Should I study in Australia or in Germany?

I have a huge dilemma at the moment! I would love to see your suggestions.

Before I came to Berlin, I was offered a place to study marketing at a university in Australia after I completed high school. I chose to defer that course for 1 year to come to Germany to develop fluency in German. Since I've been here, I have fallen in love with this city, and wish to live here in the future for many reasons (one of them being that the euro beats the living daylights out of the Australian dollar). Recently, I have been thinking that I would rather attend university here than in Australia. As such, I looked up some university courses here that are taught in English. I found one that I'm really keen on, except there are a few setbacks...

Course in Berlin - International Business Management http://www.fhw-berlin.de/index.php?id=2046&L=1#c7953
Cons:

• Submission deadline is the 15 of this month for an October start. I have doubts that if I submit my documents tomorrow, it won't make it in time (the submission also has to go through another organisation to check the validity of the documents). The next start is in April, 2008. I don't want to waste time.

• The course takes 4 years for a bachelor's degree. For a BA in the marketing course in Australia, it only takes 3 years.

• The course is difficult to get in, as it only accepts 35 people per intake.

• The course involves way too much maths and other boring shit.

• Bachelor of Arts??

• The course is new.

• What am I going to here until April??? More importantly, what am I going to do if I reject the course in Australia and then I don't get accepted for this course that starts in April?

Pros:

• 2 study terms abroad, 1 term internship abroad or in an international oriented company/organisation. <--- Very enticing.

• A future in Germany/Europe for me!

• Practically free to do this course, compared to the course in Australia.

• Better employability prospects as business management is broad, marketing is more specific.

• My language abilities might give me the edge?

• I prefer to mingle with German students over Australian ones. And thus, I think being in a German classroom would be more enjoyable for me.

Course in Australia - Marketing http://www.courses.qut.edu.au/cgi-bin/WebO...n?courseID=3986
Cons:

• Topics are geared towards the Australian system, but topics appear to be more interesting than the ones in the business course.

• I don't really want to go back to Australia.

• Expensive.

• I prefer the future I might have if I did the other course, even though it'll take longer to complete and the topics look like they'd bore me.

Pros:

• Next start is in February, 2007.

• Secured place for me to start the course.

If you read through all of that and can offer me some suggestions, I thank you from the bottom of my heart.

just two points I'd like to make so you are aware; a Fachhochschule is not the same as a University in Germany. They are generally considered inferior to universities (with one or two notable exceptions), Also, a Bachelors degree is not universally accepted here either.

Thank you for your two points. I will look into that. Your two points might just save me from a lot of stress and possibly a grave mistake in the future. Thanks.

By the way, what qualification is universally accepted here?

Don't worry about that. Universities/ Fachhochschulen used to award the "Diplom". But this is changing completely at the moment because of the "Bolognaprozess". By the time you would be graduating Bachelor/Master will be the only degrees. So companies will have to accept them.

You can probably find a survey showing the proportion of schools that have already changed on the net. I guess most business schools have already done that.

Another point:

Why don't you consider to choose a course that is taught in German? It should't be that difficult for you as you have been living here for a while now (as it seems). There is several courses/subjects taught in English at my university. The professors have a German accent of course, so it is easy for my German mates and me to understand them, but it works.

One of my professors once said that there is 200 English terms which one has to know to be able to understand most English texts in business/economics. I think that he is right. At the beginning I had to look up many words but after a while I had no problems at all.

I think you mean February 2008. You say the next intake over here is April 2008, if you miss the June 15th deadline. That's really not much difference.

Since you said that you don't really want to go back to Australia then studying in Germany would make it easier to live/work here in the future.

Hi Oomcha,

as Owain has said the Fachhochshule is not equivalent to a uni. I know it has been said many times that the diplom system is changing to align German education to international classifications but you really have to look this up when consider between a diplom and a Bachelors as it can cause problems for you when applying for a job here. Also, I would suggest you look at doing German courses so you can choose from a wider range of subjects. English is already your native language so I think what would give you an edge is a degree in German.

If you only have a week to decide (I take my time in these things) I would suggest going home for the first semester and using your time in Germany now to improve your German and suss out unis and courses for an October 2008 start. I also think that by taking your time to choose a place you are more likely to be really happy with your uni and the subjects you take will have a real appeal to you which becomes quite important as you go through a four year course. If you are really keen not to lose time, perhaps you can consider asking QUT if you can do a summer 2007 start so you get an extra semester in and that way you only have July to September to wait before you start uni here. You can also take extra German classes during that time to keep up your German while you are away. If you check thoroughly you could also get credit for the courses that you do while you are at home.

You are only 17/18 so you have plenty of time though I can understand you are very enthusiastic to start uni. People in Europe start uni a little older than we Queenslanders do and I get the feeling that living a little (taking breaks to do a cultural exchange for example is quite common) the pressure and desire to rush through and be finish at 20 doesn´t exist here. Personally I think this is a good thing as you get to hopefully have more exposure to the real world which I think is very important in marketing as you´ll have to deal with a lot more cultural aspects working in Europe which you can´t always learn from textbooks.

Best wishes and hope I have been of some help.

CM