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German experience wins student Erasmus Prize

A business student at Glasgow’s Strathclyde University has won the 2007 Erasmus Student Prize for his account of his year at a German university. Presenting to a panel of judges at the British Council in London, Cameron MacInnes described how he was determined to use his EU Erasmus year to master German. He adopted a 'no English' policy during his stay and took business studies courses in German at his host university.

Cameron was selected from ten finalists in the essay competition. Candidates described experiences including a year studying law at the University of Bologna and a nursing placement at a hospital in Sweden. Tom Hardinge, a geography student from Reading University, won the prize for the best series of photographs illustrating the foreign experience. Tom spent several months on Svalbard in the Arctic Circle.

All the finalists spoke enthusiastically about their time abroad. Each one had experienced a great leap forward in understanding their subject from a wider perspective and in their personal development. Sorrel Meecham from the University of Birmingham, who studied in Strasbourg, said:

'It's people like us who are running Europe. We need to travel abroad and experience other cultures.'

Kirstin MacFarlane of the University of Kent, who studied in Bologna, said:

'I learned not to take my country for granted. I never laughed, cried or learnt so much in one year'.

The Erasmus programme allows students across Europe to spend a period of time studying at a university in another European country. For more information, visit the UK Erasmus website.