A student from De Montfort University Leicester (DMU) says spending 12 months in Amsterdam as part of his studies turned out to be one of the best years of his life.
Tim Katsarelis, who has just started his final year on the Arts and Festivals Management course at DMU, travelled to Amsterdam to study at Inholland University of Applied Sciences for the 2017/18 academic year, after joining the Erasmus+ programme run by #DMUglobal.
The programme is co-funded by the European Union and supports students so they can study or work abroad for up to one year.
The next round of applications for students to apply to go overseas in 2019-20 is now open and Tim has urged fellow students to get involved. Second year undergraduate students are eligible to apply and will spend a year abroad, then return to DMU to complete their final year of studies.
Tim said: “I first heard about #DMUglobal when I was at a university Open Day. I had always wanted to do things abroad and, in the end, it was one of the main reasons why I chose to come to DMU. It turns out that Erasmus+ gave me the best year of my life so far.”
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Tim was based in Diemen Zuid in the south of Amsterdam and was one of only two British students in his group.
He said: “We were with other Erasmus students from all over and so we were mixing with different cultures all the time. Every single day I was meeting someone from a different part of the world.
“I really enjoyed the courses I studied. Half a year was Events and Imagineering and the second half was Tourism Destination Development, which offered a more practical way of working compared to what I was used to. One of the highlights was working in Morocco as part of my course at Inholland.
“At the beginning it can be hard being in a different country with no friends but you get through it. The university was so supportive and really helped.
“You end up making friends from all over the world, you learn something new each day and I think I now have better job prospects. It was really amazing. I learned so much. I really feel I have grown as a person.”
Applications for Erasmus+, through #DMUglobal, opened on Monday October 29.
For more details and to organise a chat, email erasmus@dmu.ac.uk call 0116 257 7613, or visit the team in Portland 0.37 between 9am and 12pm Monday to Thursday.
Posted on Tuesday 30 October 2018