Living and learning in Lisbon – A semester abroad in unusual times 

Although the stay was marked by travel restrictions and distance learning, he gained great experiences, visited beautiful places and met new friends from all over the world. In the following lines, he reports on life, studying and travelling in Portugal.

“The city of Lisbon, with about 500,000 inhabitants, is quite compact compared to Vienna and has a relatively frequent and reliable public network (compared to other large cities in European southern countries) consisting of bus, tram and metro. As many hotels were struggling with empty rooms, they offered rooms for long-term rent to students or self-employed people. We finally decided on a centrally located hotel room, from which we could also explore the city on foot. So we decided to use public transport for the duration of the semester with simple one-way tickets. These are also relatively cheap at less than €1.50 per trip.“

“The Técnico is generally organised in a similar way to the UAS Technikum, as a lot of emphasis was also placed on practical projects and teamwork in small groups. The IST has three locations, all of which are in the greater Lisbon area: Alameda in Lisbon, Taguspark and Loures, both about 35 minutes away from the main campus. Most of our courses should have taken place at the new campus in Taguspark. But since it was taught via Distance Learning, we were able to do most of the courses from home and didn’t have to take the university’s own shuttle bus to the campus.”

“The performance assessment mostly consisted of 3-5 assessments (scientific papers, self-produced videos, exams, presentations, quizzes after the courses). You choose 4 courses for each semester, which always take place at the same times during the semester. The “Seminars on Innovation and Sustainable Development” were highly recommended. The subjects “Foundations of IT Systems” and “Technology Based Entrepreneurship” were also very good, while the course on “Environmental Impacts” was only average.“

©Simon Salzer

Besides living and studying in another country, travelling is also one of the main experiences of a semester abroad:

“Despite the travel restrictions that came with the pandemic, I managed to travel to great places in Portugal: Porto, the Algarve coast (Faro, Lagos) and also the Azores in the Atlantic. Travelling always involved a lot of uncertainty – so you had to be particularly flexible. Nevertheless, the experiences I was able to gain in Lisbon and in the other places as well as the new fellow students and new friends made outside of the university, are priceless. In conclusion, I can only recommend all students to take advantage of the opportunity to study abroad for a semester!”

Students can find more testimonials in the Online Portal, find information about applications in the FHTW International Moodle course and can contact the International Office via outgoing.students@technikum-wien.at if they are interested in a semester abroad.

The application deadline for semesters abroad in the winter semester 2021/22 is 01 March 2021!