I‘m still walking around the Imperial College every day and keeping a keen eye on every deviation from the German university system. In my last blogpost I gave my opinion of the professors, the learning atmosphere and the general concept. Today some other aspects follow 🙂
Exams
In London, the “you have to pass everything in this year” puts much greater pressure on students compared to at my university. If you don’t pass a subject at my university or you want to drop out by yourself (yes, that’s possible!), you can do the exam either in the same or the following semester. Here students are given more freedom of adjustment, which can have its advantages or disadvantages depending on one’s personal characteristics.
Sports
Again: free gym! I have already praised this greatly in a previous blog post. Anyone who wants to do sports can do so without any problems. In addition, having 1000 Sport Societies offers a platform for every taste. The fees for these are a little higher than at my university, but, therefore, the gym is not free of charge. The variety of courses offered at both universities is roughly the same.
Canteen
The culinary diversity at Imperial College is outstanding. There is something for every culture and every taste, thanks to the various canteens and snacks on campus. For anyone who has enough money, of course. Compared to the prices of the German university canteen you actually pay almost double the price. It would be nice if the taste quality were also twice as good. Unfortunately, I cannot confirm this after several empirical experiments with different independent variables. In fact, the money and taste factor actually motivated me to cook more often myself, which is not necessarily bad, but a little more time expensive.
As I pointed out in the beginning, the direct comparison of fundamentally different systems is not easily done. But just seeing that the systems differ so much is a great experience and has broadened my horizons considerably. I also consider the stories of other cultures through exchange with other students to be valuable and not a matter of course. Generally speaking, I find the experience at Imperial College exciting in all aspects and I can highly recommend it to anyone who has the opportunity!
