Details

• Netherlands
• MASCM-21
• Graduate
• WS 2025
• Time spent at the partner university: 6 months

1. Preparation

The first preparation I would recommend before applying for an exchange semester at TU Eindhoven (TU/e) is to do some soul searching. If it is important to you to pass all of your courses while studying abroad, be sure that you trust your maths and phyton skills before applying, as you will need them a lot. However, if you want to go for the fun of it and are searching for a university with great student life and a nice town with the longest party street in the country, look no further. Just know, that you might not be able to enjoy life and pass all courses. Furthermore, before applying for TU/e I would recommend checking the curriculum of the Master Operations Management and Logistics and the Master Innovation Management, to ensure something of interest to you is being offered. A good mixture of more maths and python focused courses of the first master and some more research and qualitative analysis focused courses of the later will make it easier to pass all courses, even without a strong technical background. Note that courses from both master programs are open to SCM exchange students. Furthermore, at TU/e the semesters are split into quarters Q1 – Q4, Q1&Q2 are offered in the winter semester. Courses are allocated to time blocks, denoted by letters and number. These are reserved timeslots and a course may fill all or some of these timeslots with lectures, so that if two courses are within the same time block, they are very likely to overlap. Within my Master program of SCM TU/e is one of the recommended partner universities. Therefore, extra points are awarded in the WU-wide selection process for SCM students. The Master’s program requires a letter of motivation, I would view this simply as a small hurdle to ensure only people, who are certain to accept their nomination of a semester abroad will apply, rather than something you truly must ace. When preparing your travel plans, I would recommend considering taking the night train from Vienna to Amsterdam. It allows you to disregard in limits on baggage weight and it might even be cheaper than a flight even when booking a couchette (cabin with bed). Prices may vary a lot, but when you book early or at times with low demand the prices can be pretty good. This would also allow you to benefit from EU’s green travel bonus. Alternatively, Ryanair actually flies between Vienna and Eindhoven airport. The airport is connected to the city via a bus connection (~25min), but the schedule is a bit limited on weekends and when it snows. Lastly, as a preparation for going to TU/e I would recommend learning how to use phyton, as it is an integral part to many courses in the master Operations Management and Logistics.

2. Accommodation

Searching for an accommodation is tough. There is a bit of a (student) housing crisis in Eindhoven (and the Netherlands in general). I recommend using all resources listed by TU/e in their online guide. Take part in the housing raffle for the student housing operator partnered with TU/e, you just might get lucky. Be aware that the cheapest offers are usually connected to traditional student houses, that are mostly looking for longer-term Dutch (male) renters. Additionally, some offers may be unfurnished or even unfinished (without flooring). Furthermore, I may also encounter scam offers and some housing agents may never reply. A big part of student housing culture in the Netherlands are requests and offers via Facebook groups. You can respond to offers posted in such groups, basically applying for a room to rent or you can put out a little add stating who you are and what you are looking for. Further, many shared apartments / houses host meet and greet events for potential housemates; therefore, some students travel to Eindhoven renting an Airbnb for the short-term trying to find housing once in the city. I started to look for a room at the end of April, but I have been told, that might have been a bit too early for the bulk of private offers to come out. Nevertheless, I would recommend starting early to ensure you actually find something in this constraint housing market and use any personal connections you might think of. Especially, when it comes to student residences inform yourself as soon as possible, when rooms might go up for applications. Eindhoven is not such a big city, you can get around great with a bike and have everything you need within around 15min, especially if you live within the ring road. However, the further outside of the ring you are the less expensive it will get. Furthermore, the local train-service is very reliable, so you may also consider renting in Helmond or other towns outside of the city. Safety was never an issue for me, only be aware of drunk cyclists, they are even less attentive than regular cyclists.

3. Academic life at host university

All buildings of TU/e are located on a large, green campus, including several teaching buildings, a library, labs, student housing, student bars, the student sports centre (SSC) and many places to park your bike. The facilities are all well maintained, some newer than others. Conviently, for any wet and cold winter, most buildings are connected by indoor walkways. There are many spaces for studying on campus. However, there are only a few computer workspaces (for when you need a larger screen) available. Furthermore, I struggled all semester with the low room temperature in the communal study areas. A cool facility on campus is the innovation lab, where students can borrow different tools and equipment for making prototypes or DIYs, 3D-printers and laser cutters included. Only in terms of supermarkets the campus is lacking. There is a small Spar on campus, which is always full during lunch break (be prepared to wait over 10min in line to pay) and more on the expensive side. However, there are several bars, food tucks and cafes on campus as well as many microwaves and small fridge for students to use for lunch and dinners (most buildings are open until 8pm). Out of my 6 courses all included some group work, several also had individual assignments and only two had a final exam. However, among my friends I was one of the people with the least exams. Most group works were very smooth and with interested people. Teaching stiles varied from lecturer to lecturer. Most teachers relied on lectures and (more or less) connected homework, some were more interactive than others. Generally, the courses from Innovations Management are more interactive and, in my experience, also have the more engaging lecturers. While in Operations Management courses, I often had the feeling that there is a big gap between the theory of the lecture and the practical demands of the homework. Several courses felt like I had teach myself in the practical aspects, with some support, that never felt particularly helpful. Furthermore, even though homework is very important for some grades, not all teachers offer sufficient feedback. I can only recommend Retail Operations, if you are really keen on working out homework with little support, using a lot of past knowledge. Here I found a profound lack in teaching exercises. However, if you really stay on the ball with the (online) lectures and work with your teammates the homework does actually show connections to the lectures. I can recommend Large Scale Optimisation, if you enjoy teaching yourself how to implement the homework in python. The lectures are sweet and short, all about theory and the homework is all about implementation. Most of the theory did not really help me in the implementation process, however, I now know how to use python. Furthermore, the lecturer is not all that aware that he is operating at a very high level. The homework exercises (which are all of your grade) are not really slowly building up, trying to teach you step-by-step, rather than full force right away. I highly recommend User experience design, if you want to engage in an interesting group project, including qualitative research, brainstorming and prototyping a product. Yes, there is no direct connection to SCM, but it was a fun course. I highly recommend Servitization and Customer. The course is taught by a motivated team, the grade is a good mix of group work and an exam. Again, no direct connection on SCM per say, but some aspects can be linked very well to situations that may be encountered in any customer-facing job. I can recommend Decision-making in Transport and Mobility very much. However, if you would like to know any feedback on your homework you will have to ask for it. While even though the homework (all in groups) are the only component to the grade no feedback, or ideal solution was ever discussed. Some exercises where more approachable then others, with one out of three being an absolute dream, really step-by-step teaching you something. Lastly, I am quite sure only a limited number of people will be happy in the course Globalization, Sustainability and Justice. The lecturers are quite ambitions with this course. It is based around a single group project spanning the entire quarter. Which comprise of a lot of qualitative research on a topic than can be chosen at the beginning. Then each week a new section of the report has to be submitted, answering a sometimes-large set of questions within a very limited word count (can become quite frustrating). The structure is not always clear, with the same tasks being explained at least twice, but sounding different each time and feedback from the lectures themselves comes quite late in the semester. Thus, an, in their eyes, wrong choice at the beginning may require you to rework all subsequent chapters as well. Nevertheless, a great opportunity to see a different field and way of working an academia.

5. Every day life in the host country

Eindhoven is not such a big city. Therefore, you are best off getting a bike, it will take you anywhere in the city in max. 15-20min or shorter. I would recommend renting a bike from Swapfiets. They offer a subscription service for bicycles, including services, repair and replacement should anything happen to your bike. As these bikes have a distinct visual identity, they are also much more unlikely to get stolen. Nevertheless, don’t forget to lock your bike here. There are several bus lines, which are rather reliable, except when it snows a bit more than usual, then you will find that the bike paths are cleared, but the bussed are not running and the sidewalks are full of snow. The Dutch train service is reliable, fast and covers much of the country. Within Eindhoven, are only two train stations, so it does not really play a big role in getting around the city. I never felt unsafe in Eindhoven, but I also did not spend that much time in the cities party street, which I learned is the longest in all of the Netherlands. Student live is very vibrant on and off campus. I had the feeling, that there was always some sort of event in the city. You should definitely keep an eye out for the activities and events around the Dutch Design week as well the GLOW (amazing lights display in November). Furthermore, I can also recommend looking for cheap tickets to a PSV football match and experience the electric stadium atmosphere for yourself. In addition, to city events, different student associations and clubs also host a big variety of events each week. There are many different student clubs, which range from all kinds of sports to board games, musica and crafting. Furthermore, several student bars can be found on campus, which offer both food and (lots of) drinks. The student sports centre (SSC) is a low cost and resourceful sport centre, including a gym, a pool, sports halls, a boulder wall and outdoor facilities. All facilities can be accessed after paying a one-time membership fee, which also includes a large variety of group lessons at no extra cost. I cannot recommend it enough.

6. Testimonial

I have to admit coming to TU/e from WU was not easy. I do not have a technical background and by maths-skills are rather average, thus, this exchange semester was like going from 0 - 100% in terms of difficulty. While some topics sounded familiar, they were often asked in much more detail and I enjoyed the coursed the most that had the smallest connection to SCM. Nevertheless, Eindhoven is a great place to live for students, there is always something going on and many activities and events await you.