More than 300 Bar-Ilan University students attended a Student Exchange Fair on campus in January to find out about the possibilities offered in the various exchange programs and which universities participate in them.
These programs offer Bar-Ilan students from all degrees the opportunity to study at partner universities for a semester or year abroad. In addition, the students can apply for the EU’s Erasmus+ grant, which subsidizes students for their time abroad.
The fair took place during BIU’s International Partner Week, which was hosted by the International School for some of its European university partners.
Exhibits included 41 universities from 20 European countries, some of which were manned by representatives who participated in the Partner Week. Students came from all departments and at various stages of their undergraduate, graduate, and postgraduate degrees. Since the fair took place, 91 students have applied to participate.
BIU has approximately 55 students who have either finished or are about to finish their semester abroad in Italy, the Czech Republic, Austria, Germany, Ireland, Spain, Finland, Netherlands, Portugal, Croatia, France, Canada, and the US, and 16 who will leave in March for their semester-abroad experience in Italy, Austria, Germany, Ireland, France, Spain, Finland, and Czech Republic.
BIU welcomed 39 incoming exchange students from 19 partner universities in seven different countries during the first semester, which started in October 2022. Nine of these students came from the Christian University of Ede in The Netherlands. Other countries represented included, Germany, Czech Republic, France, Netherlands, Austria, USA, and Poland.
Noam Landau, Outgoing Student Exchange Programs Coordinator (far left), and Oz Nackar, Director of Exchange Student Programs (far right), from BIU’s International School, organized the Student Exchange Fair with the help of other International School representatives. Here, they’re talking to students at the fair.
In the second semester, which starts in March 2023, 10 students from seven countries, including Latvia, Italy, Czech Republic, Netherlands, Austria, France, and Turkey will land in Israel for their exchange program.
Supporting Student Exchange and Bilateral Cooperation
Barbara Seimetz, Scientific Attaché at the German Embassy in Israel, attended the event with her colleague, Susanne Dayan, to show her support for the Student Exchange Program and Bar-Ilan University.
“Today has been wonderful,” she said. “It’s great to see so much interest in Germany from Israeli students. Experiencing such interest from young people is something we can only be grateful for and it’s not something we can ever take for granted.
“We are very, very happy if we can connect young people and there is no better way to connect them, to get them together and offer them opportunities than through student exchange. They often don’t know how to do it, how to find the information, how to get funding, and where to go. Having an event like this with not only Germany, but also other countries, is a wonderful way for Israeli students to find out what they need to know,” she said.
L-R: Barbara Seimetz and Susanne Dayan, German Embassy; Jennifer Jaeger, exchange student (BA in History and English) at BIU from University of Kassel, Germany; Charlotte Schaetzky, University of Kassel; Lara Klaehn and Yael Toledano, BIU’s International School
“From a broader perspective, I’m here on behalf of the German Embassy to foster and support bilateral cooperation on an academic level and also from a research perspective,” she said. “I liaise with the universities and with the research organizations in Israel and connect them with their counterparts in Germany, and Bar-Ilan University is a major part of this cooperation,” Seimetz concluded.
Read more about BIU’s International Partner Week here.