Hello everyone,
Since my last article, it has been a month since I arrived in Pilsen for my Erasmus program.
Today I will talk about the life of a student in Czechia, including my university, a typical day, courses, the canteen, and more.
So, let’s start!
Varied Courses
First of all, I would say that university life is quite similar to France. Each course is divided into different sectors (Applied Sciences, Arts, Economics, Education, Electrical Engineering, Health Care Studies, Law, Mechanical Engineering, Design and Art, Language Studies and Physical education and sport). A student can choose different courses in each sector. I met someone who chose some courses in computer science and others in economics.
Applied Sciences Faculty
Each course is identified by two IDs: one for the sector department and another for the specific course, for example, KMA/TSI (KMA for the Mathematics department and TSI for Network Theory)
So, each student chooses their courses and then gets their timetable, but some courses can overlap, so we have to work it out with the teacher or change the course, I think it’s little bit disorganized.
A course can have multiple teachers, several sessions per week, and last anywhere from 1 to 5 hours. Classes can begin at 7:30 a.m. and end as late as 9:00 p.m. (based on my own courses, and what someone told me). After that, the teacher decides if we take a break or finish early, and each teacher manages the course as they want.
Some Short Breaks
Between long courses, we have big breaks where we can, for example, have lunch or just go to the library, which has a little coworking space.
The canteen is open for everyone from 10:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m., we can pay by student card (which you need to load at the university cash desk) or with other payment methods. The price for a meal ranges from 2.40 to 7.99 euros, depending on what you choose. You have to pay for each part of your dish, even the drink! (Like I said in my last article: beer at the canteen ??).
After asking some Czech students, there aren’t a lot of them who eat in the canteen. Some of them bring their own food, as there are microwaves and other facilities in cafeteria-type rooms (for them, the canteen is not very popular, plus some of them have course during the lunch)
But fortunately, there's also a self-service shop in the middle of the university, where you can buy beer just like a real Czech!
This is the end of my article, so thank you for reading it, and I hope you enjoyed hearing about my first impressions of Pilsen.