International offers

An Erasmus semester (or even better: an Erasmus year if possible) at the English Loughborough University is the perfect opportunity to see the aviation industry from a different perspective, enhance your English skills, take part in one of the many sport clubs and societies of the university, meet a lot of new friends from all around the world and discover the country!

All the modules I took were part of the “Air Transport Management” program and it was great to have a different, more management-based catalogue of modules to choose from (some examples of my modules: Airport Management, Airline Marketing, Airline Business Strategies and Airport Planning). All the examples and case studies used in the lectures plus the additional reading I had to do to write my coursework gave me a greater understanding of how the aviation industry works.

On top of that the university offers all kind of activities and opportunities to participate in the colourful uni-life:
In over 50 sport clubs (some of them taking part in competitions all around the UK), even more societies (basically, there is a society for everything: e.g. Cook’n’Bake, Quidditch, Stage, Irish Dance), volunteering projects and additional language classes everyone can find something that fits! Almost the whole student life, including all the activities, takes place on the campus which includes all the university buildings, student accommodations, sports grounds, shops and even a club. The city itself (even though it is pretty small) offers everything a student needs and has quick transport links to the close by cities and even to London (takes only 90min to get there – perfect for a day trip out!). Additionally, the university and a private company offer trips all around the UK, e.g. to Oxford, Cornwall, Wales or Scotland!

I can more than recommend a stay at Loughborough University!

Toulouse is the European hotspot of aviation. About 30.000 people are working in this industry in one of the numerous companies. The spirit and atmosphere of the city in the south of France are magnificent, and every student in the field of aviation should make this experience.
One essential part is ENAC – École Nationale de l’Aviation Civile. This school is one of the big écoles in France and well known in the aviation industry. Many people, working in this sector, graduated from this school with a diploma degree in one particular field. Besides the lectures, projects and presentations are essential parts of the education. With these, you will be able to improve your hard skills, soft skills and language skills. The intercultural exchange and sharing of experiences and emotions are valuable learnings during this semester.
In case, you have some time left, between the time expensive studies, you should discover the city. Toulouse, also known as ‘La Ville Rose’, has a beautiful city centre with plenty of small restaurants and cafés, which contribute to the unique atmosphere of the city. Also, you should visit the museum Aeroscopia, which has many different planes inside and explains the development of aviation in Toulouse. In case you prefer sports, you should visit a rugby game at ‘Stade Ernest Wallon’ because this is one of the most popular sports in France. After stressful days you have to take some beer or wine and enjoy the sunset at the river Garonne. An evening like this is the perfect balance to stressful studies.
Summarising, I highly recommend to apply for an exchange semester at ENAC in Toulouse. This valuable experience will benefit your personal development and professional career. The things I learned, the people I met and the pictures I took will be an essential part of my life.

Loughborough is a small town in England. It takes not a long time to get an overview about the infrastructure.

But it’s not boring. Everyday there is something coming up like special international events. You can take part in different societies and sports clubs (Garden Society, German Society, Diwali Festival, Quidditch, UV Zumba). Every 2 weeks the University offers trips to different English cities. If you want to go more far away than you can easily go to the East Midlands Airport where you will find cheap flight by Ryanair (Ireland, Spain, France, …).

During my semester in winter I had great weather. I met very nice and friendly people from all over the world. In addition to that the native speakers were interested to talk to international people. The lessons are in English. It will helps you to improve your language. England is not famous for good food but the pubs (especially the ciders) are great.

For most non-native speakers, Loughborough is an awful word, which is spelled wrongly all the time. But those who are brave and curious enough to look behind the scenes, will not only be rewarded with a surprised “Oh, I see!”, but also with a vivid and cosy university town. To be honest: Loughborough is not one of the towns on a must-see list of English towns. However it is situated near Nottingham and Leicester and the exciting capital London can be reached within 1.5 hours by train. Another advantage is the East Midlands airport, situated within spitting distance, where a lot of cheap fares to Edinburgh or Dublin ease discovering the British Islands during a year abroad.

The large campus of Loughborough University is all in one: a place to study, to exercise, to live and to party. One can reach everything in no time and it is quite easy to meet your friends and to arrange meetings with professors or other students.

The university itself is a lot more like being in high school and for those who are used to decide if they are absent or not, this could be a little annoying. But since the timetable can be composed individually and the courses are a good chance to meet new people and to learn the language, this shouldn’t be a problem.

To put it in a nutshell: Loughborough is an amazing starting point to get to know British cities, culture and landscape and it’s nothing new that a year abroad is a huge enrichment for one’s life and a guarantee for having the best time.

The first thoughts you have in mind when considering Warsaw as your place to study abroad aren't connected to aviation. But indeed the capital of Poland hosts the highest military academy of this uprising country, one of its institutions being the faculty of "Aviation Management". I applied for Poland instead of England or France (besides the lack of French language skills) because I wanted to get experiences in a different culture and to get knowledge in military aviation stuff. And I wasn't disappointed:

The campus is small, but fits all you need in one place: dormitory, faculties, restaurants and a great gym with a swimming pool. And the whole area is decorated with outdated military vehicles: planes and helicopters, tanks and trucks. Though this seems daunting to a civilian student, we international students where welcomed warmly by the lieutenant officers and their staff responsible for us. Whenever I needed help, their office was open just minutes away from my room.

Most of the other students came from the former Eastern bloc countries, Turkey, France, Italy, Czech Rep. and Portugal, forming an international group with a variety of habits and beliefs. With some new-found friends we used every free day and weekend for travelling. With incredible cheap 5 Euro-Tickets Ryanair took us to several countries across Europe. We also discovered Poland by train and car, a gorgeous country if you visit the right spots, learning much more than we bigoted Germans know about our neighbor country. And not to forget Warsaw, a brilliant, clean and safe cosmopolitan city competing even London, especially according to the prices. We didn't study somewhere in nowhere, we studied in huge world city.

Beside all of the fun we had a lot of work by studying in special courses in English. Compared to the system in Dresden we had much more to do: participating in discussions, writing essays every week, group projects and presentations. Because almost all of the lecturers where former pilots or other aviation employees, the stuff we learned was interesting and always related to practical experiences.

Like all the other ERASMUS students point out: Whenever someone has the chance to apply for a semester abroad, he should. Everything else would be squandered time.

My recommendation for all fellow students is to use the great opportunity of going abroad during your studies like I did with ENAC Toulouse to improve your language skills, form and enhance your interest in different cultures from all over the world, and integrate more choices in your curriculum. At ENAC in France, on the 10th position of the national ranking of engineering schools in France this year, you will have the chance to see your studies from another, somewhat fresher and broader perspective. Since you won’t be only surrounded by French students but also by potential friends from India, China, Slovakia, Poland, etc. it’s important to be open-minded, tolerant and overcome some prejudices.

But be aware that most of the subjects which are of interest for us transport engineers are taught in English, that you’re a little isolated from the city centre, surrounded by other university areas and scientific institutions. Furthermore, supermarkets are not close although accessible quickly by bus, so forget about fresh croissants and baguettes in the morning.

Instead infrastructure with buses and metro is very good and cheap for us students and Toulouse is a beautiful city centre, located at the river Garonne and the popular ‘Canal du midi’, idyllic for jogging, a peaceful walk and some good wines like Haut-Médoc for mild late-summer evenings with good friends.

I participated in the Masters Program of IATOM14 (International Air Transport Operations Management of the class of 2014 – ergo the 3rd semester) which fitted me the best, providing me with courses and projects about airline economics, strategy and revenue management, HR, aircraft performance optimisation, flight mechanics multiple-choice exams, etc. and I definitely don’t regret that choice as I was welcomed by a very joyful, warm and motivated class of 38 people that integrated me directly and made me feel a bit like high school again but with more mature students, of course.

Even though there were times with quickly upcoming deadlines of projects, making us work sometimes the entire weekend, some frequent studying and work to be done (still actually easy to handle for us engineers from TU Dresden, even with the commonly known phenomena of procrastination which I was highly proficient in), I would never like to miss those times, the little ENAC student parties, trying squeeze with 20 people in a small chamber of 12m² in your residence, going into town for cinema with many international friends, wine tastings and getting involved in the real, authentic, and most of all spicy Indian cuisine.

All there is left to say, try yourself, have some fun, make some new amazing experiences, Go abroad – Allez-y!

My nine months Erasmus at Loughborough University, UK were an intense and unforgettable time that…

• … was worth all the initial red tape and additional expenses,
• … enriched my technology-oriented aviation knowledge with management know-how,
• … allowed me to improve my English skills by training with living objects,
• … enhanced my appreciation for the German eating and drinking culture,
• … let me make friends with people from all over the world,
• … infected me with Loughborough Sport and the Olympia 2012 spirit,
• … let me become more independent, open-minded and spontaneous,
• … and that I can recommend warmly to everyone!

First of all: It was amazing! I have achieved the primary goals of improving my language skills and further professional development in terms of my studies. To be an active member of the Student Mountaineering Club was also very helpful. There I got the chance to meet many new people, to visit the most beautiful places of the country and additionally to learn to speak fluent English. Despite interesting lectures there was enough time for trips to many different cities, towns and villages. Take that chance and become halfway British!!

As I had had quite different expectations of the life, the studies, the people etc. there, I sometimes found it hard to feel completely at ease. Yet, I definitely don't want to miss my time in Toulouse. But let's start from the beginning.

The region is marvellous - the Atlantic Ocean, the Mediterranean Sea and the Pyrenees are right around the corner, only two hours away from Toulouse. The city itself is also worth living in it so all in all I could obtain vivid impressions of France and Spain. At the same time, you get used to the French mentality very quickly although it might be partly strange to you in the beginning.

The university, ENAC, which is situated at the boarders of the city, surprised me because it was more a (boarding) school than a university. Apart from university buildings, the small campus contains the dorms and sports facilities. You will spend most of your time on this campus, on which you have the chance to get to know many internationals from all parts of the world.

The studies at ENAC are rather time-consuming since attendance is obligatory and because English is used in all lectures (at least in IENAC 3rd year). Thus, in order to learn French you should become active yourself. The coorperation between the university and some aviation companies, especially Airbus and Airfrance, resulted in a few very interesting lectures and day trips where I could (although it might sound like a stereotype) really broaden my horizon. So if you are ready to study hard, being tolerant and active, Toulouse is your choice.

My stay abroad in Toulouse has been a fantastic time. While enjoying the relaxed French lifestyle I could also enhance my aviation and management knowledge. That is due to the great variety of courses that were being held by industry and economy experts (such as Airbus engineers or Air France managers), a lot of group and project work and the very aviation-focussed atmosphere at ENAC. Of course I also made friends with many people from all over the world and discovered the most interesting places in France (and nearby Spain) along with them. I only didn't improve my French as much as I expected because English has been the course language and because I've been spending most of the time with non-French people. Well, you can't have it all. C'est la vie!"

A semester abroad in the small city Loughborough for about 5 months. The best points of my time in the UK:

• from Mombasa to Oslo – got to know some very interesting and nice people
• my subjects have been a perfect addition to my syllabus in Germany
• became attuned to hearing myself talking in English
• got the oppotunity to become part of university`s handball team (I was named „The Berlin Wall“ … retrospectively very proud of that)
• sports are very important for Lboro, but there is also a huge assortment of leisure acitivities next to them

There are also some negative points:

• money money money … England is very expensive. You should keep that in mind!
• I don`t expect Jambalaya for breakfast or the Amber Room for habitation … but life quality is quite lower than in Germany
• no german beer
• slim chance to get recognition of credits
• no german beer

All in all it has definitely been an important experience for me. If you are interested in pictures or reports about life experience you may check out my UK blog: blog.reitmania.de

My two semesters in Warsaw were a wonderful time for me. I met many people from many different countries. Next to the lectures, there will be enough time to get to know the country/people or whole Europe. Furthermore, traveling in Poland is very convenient because students get a 50% discount in public transport.
Nevertheless there are some facts that you should know before:

• The accommodation will take place in a dormitory with rooms for two persons. All students of the ERASMUS initiative will stay on one floor, based on the motto: "Whatever you want it or not, you're never alone"."
• The university is situated at the edge of Warsaw. All locations of the university are easily accessible by feet. But if you want to check out the nightlife you need to know that this takes time
• The attendance in the lectures is obligatory.
• Your lectures will be just for foreign students, learning in small groups.
• In the classes you will discuss civil and military aspects depending on the topic.
• The subject modules are fixed. Modifications are difficult, need a high commitment and a good persuasive power.
• Warsaw is the most expensive city in Poland. Food is cheaper than in Germany, the night live surprisingly more costly.