Engineering in the land of ideas

The author writes about his experience of pursuing master's in mechanical engineering at HSRW.

December 20, 2015 05:00 pm | Updated 06:20 pm IST

Ujwal Surampalli

Ujwal Surampalli

While doing my internship at an automobile plant in Chennai as part of my undergraduate curriculum at Andhra University, I decided to pursue my master’s in Germany. The reason being — more than 90 per cent of the equipment at the plant was German-made!

This came as a calling, and I immediately searched on the Internet for master’s courses in mechanical engineering in Germany. Hochschule Rhein-Waal (HSRW) is the only university in the country which offers the master’s course completely in English. So I zeroed in on it. Moreover, the university is funded by the State and does not charge any extra tuition fee from the students.

When I got the first glimpse of Germany just before my plane landed, the thought that came to my mind was it looked like a Lego set! Everything here is really well planned and maintained.

HSRW is located in Kleve, a small town in the NRW region, 30 km away from the Dutch border. The city is unusually quiet except for the weekends when all the fun takes place. The people are extremely polite, friendly and helpful. The university has a wonderful international office which caters to every student’s need. The weeklong ‘Freshtival’ made me feel safe and at home.

Campus experience

I find a stark contrast between the teaching methodology in Germany and India. Here, more emphasis is laid on practical and hands-on applications. In fact, the laboratory is brought into the classroom. Every lecture is interlaced with experiments. The professor first explains the concept and then demonstrates it on test rigs and prototypes. The experiment is also streamed live on to a huge LCD screen in the classroom.

As part of our curriculum, the university arranges fieldtrips to several companies. We also have visiting faculty from eminent industries. Often, these lectures end up with offers of internships and project thesis.

The university has a huge bibliothek (library). This eliminates the need to buy one.

Social life

The campus is always bustling with activities and events organised by the university and student-run groups. Almost all the events culminate in the after party at the exotic local pubs and entertainment venues. The most popular and much-awaited event every year is the grand and lavish ‘Winterball’ in December.

The university offers a wide range of sports activities such as football, fencing, skateboarding, water sports, martial arts, basketball, dancing and, of course, cricket, all free of cost.

The university also provides a public transport ticket every semester which allows enrolled students to travel within the issuing region completely free of charge by all modes of public transport.

I would advise students contemplating studying in Deutschland to plan in advance and not fall prey to educational consultants charging exorbitant fee. Rather, visit the German Academic Exchange (DAAD) website which offers A-Z information on universities and courses offered, visa requirements and more for free.

The writer is pursuing Master's in Mechanical engineering at Hochschule Rhein-Waal (HSRW), Germany. Email: haiujwal@gmail.com

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