Details

• Great Britain & N.Ireland
• MAWiRe-21
• Graduate
• SoSe 2026
• Time spent at the partner university: 4 months
• Contact: Login to see contact information

1. Preparation

By now, you need a so-called “ETA” to enter the UK. Using the official UK government app, it’s very easy and straightforward to apply for one. Normally, your ETA is approved within just a few minutes. Note that the ETA is linked to your passport, meaning that if you get a new passport, you will also need a new ETA (that’s what happened to me). To get to Aberdeen, I took the plane from Vienna to Amsterdam and then from Amsterdam to Aberdeen (airline KLM). There is also an option via London, but the one via Amsterdam is, in my opinion, the better one. There is no direct flight from Vienna to Aberdeen. If you do not like to take two different flights, you could also fly to Edinburgh directly from Vienna (airline Ryanair) and take the bus (Flixbus) from Edinburgh to Aberdeen (about 3 hours).

2. Accommodation

In Aberdeen respectively in Scotland in general, it seems to be quite common to live in a student accommodation. “Home for Students” has several student residences in Aberdeen; in my opinion, the best ones are “Causewayview” (where I stayed) and “Fraser”. You do not need to book too far in advance, but it’s better to be a little early rather than too late. Causewayview is located exactly halfway between the city centre and the university — the university is to the north and the city centre to the south. This meant that we could walk almost everywhere in Aberdeen. Both the city centre and the university were reachable within a 15-minute walk. The student accommodation “Hillhead”, which is advertised by the University of Aberdeen, is, firstly, not nearly as good in terms of facilities, and secondly, it is further north than the university, meaning it takes you around 40 minutes to walk to the city centre. Bus tickets are relatively expensive, unless you are under 22. In that case, the university provides you with a card that allows you to travel by bus for free.

3. Academic life at host university

The campus is typically British: old buildings, a little musty, not necessarily beautiful, but it still has its own charm. The main library, however, is a very modern building. I took the courses “Law of the Digital Economy” and “The Use of Force in International Law”; both courses are worth 15 ECTS each (30 credits in total). For us, it was possible to get these courses recognised for International Law (Völkerrecht), the seminars in Public Law (FS Öffentliches Recht), the seminars in European Law/International Law (FS Europarecht & Völkerrecht), specialisations in Public Law (Spezi Öff Recht), and the Course Abroad. Keep these courses free before your semester abroad, and you will most likely be able to get the full 30 ECTS recognised at WU as well. In both courses, we had to write an essay and complete a written exam on a laptop. However, both are absolutely manageable, and there is still plenty of time for extracurricular activities. The teaching style is similar to WU’s: as usual, you are given questions to prepare in advance, although they are not as strict about them as at WU.

5. Every day life in the host country

As already mentioned in a previous question, our accommodation (Causewayview from Home for Students) allowed us to walk everywhere, so I never used public transport within Aberdeen itself. There are only buses (no trams or underground), and they are relatively expensive. For sports activities, the “Aberdeen Sports Village” is absolutely excellent (!!!): it has a swimming pool, an indoor sprint track, an outdoor running track, a gym, football pitches, badminton, squash — really everything you could want. The price is unbeatable: a 3-month membership costs £80. Compared to a gym in Austria, it is really, really cheap. Clubs are rather limited, but that is not really what the Scots are about; it’s all about pubs! There are lots of really cool pubs and live music almost every day. You only really get the appeal once you are there (I didn’t think I would like it before either).

6. Testimonial

All in all, a semester abroad is definitely highly recommended. It is important that you are personally open to the experience and able to deal with having “a lot of free time”. Enjoy!