Studiengang-Verzeichnis

Hi everyone,

I studied 2 semesters at this university and I would like to inform all international students about my incredible experiences:

As I am an international student, not speaking German at all I wanted to take a program in English. The university (Hochschule Rhein Waal) took a great afford in advertising their programs, 80% taught in English, throughout Asia. The registration and so on was no problem. However, I didn't receive much help in finding a suitable accommodation. It is hereby worth to mention that both cities in which the university has facilities are not that big and not many rooms are available for students. The accommodation help serviced offered by the university was rather poor and not really helpful. Moreover, the friendliness of the staff could be improved.

The start of the program (energy and environment B.Sc.) was okay, not hilarious as not that well organized. We had three days per week where we had lectures and then additionally compulsory practicals on Mondays and Fridays. Those were usually quite good and really interesting. Besides math where we had a horrible lecturer (can happen!), the modules in the first semester were quite nice, had a good structure and so on.

In the second semester everything changed from good to bad. And I am not exaggerating. First of all the English of the lectures changed. Two of my five lectures couldn't speak English at all. Luckily I had a German students sitting right beside me who had been studying a year abroad and could therefore translate everything to me as far as he could interpret what was said by the lecturer. Even he said that he had great difficulties in understanding them. Then there were other lecturers who just switched into German when they had no idea how to explain it. They completely ignored us although we complained several times. However, what was staggering me the most was that most of the lecturers I had hadn't been studied the subject they were teaching. As an example: I had math by a biologist, engineering by a chemist and so on.... From previous semesters I have heard that this hadn't been the case before but that this will not change in a positive way throughout the next semester. (It will just get worse as one from the fourth semester told me!). Due to that development one can expect that not much will be taught during the lectures as they of course felt unwell as they had no experience and knowledge in those subjects.
It might be worse to mention that during this semester a lot of students, especially the German ones left university. There was one German student who was unhappy with the whole situation as he had already changed university once and now faced an even worse studying situation. From what he told me I felt even more unsure about staying at this university. First, he told me that he had consulted two of the lecturers in modules where we certainly hadn't learned anything so far. The answers to his questions and even his ideas he tried to transfer weren't heard. Instead he told me that the lecturers defended themselves straight from the beginning, not even listening to what he had to say. This was really ridiculous as the lecturers always said that they wanted to have a feedback. Well, here they got it and nothing changed.

My conclusion for all German and international students: DON'T STUDY AT THIS UNIVERSITY! Although I don't know how the other programs are taught, I heard similar stuff about their lecturers and that many students had left between the first and fourth semester. This university does not have an international focus, as it is always advertised and they definitely don't have good English lectures. I will certainly go back to India when I have finished this semester. I thought Germany had a good reputation but what I have experienced so far, I am certainly disenchanted!