VU Student Takes Advantage of Exchange Opportunities: It’s Worth It Just to Get Out of Your Comfort Zone

The third-year student of the study programme Information Systems and Cyber Security at Vilnius University Kaunas Faculty Rokas Stankūnas has returned from a six-month Erasmus+ exchange programme in Reutlingen, Germany. He is delighted with the experience and does not doubt that the opportunity to change his surroundings has given him a different perspective on his studies and himself and helped him develop the qualities that will enable him to adapt more quickly to the labour market. He was impressed by the enthusiastic teachers-practitioners and the awe-inspiring nature.

Rokas says that Erasmus+ offers new experiences, places, and cultures, but the student advises you to set your expectations first. He encourages you to use this opportunity to challenge yourself, to get to know another higher education system, and to test your ability to adapt to a new environment. Most importantly, Rokas strongly recommends that you actively participate in academic community events, projects, and activities of Student’s Representation.

Rokas is doing well in his chosen studies – he has been among the top achievers in his year group for all semesters, so he hopes to complete his Bachelor's degree successfully and is already thinking about his Master's degree. The student is very satisfied with his studies and has already tested his skills in the labour market: before his trip to Germany, he worked as a customer service specialist at “Hostinger”, the world's fastest-growing group of website hosting and related services companies, completed an IT administration internship at “Teltonika”, a telematics and IoT company of Lithuanian capital, and is currently working as an IT specialist at the GAISO project. This is a project by the Research group at Vilnius University Kaunas Faculty, aimed at increasing the cyber resilience of critical infrastructure.

He urges not to miss opportunities

“I regretted not participating in the exchange programmes offered when I was at school, so I wanted to make up for it. The decision to participate in the exchange programme was made in the first semester of my studies when I learned about Erasmus+ through presentations on exchange opportunities at the Faculty. It was just a matter of deciding when to leave,” Rokas smiles.

The student jokes that handling the exchange documents was a perfect combination of German attentiveness and Lithuanian dutifulness - both the sending and the receiving institutions were prompt and helpful. However, Rokas decided to choose Germany not because of the stereotypical image of the country, which, admittedly, is quite close to the computer scientist's heart and is associated with an atmosphere of order and clarity. The student said that probably the most important reason was that a friend, with whom Rokas has been in contact since school, lives in Germany, so finally, there was an opportunity to get to know his home country together. Rokas describes the country's landscape as a significant highlight of the trip: the historic terraced vineyards on the steep slopes of the Esslingen area, Lake Constance (Bodensee), which connects the border with Austria and Switzerland and overlooks the Alps on the other side of the lake, and the medieval towns, which have an atmosphere similar to Kaunas.

Interested and motivated by the educational philosophy

“I also had a certain mission. As an active member of the Students' Representation, I understand even the systemic, organisational aspects of higher education. I wanted to compare Lithuania's higher education system with that of other countries. Germany was a pleasant surprise,” admits Rokas, who says he noticed that his time management and communication skills improved very quickly in Germany.

The student says that in Germany, students are encouraged to study independently. Although the course load was more intense than expected, there was always a desire to prepare for lectures and read more about the topics.

According to Rokas, at Reutlingen University, almost all modules required group work, discussion, joint projects, and feedback. He does not doubt that it has strengthened his skills and taught him to approach the topics from a new perspective and context. Rokas Stankūnas says that he was reluctant for the lectures to end. The lecturers in disciplines such as Distributed Systems or Cloud Computing are inspiring because they are both theoreticians and practitioners – they work for companies such as “Mercedes Benz”, or the world's leading provider of computer services, “International Business Machines” (IBM), etc. Even more surprising is that Reutlingen University has only around 5,500 students (compared to over 24,000 students of all levels at VU in 2024).

“The most surprising thing was the Lernnacht (Learning Night), an evening when the university is open until midnight, and lecturers from different specialisations advise students on academic issues,” Rokas says he is happy to see that Erasmus+ students get a lot of attention: there are meetings organised for both students and lecturers and a lot of different events that allow people to interact and make new friends.

A different view and different experiences

“An Erasmus+ exchange is worth it just for the chance to get out of your comfort zone. In a foreign country, you get to know a new environment, routine, and many new people and their cultures. It's a chance to look at your studies in a completely different light,” believes Rokas.

According to him, international exchanges are particularly useful for students of the Information Systems and Cyber Security study programme considering employment in a foreign market since they can make very good acquaintances and understand the nuances of communication in intercultural space.

He recommends Germany primarily to those already interested in the country and its culture. Although the lectures were held in English, it is important to have a basic understanding of German to grasp the managerial nuances successfully. Accordingly, it is important to know the study system in Lithuania: it is best to leave in the second or third year, but this depends very much on the study grid and the choice of course units of individual studies.

“It is very important to know what you want from your studies and which semester modules seem to be the most "sacrificial" for the mobility opportunity,“ Rokas is convinced.