different faculties. Strangely, psychology is listed under Education and Health sciences, not under Humanities and Social sciences. This was something that seemed a bit strange to me when I applied. The psychology department at UL is by far not as well developed as the one at Tilburg University. It's only been there for a few years. This means that they don't offer that many courses in psychology (yet). For this reason, I decided to take the opportunity to attend a few courses from other faculties as well. The University has about 11.500 students. Each year UL welcomes many international students. While I was there, there were about 600 internationals in total. They divide international students in two groups; Erasmus and Study abroad. Erasmus are all students that are part of the Erasmus program, so students from Europe. The study abroad students are not part of the Erasmus program, they were for example from the States or other countries outside Europe. Most study abroad students at UL are American.

UL is located outside of the city centre of Limerick. It's about 5 km to get from campus to the city centre. There is busses going there and back all day, also on the weekend. Limerick is the fourth biggest city in Ireland. It's a nice city to visit sometime. It's a tad bigger than Tilburg, but the centre isn't that big. You will know your way around in no time. I have been to the city centre a lot during my exchange period, since there's much more choice in restaurants and shops there than there is on and around campus. Limerick city also has a few touristic hotspots, like King Johns castle and the Thomond rugby stadion. I attended a rugby match there once. Rugby is really popular in Ireland, which was new for me. Limerick also has many nice stores, like Pennys for example (which is the same as Primark in the Netherlands). This can come in handy when buying things like bed linnen, towels etc, because they are really cheap there. I discovered a few good restaurants while living in Limerick, but in my opinion, the best and 'most Irish' way of having dinner is in a pub. And there's plenty of choice in Limerick when it comes to pubs! The athmosphere in pubs is something truly unique. It's like coming home. The best pub by far to go to when you're in the city centre is 'The Locke'. They have really good food there and a nice athmosphere. It's located near the river, so it's also got a nice view.

2. Practical information

Information before you left

I received plenty of information from UL, even sooner than when I actually needed it. I received a few emails with attachments containing information about housing, applications, registering for courses, etc. I also received a catalogue by mail containing all the information that was needed before arriving to UL. I didn't experience any difficulties. The contact person (Dearbhla McNamara) for Erasmus students is very helpful and replies fast to emails (usually within a day).

Visa procedure and arrival

Since Ireland is part of the EU, you do not have to apply for a visa. My arrival in Ireland was very easy. UL had provided me with information beforehand about the airports, pickup services and other forms of transportation from the airports to the university. There were two possibilities; you could either fly to Dublin airport and take a bus from there to Limerick and UL or you could fly to Shannon airport and enjoy the pick-up service that UL had provided. I choose to do the first, since flying to Dublin was much cheaper for me than flying to Shannon. From Dublin airport, I took the Dublin coach, which first brings you to the changingpoint called Red Cow. At Red Cow, I took a second Dublin coach bus which brought me to UL. Information about the busses and where to change was provided by UL beforehand as well.

The Dublin coach dropped me off at the bus station at UL. I had prepared well, and used my printed map to get to the student village I was going to live at. This wasn't hard, because there is only a few roads, you can hardly get lost on and around campus. When I arrived at Troy village where I was going to be staying, I was greeted by the receptionist. She showed me to my room and explained to me how the heating and stove worked. I didn't experience any problems during my arrival and my room was fine, just not that well cleaned.

Orientation / introduction activities

I arrived in Limerick on the 17th of January. The official introduction started on the 21th. The days in between, there were already some activities organised for international students to get to know each other tough. There was for example a traditional Irish music session and a coffee morning. During the official introduction days, we were given a lot of information about the university, the courses and lots of other things that were useful to know. There was also a campus tour, busses going to the city centre and a big local shopping mall and a party on friday. In the first week on sunday we had our first tour going to The Burren and The Cliffs of Moher, which were spectacular.

The cliffs of Moher

UL has a buddy programme for all incoming international students. They will email you about this beforehand, so you can sign up. I already came into contact with my buddy a few weeks before I left for Ireland (via email and Facebook). I met up with her in the first week I was there. She showed me around on campus and provided me with a lot of information. It was really nice to have someone, also before you leave, to answer any questions you might have and help you get settled in during the first days.

Housing

There is two main options when it comes to housing at UL. You can try to reserve a dorm room on campus or choose to book something off campus. The on campus houses are called; Plassey, Cappavilla, Dromroe, Thomond and Kilmurry village. Then there's a few off campus villages, called Troy village, Brookfield, Parkview, Groody and Courtyard student village. I originally applied for on campus housing, but as they tell you in the introduction email as well, these rooms fill up fast and there just aren't enough for all students. I was too late for an on campus room, but I got offered a room at Troy village by the University housing contact person (Deirdre Ryan). In the end I'm really happy everything worked out this way. On campus housing is really expensive (the cheapest on campus rent is 600 a month) and not even that good or close to the university buildings. Besides that, Troy village is one of the closest villages off campus. It's only a twenty minute walk to university from there, which is doable. Some of the on campus villages (Thomond, Cappavilla) are just as far away from the University, even tough they call it on campus. If you're going to apply for on campus housing, I would recommend you apply for Dromroe or Plassey, since they are the closest. But in my opinion, off campus is fine as well and a lot less expensive. If you decide to go for an off campus dorm room, the best choices would be Troy village, Brookfield hall or Groody. Brookfield is quite far away from campus, but they have a shuttlebuss running every hour. I would definately not go for Parkview hall. This is really far away (closer to the city centre than to campus).

Troy village is an off campus accomodation which is owned by the University (they took over the lease last year). It's still under construction, but parts of it are done already and that's where I stayed. I stayed in an appartment with two other girls, both international students as well. We had a common area and kitchen which we shared. Other than that, we each had our own bath- and bedroom. My rent was 410 a month, plus a deposit of 250 euros.

I arranged my housing before I came to Ireland, because I felt more comfortable knowing I would have a place to go once I arrived. I did not experience any problems or disappointment doing this, since I was pretty satisfied with my room and the accomodation.

Living costs

I was able to finance myself during my semester abroad using my Erasmus grant, student grant, OV declaration and personal savings. The living expenses on average are a big higher than in Holland. The rent for dorms is a bit higher and public transport is also more expensive than we're used to. It's a good idea to compensate this by for example do all your grocery shopping at Aldi instead of the Spar that's on campus. This is a bit more of a walk so can be inconvenient at times, but it does save you a lot of money, which you then can spend on other things. Another thing that's smart is to buy clothing et cetera at Pennys, which I mentioned earlier. I would advise you to spend as much as you like on travelling. It's not often you get the opportunity to travel a strange country, so make the most of it. My monthly budget in Ireland would look something like this:

Housing: 450

Food: 100-150

Transport: 100-200

Books: 0, just some for printing

Others (dinners out, day trips): 100

Academic calendar

As I mentionned, the official introduction started on the 21st of January. It is advisable to arrive a few days before that tough, because the official introduction days are long and busy. So you won't have a lot of time to get settled and do shopping in those days. It's better to get this sorted before the introduction. The classes started the week after introduction week. In UL they have a system developed especially for international students. International students get to spend the first two weeks of the semester trying out every course they're interested in. There is no tutorials in these weeks, just lectures. So you can go to as many as you want, to get a better image of what you can expect when following these courses and to see if they are really as interesting as you thought. After these two weeks, you have to officially register for the courses you want to take. If you decide to change courses after this time, for example after a month, this is still possible but there is a fine included then. I actually changed one of my courses during the first two weeks, because it wasn't what I expected and I'm happy I was able to make this decision.