There is more to it...

In my last post on student mobility, I mainly mentioned barriers.
I hope you also caught that I'm still all for studying abroad, in any case. - It helps you grow, gain more experience(s), both of yourself and of others…

Campus Europae and its teacher training program are worth making a few more points:

• You get into quite a different position when you talk about European integration and similar issues. After all, you lived it.
  My main interest in education (besides sustainability, as always) is multiculturality and multilinguality, anyway (i.e., what it means to be at home in different cultures and languages, how to successfully deal with differences, and better yet use them as an advantage).
  
• Also, with school development being in debate, you get to know, probably even teach in, schools which are organized pretty differently.
  
  A case in point: Austria is discussing whether a common school ("Gesamtschule", like the American system: elementary school - middle school - high school) would be better than our "differentiated" system of various types of schools (elementary school - Gymnasium or Hauptschule and later/or Polytechnikum, Handelsakademie, some more types of vocational schools, and so on - I don't even know all of them).
  Latvia has just such a "common school" up to the age of 16 (to a higher age, methinks, than is ever in discussion for Austria), and social background is indeed less of an issue.
  (In Austria, as in Germany and Switzerland, your social background tends to determine what kind of school you will attend - and it's the "better" types of schools from which you are most likely to go to university, so upwards educational/social mobility is more restricted.)

Concern in Austria is running high as to whether such a common school would mean lower quality (as not-so-good students "pull down" the level of the entire class).
In my experience with the US system, that's a possibility if you have bad teachers, a generally low level of interest in school among the students, and a culture that suggests schooling isn't worth it anyway.
Getting even just a few of those factors out of the way, there is a better chance that having all students in one common type of school will help both those who need more attention and those who need more of a challenge than "their" school (the way Austrian school now works) currently provides.

One week, and: Why Latvia?

Yes, one more week until my flight.
Or, in exactly one week, at this time, I'll be in Riga already.
I never quite believe such things, and take everything as it comes, so there isn't any anxiety. Strange, maybe, but that's how it is.

And now, for something (almost)...

Many people asked me why I would go to Latvia.
(The other half told me that the Baltic region were beautiful, supposed to be beautiful, or great according to friends of theirs who had been or even studied there!)

Well, first of all, I decided to take up studies in teacher training.
As you can see in my CV (on www.positive-ecology.org/cv/), I already finished doctoral studies in both ecology and cultural anthropology. Besides sustainability, education is a major point of interest to me; and a qualification as teacher also offers a second career opportunity which is necessary, nowadays.

So, part of the decision is more simple than it would seem:
The University of Vienna, my home institution, participates in Campus Europae only - but fortunately for me - in the teacher training program. And not all that many other universities (yet, I hope) participate.
So, since I had already wanted to study abroad during my first studies, I jumped at the chance that Campus Europae offers…
The requirement to study for one year at one foreign (European, not mother language-) university, and then at another, for another year, is a bane to many, a boon for me.

There being two stays abroad, two factors came into play…

1. The exotic nature or familiarity of the language: For the first year abroad, I decided I'd like to be adventurous and go some place where a language I don't yet have an inkling of is spoken. (For the second year, I'll probably prefer a language like Spanish, which I need to advance in but not to study from the start.)
2. Geographic location: I didn't want to go to the same region twice but, in keeping with the spirit of the program (accidentally), to get to know widely divergent parts of Europe. Hence, thinking of southwestern Europe as the direction for the second year abroad, it was to be the Northwest for the first year. Hence, Sweden or Latvia.

Latvia it turned out to be.

• Living costs should be a bit lower there. (Yes, that was a factor, too.)
• The city is the cultural capital of the Baltic states.
• Culturally and ecologically, Latvia is extremely interesting (mind my 'first career').
• The Baltic states are somewhat known, but not all that well.
• Their position as part of the EU, at its borders, close to Russia, is pretty interesting and useful.
• Latvian seems to be very interesting (a Baltic branch of the Indo-European family of languages), and there are, apparently, good chances for studying and using Russian as well.
• Judging by the number of contacts that are opening up already, there is mutual interest...

All in all, I admit it may just come down to a sense of adventure and a wish to get to know more of the world.

In this case, it's pretty fascinating that this part of the world sometimes seems oddly remote (I live in the Easternmost part of Austria, a part which used to be Hungarian as much as Austrian, and in a village with quite some Croatian roots. Yet, the one and only time I had been to Eastern Europe before was when my family went to Hungary when I was still a child, and Hungary was still Communist…).
Yet, it's not just in Europe, Latvia's even a part of the EU!

On Student Mobility

First things first:
I have long since declared that persons who argue that student mobility programs aren't being used as much as they should be, should first be required to go through the process themselves.
EU programs are pretty good, for EU students especially, but it's still quite a step. I'm only thinking of the bureaucracy right now… and there are other reasons for hesitating.

Austria is one of the countries with the highest number of students participating in programs for studying in another country.
At the moment, having met many exchange students during the course of the application, it seems to me as if every other student went abroad.
In fact, the number of Austrian students that same article mentioned as studying abroad is 1%.

Yes, one percent. You read right. (I don't know if the number is right, though ;)

Language is, of course, one major barrier.
Even if you are (were) not expected to know the respective language before you went, and might still be able to take tests, for example, in English towards the end of the program, it remains a barrier. (Not to forget that not all students know English all that well.)
Quite a number of people wouldn't want, or think themselves capable of learning a foreign language.
(I'm actually pretty curious to see how those people who mentioned they hadn't yet learned a second or started a third language will fare with Latvian.)

Secondly, bearing in mind that not all courses might be counted towards your degree at your home institution (although with Erasmus and Campus Europae, they should be), you need to see and want the additional experiences that studying abroad will give you.

Thirdly, following on the above issue, you might need to study longer than you would if you only stayed at your home institution. And in not so few jobs, studying quickly will still count more than gaining international experience. Or you might think it would, although it doesn't?

(
Recently, this issue has been mentioned a lot in the context of the Bologna process. I.e., the study programs in Europe are to be made more similar, in part by changing them all towards the bachelor-master-doctor system. In Austria, this means that the former Magister is not the first degree anymore, after studying for a minimum of 8 semesters. Rather, the bachelor is the first degree, typically granted after 6 semesters of studies.
So, the first degree takes less time. And many study programs get more school-like, so that you need to follow the suggested course of studies or get into trouble: Many lectures will be split, with the first part in the winter semester, the second part in the summer semester. Therefore, if you go abroad for one semester, you will not be able to attend the 'second-part' lectures in the next semester but have to take some time out.
In reality, it depends.
On your recognition of the other skills and experiences that you will gain, for example ;-)
)

Nowadays, fourthly, being too experienced can actually decrease your chances of finding a good job!

Still, there's more to it than just this…

The Final Contract

No, the contract for really getting the scholarship (money) is not yet here.
I checked in with the appropriate contact (which I only have because I had not entered my telephone number into the database and was contacted because of that), and apparently it's not considered more than a formality at this point: One will get yet another e-mail (not a letter, I think I misunderstood that) about the scholarship and then be able to sign the contract online or print it out and send it back…

I guess it's me: after all my experiences at university, I don't trust that everything works out - even though I don't really think it would be possible not to get the scholarship at this point - until it's all signed and sealed and in progress.

… and another first contact

Received a letter (e-mail, nonetheless) from the representatives of the Campus Europae program. Pretty nice to see that the European University Foundation/Campus Europae people really seem to be convinced of the program and active in supporting it. Among other things, we CE students received the contact details for our CE/Erasmus buddies - who had already contacted us in the case of Michael (my colleague) and me…

Also something I seem to have overlooked: For the first year of CE studies abroad, one gets a/the Campus Europae certificate, after completion of both years, the Campus Europae degree (I thought it was both the same, and only after finishing both years).

2 weeks

In the spirit of focusing on the good things:
Just 2 more weeks.

The final contract (for the Erasmus scholarship) is still not available for signing, and the website using an invalid certificate so that you are - I am, anyway - either to coax Internet Explorer to it or better, to use Firefox or Opera. Okay, that wasn't focusing on the good things ;-)

On the up side:
The two girls who will apparently be our Erasmus buddies have contacted us (Michael and me, I'm not referring to myself in the plural. Yet.). Looks like we won't be standing around wondering how we'll get to the place where we'll be living, after all. Rather, they'll be picking us up at the airport. I wonder if we are doing this here, too, for exchange students coming to Austria. (Probably. And hopefully. I just don't know.)

Letting go.

One of the reasons I've been very happy about going on the exchange program is the rut I've been in at my home university.

Hence, the pieces on "Academic Absurdistan" in this blog.

Well, recently I've made a little 'piece of art' out of the Catch-22^2 I'd found myself in:

I might explain it some day, but by and large I'm letting this topic go with it. Even without burning the drawing (which is what I had done to those I made in school...).

After all, there are more sensible things I should be doing with my time.

Plus, I don't want it to seem as if I hated everything about studying or about the University of Vienna. I just know the problems as intimately as the good things - but it's always easier to remember the negative, or so it would seem. Were it all as bad, I wouldn't still/again be studying...

Wow - the EILC

(EILC = Erasmus Intensive Language Course.
Quote: "The EILCs, a scheme supported by the European Commission, are specialised courses in the less widely used and less taught European Union languages and the languages of other countries participating in Erasmus. The EILCs give Erasmus students (studies and placements) the opportunity to study the language of the host country for up to 6 weeks, in the host country." Source: http://ec.europa.eu/education/programmes/llp/erasmus/eilc/index_en.html)


Wow. Just to say it again.

The EILC -Erasmus Intensive Language Course (in my case, for Latvian, in Riga, of course)- looks to be very intensive, indeed:
The Russian intensive course I'm now taking at my home university (U. of Vienna, Austria) runs two days a week, from 5 to 8:30 pm.
The EILC will run 5 days a week, from 10 am to 3:30 pm, for three weeks.
However, and that's another "wow," 2 (half-day) excursions are planned for the weekdays, and another one for the weekends. Yes, of each week…!
Now, that sounds promising.
If the actual studies (which start in September) go anything as well as the EILC sounds good...

And, the countdown is really on: 3 weeks exactly and I'm leaving for Riga.

... and another step

The necessary database entry for the Erasmus contract still isn't possible, but at least we were told so. (And it's known that at the earliest, this would be done 45 days prior to leaving, now it's some three weeks before, so it's still allright. Sort of.)

Mail on the Erasmus Intensive Language Course I'm in has also arrived recently, along with instructions on what our first steps in Latvia are supposed to be. Allrighty.

Linda, the coordinator at LU (Latvijas Universitate) wrote she's going on vacation from today on, and I sincerely hope she has a nice one... She had enough troubles even just with me :-)