General remarks
The chances are that from the very first day you will see a
difference in comparison to KI. First of all, you will be now studying at the
hospital. The lecture hall area is just a small portion of a big hospital, so
it is quite easy to get lost in the beginning. My best tip is to keep track of your schedule and just to ask whenever you are lost.
The system of teaching there is rather different from KI,
with more emphasis on self-studying. While at KI you are receiving well-structured and detailed lectures, at the LUMC you will receive an introductory
lecture and will later have to read up information by yourself. You will also
be following a ‘module book’ for each course. In it, you will find seminar
questions that you have to prepare for while reading the course literature.
It is best you read the module book first and orient yourself with the questions. Then, when reading the course literature, put most emphasis on the topics which are brought up in the questions. Later on, you will
have seminars/work groups for each of the module sections, where you will be discussing the answers to these in a group. Even though you might hear that you
only have to prepar for the ‘marked questions’ I advise doing them all. This is
for your best so that you can follow the discussion, but also to spare you from
any unpleasant remarks from the seminar leaders.
The lecturers
This brigns me on the next topic – the teachers/professors.
In comparison to KI, I found them rather ill-mannered, unmotivating
besserwissers. Most of the time I got the notion that they were feeling superior to you.
Some lecturers can be certainly unpleasant when asking them questions, with them ending up commenting on your lack of knowledge in the field. My tip is - Ask the young lecturers/teachers. They are the nicest and the most motivating.
Studying at the LUMC
Be prepared however that most of the studies will be of
theoretical type. You will only do some digital microscopy, a patient demonstration and have one short course with practical lab work. As it is at KI, read
up and prepare before going for those!
One other major difference is also the amount of
responsibilities that is expected from you. In contrast to what I thought in the
beginning – that exhcnage students will have it easier - we instead had special
couses for exchange students that we had to keep track of by ourselves. If you
want to keep full track of your courses then I advise you make a document with
all your schedule times put together. This is a good lesson in how to structure
your timetable!
However due to our
compalints on the lack of organization, the international coordinator put
together an ‘internationals page' on blackboard where all the scheduels should
be put in togthter. Hopefully that will be fixed. Also know, that yes, as an
exchange student you do have a say in what can be improved!
Apropos blackboard, this will be an important communication
platform with your course representatives and the students. It is a good idea to check it on a daily
basis, as information on your ongoing courses will be posted there. You will
also find folders with the lectures’ power points, web lectures (live recorded
lectures), and a copy fo the module book.
For some of the courses it is advisable to have a physical
copy of the module book. This, you can buy at the LUMC student book store. In contrast to KI it has limited opening hours, so find out when it is open and
make your book shoppinglist beforehand! It could take 30mins of queuing before it is
your turn, and even then you might have to go back for a lecture, or
the store will close, so plan ahead!
When choosing a study spot, there is a few options to chose among. The
students' study area at LUMC has includes: the desks
around the lecture halls, the ‘train seats’ outside of the library, the library
itself, and tables in the education building. A last alternative is to crash a
table in a random corridor. The risk is that people from the department will
ask you to leave.
A great alternative, somewhere were I spent a big portion of
my self-studies, was the Leiden University. It has a lot of space for quiet self
studies, with good lighting, power sockets and tasty coffee for a
good price! There, you can also set up a printing account, and book study rooms
for group assignmenets.
The tests at LUMC vary from course to course (more details in the next section), but the results are usually posted on usis and sent to you
via Umail. The umail is also an important platform to use for directly communicating with the course supervisors or workgroup leaders, and for
receiving general information from the LUMC. So, check it everyday!