Anglia Ruskin University

Anglia Ruskin University, the university were I spent the last four months, is composed of two different campuses: Cambridge & Chelmsford.

I studied there since the 19th January, the day of presentation of the Univ to the exchange students.

Our semester ends friday 15th so I am able to do now a real feedback of my experience.

Welcoming

Firstly, concerning the way we were welcomed, I enjoyed the fact that exchange students and British were mixed during the lessons. We were very considered as students and, for us, it is a good way to be implicated in our classes. The first week of classes, the Exchange Student adviser presented us the University and more generally the English way of life. They organized travels for us to know the country and they were very present during all the semester, thing that I enjoyed.

Classes

The first week, we had to chose our subjects and schedules. This task was quite hard because we all wanted to have our week ends free to be able to go home! I changed all my classes and I took a lot of business subjects (which was not a good idea when I consider now the hard work I have to do...). I chose to study marketing and economics. I had B to B marketing, Marketing communications, Business Economics and an English class to help me improve my language. I enjoyed these courses except Business Economics because I do not fancy economics so it was quite difficult for me to follow. But I did! I noticed a real difference between french and English system of teaching. Here, we just have 8 hours classes a week, 1 hour seminar and 1 hour lecture per class. This looks like very lazy schedule but we also have to do a loooot of homework. Right now, we are almost in "vacations" but we have to do our assessments, 3000 words essays about a subject given by the teacher. In these papers, we have to include around 15 references (which means we have to read and summarize books) and it is not an easy task at all (the contrary...). Teachers do not really care if you attend or not the classes but they are nicer to help us if we have any problems with our assessments. In Business Economics, for example, the teacher helped me find my contents and target what I had to say in my paper.

Campus Life

Anglia Ruskin is a big university but unfortunately, Chelmsford campus is much bigger and impressive than Cambridge one. Every building is alone and not related to another which is quite boring when you have 5 minutes to go on the opposite side of the campus. There are 2 cafeterias where you can eat healthy and well for a very cheap price : a burger with fries (not a very good example for healthy food, I know...) is around 3£ and you have a fuuuull plate! For the country, it appears very cheap! And it is eatable!

Concerning student life, there is a famous association presents in every university in the UK : the Student Union. There are here to help if you have any problem, they organize parties, conferences, meetings. They have an important goal and members of the SU are paid for their job. It is very different from a french BDE because they do not just organize event but they are a part of the administration and related to the wellness of students. SU website : http://angliastudent.com/

What did I learn being a student in ARU ?

English! it was maybe one of the only places I hear and spoke English because I met a lot of french student during my every day life. I learn also, thanks to my English course, to understand that other origins may have not the same way of doing business. I finally knew what was university life, where you are on your own, and without a 'promotion sense'. I will always love ESDES because of the "promotion sense", we are all very close to each other, because we are 2A ! Here, nobody knows each other, you just know persons who are in the same classes as you. It is necessary to say, by the way, that the erasmus community is very cool and it is very easy to meet exchange student, not only at school by during parties and in our accommodation, dedicated to exchange students.

It is a sad goodbye I am giving to ARU, not extraordinary university, but, for me, full of memories.