What would you like to tell the next generation of incoming Erasmus students? How should they tackle their problems? Would you like to warn them against anything in particular?
- Participate in as many welcome and Erasmus Club events as you can, it’s always worth it.
- Don’t be shy to talk to your classmates, especially the czech ones. Get out of the Erasmus Bubble sometimes.
- Participate in the Buddy Programme – not only that you’ll have someone to turn to in case of problems, but you have the possibility to make a czech friend 🙂
- Travel as much as you can, IDOS (czech train tickets app) offers very cheap train tickets, otherwise use RegioJET (very good overnight trains to Krakow, Vienna, …) or Flixbus (only 2€ to go to Plzeň and back).
- Best to go out in Prague if you have to go to some basements – the best bars are below ground level.
- If you’re struggling with adjusting to life in a Foreign country, Charles University has several mental health offers, also for international students. Just look for the “Centrum Carolina” on the internet.
- There’s nothing to warn you about (except maybe from shopping in the touristic city center, way too expensive), Prague is an amazing place to study!
- I didn’t have any problem, so I don’t need to warn before anything.
- I would tell them that they do not have to worry about anything because everything is well organized.
- My first advise would be to do research before your arrival. It is very important to know how to deal with the currency exchange to not get scammed and to be careful when finding an apartment to rent.
- Regardless the assumptions I made, the exchange program was amazing and I learnt a lot studying there. I would definitely recommend Charles University to other people. High quality professors, keen to help you, and interesting subjects I couldn’t find back at my home university.
- Please take care of yourself, prague can be quite cold, and people get sick a lot, evade going to the hospital.
- They have to know that teachers from geology are so arrogant, the ones that they teach master subjects. check carefully the week schedule and the level of studies each subject requires. Good luck
- I would tell them just to communicate and ask questions as much as they need.
- You will not get help from the school, the first two weeks are hard.
- Look for sport courses, don’t get scammed when searching for a room or flat
- I didn’t have any problems I would recommend to download a app like google translate it helped me in many ways.
- Use that time to the fullest. I feel like I’ve failed in that regard – hence I want to come back next year.
Please, share any additional thoughts. 🙂
- Thank you guys for organizing so many events! You are doing an amazing job!
- Thanks for an amazing exchange experience!
- I think there should be more involvement with the erasmus co-ordinators or erasmus office to help students. The university system is very confusing and little help is offered. Maybe hold a joint event with them within the first week so students can ask questions or get personal advice
Courses Feedback
BIOLOGY
Antiviral Drug Discovery (Mgr. Klára Grantz Šašková, Ph.D.)
this was a very interesting course with a motivated and friendly teacher. Some lectures were held by researchers of the IOCB Prague Institute and gave a good look into the area of pharmacological research/career paths. Even though it was a Master’s course, Bachelor students could follow easily if interested. The oral exam was not very hard to pass, it focused mainly on the principles of drug discovery and the first lectures.
Protein Dynamics in Development and Cancer (Mgr. Lukáš Čermák, Ph.D.)
the teacher is amazing, he really managed to make those cellular pathways interesting by telling stories about scientific discoveries or from his own research. It is definitely good to have some cell biology knowledge before enrolling in this course. The exam was composed of questions of the questionnaire that he uploaded on SIS, in the oral exam he asked more detailed about 1-2 questions.
Dr Cermak’s formula is simple yet captivating. He was very kind and gave a lot of advice too.
Molecular Mechanisms of Regulated Cell Death (RNDr. Ladislav Anděra, CSc.)
although this topic is quite fascinating, don’t expect much from this class – the teacher was friendly, but not very motivated to teach us. The pace was too fast, and I had to teach myself basically everything from this class. With access to the old exams and a bit of background knowledge, the exam was then not hard to pass. A few days of studying are enough. I can’t say I enjoyed this class.
too much information to learn and the exam is really specific.
Immunology (MB150P14E/ prof. RNDr. Jan Černý, Ph.D., RNDr. Karel Drbal, Ph.D.)
this lecture was very unstructured, mainly because of the changes of teachers and the resulting incoherency of subjects. Better to study at home with literature. The exam was a multiple choice test similar to the quizzes that were provided on Moodle.
a practical course – a very good one week practical course that gives a good insight and overview of immunological lab techniques. From dissecting a mouse to culturing cells and analysing FACS results, there were a lot of skills to learn.
it requires some effort but it is really interesting and you learn a lot
how the lecture was constructed was pretty similar to my home University in Germany, but the lecture slides were very hard to study with. Often there only have been pictures without explanations or just very short explanations.
MB151C15 Immunology – a practical course
fun and format as 1-week-only courses enabled me to spend more time on my own research, grant applications and travels.
MB150C31 Practical course in animal and human physiology
fun and format as 1-week-only courses enabled me to spend more time on my own research, grant applications and travels.
Immunology a practical Course (MB151C15E – doc. RNDr. Magdaléna Krulová, Ph.D.)
really interesting and I would recommend
Innate immunity (MB150P90E- RNDr. Dominik Filipp, CSc.)
a little complicated but good
Progress in Molecular Virology (MB140P82, Sandra Huerfano Meneses, Ph.D.)
really interesting and easy to follow
Python for Biologists (Martha Kandziora, Dr. rer. nat.)
very fun, interesting one week course that gave a good insight in programming, even for beginners. The exam on the other hand was harder than expected and a lot of people failed their first attempt. It was scheduled in January, so it might overlap with some exams that you will take.
Epigenetics (prof. Mgr. Petr Svoboda, Ph.D.)
if you are a Master’s student and interested in the field, this course is very recommendable. You’ll learn a lot about the use of databases and connect some knowledge that you might have gained in prior lectures or from the lab. The exam is a lot of work since it is a 2-weeks take home exam. As a Bachelor student, I couldn’t manage to finish the exam. I still enjoyed going to the lectures and took a lot of knowledge from this class.
really interesting but the exam it is really difficult and requires great effort during exam period.
Neurobiology (MB150P59 RNDr. Jiří Růžička, Ph.D.)
interesting but the exam was more specific than expected.
Mycology – (not sure if a) MB120P46E General mycology or b) MB120P47E Systematic mycology)
I didn’t do this course at my university. It was well organised and interesting.
Parasitology:
never had it in Germany so I can’t tell
Protein dynamics in development of cancer, immunology, immunology practical course, advances in infection biology, advances in molecular Virology, practical course in animal and human physiology, neurobiology, stem cells, Biomedical research. I found the system of teaching more practical and active, but less detailed and deep in comparison to the Italian system.
Teachers in Charles university aren’t emphatic with Erasmus students. I choose master courses and I’m from bachelor because I didn’t know that it was possible and they didn’t help me in anything.
I didn’t have courses because I was on a doctoral internship. i was doing Erasmus intership at BIOCEV. Overall, my experience has been very good. Both the host faculty and the research centre have done a very good job, and I would definitely repeat it if I could.
GEOGRAPHY
Heritage of Landscapes (RNDr. Zdeněk Kučera, Ph.D.)
this was an interesting course that was well thought. I liked how the professor had divided the themes also the class project was interesting. Very theoretical and philosophical
Contemporary Political Geography and Geopolitics (RNDr. Libor Jelen, Ph.D.)
this was an interesting course that needed a lot of work. The lectures had a very uneven quality some professors were well prepared and others were not. I do believe that the last lectures and presentations were not very organized and could have been managed better.
Urban Social Geography: Key Theoretical Approaches (doc. RNDr. Martin Ouředníček, Ph.D.)
this course was very well put together. There was quite a lot of effort and work that had to be put in for this course but it was interesting and on a good level.
Open Source GIS, Czech Course (really interesting), High impact weather phenomena , Geopolitics
I liked that the course enabled students to discuss with each other
Data analysis in R and Python (MG440P44), Radar data processing (MZ370G17), 3D modelling and geovisualization (MZ370G18)
èIn Charles University it was amazing to have a deep learning in GIS/Remote sensing softwares, learning to fully use one language, program, etc to perform different analysis. In the university of Bergen it is more focused in field work and they use many different software, not allowing a deeper or a focused learning in any of them. Also, in Bergen university they work with semester projects, in which we perform little tasks every week to, in the end, deliver a main project in different topics choose by the student. In Prague we had a lot of different assignments every week.
Geology
Advanced metamorphic petrology:
– As the name suggests, it was a master course, it was fairly difficult and every Monday at 9am, not helpful.
I liked it but didn’t put effort in it
Environmental geochemistry:
– Incredible class, very easy, we had to have a presentation over the semester of our choosing and the exam was barely an exam, I loved it because it was a discussion course and genuinely I remember everything we talked about. 10/10 highly recommend
Geothermal Energy:
– The course was difficult, the prof gave the impression that he didn’t really care which is both a good and a bad thing, depends how you view it, the exam was easy in the sense that we had a list of potential questions and he put some of those so if you studied the question you passed
Hydrogeology:
– I do not vibe at all with that field of geology so I found it difficult to understand, the exam was fairly easy (the other students said, I didn’t even bother)
ENVIROMENT STUDIES
Environmental issues, background examples and solutions (MO550P111E, RNDr. Petra Horká, Ph.D. ) I guess environmental issues was the weakest because it had many different lecturers and some were not as good as the others note from Erasmus club – there were issues with late sending test
Environmental issues, background examples and solutions: interesting to have the different topics presented by experts in the field
Flood Risk Management (prof. RNDr. Jakub Langhammer, Ph.D.) è Mr. Langhammer was unavailable via Email and his office hidden somewhere in the building so we couldn’t find it
Others:
R for life (Mgr. Martin Weiser, Ph.D.): è quite a lot of effort and difficult for 2 credits
Research project for visiting students (MERA602)èThe courses allowed me to conduct research and establish ties at the Czech Academy of Sciences to which I will surely come back – dr Voříšková was a great mentor.
Biology class, not sure which one – Excellent idea to have this sort of Jounal Club. Small group (3-5 people) was very pleasant too. dr Sandra Huerfano Meneses was a great mentor
I really like that it is a 4EU+ compatible course – I am heavily considering studying within this allience of yours
HONORABLE MENTIONS without feedback:
Milestones of older czech history, Migration studies, Geopolitics, Demographic change, Heritage of cultural landscapes
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polar ecology, plant population biology, bioacoustics, environmental issues and background,
practical course in quaternary paleoekology, Introduction in Polar Ecology, Principles in Exobiology , Biological Invasion, Basics of Evolutionary Biology, Ecology of cyanobacteria and algae, Vertebrate diversity, Introduction to plants systematic evolution and ekology, General mycology, Botanical Microtechnique, MB140S50E Advances in infection biology, MB100T01 Advanced image analysis