I am a 20-year-old French student and I came to Pforzheim for my bachelor (I took the Double Degree Program).

I had an amazing time in the city and the university!

I stayed 2 semesters, so I had time to take various courses and I enjoyed all of them, especially “Challenges and perspectives of the European Integration” (a class focusing on Europe, its history and the issues we face today, it is current topic and I found it very interesting!), “Customer Journey Management” (how to analyze and use at our advantage the journey of the client from the moment he/she discover the brand and the moment he/she buys, it is useful in companies!), “management and Negotiation”… Some courses focus on Germany (“history of German art” or “history of post-war Germany”), and it was for me very interesting to learn more about the history and the culture of the country I was living in, so I enjoyed these courses a lot!

I was less interested by economics and marketing, so I enjoyed the courses related to these subjects a bit less.

In all cases, the teachers are always very clear while explaining, and you can tell that they like their jobs, and more, they like to share their knowledge with the students! They are always here to help and to explain again, so that you have all the chances to pass the exams in the end!

I come from France, and there, the exams are always quite easy and doesn’t require lots of work. In Germany, it is very different! Exams are shorter, which means you need to know everything by heart or to have a perfect understanding of the topics. And you have just one chance per semester (in France, we are used to be allowed to retake the exam few weeks after if we fail).

These changes where not easy for me in the beginning, but once I got used to it, the exams are not that hard to pass!

Second thing is that the staff at the university (all the members from the International Study Program and all administration members we met) was always super nice with us, always very helpful and here for us, to help us solving problems when we arrived but also the whole semester! They care a lot about us and want us to have the best experience of our lives in the university! Thanks to them, all the small issues I faced during my time here were only small things that they helped me to take care about, and I could enjoy my time in Pforzheim way more!

To live in Pforzheim has pros and cons… But I would say the cons are almost nonexistent!

It isn’t a very big city, and I think it is the only cons. But anyway, we always found stuffs to do!

If you are interested by art and culture, the city has a long story of jewelry industry, so there are museums and other things to visit! If you are a student and want to hang out with other students, there are plenty of bars, clubs and restaurants to go to (I will only recommend the Irish Pub’s karaoke here and the Mauritius, we had great time with the international students there).

In summer, the river is a nice place to go for a walk, and we also had few picnic lunches there, it is a very nice spot!

I will end by saying that I was also able to meet incredible people there and to build long lasting friendships thanks to these exchange semesters in Pforzheim. There is always a very cool group of international students (around 100 people each semester).

I will always remember my time in Pforzheim as one of the best moment of my scholarship!