Tuba Utlu

University College Of Denmark,

Studying in Marmara has definitely been an enlightening experience, not that it differs completely from my studies at college in Denmark.

A student need never really leave campus. There is  a hairdresser , small restaurant, and fitness facility, as well as a dining center.

Marmara was a precious experience. It gave me the opportunity to meet professors and students to get to know their opinions, views, thoughts and colorful personalities.

I would recommend spending time, studying, working, and/or living in Turkey  to

anyone, because I think it is important to learn about another country and culture first hand.

I feel that my time in Turkey has taught me so much, not only about history and life in this place, but about myself.

Norbert Hurt

From University of Tartu/Estonia,

One year ago I was thinking about going to study in some other country, because I needed some new inspiration. I have worked as a football coach already 6 years and I wanted to see some other football culture and get some new training ideas from school. I came to Turkey and Marmara University because of my teacher form Estonia who is very good friend with the Dean of Marmara Sport Academy BirolCotuk. My teacher VahurÖöpik said that they accept me there and they give all help I need in Turkey.

Positive things:

From the first they I came here, the hospitality here is wonderful. Everybody is so friendly and they are helping me in any case.

The lessons I participated was also good, the teachers were good and the lessons I took were very good level, I learned a lot from these.

Teachers were friendly and helpful. The lessons were in Turkish, but they explained to me in English and gave materials for studying.

Things to improve:

Everybody is talking here only English and sometimes it was very hard to fix my student papers.

The timing is hard here, they say sometimes come and take your papers on Friday for example and then you go on Friday and they say it is not ready and you have to drive one hour back.

Conclusion:

I really enjoyed studying in Turkey, I want to come back here and meet with my new friends again. The school was good and even when I didn’t know the language I could follow the lessons and I got smarter.

Sjoske Hunze

from Netherlands

I really liked my Erasmus time in Istanbul / Marmara University. Istanbul is a great city with a lot of different faces which is really interesting. People in Istanbul and Marmara University are very helpful, they do a lot to make you comfortable and feel at home. The cources given in the communication department were not in english , so the teachers gave us private lessons in english, I really appreciate that. I had a great time here!

Yvonne Schulze-Ardey

from Germany

In the beginning I had some problems with the erasmus office , maybe because they have moved. But I had many difficulties also because not everyone can speak english

It was difficult at first with the cources , but I met really nice people here which helped me have a really good time. Turkish people are very nice in general.

Andreas Huntzler

from Germany

Istanbul is an amazing city, what I like the most about it is that people are really kind. I have seen that turkish people are very helpful and nice, and you can always find help

I really liked the language course with the nice teacher and nice people. It really helps in daily life ,if you can speak a little turkish.

Michel Van Hellemont

I attended an Erasmus Exchange program at Maramara University in İstanbul during spring of 2011. I had the time of my life in Turkey. It´s a huge city with many different faces and a great cultural heritage. Nightlife is awesome and I met a lot of people during my stay. Even if the turkish education system is extremely different from west-european systems, it has been a great experience. I'm happy wıth my choice to come to İstanbul and am regretful that I didn't apply for the 1-year program. I recommend to all new international students to look for an apartment in Kadıköy. Administrative organizations in Turkey could be improved though.

Maximilian Krentzien

You asked me to write my opinion about my Erasmus stay in the spring semester 2011 at the Marmara University. In the following paragraphs I want to refer to the experiences with the office and the university itself. I could write about the Erasmus life in general but for your evaluation I reduce the topics I want to deal with to the mentioned ones.

In the beginning of my preparation phase from my hometown the Erasmus office was unfortunately hardly reachable. E-mail and phone contact attempts were not successful. Of course it is one of the responsibilities of a student to organize himself but especially for a study stay abroad it is nice to get some help before the departure from the home country. After arriving in Istanbul it was much easier to solve the personal problems by talking with the very friendly and helpful employees of the Erasmus office.

But nevertheless I have to concede that there is one main problem occurring in the daily work of the office: incoming students are received by auxiliary student employees because they have the best knowledge in English. In general the normal employees have not the high level of English as their younger colleagues but they have the competences in giving information and making decisions. This contradiction leads to an inefficient treatment of the Erasmus students, for example: sometimes appointments and agreements are not observed. Due to this problem students have to come back again only for little easily solvable issues like taking a signed paper. That is especially unpleasantly for the students living far away from the Göztepe campus. But I also see the improvements in the daily procedures: splitting incoming office and outgoing office and also the migration of the student data into the BYS. Especially the last point helps the Erasmus students to work together with the teachers.

Another aspect that could be improved is to check if the chosen course set in the learning agreement is available for the semester of staying. Mine was completely canceled after I arrived.

Since the flat market in Istanbul is on a high price level it would be nice to have dormitories where Erasmus students are preferred.

Hopefully these personal impressions can help you to improve your nice work.

Kolay gelsin

Sincerely