Application process:
The application process was quick and easy. MicroEDU gave me great advice and after a short time I had all the documents together. The acceptance came very quickly.
Personally, I would rate the study conditions as relatively good. The DBS buildings are located directly in the city center, which is great, especially in the warmer months, as you can sit in the park between lectures or just go shopping.
What was pretty negative was the air conditioning in the lecture rooms. These were set very cold in summer / autumn and often could not be displayed. In addition, it was not possible to open the windows in many rooms, so that you could not even get the “warmth” from outside. In the first few weeks, most of the exchange students got sick.
The DBS employees were all very hard-working and helpful. There was a lot of confusion and disorganization, but this was pushed into the background by the friendliness of the staff. Even after my stay, I received help with any questions I had. Little works right away, but in retrospect everything fits. Read more student reviews on Liuxers.
But of course you shouldn’t forget that it is a private university and that we all pay 2500 € for the semester. Good supervision of the students should also be a matter of course. Nevertheless, I was very surprised by the friendliness.
Course content:
The courses I took were: Global Business Environment, Business Strategy, Human Resource Management, Project Planning Techniques, Issues in Leisure and Recreation, Event Planning.
In four of these six courses, I only had to submit a group assignment. A group presentation also had to be given for the Project Planning Techniques course. The Event Planning course is completely out of the ordinary. Here we organized an event in a group of five people. The aim of this event was to raise as much money as possible for a charity. In addition, written documentation and plans had to be submitted. This was relatively a lot of effort, but it was also more fun than just working theoretically.
As far as I was aware, there was no compulsory attendance for us Bachelor students. At the end of the day, I used my time more to get to know Ireland better instead of going to university. This was particularly possible because we exchange students who only spent one semester at the DBS did not have to write any exams and so the lecture content was often not relevant for the grades. For the assignments, citations from Wikipedia were recommended (!) And advertised as particularly good. This took some getting used to for the exchange students, but it also enabled us to achieve very good grades with extremely little effort.
With some lecturers, I had the feeling that they had very little specialist knowledge. Some have also taught in a wide variety of specialist areas. Here you had the feeling that no area was really covered so competently. The level of the courses was generally quite low. What is discussed in a lecture at the university in Germany sometimes takes a semester of its own at the DBS. While the Irish groaned about the workload, we Germans often just wondered. It is probably exactly the right thing to do for a semester abroad, but I couldn’t imagine studying a full course at DBS.
The grade conversion systems at German universities are very much to our advantage. I completed 36 ECTS and have traveled a lot. It’s not that easy in Germany. The 36 ECTS were also credited to me as 35 ECTS at the University of Paderborn (we only have 5 or 10 modules). The grades from Ireland have pulled my average up extremely.
Reside:
Despite all the warnings, I rented a room in a shared apartment in advance and transferred part of the deposit in advance. I found the apartment on daft.ie and was shown to me by the landlady via Skype. I also found out about my landlady on the Internet. This was possible because she could be found on the Internet in different ways due to her job and when I saw her “in person” on Skype, I was convinced and negotiated with her to reserve the room for part of the deposit. The room cost € 700 warm and with internet. This wasn’t a bargain, but due to its downtown location in Temple Bar, it was perfect.
Many only looked for their room on site and most found what they were looking for within the first two weeks. However, there were also a few exchange students who looked for a room for a month or two. This risk was too great for me. Four months is too short a time to waste looking for an apartment.
I would choose my apartment and this route again and again, but I was probably also very lucky. If you don’t want to take any risks, but don’t want to search on site either, you can try to get a place in a dormitory, for example. In this case, prepayment is no longer a risk. For example, many of my fellow students lived in the Griffith Hall of Residence.
Life:
Most of all, life in Dublin is expensive. Regardless of whether it’s food, living or going out. The pint of beer costs 6 € and the burger with fries in the pub 15 €. But like everywhere in the world there are more expensive and less expensive shops. For example, you can shop very well at Lidl and Aldi instead of going to Dunnes or Tesco. When going out, you should avoid the tourist areas and just take a look a bit from the side, then the prices will be more humane again.
What I found a shame was that we were so many Germans. By coincidence (!) We were already five exchange students at the airport in Düsseldorf, all of whom wanted to go to the DBS in Dublin. This was great, especially in the first few days, because you weren’t alone and immediately started exploring the city together. We were all of the opinion that once we started university, we would still get to know enough locals. However, this was not easy. In some courses we were only speaking German, so of course German was also spoken in the group work. Some even lived in German-speaking flat shares, so that they hardly spoke any English. However, if you make an effort to get to know locals, you can of course also do this in your leisure time.
Leisure activities:
Dublin offers endless possibilities to spend your free time interesting. What I really liked, for example, was a tour of the “Government Buildings”. Here we were in the office of the Taoiseach, the Irish Prime Minister. We took this tour at the very beginning of our stay. Here I slowly noticed that the Irish are really very easy-going. We were able to move freely in the office and look at everything in peace. I was very impressed, as this was possible without prior registration and personal verification.
There are many beautiful coastal towns within half an hour of Dublin. The trip with the dart costs about 6 € there and back. I liked Howth best. A small peninsula above Dublin with great hiking trails along the steep coast. The fish restaurants here are ridiculously expensive, but there are also numerous fish’n’chip shops that are reasonably priced.
If you want to go further afield, I can actually recommend the entire west coast. With the Éireann bus you can get there and back almost anywhere for around € 20. Galway is a great starting point for exploring the ABCs of the West Coast. Aran Islands, Burren with the Cliffs of Moher and Connemara National Park. The Dingle Pensinsula is also worth a trip. Here I would recommend a rental car to have the opportunity to stop wherever you like. And even if you only have your own car, you can drive directly to Inch Beach in the south-west of Ireland. Really cool.
Northern Ireland is also easy to get to due to its geographic location. Belfast, for example, is a city steeped in history and very interesting. The Titanic Museum was my personal highlight. The conflict areas in Belfast, on the other hand, were very depressing. Otherwise the city doesn’t have much to offer. Personally, I didn’t find the Giant’s Causeway in Northern Ireland so spectacular, but probably only because the Irish west coast is so unbeatable.
For under € 30 I flew to England with Ryanair during Reading Week in November. I don’t think it’s that cheap from Germany. London, Birmingham, Edinburgh and co. can all be reached so cheaply with Ryanair.
Conclusion:
This semester was an incredibly beautiful experience for me. To be completely on my own and to organize my everyday life away from home was fun and made me much more independent. Now, 2.5 months after my semester abroad, I would like to go back to Ireland. I miss the great landscape, the coasts and the people I met.
