Sofía and Inés both study ‘Social Work and Criminology’ at Comillas University in Madrid. As exchange students, they follow the minor ‘In Search of Meaning’ at HAN University of Applied Sciences.

Why did you choose to study for a dual degree? 

Inés: I chose to do this dual degree because I thought studying social work alone would not be enough. I’m from a poor neighborhood in Madrid and I always saw these great inequalities around me, so I also know where certain crime comes from. Hence, the combination with criminology. 

Sofía: In my case, it was the other way around. I come from a rich background and as a kid, I thought everything in the world was like ‘my world’. Meeting people from other places opened my eyes. I started to feel angry about it, seeing the social injustices and felt the need to personally do something about it…even if I only contribute something small. 

What are some differences between studying in Madrid and here? 

Inés: Pffff…a lot! 

Sofía: Here in the Netherlands, I feel we are very free to do whatever we like. We can choose the topics and bring things to class to discuss. While in Spain, at least at our university, most of the time you just sit down and listen, write down everything you hear. And at the exam, you must repeat everything you’ve heard in class. 

Inés: And we deal with a lot of pressure, a lot of papers. We have class 5 days a week and then a lot of things to do in the afternoon, so we don’t have much spare time. We do study a lot of interesting things, but because it’s a lot, you don’t really enjoy learning them. 

What can we learn from each other, about how we educate here in Nijmegen and in Madrid? 

Sofía: In Madrid, it is really organized, but the way it is organized doesn’t make a lot of sense to me. What I really like in Spain though is that we have a lot of professionals showing us things. For example, the police come and talk about what they do. I really enjoy that.  

Exchange students Inés and Sofía

Inés: In Madrid, we’re always waiting for the teachers to give us instructions. Without a clear guide, we feel lost. Here we must learn how to make papers ourselves, without having that structure. So here we learn to be more independent. 

Sofía: We also study at a religious institution. We had a course called ‘Christianism’. I agreed, thinking we must learn about different religions and that we could share our opinions. I thought it would focus on social work and how we could help people who are religious. But it turned out that it was more like a catechism and that the teacher was closed-minded and just wanted to talk about his own point of view.  

Inés: I think that people should be able to believe whatever they want and say whatever they want. Don’t try to make others believe what you want because that’s not how it works. Even though, Comillias is one of the best universities in the country, at least for social work. And we have amazing teachers who are wonderful at their job, both as teachers as in society. At public universities, the classes are big, and teachers don’t know your name, while we really have a good relationship with our teachers.  

Would you advise other students to do an international exchange? 

Inés: Yes, I think so. You have more time to think about whát you are learning. At home, we have too many things to do and cannot really stop to reflect.  

Sofía: But also, time to really learn it, instead of just memorizing it for your exam, and the only aim is to pass it.  

What do you find peculiar or nice about the people here? 

Sofía: People are very welcoming.  

Inés: Ja! 

Sofía: Obviously, we don’t speak Dutch. We can only say ‘hallo’ and ‘doei’. But when we go to a shop and start to speak English, they are always ready to answer in English. Or they call a colleague or something. They don’t just give up on us.  

Inés: Here, many people speak English. In Spain, it’s so difficult to get around with only English. 

Sofía: If people from our parent’s generation speak English, it’s because they wanted to learn it themselves. At school, they didn’t learn much. But our generation can speak English. Some are better, some worse, but we know that we have to learn it because otherwise, you can’t move around.  

How do you like living in the Netherlands so far? 

Sofía: I like it a lot. Except that I cannot get used to the times that people eat here. 

Inés: And the weather! It’s always raining. And even when it is sunny, a few minutes later it starts to rain. But we enjoy being here so much. 

Sofía: I think I couldn’t live here for the rest of my life, for one because of the language. 

Inés: I would miss the sun too much.  

Would you consider living here if you find a nice Dutch guy? 

Inés & Sofía: No way! He would have to come and stay in Spain. 

And if he spoke Spanish? 

Inés: That would be nice because then he could come and live in Spain. 

Sofía: For me, he would have to speak Basque, and that is very difficult to learn. But my mom told me: “Don’t bring back a Dutch boy. They are very handsome, but they are also boring.” I asked her: “Do you know any Dutch guys?”