Name: Willem van Veggel
E-mail: w.a.m.vanveggel@tilburguniversity.edu
Exchange semester: Fall 2014
Acadamic year: 3
Host University: University of Edinburgh
Country: Scotland
Admission, arrival, housing
Because I didn’t want any trouble with finding housing, I had subscribed in advance for the university accommodation. I was kind of lucky that I was granted a room, because most of exchange student don’t get one. Before I moved into my room, I travelled for one week across Scotland with my motorbike. I travelled via Duinkerke to Dover by boat, and drove all the way up the Edinburgh. After that week I got my key at the first day of the Freshers’ Week. I was actually quite surprised that I went that easy. Everything was arranged and I could start partying immediately. The room was quite small, but I didn’t care, because I was always studying or drinking.
Location of university/city
The University of Edinburgh is just wonderful. Especially the Law School; it’s such beautiful building.
The buildings are sort of in the city centre, and most of them are quite close to all the University
Accommodations. I lived at Sciennes, which is next to Meadows Park, a big park next to the city centre.
I recommend everyone to visit as many pubs and bars as you can, cause it’s so different than we are used to in Holland. We have a sort of “drinking and loud music” mentality in bars, which mostly isn’t the case in Edinburgh. Every bar has its own vibe and atmosphere which is really surprising.
Every Saturday I played football at Meadows. This was organised by some guys from my accommodation, but there are a lot of websites like meetup.com where people can join activities held in Meadows.
Academics
I took 3 courses of 10 ECTS each: Introduction to Criminology, Scottish Legal System and Origin of
Modern Commerce (honours course). I was advised not to take more than one honours course, although it was mandatory by the rules of TiU. Luckily I was granted to change it to one honours course.
I would definitely recommend Scottish Legal System and Introduction to Criminology. The courses are very well organised and the lectures are very professional and well prepared. One of the biggest advantages of Edinburgh Uni in comparison to TiU is that every lecture is recorded on video
(automatically). I always attended to the lectures, but it was handy for preparing the exam, because you can check important topics again.
The average level of the University isn’t very different to TiU, maybe a little bit higher. The biggest difference (and then you really notice that Edinburgh Uni is the number 15 th of the world) is the motivation of the average student. People still party, but they are very keen on studying. You get enthusiastic and motivated yourself too, so I have been studying a lot in Edinburgh.
Social life

The EUSA society organises tons of activities, so you won’t be bored. There are like hundreds of student societies and associations, way more than in Tilburg. On the biggest Uni campus is Teviot and
Potorrow. The first one is a beautiful big building with a lot of different bars in it, and the second one is more like a club. It’s all owned by the University and run by EUSA.
During the first weeks I attended to all sorts of activities of different societies to find out with I liked.
Living costs
The living costs are a bit higher than in Holland, especially because Edinburgh is an expensive city, and because of the high exchange rate of the pound. I think I spend a lot of money on food and going out for dinner, and beers of course. Monthly I spent like 300-400 pounds next to the rent. I think that was like 400 pounds a month too.
Culture
I didn’t really experience a culture shock, but it’s not the same as in Holland. Dutch people just say what they think, and I experienced some awkward moments because of this. I found out that there’s a sort of universal way of communicating with people, since there were so many people from all around the world. This basically means just being nice, and regarding to Canadian, UK and US people being nice AND overenthusiastic, in a way we are not used to. But I found out that it helps me in
Holland too, even though Dutch people don’t really like overenthusiastic people.
Tips for future students
I would definitely recommend an exchange period. It quite cliché, but I’ve changed in positive way. I think the best tip is to be open-minded and try to be as outgoing as you can be, even though you maybe aren’t. This helped me at least to get to know a lot of people. After a while (1 month) this starts to get harder since you get used to the environment, but I recommend you not to lose the attitude.