First of all, when we start our education at a university in Hungary, we receive a 6-letter code, made up with letters and numbers, which will identify us for the rest of our studies, and makes it easier to keep everything anonymous for the sake of personal data protection. Similarly, at UMA we are assigned a personal identification code, which is a sequence of ten numbers. We use this to activate and log in to our Campus Virtual account, which is the equivalent of the Hungarian Moodle system. Here we can register to our courses of the semester, and we are informed about the syllabus and requirements of these courses. This platform’s functions also include the direct access to the course material slides, and the possibility to write midterm exams, which will be later evaluated. Nonetheless, UMA also has an internal webmail system, with the help of which students can send and receive e-mails about university matters. This helps the fluent and smooth communication between the professors and students. On the other hand, if students want to book a seat and spend time with studying in the libraries of the different faculties, the confirmation e-mail is also coming in to this address. In this case we receive a QR code, which we have to show the librarians before we take our seats. 

For me it was rather surprising, that in the syllabus of each subject, we can see the exact number of hours we need to spend with studying the subject. This is an example of one of my classes, written by the professor: 

’1 ECTS credit equals 25 hours of the student’s time, therefore 6 ECTS credits equal 150 hours of the student’s time for this subject. From this 150 hours, 36 hours will be used for large group (GG) lessons, and 9 hours will be for split small group (GR) lessons. As a result, altogether 45 hours of lessons will be spent with your teacher. So 150 hours – 45 hours of class lessons = 105 hours of private study. As this term has 15-week duration, if we divide 105 hours into 15 weeks, it makes 7 hours a week to study English (which is about 1 hour a day), it means that you are expected to spend an average of 7 hours a week to pass this subject.’

As you could see, at UMA we have large group sessions, which are indicated as GG, coming from the Spanish ‘Grupo Grande’, and small group sessions, shown as GR, the abbreviation of the Spanish ‘Grupo Reducido’. Theoretical sessions are carried out during the GG lessons, meanwhile the students are divided into equal parts to attend GR lessons, during which we learn the practical part of the subject. As a result, it is easier to understand for example important calculations, as due to the limited number of students, we have more opportunities to ask, if we are confused about something, regarding the material.

I also noticed, that the start and finish of the semesters and exam periods here vary according to the faculty and in general they start everything later, than we do in Hungary. For example, the first semester starts on 27th of September, and ends on 22nd of December. We have a Christmas break until 7th of January, and the exam period lasts from 24th of January until 11th of February. The students have an opportunity to choose between morning and afternoon classes in the start of the semester, in order to be able to easily adjust their schedule to the timings of the lessons. Morning classes start at 9 am the earliest, and afternoon classes finish at 9 pm the latest.

Not to forget to mention, students of the UMA can download the mobile application of the university, which gives them quick access to the e-mail address and phone number of the members of the directorate, and all the teachers from the different faculties. Moreover, everyone can find their student card in the application, which grants them discounts in case of many cultural sightseeing activities, and on certain means of public transportation. What is more, in Málaga, students of the university can enter numerous museums for free, all year long, which is a great initiative in my opinion, as it encourages the students to visit cultural sights.

All in all, I am really impressed by the education in Spain, and I am happy to be able to experience how the university level education system works in other countries, compared to my homecountry.

Photos: Csenge Méhes

A Differences between Hungarian and Spanish Universities bejegyzés először Egyetemünk-én jelent meg.

Every nation has its own special Christmas tradition, but only a few people are familiar with other cultures’ celebration specialities. As the festive season is coming up rapidly, I figured it would be fun to look at how some of our foreign students’ would celebrate Christmas at home.

Before taking a close look at other countries’ festivities, let’s examine the Hungarian habits as most students from abroad have little information related to our country’s specialties.  As for the roles of Santa Clause, we can say that it is somewhat since it is the so called “Télapó” who visits the well-behaved children on the 6^th December and leaves them  some sweets  if their shoes are clean enough. The Christmas presents, placed under the nicely decorated Christmas tree, are from Baby Jesus who came on Christmas Eve. Finally, on the 31^st December people go crazy celebrating the end of the year and the beginning of the new year with their family and friends.

In Spain, children have to write letters to the Kings asking for the desired presents on Boxing Day (December 26.). These wishes come true on the 5^th January which is called the festival of Three Wise Kings. The kids put their shoes on windowsills or under the Christmas tree and kings would fill them with presents. If children are not well-behaved enough, they will get only pieces of coal made of sugar. It is very similar to our Santa Claus celebration.  . On the 31^st of December people have to eat 12 grapes with the 12 strokes of the clock at midnight to make the next year lucky, each grape representing a month of the coming year.

Germany’s traditions are very similar to ours here in Hungary. Christmas trees play a very important role in the celebration and there are many songs about their beauty in this country. On the 24^th December, families go to church too, however, prior to that they celebrate the birth of Jesus only within the smaller family. They are sitting around and talking together, eating traditional Christmas foods and exchanging the present with close relatives. On the 25^th and 26^th December, large families are coming together and rarely seen people meet each other. At the end of the year, on the 31^st December, everybody celebrates New Year’s Eve and make parties all around the country.

As many of you might have experienced already, Christmas has a completely different perception in other parts of the world. . For example in Cambodia, where  Christmas as such is somewhat insignificant as  the majority of the people in the country are Buddhists for whom this period of the year is not that  important, they view it as the  influence of  the western world. According to the Cambodian students, there is no similar thing in their country, but in some schools students like to organise parties and decorate the classrooms with Christmas decoration.

As far as China is concerned, the situation is quite similar to that of Cambodia as only a small percent of population is Christian. Christmas is mostly celebrated in bigger cities where the decoration and the way of celebration are quite similar to that of Europe and America owned   to the western influence. Nevertheless, it has become more and more popular in the whole country in the last few years.

Fotók: pixabay.com

A Christmas is all around you bejegyzés először Egyetemünk-én jelent meg.