Auf Wiedersehen, Germany - hello, America! Ulm University bid farewell to 15 students bound for the USA and Canada for a yearlong academic exchange. At their host universities, the students from the Faculty of Mathematics and Economics will not only be attending lectures and earning a Master of Science degree, but they will also be working as teaching assistants and giving tutorials.

Professor Hans-Joachim Zwiesler, coordinator of the foreign exchange programme, explains the advantages of the long-standing cooperation: "We have been offering this exchange programme for nearly 40 years, so we have a great deal of experience. The processes are well tuned and the American colleagues are accustomed to German assistants. The students benefit from the long-standing programme as well, in the form of local contacts, for instance. Some participants from earlier years have become professors themselves at the universities in the USA. In this way, we hope to continue to expand the cooperation".

All of the participants from Ulm are master's degree students in either a mathematics or economics programme. The exchange programme participants were required to provide evidence of above-average English skills and submit a very good bachelor's degree transcript. The work as a teaching assistant also serves to finance their stay at the host university.

The students can relate their experiences from their partner universities not only on their own regular blog, but also via the new Ulm University Instagram account. Over the course of the next few months, several "takeovers" are planned, in which the students will take over the channel themselves and report on their daily life in the USA or in Canada.