I have been at my new university for 2 weeks now and I hope I am now settled in after attending introduction talks, tours and the introduction lecture to my first semester modules. I have found there have been so many things I wish I knew before applying and arriving here at Universidad de Europea.
First of all, although you get the option to apply for 10 modules, this is the MAXIMUM amount of module choices. When I arrived I had to change all my options as my timetable didn't work out due to applying for so many. They recommend doing 3-6 modules for the year, so personally I wouldn't bother applying for 10 when the likelihood is you won't enjoy them or be interested in them all. As well as less modules meaning you have more spare time to experience the history and culture of the city! Modules get filled up very quickly, I ended up having to drop one of the modules I wanted to do due to the re-application process. Although I was disappointed, my priorities were the photography modules as I thought they would help me more with my final year when I get back to Coventry. We then had so much trouble with our timetables and classes as we were not enrolled properly for over a week. This lead to us missing a lot of classes and we were very worried we would be getting too far behind to be able to catch up. However, we kept meeting with our original photography teacher and she helped to keep us up to date while our timetables were being sorted out.
However, since sorting out all the issues I had with my timetable, I had various other tasks along the way. As we had to print out our Learning Agreements and Arrival Forms to get them signed to be able to get the Erasmus funding I figured out that unlike Coventry University you do not get any print credits or any other form of equipment included from the University. We had to top up our student cards at the Copying Room to be able to print anything as well as only being able to use the library printers which were very temperamental.
After attending our first photography lecture we found out there is a media loan shop, studio and a darkroom. All free to use, you just have to book a time slot through the university website. Not only were the arts facilities very good, the sports facilities were even better. With 2 swimming pools, a massive gym, full size football pitch, track, multiple basketball, volleyball and netball courts, it wasn't difficult to fill your spare time.
Attendance on the arts modules on Erasmus at UEM is very important due to the weekly tasks for each subject which make up 90% of your final grade as well as the remaining 10% including attendance and participation. A lot of the work is done in your spare time, however you are taught how to complete each task in the first 30 minutes of each lecture. Originally we were told that keeping up to date is very important as each week you get graded on the tasks and if they are not up to standard you have to redo them. Therefore, if you want to end the year with high grades you need to take sure the weekly tasks don't build up. However, after approximately 6 weeks of not having any feedback we asked our lecturer about this and it turns out you just get one grade and this will be given to you towards the end of each semester.
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