Please, list here your courses and write your experience with them. Did you notice any differences compared to your home university? (The most useful answers were selected.)

More essays than exams

Sometimes the organisation was not very good especially for the two first courses (ERASMUS – Czech for Foreigners – Beginners II, Ecology in inter-disciplinary research.) However teachers are nice and comprehensive.

More accessible than courses at home university probably because of Erasmus students (Conservation Biology, Parasitology, Czech for Beginners I).

Yes, there are much more practicals here, which is amazing. Also, I almost only had oral exams.

All courses were really interesting, good quality teaching (I studied Biochemistry)

The Erasmus courses were much easier than the ones in my home country and all the professors were very helpful (Chemistry of Atmosphere, Chemometrics, Organic synthesis and organocatalysis, Organic chemistry and biological processes, Toxicology).

BIOLOGY SECTION:

Advanced reading: easy, just 3 presentations and attendance to classes

Advances in cell biology: passionate teachers, always ready to answer to questions and develop our critical mind by reanalysing the articles we were presenting

Advances in immunology: very interesting, interactive class

Botany field trip: very nice, diverse, also good free time opportunities, a lot of memorizing Latin names, taking botany of vascular and non-vascular plants before would be better

Botany of non-vascular plants: okay, practical included (microscopy)

Conservation biology: Passionate teacher, I really enjoyed the course; good teacher, only presentation and essay to pass class

Crustacean biology and diversity: a lot of information about phylogenetic trees of crustaceans to remember for exam, quite hard.

Cytometry: very hard, a lot to do, but if you do something you pass. The teacher was amazingly didactique. He taught me a lot and was open for discussion. The exam brought me a lot because when he saw we didn’t understand he took the time to reexplain during our presentations. This course demanded a lot of work, but I didn’t regret taking it.

Developmental biology – a practical course: The teachers were not really present during this course and basically, we had to handle most of the practical by ourselves.

Diversity in marine fishes: courses were an interesting, but also some phylogenetics were complicated. Exam was oral and she didn’t expect any phylogenetics.

Environmental informatics: I got to know how to use different softwares for modelling.

Ethology and sociobiology: I was quite disappointed about this course as I didn’t feel the teachers brought much more inputs than the articles we had to read.

First aid class (en.): really good, interesting, fun and super important to get. You can get a certificate for first aid formation. During weekend.

Fish ecology: a lot of information in short time, trips to museum were nice & informative

Histology: nice lecturer, but too long and no slides presented. Interesting course, a lot of information similarly to French class, however the expectation (and the form of an oral) for the exam here are much lower.

Histology Practical: great, fluorescent microscopes

Ichthyology field course: very fun, recommend it if you do the fish ecology or diversity of marine fishes course.

Immunology: I learnt a lot, but I would give this course more credits as it requires a big amount of work.

Immunology – a practical course: I learnt a lot in this practical, I was glad having taken it.

Introduction to bioacoustics: I had never heard about this subject before, and I did enjoy a lot learning more about it.

Model organisms in developmental biology: I learnt a lot in this course.

Molecular Applications in Zoology: Better suited for first-year students of Bachelor, I would say. The exam was quite hard and written.

Molecules of life and Mutations: We had a lot of teachers for this course which I found amazing as all of them could give us their insights. All were very opened for discussions, and I felt like I could learn to use a few softwares for protein modelling and to better understand how a mutation can affect a protein and its interactions.

Neurobiology: I really liked the teacher but, as for immunology, it requires a big amount of work and not enough credits given for it.

Parasitology: a lot of problems with cancelled classes and not getting informed. Exam very hard to pass, some questions were not explained.

Plant systematics: very small course, went a lot outside to study the plants which was nice. Exam was quite hard.

Population biology of plants: I really enjoyed the way it was taught. The teacher was passionate and was trying to share her passion. We could do presentations and get some feedbacks to improve, we got sometimes for discussions and some nice feedbacks of essays.

Population ecology and species protection: online course with online test.

Practical basics of scientific work: very useful course for me as the teacher (who was passionate and always ready to help) shared many resources for scientists that I didn’t know about, and I could get much better insights on what scientific work means and tools we can use in our work.

Practical course in animal and human physiology: I didn’t find it that useful, but I think really nice for 1st year Bachelor.

Skills in pedagogy, communication and self confidence in science: I was surprised by what the course actually offered when I started attending the class, but I found it interesting as a class about self-development and getting better at presenting and learning to step up.

Specialised field course in zoology: One week away from university. I really appreciated the change and the life in community.

Zoology field trip: interesting, but some days were way too long (9-23)

CHEMISTRY SECTION:

None of the students commented their chemistry subjects.

GEOGRAPHY / GEOLOGY SECTION:

Image and Laboratory spectroscopy, Analysis, mapping and visualization of urban and regional development, Environmental Informatics, Machine Learning in Geosciences and Remote sensing of planets. The difference with my home university was huge. The level of teaching was really poor, seems like teachers/professors lack any kind of pedological skills, the courses are badly constructed, the tutorials don’t teach students anything (since you just mimic whatever the teacher is doing) and either the courses/classes are way too easy or really hard (i.e. Machine Learning). Some teachers were helpful but some professor (i.e. Analysis, mapping and visualization of urban and regional development) had a terrible, condescending way of communicating with students that was really old fashioned and made people uncomfortable. Overall all the courses sounded really interesting and had a lot of potential to be beneficial, but the execution just wasn’t successful at all.

What would you like to tell the next generation of incoming Erasmus students? (The most useful answers were selected.)

  • ACCOMMODATION: Be careful when looking for a flat, never pay in advance. Even the Erasmus in Prague agency is unreliable. Don’t be too stressed about deadlines. Make a list of all the things you have to do. Print everything out when you need something from any official Czech post and don’t expect them to speak English. Never use the Euronet cash machines.
  • ACCOMMODATION: For dormitories. maybe check the place before to make sure that you are not too far from the city/ don’t mind being far from the city if the dormitory in question is far.
  • MONEY: Don’t go to Euronet ATM to change money, it is quite a bad deal.
  • UNIVERSITY: They should not take too difficult courses because if the learning method is too far from the one of their home university, they will struggle a lot and their stay will be less nice
  • UNIVERSITY: Learn some Czech, Czech people do appreciate at least that we are trying to speak their language and lots of Czech people don’t speak English.
  • UNIVERSITY: Usually every course has a page in Moodle, also if they don’t write it in sis
  • LIVING IN PRAGUE: Nemocnice Motol (hospital) has people speaking English so if you need a hospital I would advise going there.
  • LIVING IN PRAGUE: Relax at first and then you will be able to enjoy the entire experience. Enjoy Prague.
  • LIVING IN PRAGUE: I would emphasize that Prague is a wonderful city to do an Erasmus but say that in pedagogical/academic I wouldn’t expect to gain that much.
  • Get out of the Erasmus bubble and meet some local students.