neela1982

Hello all!

Firstly I would like to introduce myself - I am new here and I have browsed in the past these forums and I found them (threads and posts) quite interesting!!

I am currently a student doing a Higher education course, which is equivelent to first year of a bachelors degree. After I complete this course, I plan to do a further two years to get the whole degree. I am looking to do this at a university that facilitates student exchange programs to Switzerland. I know that swiss. isnt part of the EU or the ECC, however I have read on one of the government of swiss. websites that they are doing a type of an agreement, where they are allowing students to come to swiss. under the erasmus program (for EU member states) and they are even offering grants for students to go there. However the website that i had a look at was half in German and it wasnt very comprehensive. Honestly it was quite vague, .i.e no info on what UK universities have agreements with universities in Swiss. (or WHICH universities in swiss. for that matter!)

Does anyone have experience of going through this? I think its quite amazing that it is relatively easy to find exchange programs for UK students to go to the USA, but not to Swiss!

I hope someone can shed light!

Thanks in advance.

Roger O

Hi, I'm a retired expat Brit who lived and worked in Switzerland for Swissair as IT funtional specialist (mainframe) for 24 years 1970-1994 then moved to work near Nice in France till 2003.

I have two daughters in their 40s who grew up and live in Switzerland so am quite familiar with most things going on there.

For the moment, as I've just read your post, I'll point you to the first information I found on this subject - which is not too helpful, but a start..
http://www.swissinfo.org/eng/search/...st&sid=7577944

I'll do some more research and come back on this thread as soon as I know more!

As to the university, it depends on what you wish to specialise in.
Also, do you speak French or German? The "German" Swiss don't speak "high" German too well, but a rather strange (to foreigners) dialect called "Schwiizerdüütsch" which looks terrible as written..
However, you will find that a very large percentage of Swiss speak English, so you shouldn't have too much language difficulty.

I'll try to come back on the thread tomorrow!
All the best,
Roger

PS - here's further info from the same source as above which looks more hopeful
http://www.sbf.admin.ch/htm/themen/i...tional_en.html

PPS another link more to the point:
http://www.crus.ch/information-progr....html?L=2#c332

neela1982

Hi Roger,

Thank you very much for your invalueable links. I really do appreciate and respect people such as yourself with such a great experience and wisdom.

Just to let you know a little more about me - I am doing a higher education certificate course in International Relations and European Studies, and after this I plan to do either a further two years on a Bachelor or do a Masters degree in Communications, Interpretation and Diplomacy, for which you need one language to gain a place on the course. The languages required are "non-standard" languages and are mainly languages needed by military personal overseas. One of the languages required is Pashto language, and I speak Pashto fluently. I want to spend some of my study time (either during Masters or Bachelors) in Geneva, Switzerland so I can become involved with the UN through an Internship program or work placement. Ideally, i want to be able to do this whilst enrolled for a semester or so at a Geneva University, facilitated by a student exchange program in a UK university.

Funnily enough if i do end up going to Switzerland for studies, I plan to work part time before and after my UN Internship, to help finance my study. If i do work part time, i would want it to be in the travel industry as I have a travel qualification (GALILEO)

However, my problem is finding a UK University that has links with a Geneva institution to facilitate an exchange. I also need to make sure that the tuition in Geneva is in English!! I guess if there are UK Universities that have links with Swiss Universities, they would have gotton around the language part of things.

Once again, thanks for your help! I truely appreciate it!

Roger O

Hi Neela,
Thanks for your explanation. My main problem is that, having left the UK in 1970 - I have absolutely no contact to any British university. I will try on another forum - where there are many teachers and ex-teachers to find out something.

Meanwhile, you mentioned Galileo - which is part of my own history!!!
I was engaged in the Galileo development project as specialist in IATA intersystems notification processes, seconded by Swissair IT Division (later Atraxis) for 5 months to Amsterdam (Fokker building) November 1987 to March 1988 then to Swindon April 1988 to March 1990.
http://galileo.com/galileo/en-ch/about/history/
This extract includes my own story:
1987
In response to the growing need for CRS automation in Europe , the Galileo Company Ltd is incorporated in and by shareholders British Airways, Swissair, KLM, Alitalia and Covia. United Airlines is selling 50% of the Covia shares to the above partners, creating the Covia Partnership. In the first access to the IT-system of Swissair (Traviswiss) is realized with Rewi Reisen in Wil/SG.
(They missed out TAP Portuguese Airline and OS Austrian Airlines - naughty!)

Actually the whole thing was a political move by United/Covia to upgrade Apollo and turn it into a world CRS - We already knew it in Amsterdam but those at the top refused to acknowledge it (with the connivance of Britiosh Airways management!)

Anyway, after returning to Swissair and March 1990 (otherwise I would have lost my residency permit!!) I rechecked all my options and the way Swissair was (panic) moving after the Swiss vote against the EU in 1992 - and moved in 1994 (aged 56!) to Amadeus near Nice, France - which has turned out to be the dominent Europe based and funded World CRS!! There I stayed till retirement in 2003 while Swissair went down and down due to various erroneous magement decisions and finally (very sadly for all our SR Family all over the world!) went into bankruptcy - re-emerging as a diminished "Swiss" airline - now swallowed by Lufthansa.

Just for info - Galileo partners were all IBM IPARS users and the rival Amadeus, started about the same time (but in Miami then to Sophia Antipolis - France's answer to Silicon Valley), was composed all the European Unisys users SAS, Lufthansa, Air France and Iberia - which finally ended up as http://www.amadeus.com/amadeus/amadeus.html
They're always expanding and looking for people. Over 40 nationalities all working in English - check the career opportunities - including the "internships"! There are also worse places to live and work than the French Riviera!!

Anyway.. I'll get back to you on this thread as soon as possible if/when I get some info on the UK universities..
Cheers,
Roger

neela1982

WOW! What can i say? This is wonderful! God bless you! Your history seems amazing and seems very very interesting indeed. You seem to have a lot of experience, which is fantastic!
I did a Travel and Tourism course at college last year and learning how to use GALILEO as a travel agent was one thing we learnt and I have a certificate to show that I can use GALILEO! However I always thought that if i were to work for in the travel industry, i would want to do more of the nitty gritty stuff, instead of being a mere travel agent working for a travel operator selling flight tickets. I decided then to continue my education and I love travel, but at the same time i wanted to do something more academic, so then I decided to do International Relations and European Studies. I want to have a career that involves travelling and I guess if I pursue International Relations and diplomacy I can use that to whet my appetite for travel and also do a job that I enjoy. When i was younger (I am 26 know!) I did a Media and Journalism course, which led me to getting a contract with the BBC World Service and I worked for them as a Broadcast Assistant for a little while. I then went to LA and worked at Universal Studios for a bit and then came back, worked for some ethnic media in London and then I decided to do something different - so thats when i did the travel course.

The idea of working direclty for a CRS is very appealing. We learnt a lot about the history of CRS and how Americans Airlines were involved in developing some of them. I think its very interesting.

Shifting back to the topic - I found that University of Geneva does some International Relations courses at Masters level, taught in English, so there they have something worth considering. However, on their website, they didnt have much info on what university in the UK they have links with.

Thank you very much for your help!

Roger O

You're welcome.. I'm waiting for any reply from my other contacts..

By the way, another option with Amadeus, unless they've changed it due to the "crisis" or whatever, is that employees get certain "concessions" on partner carrier flights - which is very interesting - especially with AF, LH, SK and Thai Airways.. QF may also be doing some - so longhaul possibilities exist for people who like to travel on vacations.. or are expats from many other world regions and enables them to visit their families..

More soon
Roger

PS Yes American Airlines AA developed and own a CRS too called Sabre.. not too keen on the functionality myself, though.. and definitely not the "cutting edge" which the name may suggest!!

neela1982

Amadeus offering long haul flights consession certainly sounds good! But youre probably right with the crises - i doubt they still offer the consessions. I would be amazed if they do!

Roger O

Hi Neela,
Somebody pointed me to this link - which is not exactly what your're looking for - but in the right direction.. I'm still trying to find one for Geneva..

http://www.kent.ac.uk/european/study...itzerland.html

Watch this space!!
Roger

1300: Bingo for University of Geneva!
http://www.swan.ac.uk/erasmus/Partne...ceSwitzerland/
Scroll down - see Geneva.

I'll carry on to see if there are others, but meanwhile you could try to contact Swansea university??

neela1982

Roger, you are an absolute darling!!! Thank you thank you thank you so much!! Now I know which UK universities have a link with an institution in CH. I so appreciate your help. I went to Kent's website and as it seems, they do have a link with University Lausanne and thats for students studying International Relations!! Now i just need to confirm whether they teach it in English! I think ill call them. THANK YOU! eat some cake

Roger O

Hi Neela
Thanks for the compliment! Happy to be able to help.
For the moment I won't search any more unless you need further links
Is that OK?
Roger

neela1982

Oh no, thats fine. Thank you SO much for your help Roger. God Bless.