Mendel University, autumn 2025

 

 

My name is Connor Webb, an American on my 3^rd year of the bachelor program International Environment and Development Studies (IEDS), and I went on exchange to Mendel University in Brno, Czechia. They have a very similar faculty to NORAGRIC, called Regional Development and International Studies (FRDIS), which offers a vide variety of courses, many of which are not offered at NMBU. The Erasmus team at Mendel University was very active in planning events for the exchange students, and all of the members were very kind and welcoming. Brno is a student city, and it ranks very high on the quality of student life. You won’t regret choosing this place for your exchange semester :)

 

I will say, if you are also from the USA or non-EU country, with only a passport from your country, scroll down to the section about the Visa Process.

 

Fag/Emner(Subject/Courses):

 

My classes had many international students, because of the international nature of my faculty.

 

Faculty of Regional Development and International Studies:

 

-          Academic Skills in EN

o   This was a very reflective class, held by a very kind and thoughtful teacher, who created this course to give students a chance to improve not just academic performance, but personal habits as well. It is very much student-based – you bring to the course the area in which you want to improve, she helps you set goals, and you work toward them seriously. In addition, there are four  1-on-1 appointments you will have with her, and 4 lectures that she will hold, based on the subject the students are most interested.

o   Assessment method: A sum of points based on your attendance, a port folio of documents showing your efforts in improving your habits and academic skill progress, and a relaxed final interview about how you feel the semester went, regarding your goals and whatnot.

-          Applied comparative politics in EN

o   A very easy class to show up to, as there is basically no required reading for the course. The professor is quite young and energetic, which was a breath of fresh air, and he cares very much about his students. There is one big group project which is very opened ended on what it can be about. I would recommend taking it as an opportunity to explore what you may want to write for your bachelor thesis (that’s the intended purpose of the project in any case).

o   Assessment method: A final exam, attendance, participation in class (ask questions, answer questions, participate in discussions), group project. The final exam is based on somewhat commonplace knowledge, but I would certainly recommend reviewing all of his presentations/handouts, because there are some very specific questions.

 

-          Development Problems in SE Asia in English

o   This class is held by the same professor 😊. This one has a reading for each week. He is super passionate about this topic, which makes for an especially engaging course. He even brings in food items from various countries, or even cooks a dish for the students to try! I was really happy to learn about a part of the world that I honestly didn’t know much about, and to see how colonialism did and didn’t affect the region.

o   Assessment method: A research poster (that you don’t present), a final exam (very few got a good grade), participation points, “midterms” which are just questions based on the readings. Luckily you can still get a good grade despite the test, if you max your points in the other areas.

 

-          Introduction to GIS in English

o   The purpose of this course is for students to know how to use the software, and how they can apply it to make maps for their bachelor/master’s thesis. The teacher is kind, and also quite young (feels like an older sibling). All lectures on how to practically use the software are recording and posted on Microsoft Teams, but not the lectures on theory.

o   Assessment method: A practical test, where you have to complete some tasks using the software. If you pass, then you are allowed to take the only part of the course which is graded, which is on the theory. I thought this was a bit strange, and I got a D for the whole course because there is a LOT of information on the theoretical part (~130 page book).

 

Institute of Lifelong Learning

All of these courses are individual-study-based. Take these courses only if you are driven like that.

 

-          Basic of communication skills

o   Professor was hard to reach, but was very kind during our Oral exam. I really enjoyed taking time to sit down with and reflect on the way I communicate myself, and how I could improve.

o   Assessment method: An essay of 1800 words, and an oral exam. The oral exam was very easy, and the essay is quite open ended.

-          Coaching

o   Very friendly and passionate professor. It was another opportunity for me to understanf myself, how to communicate, and how to better show up for other people, and myself. It’s already impacted how I support others, and I plan to continue building upon these skills.

o   Assessment Method: While there were reading, and a supposed essay and Oral exam, he is very flexible, and attuned to how engaged you actually are. Since I showed a lot of engagement with the material, he gave me credit for the course without taking any exam or writing an essay.

-          Czech Language for Foreign Students

o   A really great opportunity to immerse yourself in the culture and decode the Czech world around you! I see this as 100% part of the exchange experience – this class is specifically for the Erasmus students.

o   Assessment method: A final exam. We took it over zoom, via a Google Form. The questions were quite easy. This is a pass-for-free course as long as you show up to each lecture (they will tell you this as well).

 

Faculty of Business and Economics

 

-          Leadership of Diverse Teams

o   How do we learn to work together in an increasingly globalized world, where many cultures come together? This course is also quite easy to pass. It is designed to be not just theory, but also practical. Thus, they invite some companies to have a panel in class where they discuss their businesses and roles. There are many guest lecturers aside from this, and a field trip day to some businesses where we got a tour. Zebra Technologies, Kyndryl, Infosys, KBC Global Services, Grafton.

o   Assessment method: Presentation of a debate, a case study of 4 pages based on this debate, and a final exam, which is quite easy if you attend class and take notes.

 

Sports

There are many sports offered for free, you just have to register.

-          Sport - Power yoga

-          Yoga

o   Unfortunately, both are held in Czech, but you can just follow what others are doing. The instructor is very kind, and will try to use English when she can to help you.

 

Personlig utvikling (Personal Development):

 

Even though I am already studying abroad from the USA at NMBU, I still felt I needed a change. I grew up in a small town, lived in a slightly bigger town, and then moved to Ås. I believe very strongly that it is important to collect diverse/contrasting experiences, to get perspective on and truly appreciate what you have in life. Without night, there is no day, and its value goes unappreciated, for what it is. Brno is quite a large city relatively speaking, and I certainly got the contrast I sought. I also wanted to challenge myself to grow my social skills, to open up and become less reserved, to fight my cycles of self-isolating, and to challenge the ideas of who I was and what I can bring to a social space. I succeeded in all of this. I met many wonderful people, that I will certainly see again in the future. I have already planned for someone to visit me in a couple of weeks.

 

Bolig (Housing):

 

I stayed in the JAK dormitories, in the best building, called block D. This is where a majority of all the Erasmus students will reside. It is a massive rectangle with 5 floors, and is an absolutely lovely environment. I say this, because everyone has to enter and leave through the main entrance in the lobby (where there is a food and snacks station, and some tables and chairs), meaning you are constantly having spontaneous conversations and consistent contact with all the other Erasmus students. Many like to study in the lobby, and many go out to smoke, and because people smoke, people leaving/returning bump into each other, and then a conversation starts, then more people come, etc. It’s here where spontaneous plans and hangout ideas emerge.

 

I lived with two other students, with a shared shower, toilet, and kitchen. We slept all in the same room. This was intentional on my part, because I wanted to take away the option of self-isolating.

Fun Fact: Many Czech students go home every weekend to stay with their family. If you have Czech roommates, you will have the room to yourself on the weekends.

 

Om universitetet (about the University):

 

The campus is quite compact besides the FRDIS faculty building (Z building), which also has its own library and cafe. There is a canteen with quite affordable food (X building), and below it, a nice study spot. There is a small library on campus, and another study room with couches (Q building). There are coffee stations all over the place, most of which are about half the cost of any Norwegian coffee. 

** Fun side note, a cup of black coffee is not something that exists there. They see it as a watered down espresso, which they call a “lungo.” **

 

A HUGE plus about the campus is that they have their own botanical garden. It is absolutely gorgeous, and there is an orchid greenhouse, with many different species of orchid. Seriously, it’s a lovely place to be and hang out, or take a walk with some friends, and there’s so many details to investigate and explore about the place.

 

A really good study spot is actually the Central Library of Faculty of Arts, at Masaryk University where there is also a really nice student cafe. This is where I spent most of my study time.

Another solid recommendation is the cafe right across the street from here, called Cafe Falk, which has a really cozy interior. I was told the owner just randomly brings in antique items for decoration, for example, a really old piano.

 

Språkutvikling (Language Development):

 

Again, I highly recommend taking the language course. It’s a wonderful way to fully immerse youself in a foreign environment, with foreign people. The language course built for Erasmus students is quite fun, and easy to pass. You get as much from it as you put in. I had a really nice Slovakian friend who was happy to help me learn the language (Czech and Slovak are very similar). I personally didn’t put a huge amount of effort in, slightly because I had this friend to translate things, also because I had many other courses, and spent most of my time with international people. I still learned the basic greetings and departures, learned how to order food and drinks, how to say excuse me, or sorry, good evening, good night, etc. Also generally understanding how the language is structured and sounds, helped me to decode what I was seeing written anywhere.

 

Not a lot of older people can speak English comfortably. It was many times at stores that the older employee had to find a younger employee to take my question. So knowing some Czech is very nice for everyone.

 

Studentvisum (Student Visa):

 

Oh lord. Praise be, may Lord have mercy on your soul if you are American, or otherwise non EU. You will need to apply for a long-term visa BEFORE you arrive in the Czech Republic.  Or... maybe you don’t need one at all. I was told directly by an officer at the Czech Ministry of the Interior that my Norwegian Student Visa is valid in the Czech republic – even though in writing on their website it says “EU residence/study permits.” This was at the end of my exchange, after I had finally gotten a date to pick up my visa, after 5 months of worrying about this. I still don’t know for sure what the actual requirements are.

 

All the Czech visa officers, in their different embassies across Europe, or even with Czechia, between the Ministry of the Interior and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, give different answers as to what the Visa requirements are. I kept getting conflicting information for what documents I need to collect and provide. Part of what made it so challenging was that I was a non-EU citizen who has been residing in Norway for 3 years (I went to a Norwegian Folk Highschool before I began my studies at NMBU), so I was a bit of a special case.

 

 I easily spent over 40 hours in total worrying and working with this including: meeting with Bohdana (the international coordinator at Mendel), calling embassies, gathering documents (getting my fingerprint taken in the US so I could obtain an FBI report, paying ~110 euros for that, traveling to the local translation service in Brno to collect my documents AGAIN with their translations (~25-50 euros for each document) and traveling several times to the Ministry of the Interior and waiting in a long queues. Since the summer, this issue was never fully resolved, I was never sure I was legally in the Czech Republic.

 

Let it be known: Bohdana was a godsend. She was extremely helpful and reassuring during this confusing process, and spent a great deal of time assisting me.

 

My best advice: look at the Visa requirements as soon as you get accepted, and start the process immediately, because you can’t rely on the bureaucratic institutions to act quickly, and you may need to interact with a lot of them to get them to send you the required documents. Also double, triple, quadruple check, call different embassies, the Czech Ministry of the Interior, the Czech Ministry of Foreign affairs, and confirm whether or not you ACTUALLY need a visa.

 

Despite everything, I still had an amazing experience. It was a monumental opportunity to practice living with uncertainty. I hope this helps you avoid everything I went through :)

 

 

 

 

Reflection Questions:

 

Er du fornøyd med utvekslingsoppholdet ditt, og vil du anbefale andre studenter å gjøre det samme? (Are you satisfied with your exchange experience and would you recommend other students to do the same?)

-          Absolutely. I’m just gonna list some of my favorite things:

o   Expedition club (a wonderful pub/chill hangout spot/rock climbing/music jamming place, full of really open, cool, and young people. There isn’t pressure on purchasing drinks, which makes it feels really homey. On Wednesdays they have official music nights, where the place is PACKED and full of guitars and Czech/English songs, and a friendly Brazilian guy who even invited a friend and I over for drinks in his home after some weeks). I WISH I had discovered this place on the first day.

o   Constant musical activity (I found out through the tourist center that Brno is a UNESCO city of music. This means the city has a lot of money to spend on musicians. The result: lots of free concerts, and a lot of well-paid musicians)

o   Vegalite (a completely vegan restaurant that serves delicious traditional Czech and Slovak meals, and hosts a lot of concerts)

o   Christmas (OML do they go HARD for Christmas in Brno. There are like 3 stages which often have concerts from quite talented bands, there are 3 different squares with markets, a giant egg, a giant tree in each square, and the city is just glowing with lights.

o   The Tourist Center (Check this out as early as possible to get ideas on what to check out. There is a really cool underground area that I never managed to check out because I found out too late/prioitized other things.

o   Spielberg (a really cool castle, which is situated on a hill, which overlooks the city. You can walk to the top of the hill for free

o   Abandoned football stadium (this is on the other side of the Mendel University Botanical garden. There are 20 year old trees growing out of the bleachers, and honestly just really cool to witness an abandoned structure like this. It’s technically not legal to enter, but I was told (by a local) people enter all the time, and that the police doesn’t care. They are mainly there to monitor the activity of the people living there. So a fair warning: don’t go to any of the indoor sections, don’t go at night, and bring a local with you. Best would be to bring an ESN Brno member).

o   Tatra mountains (another OML moment. It’s just gorgeous there. I recommend checking out the Ginger Monkey Hostel, it’s an extremely homey place, great place to meet other travelers and share spontaneous adventures, and there are lots of hikes in the area. Plus, there is a dog that lives there!)

o   Utopia (a really nice pub that is worth checking out. It’s got many different seating areas and styles (tables at ground height, places to lay down), they have many pool tables, they have so much different tea, and a really delicious hummus plate.

o   Mystica TEA & PUB (a REALLY nice board game place).

o   Oh yeah, I guess beer most places is cheaper than any other drink.

 

Var det vanskelig å få de emnene du ønsket å ta? (Was it difficult to get the courses you wished to take?)

-          Not at all, all of the coordinators were happy to make space for me to join a class. IEDS students at NMBU, given how much of our required credits are elective-based, allows for us to take courses from many faculties, as I did. The only caveat is that you have to have equal parts FRDIS courses and non-FRDIS course, hence why I have 8 classes (I just couldn’t NOT take some of the courses offered).

 

Fikk du godkjent alle emnene dine da du kom hjem? (Did you get all of your subjects approved when you got home?)

-          Yes, no problems here

 

Er du fornøyd med den faglige kvaliteten på universitetet? (Are you satisfied with the quality of the subjects offered at the University?)

-          As a bachelor student, yes, very much. They were fairly easy courses, which is great for an exchange semester, which is also just as much about traveling and experiencing a new culture and making international friends. I loved that I had so much time to spend with people, since the classes didn’t require that much studying for me.

 

Hvor langt rakk midlene du fikk fra Lånekassen/Erasmusstipend? (How far did the support you got from Lånekassen/Erasmusstipend reach?

-          I think I got roughly 400 euros a month, but it’s different for each person based on a variety of factors. That was definitely nice to have

 

Oppnådde du det du ønsket ved å dra på utveksling? (Did you achieve everything during your exchange experience that you had hoped to?)

-          Absolutely. I would say I experienced astronomical levels of growth, in terms of how comfortable, confident, and compassionate I became toward myself. I started to spend most of my time out of my room, either studying, going on walks, or spending time with people, and having late nights going to various cool spots in the city, or just talking with people.

 

Stikkord (Keywords): Czech Republic, Mendel University in Brno, International and Regional Development Studies, Bachelor, International Environment and Development Studies, Non-EU citizen, American