Edison – Friedrich Alexander Universitat Erlangen Nurnberg – Germany
Semester 1, 2025
Bachelor of Engineering (Honours)
Hey, I’m Edison and I’m finishing up a Bachelor of Engineering with a Medical major. I really enjoyed my time abroad, going slightly off the beaten track to Nuremberg, Germany, in the Bayern region. I’m so grateful that I could do it as part of my studies, and really do recommend exchange to you as part of your degree.
One of the most common questions I got when meeting new German friends was, “Why Nuremberg?”. To which I would say: The city itself is wonderful, with a beautiful Old Town that has original bits of castle towers and town walls from the 11th Century all scattered around. The public transport is really so so great compared to home, and everything else is walkable or bike-able, no problems.
But yes, while it may look like an odd choice, I came to Nuremberg because of their reputation for medical engineering. Home to the ‘Medical Valley’ in Erlangen as well as the headquarters for Siemens, it really opened my eyes for my career.
I completed my exchange study in ‘International Economics’ for the International Exchange Minor option in the engineering degree. So I was also baffling all my German business friends as to why there is an engineer sitting in their class. Certainly, it wasn’t the most stock standard exchange program.
Arriving
It is a long journey to and from Europe, but my arrival was overall very smooth thanks to support from my host institution, FAU. While on-campus accommodation was not an option, there was a student organisation called ‘Studentenwerk’ that organised so many student services: shared dorms, a cheap cafeteria for all my lunches, and a fair few big parties throughout Sem.
German bureaucracy was real. A lot of paperwork. And more in-person meetings, hardly anything online. Unfortunately, the German way. And here the language barrier was very apparent. Apart from crushing Duolingo, I took a beginner German course at the start of my study but was nowhere near conversational. Thankfully, Germans can speak English on the whole, and a bit of miming and exaggerated facial expressions got me through most about everywhere.
Living in Germany
Uni Life
Uni was fun and overall similar to Australia. I slid into classes fine and found the study load manageable – making sure all classes were taught in English! The admin side of things was tricky to navigate, but I am so glad to have done the hard yards during my exchange application – helping me stress less on that front while in Germany. One piece of advice here is to find other exchange students at your host institution asap, because they will all be having the same issues that you face.
Social Life
FAU also really helped to launch my social life while in Nuremberg. There was a group chat made for all the exchange students (so make sure you have WhatsApp!). And the uni put on events for all of us from the first week. There were parties, bar crawls, pub crawls, karaoke; all the exchange students got to know each other so quick and made our own plans, going on hikes, trips to cities and nearby countries together. I also made a number of friends through a church that I attended, so definitely get involved in local life too.
Exchange was a fantastic way for me to learn, travel and expand my horizons all in one beautiful package, definitely recommend – 10/10.
Find out more on how you can apply: Student Exchange
