Details

• Portugal
• BaWiSo-23
• Undergraduate
• WS 2025
• Time spent at the partner university: 4 months

1. Preparation

Prepare yourself for basic questions in the interview. Look at the course catalogue from the university and check if the courses you would like to attend are for bachelor or master students.

2. Accommodation

Start early to look for accommodation - Lisbon is very popular at the moment. Rents are very expensive as well. Almost all people I got to know were living in shared apartments, but make sure only Erasmus-students live in your apartment, otherwise you will end up living with (old) remote workers. Look at platforms like Uniplaces, Spotahome, ... but always make sure you get pictures before and you do not have to pay too much in advance. Most of the time there are some kind of discounts for the fees of these websites. Overall, I would say Lisbon is very safe to stay but you should avoid some areas. As a girl specifically, do not live in Martim Moniz or Intendente. For ISCTE the best location is somewhere along the yellow metro line. I can recommend accomodation near Marques de Pombal, Saldanha, Picoas, Rato, Parque - these are the prettiest locations with lots of Hotels nearby, which makes you feel very safe.

3. Academic life at host university

The university life is very different to WU. It is way more social and I would definitely recommend joining the Welcome Days in the beginning because this way you get to know a lot of people at ISCTE. The teaching style is way more interactive and there are a lot of group works. In every course you can choose between continuous evaluation (you have to attend 66% or 80% of the classes, do group works or essays and write a small final test) and final exam (where one exam at the end of the semester is 100% of your grade). If you want good grades you have to do continuous evaluation because they will tell you that getting good grades with the final exam is almost impossible. In general, it is very hard to get 18/20 points which would be translated to 1 in WU grades.

5. Every day life in the host country

Public transport is for free if you are 23 or younger, but you have to get the NIF - Portuguese tax number. Flixbus to other destination within the country are very cheap as well. Safety situation is good. Social activities - there are a lot of options - I would recommend going surfing.

6. Testimonial

My experience in Lisbon was really good. It is a city that has so much to offer and never gets boring. There are so many sports and leisure activities that you can do and also traveling within the country is super cheap and the distances are not too long. Especially, in the beginning getting to know so many people from different countries was amazing! However, if you go to Portugal on your exchange be aware that there is a HUGE German bubble. Lots of German exchange students and people doing their Masters there. Sometimes it feels a bit impossible to escape this bubble.