Details

• Great Britain & N.Ireland
• MAWiRe-21
• Graduate
• SoSe 2026
• Time spent at the partner university: 4 months

1. Preparation

A few months before arriving in Aberdeen, the other exchange students from WU and I looked at the student accommodations in Aberdeen and booked at a company called Homes for Students in the location "Causeway View". You need to get an ETA before traveling to the UK, which costs around 20 pounds. Another exchange student and I travelled from Vienna to Aberdeen 3 days before the introduction week started. The easiest connection is a flight from Vienna to Amsterdam and a connecting one to Aberdeen, but there are also some connections from London. Flights are around 250-350 Euros typically.

2. Accommodation

The main student accommodation by the University of Aberdeen is called Hillhead. Several exchange students from Vienna had been there in the past, as well as most exchange students we've met during our time there. However, Hillhead's location is not great, given it's about a 40 minute walk towards the city centre and there's only one bus every half hour. Additionally, pictures from Hillhead didn't look great, which is why the other exchange students from WU and I chose the accommodation "Causeway View" by Homes for Students. The accommodation was nicely located, the city centre, university and several other attractions (Aberdeen Sports Village, the football stadium) were all about a 15 minute walk away. I rented a single room in the accommodation, which included a private bathroom and toilet, but had a shared kitchen. Overall, the accommodation was really nice, with there being a great study area, a small gym, several common rooms (for watching movies, playing ping pong etc) and helpful people available. The downside with the location (as could happen with every student accommodation) was that the rooms were rather noisy and I didn't sleep well at first. However, Causeway View also has more private rooms in which these problems do not exist.

3. Academic life at host university

The campus could not be more different than that of WU. The university is architecturally split into two parts, one being a very beautiful old campus, the other one being more practical. The library of the University is similar to that at WU and a great place to study, the law library is not quite as big but also great if you want to focus. The academic culture is more similar than I expected, however the courses are graded differently. Participation is not part of the grades, which is why most local students rarely participated in the courses. You are required to write an essay at around the halfway point of your exchange and there is an exam at the end of the year. The courses I took were "Law of the Digital Economy" and "The Use of Force in International Law". Both courses had its more and less interesting parts.

5. Every day life in the host country

As I said, our accommodation was located so nicely that basically everywhere we wanted to go was about a 15 walk away. Therefore, I did not often take the public transport unless I wanted to exit Aberdeen. However, you should take the 727 bus from the Airport to the city for around 5 pounds and if you want to live in Hillhead, there is a bus that is basically your only public transport into the city (I believe that was about 3.50 pounds per trip. Aberdeen is very safe, the people are very friendly and there are some benefits in the UK that one is not used to in Austria (e.g. supermarkets are open every day and way longer). The weather in Aberdeen is very British, I would therefore not advise to hope for beach weather all the time if one doesn't want to be disappointed. The university hosts some small events and there is an introduction week, where one can also sign up for any of the university clubs. A real highlight of Aberdeen is the Aberdeen Sports Village, which offers a gym, track, football pitch, squash, swimming pool etc. for only about 25-30 pounds a month. I'd highly recommend anyone to sign up there.

6. Testimonial

I was lucky to meet great people from both around the world but also from WU, which made the exchange very special and led to me having a great time in Aberdeen that I'll look fondly back on. The city is nice, although it is not as beautiful as Vienna, and Aberdeen and Scotland both present great options for both traveling through the countryside, going to castles or the beach or visiting beautiful cities like Edinburgh.