Experience Report
E-mail: k.p.lepelaar@tilburguniversity.edu
Study Program: Bachelor Human Resource Management
Exchange semester: First semester
Academic year: 2015-2016
Host University: University of Pretoria
Country: South-Africa
General Information
The University of Pretoria is a relatively big university with 40000 students, but when you are studying
there it doesn’t feel like a big university. The reason for this is that it exists out of 7 campuses all over
town. The campus where all my classes were is named Hatfield campus and is located in Hatfield. This
part of Pretoria is known for it’s (relatively) safeness, because all the embassies are located in this area.
I stayed in Tuksdorp, which is a residence 10 minutes walking distance from Hatfield campus. On this
residence are several houses build. These house consisted out of two floors with each 8 rooms, 2
showers, 2 toilets and 1 kitchen. It was really well maintained but the furniture looked cheap, with
plastic chairs and almost no cooking equipment. A cleaning lady came 5 times a week to clean the
kitchen, toilets and showers, which was really nice. They separated the exchange students from the local
students and we lived in these kind of houses with 30 exchange students. I was surprised by the few
exchange students at the university considering its size.
Near to our residence was the sportscampus where they offer almost every sport you want and a
membership is relatively cheap (like 40 euro’s) and it is a good way to meet local students.
There are not a lot of good places to go party nearby because the university bought all the clubs and
transformed them into apartments, but there are some decent bars and restaurants nearby and taxi’s
are really cheap (especially if you install Uber). Crawdaddys was my favorite restaurant in the area, they
serve amazing steaks over there.
Practical information
I received the first information of the University of Pretoria on the 21th of January.
After that I send them some emails about the possibilities of getting an accommodation and the
introduction period on which they replied quite fast (within two weeks). The people working at there
international office are really friendly and always try to help you. The people who helped me before
departure and while I was there were: Mahlogonolo Mphahlele and Smart Maqubela. You don’t have a
personal mentor but you could always ask these two people for help.
Getting a study visa for South-Africa is quite a hassle. I went 5 times to the embassy in The Hague,
because every time I came there something was wrong with my application, so make sure to arrange it
at least 2 months before departure to prevent any stress. The cost for the visa is 50 euros, which you
have to pay in cash (no ATM nearby).
When I arrived they knew I was coming and they offered to pick me up at the airport for an additional
fee. I decided to arrange it myself by taking the Gautrain, which is way cheaper and even faster. When I
arrived at the residence the head of the residence showed me my room.
The orientation activities consisted out of 2 days. 1 was filled with introduction speeches and do’s and
don’ts in South-Africa and the other one was a day to Johannesburg to learn something about the
South-African culture and history.
The semester in South-Africa starts in July (around the 20th) and the introduction days are the week
before that. I arrived on the 15th which gave me a bit of time to get used to the South-African way of
live. The semester ends officially around the 7th of December, but this includes resits. When you don’t
have any resits, you are finished before the first of December. You have one week of vacation during the
semester which is called Springbreak and this takes place in October, which is a nice opportunity to go to
another part of South-Africa (I went to Cape Town, which is an amazing city).
The living expenses are a bit lower than in the Netherlands (more or less 20%) and going out for dinner
is in comparison really cheap and a good way to try the typical South-African kitchen, which meanly
consist out of big pieces of meat from the grill. The accommodation offered by the university cost
around 300 euro’s a month, which is almost twice as expensive as a regular accommodation in Pretoria.
If you want to save money than this is the easiest way to do it. Study material is more or less the same
price as in the Netherlands, but you don’t need to buy the books, because you can copy the parts you
need really easily and cheap in the library.
There are several opportunities to take part in social activities like conventions, trainings and an
international day, which are really interesting and a good way to meet local students. I participated in a
leadership training, where I had to work together with 8 local students for an entire day. This was a
great opportunity to promote the University of Tilburg and to learn something more about the SouthAfrican culture.
It is really difficult to say something about the South-African culture because of all the different groups
living in this country, for example South-Africa has eleven official languages. But the main differences I
experienced with the Dutch culture are that family and religion are more important to all the ethnic
groups as they are for us. I didn’t really felt a culture shock, but there are some things you have to adjust
to, like the fact that everything goes a bit slower and that it is not safe to walk around after sunset on
your own. Although South-Africa has 11 official languages I didn’t experience any problem with it,
because everyone speaks English over there and all the lectures are in English.
Going on exchange broadens your view about the world and helps you to learn more about different
cultures. For me personally it confirmed my feeling that I want to work in another country to meet new
people and to experience new cultures. I think that this semester abroad helps me to fulfill my desire,
because organizations see that you can adapt to another culture when you spend a semester abroad.
The thing I would never forget is that I met so many new people, who I now can call my friends, from all
over the world. Luckily I didn’t experience a lot of bad things, but I met a lot of people that got robbed.
This can happen but I think you have to place this in perspective and keep on to the positive memories.
Academic information
The University of Tilburg offers the opportunity to stay a semester abroad without any study delay by
following some courses that substitute courses of my cohort. This is the reason why I took three courses
called Industrial and Organisational psychology (which is a second year and a third year course) and
social psychology, these courses fit really well in my study Human Resource management. These courses
are really theoretical and can be a bit boring. I took, beside these three courses, the course International
Relations. This course gives insight in the Foreign Policy of South-Africa and especially on its relation
with the rest of Africa. I would highly recommend this course because it is a highly interactive course
consisting out of writing a paper about the relation of country with the United Nations and a simulation
of an United Nations security council convention. These two practical parts help you to really get
involved in the topic and gave me the opportunity to learn something about a topic were I didn’t know
anything about.
Course
BDO 229 Industrial
And Organisational
Psychology
Prerequisites
None
Exam
Written
ECTS
6,4
BDO 329 Industrial
And Organisational
Psychology
None
Written
8
SLK 220 Social
Psychology
None
Comments
2 Mid-terms, a paper
and weekly multiple
choice tests, very
theoretical
2 Mid-terms, very
theoretical
Written
8
3 Mid-terms from which
one is multiple choice,
very theoretical
IPL 220 International
Relations
None
Written
8
1 paper, 1 debate (UN
Security Council
convention), nice
combination between
practical and theoretical
The course I took while on exchange
The level of the courses are more or less the same as the courses in Tilburg, except that they focus more
on theory and knowing everything exactly by hard instead of showing that you understand the topic and
that you can apply the theory on new situations. The exams mostly consist out of open questions and
you have three hours to complete them. I really liked the professors at the University of Pretoria. They
are really nice and willing to help, especially if you tell them that you are an exchange student.
The university has a big library, where you can study and look things up. They have a big online database
with all the papers a books you need, although it is sometimes difficult to excess it, because of the bad
internet connection.
Tips
Definitely try to go on exchange! It is a lifetime experience and it gives you the opportunity to see
something of the world. I travelled around Africa after the semester for a month and I would highly
recommend this as well. But the most important tip I have is: don’t worry about something. It happens
that things go different than you expect them to go, but just let it happen and try to adapt to the hosting
country.