Experience report
ANR:
676202
Name:
Nicollle van den Hout
E-mail:
nicollehout@hotmail.com
Exchange semester: July-December 2014
Academic year: Year 3
Host University: University of Pretoria
Country:
South Africa
Admission, arrival, housing
Before departure to South Africa I was given a phone number of a cab driver by the University of
Pretoria. I gave all my flight details to this driver and upon arrival he was waiting for me at the gate.
He drove me to tuksdorp were I was going to be living during my stay in Pretoria. This
accommodation was arranged by the university of Pretoria.
It is about 45 minutes away from Or
Tambo Airport in Johannesburg. Since I arrived late in the evening the driver already picked up my
keys at the office and gave them to me so I could enter the residence. Tuksdorp is a residence for all
international students and the houses are divided in boys and girls houses. I shared a house with
seven girls from different countries but also with Dutch students from other universities.
My first week in Pretoria was quit hectic. There was a contract which I had to sign before coming to
Pretoria and I send it via the postoffice. Luckly it arrived, other international students were less
fortunate since their contract did not arrive. The university did not know what do with the lost contracts
and with the contracts that were not filled in properly. For this reason I could not register for my
courses. In the first week you are aloud attend the courses of your own choice just to get the feeling
of the courses and to see if you really would like to take the chosen courses. Despite the pre
approval of all my courses upon arrival I still needed to change a few courses and these also needed
to be approved by Tilburg Univeristy which unfortunattley was quite a hastle since Tilburg was on
Holidays during my first week. Luckly it all worked out and I could choose five courses of my own
choice.
Location of university/city
The university is in Hatfield which is a safe place to be. There are secrurity gards on almost every
conrner of the street and the university is only a 5 minute walk away from Tuksdorp. The university
has beautiful builidings and there are several facilities including lots of restaurants. Don’t be afraid of
the size of the university its seems really big at first and you might be afraid that you don’t find your
way but you get used to it really quickly. The courses are not always in your own faculty building so
you might be looking for the right buildings in the beginning. Your schedule does not change during
the semsters so after a week you already know were to be. You don’t get a schedule made for you
like in Tilburg but you have a book were you have to look up your own schedule.
The city centre of Pretoria is reachable with the gautrain but not advisible to be since the city centre is
quit dangerous.
In hatfield there was a little mall with a supermarket and many more little shops. This mall is also just
a 5 minute walk from Tuksdorp.
For sports there is a sportscampus but I went to Virgin Active Gym. The Virgin active is a fancy place
for sports and if you take a different insurance called Momentum Multiply you don’t pay a lot per
month. Besides if you go 12 or more times a month you get another 20 procent discount. The nice
thing about virgin active is, that they are spread through the whole country so when you decide to
travel you can always workout in any gym of virgin active.
With a cab you could get everywere quit quick. You can even take a white bus if you are with enough
people its 12Rand (less than €1) per rit to wherever you want to go. If you decide to take a single cab
to some other places you pay more. In the neighbourhoud of tuksdorp there are enough cafes and
restaurants to go to.
Academics
The courses I took were internal auditing, e-commerce, project management, history and marketing
offerings. The reason I chose internal auditing was because I was interested in specializing in
accounting and if I would like this subject I would know more. E-commerce I chose because I thought
I would be all about strating a e-commerce. It turned out to be more about information systems but we
did an interaction project with a company which was really nice. We got an official certificate from
SAP and my group won the challenge so that was really nice. Project managent was all about how to
start a projet and that seemed interesting to me. For marketing offerings I worked in a group of 6 and
we had to write a marketing plan for fictive case. The nice thing about this course was that you did not
have to do a final exam. Finally I chose history because I wanted to get to know the country. The first
part of the course was all about the whole history of Africa and the second part of the course was
more focused on South Africa. This course was a lot of work since we had to deliver an assignment
almost every week but this course is not a hard one to choose.
In general I experienced the first and second year courses to be a lot of learning by heart wich is very
different from Tilburg University. I really liked to more practical part with the group projects since I
worked with actual companies. Some courses like internal auditing were quit hard but also very
interesting. While in contrary, project mangament was very easy and only learning by heart.
The level of English was not diffuclut for me and I could even understand Afrikaans a bit when the
Afrikaners speek slowly, it’s a lot like Dutch.
The University of Pretoria also uses blackboard for all there courses and besides that they also use
Click up. This is an internet platform were you can see all you transcripts and other administrative
things.
Social life
With the international students we would usually arrange parties and braai´s(this is the south African
name for bbq). Besides that we also did some activites such as vistiting a lion park and going on a
self drive safari. All these activities and the fact that we practically lived together, mades us became
one big group.
In the classes you meet lots of local students and this made it easy to get in contact with them. I made
a few south African friends with whom I went out a few times and got invited to their places.
During the recess week I travelled with a group of 4 girls along the gardenroute to Capte Town and
my last weeks I travelled along the wild coast. Futrhermore I went a weekend to Swaziland.
Living costs
Since I did not get any bursury besides the Stufi I had to finance my stay on my own. The total rent
for the room was about 1220 euros. The expenses for food were not that expensive since I cooked
with my house almost every day and we split the costs. The overall prices for clothes and food are a
bit cheaper than in Holland.
The most money I spend on travelling wich for both trips was approximately 400 euros.
For textbooks I paid about 30euros per book and I needed two. Some books were supplied by the
university since books are considered really expesive for the local students.
Culture
I don’t think I experienced a culture shock since I was raised in Africa before I came to Holland. I can
imagen that for another person it might be quite a shock. You cannot expect things to be done fast
and the way you want. Usually you end up waiting a long time and you really need to push
sometimes for thing to get done. It can be annoying at some times but during the journey you get
used to it.
I learned a lot about the host culture since I took a history class. Besides that you still see a lot of
things from the apartheid. Eventhought the situation is not as bad as it was there is still some sort of
separation between the Afrikaners and the blacks. Nonetless both parties are very welcoming,
friendly and open to help you when needed.
A thing which you’ve got to keep in mind while being is south Africa is that some places are just not
that safe but if you just don’t go there there is no reason to be afraid.
Personal development
Before I went to south Africa I still lived with my parents so for me the biggest transformation has
been learning how to live on my own. At the beginning you might be afraid that you wont make
anyfriends but almost everybody from the exchange group comes by him or herself and this makes it
easy to talk to eachother.
There is nothing I can think of that I would do differently. The exchange period was really an
experience I wouldn’t change for a bit,iIt was an experience of a life time. There is not really one thing
that I can call the best part of the experience. There is so much you do and so many people you meet
that almost everything you do is pretty much amazing. Luckly I had no bad experiences.
Tips for future students
If you decided to go to south Africa the biggest tip and probably the most important one is arrange
your visa on time. It might be that you have to go to the embassy a few times before all is arranged
properly. If you want to traveler longer than you can actually stay try to apply for a visa in south Africa
for a longer stay. The university of Pretoria is really nice the campus is beautiful and has beautilfull
buildings. For me it was also really nice that I didn’t have to arrange any accommodation so upon
arrival you know you have a place to go to.
A picture is worth a thousand words
a group of friends you make for life.
going on safari is a must.
A small vibe of the beautifull campus.