Field of study in Wageningen: Bachelor Plant Sciences
Study period exchange: 05/01/2024 – 25/04/2024
Country (exchange): France
City (exchange): Beauvais
University (exchange): UniLaSalle Beauvais
2. Motivation for exchange
Why did you choose to go on study exchange?
I wanted to learn French, and experience a new things.
What is the reason you chose for this country?
They speak French in France. I wanted to know this culture more because of my mothers French background.
What is the reason you chose for this university?
It’s small. I wanted to make close friends. That’s easier when you have to see each other a lot. Due to there not being a lot of people.
3. Accessibility to reach destination
Do you have any advice about reaching your exchange destination?
Go by car, or take the train from Paris and then the bus from Beauvais hotel de ville. From Wageningen I think it’s only 5 hours by car. That’s easier.
4. University and studying
Could you provide some general information about the followed courses?
I had sufficient possibilities to select suitable courses that were taught in English:
Yes, I had only one possibility. And that was plant breeding programme or not. This programme was completely in English. I also had the possibility to do an extra course 2 weeks after the plant breeding programme. But I didn’t do that. Since two weeks of nothing is boring, when all your classmates are gone already.
I had sufficient possibilities to select suitable courses in my field of interest:
Yes, I had the possibility to do plant breeding which is in my field of interest.
I am satisfied with the level of the courses that I followed:
Yes, I made friends and experienced another life.
I am satisfied, in the end, with the selection of courses I followed:
Honestly, bad structured programme. Half of the time I didn’t know in which course I was sitting.
What is it like to study there?
I heard first semester of plant breeding is hard. But my second semester had an easy workload. Which was perfect. As a Wageningen student at plant breeding in Beauvais, you are not there to learn academically (2024).
What is the culture of the university?
Well, Plant breeding is the only programme with a lot of internationals. The culture in this class is different than the rest of this university. In my class teachers were approachable. But my roommate, who is in another class, was once 30 seconds late for a presentation. He had to do the last part of the presentation. The teacher told him he would get half his grade, she would have given without him being late. There was arguing about it. He failed this class with an 8 out of 20. No one to go to change this. One teacher is often the head of the whole course in this university. They have the power over your grades. If the teacher is bad, and he or she doesn’t like you. You have a problem.
But my roommate did his whole masters there. Teachers are more kind towards exchange students.
What does the university offer students additionally?
American movie style events. Sports laundry. I didn’t attend a lot. But there is a lot of possibilities. I personally discovered my love for cooking in the international kitchen of BOIS J. But I regret not learning about bee keeping in the apiculture club. I discovered this club way too late.
5. Housing-traveling-living
What are the possibilities for housing?
Room on campus in the international building “Bois J”. Living on your own was 540 euro’s per month in 2024. With a roommate it was around 330 euro’s. Try living with a roommate! I enjoyed. I met someone who found her own room in Beauvais centre. But she did not like it at all. She had to take the bus early in the morning to go to school. It was hard for her to make friends.
What is the culture like?
In the Netherlands, if we feel emotions. We tend to express them smaller than they actually are. Or at least I did.
In France, expressing your emotions bigger than you feel them is considered as humour. A lot of people see that you theatrically make a big deal out. And lough about it.
>Classmate tells a story when other classmate interrupts suddenly<
“AAH, mais REGARDE TES BASKETTES?? T’es fou!”
“arrete de pleurer, … goes on with story without stopping her flow of thoughts in her story”
In the Netherlands you have to be good friends for conversations like this. In France, I feel like this would happen with just fellow students that aren’t friends.
Could you give some information about public transport infrastructure?
Bus to the city centre. It’s only one euro per day. It’s good except for Sundays. Then they only go once every 2 hours. But the bus takes 25 minutes. And it’s a 7 minute walk from the international building of BOIS J. And then it’s 20 more minutes of walking to get in the big hypermarché of Leclerc.
6. Expenses
Can you give an indication of your expenses for/during your exchange?
The price levels were in general [higher; lower; equal] in comparison to in the Netherlands:
Equal. Small things differ.
I noticed cheese and wine are less expensive. But wraps are more expensive.
7. Free time
What are must-sees in the area?
Castle of Pierrefond. If you have a friend with a car. I also enjoyed Chantilly castle but it I only saw the garden as it is super expensive to enter (like 25 euros or something). The Garden was 7 euros and okay. But not as magical as Pierrefond. Go on a beautiful day to pierrefond.
What does not appear in a travel guide, but is definitely worth seeing/doing?
Walk in the forest next to the campus. Walk around the lake. And walk in the forest you can see on the other side of the valley, from the viewpoint from campus.
Only fun if you like walking in nature. As a city boy, I really enjoyed that.
8. Challenges & best moment abroad
Any challenges? How did you deal with them?
1) Academic level is really low. You can pass everything except Relational Database, without real effort. Be interested in learning social skills.
2) The long trip to the supermarket. Make it a thing you do with friends. It really takes more than 2.5 hours by public transport. Or make a friend with a car.
Best memory?
Getting close with my roommate. We really became good friends. Example:
I remember making a sharp but good comment to another friend. The friend didn’t hear it so he asked “what?”. I replied with “nothing”. My roommate knew I would feel insecure making those kind of comments. So he said “No, say again”. These small helping comments made by a good friend made me less shy and really secure about myself.
8. Contact Details
Would you like to ask Ivo more questions about his exchange?
Send him a mail: ivovanbracht@icloud.com