International Exchange Students 2014 – Hi, my name is Anna and I am from Austria. I do an exchange semester in the Environmental Engineering Technology studies program. This program or in general studying at the NSCC is quite different from studying at my university at home. First of all, studies here are much more job oriented and focus on practical experiences and on how to do stuff. It’s more about following these instructions or using this equation, without really knowing why. Studies at home focus a bit more on the theoretical background and the question why you do it that way. A second big difference here are exams. The only way a subject is marked at home, is according to how well you did at the final exam. There are no mid-terms and normally no assignments to do. So if you do badly on the final, you fail the course. So in my opinion, it’s much easier here at the NSCC to pass the program, because you can collect points throughout the year. A third thing, which pops up in my mind, when I think about studying is the schedule. In Austria our schedule is different every week and the students can modify their timetable as long as the affected professor agrees with the change. Therefore the first weeks of studies in a semester are the most intensive ones with sometimes 40 weeks or more at the university. As the semester goes by there are fewer and fewer lessons in a week and some subjects are already completed after 4 weeks of studying.

I would definitely do an exchange semester again and I’m glad to be here.

Anna Zeiser

Exchange Student, Austria

Environmental Engineering Technology, Waterfront Campus