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.
Too many cystic fibrosis patients in Africa die young and often without ever having been diagnosed. In many African countries there are too few test devices that could diagnose the disease. Nada and Michèle, two doctoral students at the University of Bern, launched a crowdfunding campaign to buy a test device and were overwhelmed by the result.
There is a place in Europe where the climate is chilly, people are patriotic, and the mellow scent of freshly baked pies lingers in the air. Jule Ksinsik, political science student at the University of Bern, tells us about her exchange experience at the University of Tartu and explains why she advises all political science students to visit Estonia.
Last year, Tibo, a master’s student in biomedical engineering, decided to trade the Belgian flatlands for the Swiss Alps. Tibo has many stories to tell about his experience as an exchange student: from navigating Swiss bureaucracy to taking freezing-cold swims in the river Aare!
Antonina and Kateryna Antonenko came to Bern fleeing the war in Ukraine. The two medical professionals received a grant from the Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF) to work and research at the Inselspital for one year. In this interview, the two sisters talk about the differences between working as doctors in Bern and Kyiv.
Elena studies Sport Science and English at the University of Bern. As a mandatory part of her degree, she had to study or work in an English-speaking country. She decided to go on a work exchange to the Republic of Ireland.
Tetyana Fedorchuk prefers to be called Tania. She works as an intern at UniBE International. Her job is to advise students who fled to Switzerland and are interested in continuing their studies at the University of Bern. As Ukrainian, she can greet the newcomers in their mother tongue.
Igor Tokarchuk was an MD-PhD student at the University of Bern. When he and his family returned home to Ukraine and Igor started a job at a biotech company, the future looked bright. Then the war changed everything. He talks to Lenka Fehrenbach, international program manager at UniBE International, about coping with the strains of war and how setting up the refugee camp led to reviving an old bread factory.
Trying to understand what people think and why they have formed a certain opinion. This is one of the reasons why Michèle Häfliger, a master’s student in Eastern European Studies, wanted to spend a semester at Kazan State University. For the first time, she applied in January 2020.