Two fourth year ISSA students, Ana Santos and Andrea Ayestarán, shared their experiences during the months of exchange last year at universities in Belgium and Finland. 

How was their relationship with the professors and students, the places they visited, how was the methodology and the teaching in those universities, the practical sessions or the visits to companies, etc. These were some of the experiences that they wanted to share with those attending the roundtable that was held last Tuesday, October 27, during an information session on exchanges for students of the School.  

This year students who want to go to exchange will be able to choose from 50 universities in 16 countries. 

Ana Santos, from Navarra, took her second semester third year at Artevelde Hogeschool Gent, a university in Ghent, Belgium. "The enriching thing about going to exchange is learning different things," she said. "In the classes, the interaction between the teacher and student is continuous and they relate the syllabus to your day-to-day life. Everything I taught there, now in the fourth grade, is helping me a lot. Everything we say at class is already familiar to me".

Ana described a university with new and modern facilities and also highlighted the close attention with the professors. "When we passed each other in the hallways, they would ask me how I was doing. My advisor would invite me to lunch at her house or to a café, just like here," she added. 

He also pointed out that a large part of the methodology was internship: "We made many visits to companies. In one subject we had to organize a workshop for the United Nations and every week speakers came to give talks. I had to leave just when they confined Spain and continue the teaching online, but I don't regret it. I feel I learned a lot.

Andrea Ayestarán's exchange from San Sebastian, took her to Finland. She studied at Haaga Helia University in Helsinki. "Finland was a place I hadn't considered, but then I saw subjects I liked and that it was a prestigious university. I realized that going to Finland was a unique experience. It was then or never," she said. During her exchange, Andrea had the opportunity to do things she never would have imagined: "I saw the Northern Lights, took a Wayside Cross to Stockholm, and visited Russia, Denmark, and Poland," she recalled. One of the aspects Andrea values most about her months at exchange was learning English. "I got to learn so much that I was even thinking in English. When it came to writing and speaking, it became much easier and it came more naturally to me, whereas before it was very difficult". And as for model from teaching, he recalled the classes at the Finnish university as eminently practical: "In Finland everything is practical. I had a subject where we were sent to a company to organize one of their events".