Application process
The application process went very smoothly for me. I applied to Griffith College Dublin for the 2013/14 winter semester at the beginning of the 2013/14 summer semester and received my acceptance within a month. If I had any questions about the application process, I could always get in touch with the MicroEDU Team, and they always gave me an answer very quickly. The MicroEDU GmbH homepage also describes exactly which documents are required for the application.
Course registration
At my home university, the Friedrich-Alexander University Erlangen-Nuremberg, I am studying business administration. There I had to have learning agreements drawn up so that the courses at my host university could be credited to me. At my home university it was no problem to get the learning agreements. I have had learning agreements drawn up for courses in the second and third year for business studies as well as for finance and accounting modules. In the first two weeks of lectures you had the opportunity to look at all of the lectures. Then you had to decide on the desired courses, if there were overlapping subjects there was the possibility of attending evening courses. I then sign up for Strategic Financial Management, Management Accounting and International Marketing decided, whereby there were 10 credit points for Strategic Financial Management and 5 for the others. I also took English courses voluntarily, as far as time was possible. According to AbbreviationFinder.org, GCD is the abbreviation of Griffith College Dublin.
Studies
In general, one can say that the proportion of Irish students at Griffith College is very low and that it is very multicultural. Many exchange students study at Griffith College Dublin, mainly from Germany and France. I didn’t like the high proportion of German students at Griffith College because I actually wanted to avoid speaking a lot of German when I was abroad. In addition to exchange students, a large number of Asians also study at Griffith College, most of whom are studying finance and accounting. The Chinese students only deal with Chinese, but the students from Malaysia also approach the European exchange students.
Studying in Ireland is also very different from studying as I am used to at my university in Germany. While more than 200 students can be present in a lecture at my home university in Germany, a lecture at Griffith College has a maximum of 50 students. And active participation is the order of the day in the lectures as well as in the tutorials, for example in the Management Accounting lecture you should work on the “Lifo” task within 25 minutes and in each module you have to submit an assignment between 20 and 50% of the final grade. To sum it up: Studying at Griffith College Dublin is more like school and in terms of level not more demanding than in Germany, rather easier.
On-site support
The university also has a library, of course, which is quite small compared to the one at my university. Nevertheless, I always found enough reading for my assignments there. The library also has places for studying with sockets (you need an adapter), for connecting laptops and computers. However, there is also an extra building with computer rooms on the campus. The campus also has the Arthurs Restaurant, which, considering the prices, is not a cafeteria, but a restaurant. For a burger with fries and a drink you have to expect 6 €. On campus there is also a dormitory, the Halls of Residence, where I was also staying, as well as the Student Union. In the Student Union building there is a room on the ground floor with tables and microwaves for warming up food that you have brought with you. On the first floor a room with pool tables. And in the basement there are two large flat screens for playing X-Box and Playstation and a table tennis table. Consequently The Student Union building is the ideal place to hang out when you have a free period or live in a dormitory and you’re bored, as the SU is usually open until 9 a.m. during the week. In addition, the SU also organizes parties, excursions, clubs and societies. At the clubs there are pretty much all common sports, but also fencing and the typical national sport, rugby, for example. However, a certain level is sometimes required for the clubs, as Griffith College is represented with its clubs in a college league. So at the beginning you had to prove your skills on the trails. In popular sports such as football, for example, with over 50 applicants and 20 places, it was very difficult to get into the team, especially if you were only there for six months. The societies, on the other hand, were more for leisure activities. There was a paintball, beer pong, poker, drama, yoga, debating, photography, radio and movie & film society among others. I myself was at the Beer Pong Society, which I liked very much there,
Accommodation search
Since I didn’t want to have the stress of living in a hostel at the beginning of my stay abroad and looking for an apartment, I have the dormitory right on campus as my accommodation chosen. The apartments in the dormitory usually consist of two sharerooms for two people and a communal kitchen with living room. When I applied for a place in the dormitory, I stated that I did not want to live with a German, preferably someone who had English as his mother tongue. So I got a Ukrainian as a roommate and a French and an Indian as a flatmate, all of whom spoke English very well. Of course, the dormitory is more expensive, because you pay exactly as much for a double room as in a shared apartment for a single room and you have to adhere to the rules in the dormitory, for example house parties longer than 11 p.m. are taboo. But you get to know a lot of people very quickly, even if again a lot of Germans and you are right in the university.
Leisure and excursion possibilities
In terms of nightlife, Dublin is the capital of Ireland, and rightly so. In the Temple Bar Area there are louder pubs with live music next to each other, but very touristy. Camden Street is more for the more authentic pubs and discos. The prices for a pint of Guinness are around 5 – 6 €, the closer to the Temple Bar area, the more expensive. The first thing to do when you arrive in Dublin is to see Trinity College, Oconnell Street, the Old Jameson Destillery (if you like whiskey) and the Guinness Storehouse. Excursions nearby, which should be taken when the weather is nice, are Howth, a small fishing village and Glendalough, a national park with a beautiful landscape consisting of lakes, mountains and forests. At the time, the SU also offered a discovery trip to Western Ireland.
General information and tips
For example, it is very useful to get an adapter before flying to Ireland, as the sockets are very different there. Adapters are also available in every shop. Services are not as good in Ireland as they are here, for example it can often happen that you get too much or too little out in a pub. Groceries are much more expensive at Spar or Tesco than at Lidl and Aldi, which are also available in Ireland. After 10 p.m. you can no longer buy alcohol in the shops. Irish are often drunk, but friendly and helpful. The Irish have a very heavy accent that is very difficult to understand at first. However, the professors at Griffith College are fairly easy to understand.
