Mobility specification

Country:Türkiye

Institution:Istanbul Bilgi University

City:Istanbul

Program:Erasmus+ for study

Activity type:Study

Academic year:2024/2025

MU faculty/department:Faculty of Social Studies / Department of Media Studies and Journalism

Study level abroad:Bachelor

🎓Hit the books! How do you rate the university experience?

Can you enroll in a course where you can learn the local language?yes

Does the university offer enough courses in English?they have tons

Are your credits converted?no

Was there anything in the teaching methods that surprised you?All the courses were seminars. Small classes for maybe 20 people max. At Muni I'm more used to the big lectures - but at Bilgi there aren't even big lecture rooms. And I actually liked it - I was more engaged and felt more comfortable answering questions from the lecturers.

Does the university offer international students' programs and activities outside of lectures and seminars to help them integrate more quickly?It could be better - our Erasmus club has kind of given up on it

In which areas does the university offer support for students with special needs and strive to be inclusive?Barrier-free access to classrooms and dormitories
I haven’t noticed

💸Did you have to rob the bank?

Try to take a guess at what your monthly expenditures were:25000 CZK/month

Did you stay in dorms?no

Do you have any tips on how to find private accommodation?For us it was a personal contact to a person who had been there before us, but I searched on Google for erasmus shared flats istanbul or facebook and whatsapp groups (erasmus sports international) and I could find something, but I wanted to be sure. The dorms of private universities like bilgi are extremely expensive.

What about unexpected expenses? Did anything surprise you?RESIDENCE PERMIT. I know that as Czechs we don't have it as bad as other nationalities and non-students, but I spent a really unnecessary 6,000 crowns on documents like notarization of rent, passport verification, fees... and we found a cheap notary and there were 8 of us together. If someone goes there alone with just the landlord, he can pay 7 000 just for the notarization.
Plus!!! Take out euros for rent before you leave. Withdrawing euros at an ATM will cost you more, there is a fee of 8 percent most of the time, so out of 330 euros for rent (what I had), some 20 euros was immediately in the basket.

Do you have any tips on how to save money?Free Turkish lira withdrawals only in PTT (post office) or Ziraat (probably). Cheap food- social cantinas (on google maps you need IBB Sosyal tesisleri, Lokantasi, ...) and get a supermarket card, like Migros, there are discounts. Sometimes they want to put it on your Turkish number, so use a friend's if you don't have one.
The prices for sim cards (and esim) are quite high, you can get them cheaper once you get a residence permit and you are like a "local". With a residence permit and a museum card at the same time you can go everywhere for free or for the price of a local.

Otherwise, prices are the same or worse than here, you can save money on food if you know where to go, clothes are cheap at various flea markets (kadikoy tuesday and friday bazaar, besiktas saturday bazaar, bakirkoy...), but don't buy electronics here.

🗺 Learn the ropes in a new city

How well did you manage to communicate in English?not at all

How does public transport work in the city?I've seen better

And what about transport outside the city?I've seen better

Where to find connections? How to buy a ticket?Buy a student Istanbulkart as soon as you have your residence permit. It's done at the branch, the university will tell you everything. Then you get a salinkart for 230 crowns a month, otherwise it's just 12 crowns for one trip by bus, metro, whatever (so even one stop)

I searched for connections on google maps, but there are also apps like otobusum nerede or moovit.
For long-distance connections, search on Enuygun

Did you deal with any health issues during your stay?no

🤠Help create the perfect bucket list

What is a must-see in the city?On social media you will always see mainly Galata tower, Topkapi palace, anything around the Bosphorus, etc. There's a lot of it. And it's beautiful, especially being anywhere around the water, but definitely look outside the centres, like Nakkastepe garden, Anadolu hisari, Kadikoy and Uskudar, or Balat with its beautiful cafes.

What are the must-visit trip destinations?Anywhere. You should see my Google map with all the saved points. Just going out on the streets is an experience

Share your best experience:There are so many of them, but the fact is that I spent a lot of time alone too, so I don't have that many experiences together. But I always enjoyed going for a run along the Bosphorus - nobody bothered me, I did a little dance to the run, I was anonymous, I ran around the walls and the huge bridge over the Bosphorus, I stopped for a typical tea and I was happy.

💅A nugget of wisdom to make the life easier

Did you need to handle a visa?yes

Where can it be arranged?They say you can also do it in advance, but that's probably for Germans, because I asked at the Turkish embassy in Prague and they told me it would be on the spot. The university will tell you everything and send you manuals, but basically you just collect a lot of documents and pay a lot of fees

What is needed?Insurance for example - I had ISIC insurance, but the Turkish school required some Turkish insurance or one that has a branch in Turkey:// so it wasn't ISIC, which means that you have to buy another Turkish insurance or some global insurance (I think AXA or something, but it was really expensive), or you have a CZ-TR form from your insurance company that will cover your basic costs. But then you have to go to the SGK (office) to get it translated. But it costs nothing. Write to your insurance company, it can be done online. But don't put it off as long as possible - I had it until mid-August, so I got my residence permit for that long, but if you only have it until the end of July, you should only have it until then.

How long does it take approximately?It's hard to say, a lot of nerves and if you are unlucky at the offices with queues, so easily 20 hours total (I was lucky, about 2 hours at the offices+2 hours at the notary, + about 4 hours of not understanding and stressing at the feeling. Someone didn't want to do it so much that he did it a month before departure, when there was a deadline.

How did you get to the place?Plane

Can you pay by card?in most places

What not to forget when packing?Revolut card for withdrawals. Anything you think will be cheaper in Turkey (like cosmetics), you don't take it, but then you find out it's expensive here.

🥳Summary

Whew, what a ride! 😮‍💨 Thanks so much for taking the time to complete our survey and for sharing your unique experience. Just one last thing. 🙏 How would you summarize your trip in one or two sentences?For me, Erasmus in Istanbul was about observing the political situation and discovering historical sites. And it was an adventure