The effort for organizing my exchange term in Edinburgh was comparably low and I had a lot of help from the representatives at KI as well as Edinburgh. The first thing that needed to be done was of course to apply for the exchange studies at KI. After getting nominated I received an unconditional offer from the University of Edinburgh that needed to be signed and sent back to Edinburgh. Afterwards, I needed to choose some courses, which was a little bit more complicated, since some courses in Edinburgh cannot be chosen by exchange students, some are running only in spring term (I was going there in fall) and some are offered in fall but examined in spring. However, with a lot of help from Paul McGuire, the main responsible for exchange students from KI in Edinburgh, I managed to find 2 suitable courses, which were on my level (4th year undergraduate or post-graduate courses) and which were held as well as examined in the fall term. Since I was going to Edinburgh in the 3rd term of the Biomedicine Master program, I needed to find a research project additionally to the 2 courses. This was comparably easy, since the first lab I contacted was interested in taking me for the project.

I decided to search for a flat as soon as I would be there, since every landlord or flatshare I contacted in advance wanted to meet me before renting out a room. During the first day I could stay with a friend, which enabled me to search for a flat once I was in Edinburgh. For everyone else I would also recommend to search after arriving in Edinburgh, even if this means staying in a hostel for a few days. I did not need to arrange a visa or extra insurance, since I am an EU citizen and was insured by KI as well as my health insurance from Germany.

I arrived in Edinburgh one week before my courses started in order to be able to search for an accommodation. However, I recommend everyone to arrive in Edinburgh earlier, if possible, since the week before course start is the so called Fresher's week in Edinburgh, where every society and club at the University present themself. This gives you the possibility to try a lot of different activities, meet people and party a little bit before starting to study. Unfortunately, I could not join most of the events, since I was busy with flat hunting and I had already started with the project in my lab, but I heard from friends who were participating in several activities that they had a lot of fun and I regret a lot that I could not join for this exciting experience.

The flight I booked was very cheap, since I was flying with Ryanair. Also, it was very convenient, since Ryanair is using the main airport in Edinburgh and not a small one outside the city like in Stockholm. Thus, getting from the airport to the city was very easy and cheap using the coaches provided by Airlink, which leave to the city every 10min. However, the coaches are paid cash, which means that you will have to change money beforehand or withdraw it at the airport.

The registration at the University was very easy and fast, since the registration service is open every day during the Fresher's week. All it took was to bring the Unconditional offer and take a picture at the registration office, which was printed on the student card that was received immediately. This card was very useful in order to use the library, University gym and get discounts in several restaurants, pubs, and cafes and for the public transportation.

The currency in Edinburgh is the Scottish pound (which is the same as the British, even if it looks a bit different from the notes you would get in England). The living expenses were similar to Stockholm, especially since the flat I was living in was comparably cheap (300 pounds for a room per month, but we also had to pay some additional bills when we moved out). I know from many people though that flats can be quite expensive. However, food is usually cheaper than in Stockholm, especially when going out for dinner etc. The same is true for drinks. Additionally, the clubs at the University offer all kind of sports and other activities such as dinner clubs, movie nights etc. You mostly just have to pay around 5 pounds per semester, which makes this aspect leisure time quite cheap. Also, a lot of restaurants and cafes have student offers. Something that surprised me was that busses have to be paid in cash without getting change back, which means that you have to have the exact amount of money unless you don't want to overpay every time you want to use the bus. Of course buying a monthly card is an alternative that resolves this problem.

It is not as hard to find a room in Edinburgh as in Stockholm, but I would say it is still not easy, especially when coming to Edinburgh for the fall term. The University does not guarantee you any accommodation if you are only staying for 1 term. Also, the student accommodation is quite expensive and the rooms you can get without standing in a queue are mostly catered, which makes them even more expensive. Thus, I decided not to apply for student accommodation, but to search in the private sector. However, at one point I was kind of desperate and asked whether rooms were still available and they were not anymore at that time point. Thus, I would recommend applying at the student accommodation center as soon as you get nominated to go for the exchange if you want to live in one of these student accommodations. When you decide to search on the private market, there are 2 main problems: 1. In the beginning of the fall term everyone is searching, so the competition is quite high and you can end up visiting a room with 30 other students. 2. If you are only staying for 3 months as I did, landlords or flatshares won't favor you. To rent an apartment on your own you mostly have to sign 6 months contracts and flatshares are mostly too lazy to search for a new tenant after 3 months. Thus, there are only 3 possibilities: 1. You rent an expensive room/apartment that most students cannot afford. In case you want to rent your own apartment, you can do that through an agency, since they are also renting short-term, but it's of course quite expensive. 2. You can rent a room far out in the city, which has a reasonable price but is not very central. 3. You are lucky and find a room through friends or rented out by somebody who is going on exchange for 3 months himself.

The 3rd point was true for me. I and a friend, who was also an exchange student from KI, got to rent an apartment through a friend. Thus, we could rent it for only 3 months and we could get it for a quite reasonable price. Also, it was very central in the student area just south of the Meadow Park and we could search for a 3rd tenant ourselves (where we also had at least 30 people who were interested to point out the situation one more time). Some people are very lucky, as us, and find a room within a few days, but I also heard of people staying in hostels for some weeks because they could not find anything. However, all the exchange students I got to know found something in the end and nobody had to sleep under the bridge. My advice is to contact everybody you know, starting from the responsible person for your studies in Edinburgh to people in your future lab, and to ask them for help. You have better chances and less competition in that way. If this is not possible, the webpage gumtree (www.gumtree.com) is the place to search for accommodation. It is comparable to blocket and it is also the medium I used before we got the flat through our friend. Also, there are several exchange students who get together through facebook (just join Ersmus/exhange student groups in Edinburgh) and search for flats together in order to create their own flatshare. As I already mentioned before, this might be quite difficult for people staying only for 3 months though...

I went to Edinburgh during the 3rd semester of my Biomedicine Master studies at KI. At KI I would have attended courses belonging to an elective track of my choice (9 credits), Biomedical communication 3 (2.5 credits) and a research project (16 credits).

The Biomedical communication course could be taken as a long distance course. We got all the information needed via E-mail as well as the course material. As far as I am concerned and as I heard from friends, there were no problems in following the course and completing the course assignment being abroad.

For the elective track courses I had to choose equivalent courses at the University of Edinburgh. I chose some courses that suited the elective track that I would have chosen if I stayed at KI and that matched my interests. Since the credits given at the University of Edinburgh are not ECTS credits, you have to divide the credits you receive in Edinburgh by 2 in order to transform them to ECTS. Thus I had to take two 10-credit courses in order to fulfill the requirements for the 9 credit elective courses at KI. The webpage of the University of Edinburgh offers a search function for courses for exchange students. However, you have to choose a program in order to search the courses there, which was "Biomedicine" for me. Unfortunately, the program did not offer any courses I was interested in, but of course there are several other programs at the University that are related to life science and that can be accredited at KI. Thus, I was using the following webpage by entering search terms that were related to my topic of interest (such as stem cell, developmental biology etc...): http://www.drps.ed.ac.uk/12-13/dpt/cx_search.htm. The courses I could choose were level 10 and above. However, one has to pay attention to whether the courses can be attended by exchange students, in which term the courses are held and whether they are examined in the same term. But even if a course is marked as a non-exchange student course, one can still contact the course director and ask whether it is possible to attend this course. For me it was not possible for one of the courses since it seemed to be very popular, but it worked out for another one. As already mentioned, Paul McGuire was a huge help with this as with everything else concerning the University administration.

The exams for the courses were held in the examination period, which lasted from beginning to end of December (or lets say 22st of December, shortly before Xmas). This was perfect, since the 4th term at KI started in the beginning of January and there was no overlap as in other countries. An annoying detail was that the examination dates are determined by the University and not by the course leaders and announced quite late (something like end of October or even mid of November). This makes it a little bit difficult to book flights back home early in advance, since you could be done with your exams on 10th of December or 22nd or anything in between. The grading system in Edinburgh is different from the one at KI, but grades are transferred to pass/fail upon accreditation.

The project I chose was also related to the topic I was interested in (stem cell biology and regenerative medicine) and I enjoyed it a lot and also learned a lot. My lab was situated first at King's Buildings and then moved while I was there to Little France Crescent. Both places were south of the central campus in the city center, but I did not have a problem to reach them, since the University operated shuttle buses that were stopping quite close to where I lived. Also, both places are easily accessible by public transportation, which offers student discounts.

I would say Scotland is quite different from England (or at least the only part I know from England: London). It already starts with the language. Now you probably think: but they both speak English. And you might be right, but let me tell you: Scottish English is different.... the more Scottish, the harder to understand. All of my Professors spoke understandable English though and it was not hard to follow the courses. But sometimes it was hard to speak to the people on the street, supermarket or even bank, as a friend of mine experienced while opening a bank account without understanding anything the employee was saying. However, you will also get used to it and it will get easier to understand the people.

Apart from the language, Scotland is also very traditional and very proud of its history. Everywhere you will see all kind of things in the typical Scottish Tartan style and Edinburgh's old town will give you the feeling to walk back hundred of years in time. You will see history everywhere and it is a lot of fun to participate in one of the historical walks through this beautiful city organized by students in the Fresher's week. Moreover, there will also be several events where different societies organize traditional dances called Céilidh. Mostly, there will be a band which is playing traditional Scottish music and instruct the people how to dance. Thus, you can attend this event without any previous knowledge of Céilidh and I guarantee you, you will have the fun of your life, especially when it gets chaotic in a room with hundreds of people trying to follow the steps. It’s a mess, but as I said, you cannot imagine how much fun you will have.

Another particularity of Scotland is the food. Scotts love to fry all kind of food, even things you would never imagine like chocolate bars or pizza. It sounds weird, but deep fried Mars bars are actually not as scary as you imagine ;). However, the biggest particularity is of course Haggis. Scotts love it and you can buy it at every corner. I did not like it, but it's definitely worth trying. Also noteworthy to mention is of course Whiskey. There are Whiskey bars with hundreds of different types of Whiskey and the Whiskey society at the University has the goal to get you familiar with all of them. If you like Whiskey, Scotland is definitely the place to go for you.

Edinburgh had the best range of leisure time activities organized for students than every other city I have ever studied in. There are hundreds of different societies and clubs that offer all kind of sports and other activities. Seriously, there is no type of sport you won't find at the University. Apart from sport clubs, there are also all other kinds of societies like religious societies, Whiskey, beer and wine societies, societies that organize dinner parties or hiking trips in the mountains, societies that talk about history and culture, dancing and clubbing societies, movie societies and of course societies for all kind of subjects you can study. Here you can see everything that is offered: http://www.eusa.ed.ac.uk/societies/listings/.

Apart from all the societies mentioned above, there are 2 special societies for exchange students at the University of Edinburgh. The first one is organizing a lot of party at least every second week and of course for every holiday that is celebrated in Scotland in order to get international students familiar with these traditions. Moreover, this society organized a gala dinner at the end of the term and 2 weekend trips throughout the highlands. The second society organizes all kind of trips all over Scotland. Every weekend there is a one-day trip to a lake, city, mountain etc. close by. These trips are just amazing and the best is, they are super cheap, usually costing only 8 pounds. The downside is that these trips are of course very popular. Thus, you have to be very quick to get a ticket. I managed to go on 2 of these trips and I was not disappointed, so I definitely recommend them to everyone. Apart from the trip, there is a coffee hour every Monday where international students can just meet and get in contact. Moreover, this society also organizes different cultural evenings with international dinners and movies.

Apart from this, Edinburgh is a beautiful city and walking around in the old town or climbing up Arthur's seat or Calton Hill never gets boring. As I mentioned before, there is a lot of culture and history to see throughout the city. Not to forget, there is of course also a huge pub culture in Edinburgh. Pubs can be found on every corner all around the city and meeting friends for a pint in the evening is the best to end a hard working/studying day.

The time I spend as an exchange student in Edinburgh was definitely one of the most memorable, exciting and valuable times of my life. The experience of an exchange is something one should not miss if given the possibility. The friends, experiences and insight into a new culture by living in another country you will make are something that will stay with you forever. The exchange in Edinburgh adds up to this experience because of all the things mentioned above and I am sure you will not find this perfect combination of a very high education standard, so many leisure activities and so much culture and history anywhere else. Moreover, I never experienced so much kindness and helpfulness as from the people in Edinburgh. Everyone is always willing to help you, no matter if University officials, your neighbors or just people on the street. A special thank you with this regard goes to Paul McGuire, who was really a huge help with everything throughout the whole period. This exchange experience was truly one of the greatest times of my life.