The Third Semester

Another academic year has come to an end. While summer has finally arrived, some students already have left the university. Exchange students finished their exams and went home, either directly or first visit new made friends somewhere around the globe. Other students still struggle in the library or in a learning center somewhere on campus with the bachelor thesis, the final oral exam, research paper, final presentation or master thesis. The beginning of summer varies according to climate, culture, and tradition, but in the Northern Hemisphere this year it started on June 21 at 07:04 hrs.

In my time – many decades ago- summer was a period for us students of doing completely nothing! A summer job was not necessary; we had all received a government grant. We didn’t bother about building our CV and seeking work experience, because we all thought we would get a job easily after graduation, which did not happen of course. Some of us went hitch hiking (for fun!) to Seville or even dared to cross the Iron Curtain or to go to Yugoslavia.

Times have changed. My American friends nowadays prepare their students for the third semester. After a full academic year the third semester means a summer term where you do an intensive internship at an prestigious company preferably abroad; or you take an intensive summer course at a prestigious university, also abroad; you do volunteer work in a township in South-Africa, teaching English in Bolivia or help building a school in rural India.

Whatever you are going to do this summer, I wish you an enjoyable summer period with lots of inspiration. You will find me somewhere between A Coruña and Madrid, on a bicycle or  reading a book on a camping. Carpe Diem!

Hans-Georg van Liempd is program manager internationalisation at TiU and president of EAIE. He blogs for Univers.

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