At present I'm studying at Utrecht University in the Netherlands as an Erasmus student. I found interesting that much more team work is required to pass a course there. At my home university it is not so usual.
Team work offered me less work to do. Well, I thought that first. I soon realised I was wrong! I supposed I would have less work because I would share the work with other team members. The amount of work on a project seemed approximately similar like at my home university, the difference was that I could share it. But doing a team project does not always make it easier! Especially for Erasmus students. Home students usually know each other quite well and set up teams with their friends. But what should an Erasmus student do? Foreign student also find some new friends, mostly among other Erasmus students. So they often work on a project with other Erasmus students. And there is the catch!
Not everyone is used to the same amount of work and not everyone has sufficient knowledge to be useful for the team. People are coming from different countries and different universities, sometimes they don't even study the same field at their home universities. The result is that you sometimes have to do others work.
I had two team project experiences in Utrecht and both wasn't much positive. The first time I had two other people in my team, fortunately one was my friend from home university, so we were used to work hard and we had both the same knowledge. The third member of our team wasn't as trained as we are. He for example has never programmed in Java, which was essential for our project. Shortly, we had to finish the project in two people. The second team project required a team of two people. I've done my part but my colleague wrote me few days before the deadline that he didn't intend to finish it, moreover he didn't do anything. I discussed these problems with other foreign students and some of them had the similar experience.
To close up I have to say that team projects are basically beneficial but not for Erasmus students. They don't know their partners enough.
Team work offered me less work to do. Well, I thought that first. I soon realised I was wrong! I supposed I would have less work because I would share the work with other team members. The amount of work on a project seemed approximately similar like at my home university, the difference was that I could share it. But doing a team project does not always make it easier! Especially for Erasmus students. Home students usually know each other quite well and set up teams with their friends. But what should an Erasmus student do? Foreign student also find some new friends, mostly among other Erasmus students. So they often work on a project with other Erasmus students. And there is the catch!
Not everyone is used to the same amount of work and not everyone has sufficient knowledge to be useful for the team. People are coming from different countries and different universities, sometimes they don't even study the same field at their home universities. The result is that you sometimes have to do others work.
I had two team project experiences in Utrecht and both wasn't much positive. The first time I had two other people in my team, fortunately one was my friend from home university, so we were used to work hard and we had both the same knowledge. The third member of our team wasn't as trained as we are. He for example has never programmed in Java, which was essential for our project. Shortly, we had to finish the project in two people. The second team project required a team of two people. I've done my part but my colleague wrote me few days before the deadline that he didn't intend to finish it, moreover he didn't do anything. I discussed these problems with other foreign students and some of them had the similar experience.
To close up I have to say that team projects are basically beneficial but not for Erasmus students. They don't know their partners enough.
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