Doing an exchange opened a window to another culture for Julia Good. A political science and public administration student at the University of Bern. She spent a semester at Keio University in Japan. In this interview, she talks about learning to live in a different culture, experiencing a Zen meditation and making a friend for life.
Swiss Government Excellence Scholarships narrowly escape drastic funding cuts
The Swiss Parliament was all but set on cutting half of the funding for the Swiss Government Excellence Scholarships (ESKAS). This funding programme supports researchers from all over the world to pursue doctoral or postdoctoral research in Switzerland.
Pelin Koyuncu attended the ENLIGHT summer school “Game Design in Health Care and Education”. She developed an app that motivates people to exercise and stay physically active. In this interview, she discusses how she combines her passion for gaming with her psychology studies at the University of Bern, and explains why an ENLIGHT hybrid course offers a unique experience.
Richa is always shocked when people express surprise at the fact that she works in IT. She is studying for the Swiss Joint Master of Science in Computer Science at the Universities of Bern, Neuchâtel and Fribourg. In this interview, she talks about living her Bollywood dream, the gender gap in IT and why she passionately believes that more women should study computer science.
At first it was a culture shock, then a passion. Chiara Heiss, a Bachelor’s student in Social Sciences at the University of Bern, spent a semester studying at Korea University in Seoul. In this video, she explains how she found her feet in a foreign country and how her exchange changed her.
Studying abroad offers students unique opportunities for academic enrichment, career development, language learning, cultural immersion, and personal growth. This blog post explores what we believe are the top five reasons why studying abroad is a game changer for our students!
Patricia Bieri studies political science at the University of Bern. Her exchange semester at Université Laval in Canada encouraged her to embrace the unknown. In this interview, Patricia reflects on how she experienced classes at Université Laval, the importance of language in Canadian politics, and why she believes going on an exchange semester is worth it.
Chisato Todaka is an exchange student from Keio University in Japan. She studies social anthropology, but her real passion is the great outdoors. At the end of her exchange stay in Switzerland she will climb Mont Blanc – the highest mountain in Western Europe – with her father, an experienced mountain guide.
Luca Mast came home from South Africa and found his views on society profoundly changed. As a Bachelor student in English language and literature, he has a good ear for languages. In this interview, he explains why he chose to learn isiXhosa and Afrikaans, two of the many languages spoken in South Africa and how his interactions with lecturers were different from what he was used to in Switzerland.
Image: Lizé Myburgh
During the summer holidays, students from all over the world come to Bern to attend the university’s international summer schools. Lizé Myburgh is one of them. She gives us an insight into her experience at the Summer School on Climate Change and talks about the most precarious climate change issues facing her Rainbow Nation.