Exchange Report

These are rather basic tips but after getting a conformation for the university, start looking for apartments. A lot of them get booked up quickly or only accept a preestablished group of people. The booking process could also take a few weeks but generally Brits are relatively easy-going and helpful. When I was not able to submit some documents, that required a Visa that I did not need for the exchange, they helped me to figure something else out. Also, if you can, book the plane tickets more than a month in advance. I chose to land in Liverpool, take a bus to the city centre and another train to Sheffield. It took an hour more than going to Manchester, however the airport is also much smaller, so it is not as scary and intimidating.

I used UniAcco to search for apartments and got a studio apartment in West Bar House. The location was convenient as it was 8-10 minutes away from the city center and Kelham Island, and it had corner shops and a bus station literally right next door. The university, especially the Management Building, was approximately half an hour away up a hill. This was rather tiresome at the beginning but after a month I got used to it as the whole city was like this. Personally, I would have much rather lived close to the city center but it is just a preference. I looked up the area before moving and it said it was in the top 1% of the most dangerous areas in the UK. It was not. The only two things that were remotely scary were an alleged suspicious package that was detonated by the police (it was a tv in a box...) and on another instance, a random drunk guy came up to us and asked about the Wham!, then started singing "Last Christmas" and dancing. Other than that, there were few drunks talking loudly on the street at night, but they were chill.

I had lectures/workshops in the Management Building, Elmfield Building and the Wave. They were all lovely, with modern interiors and a lot of space to sit down and have a chat with friends. The Wave also has a café with a lot of variety and reasonable prices. The SU was also really cool. It had all kinds of shops and restaurants inside like a charity shop, two different cafés, a convenience store, even a bar and a club. I mostly frequented the Diamond to study but be aware that the students are more inclined to talk loudly there. The academic culture and teaching style were also different from what I am used to at WU. There is a big emphasis on group projects that can take a month to complete with multiple in-person meetings weekly. The final assignments for all of my courses were 2000-3000 word essays. That seemed scary at first, but they were doable. There were some things that were taken surprisingly seriously: the word limit and presentation time. The two courses I would recommend were International and Digital Marketing. The international one was relatively easy as it covered a lot of topics that were previously included in the preparation course for the exchange, mixed with marketing basics. I found the final assignment about market entry challenging but rewarding. Moreover, the Digital Marketing module was particularly useful for future career prospects since it included tutorials on how to use various tools to track a website's and brand's social media activity and popularity.

The public transport in Sheffield is not the best, to put it lightly. It is rather expensive and other than the trams, does not run regularly. Having said that, the city is walkable and Ubers are affordable, so it was not too challenging or inconvenient to get around. The safety situation was also alright. It is obviously not like Vienna, but much safer compared to other big UK cities such as London and especially Birmingham. Personally, I felt even safe walking home at night since there were always patrolling officers around, the streets were well lit, and people in Sheffield are just generally so eager to help. The University of Sheffield is famous for its excellent Student Union, in fact the best in England. Every week they sent out a list of various activities ranging from movie nights, sports events to parties and pub quizzes. The involvement with societies was also exciting and new. I ended up joining the management, wine and Italian society. It was an easy and pleasant way to get to know new people and make friends. Moreover, there is also an opportunity to go on daytrips in various English cities for a fraction of the price through the SU, which I can only recommend.

The exchange might not have been life changing but it positively influenced my life and my self-worth. It pushed me out of my comfort zone as I had to regularly travel alone and navigate life in an unknown country. Furthermore, it gave me a chance to live in Sheffield where I would not normally have had the opportunity to do so. An added extra is that now I can speak in an accurate Northern English dialect.