Details

• Portugal
• BaWiSo-23
• Undergraduate
• SoSe 2026
• Time spent at the partner university: 5 months
• Contact: Login to see contact information

1. Preparation

I picked Nova IMS since i wanted to do the Data Science Specialization abroad and this university had an entire Bachelor-Degree focussed on Data Science. Also Portugal is an amazing choice if you like beaches, warm weather and cheaper cost of living (except housing which can potentially be really expensive). You don't need a lot of preparation, be sure to pack some warm clothes aswell since at the beginning of February/March it still was pretty cold and rainy before getting extremely warm. Make sure to join as many erasmus groups as possible, there are many WhatsApp links to groups online and also follow Erasmus Life Lisboa and ENN on Instagram for events and more preparation tipps. I recommend getting a NIF (portuguese tax number) online before you arrive in Lisbon, so you can get your Navegante card. With the Navegante card you don't have to pay anything for public transport if you are under the age of 24. The NIF online costs 50 euros but it saves you weeks of paying for the metro/busses/trams since the conventional way is making an appointment which can be more complicated.

2. Accommodation

I found my place on Uniplaces which was 635 euros per month with a private bedroom and 2 shared bathrooms and 1 shared kitchen with 6 other people. It is definitely expensive but i booked my appartement only 1 month before my stay so it was more of a last minute decision. There are Facebook groups online where people rent places aswell that can be cheaper, but Nova IMS recommended Uniplaces and even gave a discount on the service fee. If you book on Uniplaces, at least for me, I had to pay the 1st and last rent in advance, but it was under a different company called VIV housing. The shared rooms where cleaned by their personal so you only have to take care of your private bedroom. They were always available for questions and even repaired the oven and my door knob pretty quickly. My place is located in Campo de Ourique which was only a 10 minute bus ride from uni (you could also walk there for 30 minutes). It was a very safe area, not too far from Bairro Alto to go out in the night and also very close to uni.

3. Academic life at host university

The campus was going under a lot of construction when I got there. There are 3 main building where you will have your classes which were all very easy to find. There is a library and a cafetaria (which is very cheap compared to WU mensa) and a lot of areas to sit down and study. The teachers are all very nice and all the courses are beeing taught in English, so there is no need to learn Portuguese, except you want to. In general I would say half of the students are doing either erasmus or their entire bachelor here abroad. All of my classes did not have mandatory attendance which was very pleasant, since you don`t have to worry about missing some (or all). Most courses had midterms and final exams including some practical work during the semester. It is very similair to WU but my classes were way shorter (90 minutes) but daily monday to friday. Make sure to go to the Welcome Days, since most of my connections were made on the very first day. There was a walking tour, an info session and even a Gin-Tonic opening, including all of the erasmus people, which made it very easy to connect to people on the first day.

5. Every day life in the host country

The public transport except the metro is very unreliable. Busses and Trams don't run on the time Google or Apple Maps says and the local Carris App did not work for me. Make sure to plan ahead if you use the bus since sometimes they are 5-10 minutes late or don't come at all. In general the busses and trams are very comfortable and the trams are tourist attractions, so be aware that the 28 can get pretty full when approaching summer. I did not really experience an unsafe situation in Lisbon and I think it is pretty safe in general. For leisure activites if you enjoy cheap alcohol Bairro Alto is pretty crowded most days of the week. There are many events f.e. Walking Tours, Surfing, Pub Crawls and even trips to Porto/Madrid and other places that you can go to from Erasmus Life Lisboa, which you can also attend alone, since it is a good place to make connections. There are football matches to attend if you are a fan in the stadium or you can also play it yourself since there are many option to choose from aswell.

6. Testimonial

I absolutely enjoyed my erasmus experience from the start to the end. If you have the chance to do it, you should, since there isn`t really anything to compare it to. Especially Lisbon is a great city with good cuisine, warm weather and welcomming people which made the erasmus stay very special and exciting from the very beginning.