Type of housing: Apartment/House

Arranged by: Independently - My choice

If returning, I would choose: Apartment/House

Why? I prefer to live in an apartment and maintain a high degree of independence. This Apartment I can then share with fellow students, if possible of different nationalities. Next to being able to share costs, exchange experiences and study jointly, it makes the semester even more enjoyable and facilitates the integration into the new environment. Given this, the learn-effect, from an academic and personal point of view, is very high.

Personal comments:
The university did not have student housing facilities on campus. As finding a suitable housing in Cádiz in general is very difficult, it is rather difficult for the university administration to give more help than the usual.

Describe host city: Student life dominates the city

Activities, Nightlife: Takes place mostly within the university/student environment

Travel: Takes place mostly outside the university/student environment

Personal comments:
Playa St.Victoria is the center of all surfers and kyte-surfers. The center is full of small tapas-bars (best: Veedor, Gotinga, Garbanzo Negro,...) For night life bars in the citycenter are recomended ( Nahoo, UMEC ) After 3am all people go to "la punta" as a center of going out and dancing! For taking a coffee or having a short break I can recomend "plaza de la cadetral" and it's cafes. For the a quick meal you can go to "el refugio" en la calle benyumeda - there you find the best bocadillos of town.

Course recommendations:
The choice of courses and the availability/flexibility (time-wise) were excellent. We were able to create a schedule to our own liking and were allowed to the majority of classes. In addition we were able to chose our examination dates. However, the teaching-styles on the other hand weren't necessarily convincing. Some teachers hardly favoured student-teacher interaction, did not allow for any discussions and nor independent and critical thinking. In some courses the teacher would read out the material for straight two hours, as for example in Marketing Túristico or Entrepreneurship. I can only recommend to anyone to take classes where the subject is of great interest, one can always be unlucky and end up with a teacher who does not have the gift of delivering the material to his students in an interesting way.

Personal comments:
No matter what great facilities universities have to offer, what matters most to me is the quality of teaching, the personality and capabilities of the teacher. I have had subject that I assumed to dislike, but with the right packaging of the material, one can surprisingly find a challenge and fun in almost all areas of study. Therefore, also in regard of my home university, I believe that there should be more focus teaching styles.

Language of instruction: Spanish

Main source of funding:
An ERASMUS grant

Other sources of funding:
Family
Personal savings

Work opportunities:
I didn't want/need to work

Personal spending habits:
Housing and living costs are VERY low in Cadiz. You can get a good apartment in the old town for around 180 Euros a month and bills only come to around 30 Euros every 3 months. However, mobile phone costs are abominable and the nightlife tends to be extremely expensive. Particularly considering the price of beer at the local supermarkets!

Nightlife, Telephone: was more expensive than at home.

Food, Travel, Overall, Housing: was less expensive than at home.

I wish I had known...
there is no need for stress - the first days of searching for flats and arranging all "paper-stuff" can be annyoing and dificult - but mostly it turns out well. there is no need for stress.

In my opinion:
Everybody loved it, you will too!