Before I start writing this essay, I just made a g-talk with Dragana, my Serbian classmate from EITEI programme. I am really thankful that she is fine from the earthquake. This is one gift I get from this one-year study in Europe, the friends. Besides friends, I also harvest a new perspective of economics, some knowledge about European Economy and Policy and a precious memory about the overall experience.
EITEI is short for “M.A. Economics of International Trade and European Integration”, which is now a joint programme held by 7 partner universities ( from 2011-2012 academic year, two more universities will join the programme and the name will be changed into “M.A. Economics of Globalization and European Integration”, and WISE (Xiamen University) is one of the two new partners). As the name implies, this programme provides an internationalized and integrated schedule for the students. For three semesters, we need to spend each of them in different universities which locate in three different countries. In my case, in time order they are Université des Sciences et Technologies de Lille (Lille 1) in France, Universiteit Antwerpen in Belgium and Vysoká škola ekonomická v Praze (Prague University of Economics) (VŠE) in Czech Republic. Actually, the names of the universities present another attractive point of this programme. Language courses of French, Dutch and Czech were optional courses from which you could learn the daily dialogues. Even we used the languages in an awkward way, the local people still showed their smiles for feeling respected.
Besides the language courses, the curricula consisted of three main parts: the economics theories, the applications of the theories to European issues and the European Policies. In France, the lectures focused on economics theories. Honestly, even though the curricula also included microeconomics, macroeconomics and econometrics, compared with the lectures we had in WISE, the concept taught should not be labeled as “advanced” level. But the professors emphasized more on the intuitions. Usually, not only did they explain the intuitions but also required us to think over them. Actually, this is an effective way to understand the theories.
The lectures in Belgium were a combination of the applications and policies. We learnt the pros and cons about the European integration from EEI (economics of European Integration). The policies were introduced to us from the aspects of environment, competition and cohesion. These lectures guided us to understand the functions and characteristics of the union. It was a knowledge expansion for the students from outside the union. Our dissertation topics were also decided in this semester by a two-way selection. We chose from the topic list as we preferred and the professors decided whether to accept our choice or not according to our academic performances. It was challenging for us, the students who didn’t come from European countries to analyze the empirical problems in European Union. But if we put it in another way, it was interesting to apply what we have learned in class to the European issues especially from a viewpoint of a foreigner. I think this is the reason why they enroll a lot of foreign students every year.
The last semester was spent in Czech Republic. The lectures were mainly about the transition economics and international trade theory. Luckily, the professor who taught us these two lectures was quite familiar with Chinese issues. So many comparisons between the Europe and China were made to check the efficiency of the implemented policies. This distinctive method made the lectures more attractive and friendly to me.
Even if the study was the main theme, the life in EITEI was really colorful. The leisure time could never be boring with the choices of theater, café, bar and home-host party. As long as we guaranteed the quality of our studies, these activities didn’t distract us; instead, they provided opportunities for us to make friends and get in touch with various cultures. For example, we learnt that French Fries should be called Belgian Fries and curry is the name of a cuisine in India rather than a name of an ingredient. And it was a life-long memory to host the whole class a Chinese dinner in Spring Festival by Hu feixiang and me. For our Chinese students, there was one more benefit by joining these activities, practicing our spoken English.
Travelling was another important component of this one-year life in Europe. There were group trips to Paris and Stockholm. But mostly, we travelled in small groups or alone in the two breaks between semesters. Certainly, sightseeing was one purpose of travelling but more importantly, I got intuitional explanation of the integration lectures by observing the real life circumstance.
Living abroad could never be easy. But the knowledge, the friendship and the memory per se overwhelm the hardness. The benefit from spending one year in EITE is far beyond what I can explain in this essay or may be beyond what I can realize.
（WISE2008级硕士生 周宇）
