Avis sur Universidad Austral de Chile (UACH)

Nice university with great study abroad staff and beautiful botanical garden. Directly enroll if you can and enjoy la U, I really did.

The organisational procedure at the beginning is a bit annoying, but after the courses have started, the support of teachers and local students is great and helps you to master the situation.

To have a comparable level of demand you need to choose courses offered in the last year of the career there. It is not recommendable to rely on the information you received in your home country regarding the offered courses the term you have planned to go, because nobody knows exactly the offer until 2 or 1 week before. You have to accept that it is a kind of surprise which courses you can really attend. But the quality is very good and teachers really want you to participate in class. You do a lot of group work, presentations and also work prepared on your own. Regarding the tools of instruction I can say that they are better than in spanish universities where it is very common that teachers only dictate their material and students learn them by heart.

I liked the way they use to assess their students. They have to write at least two exams: one at the half of the term and one at the end. When you have obtained a certain mark, it is not necessary to attend the final written and oral exam. This encourage learning continually and not only at the of the course the whole stuff which occurs with the german system to write only one exam at the end of the course. I prefer the chilean way to asses.

I loved the time I spent with the other abroad students, but found it tough to meet Chilean students. Guys don't want to be your "friend" and girls don't want you around as competition. The chileans that were friendly, were really awesome. I even went to a friends home in Varas for a weekend to meet the family. It just takes extra effort to meet Chileans.

If you're up to a good level of Spanish, directly enroll in classes. It may be difficult,but well worth the opportunity to meet people and practice Spanish.