Student Voice: Making it work－Tim Neuenschwander, Zurich University of Applied Sciences Winterthur, Switzerland

Tim Neuenschwander, Zurich University of Applied Sciences Winterthur, Switzerland, studied online in Fall 2021 Semester as an exchange student . We would like to introduce his experience at AIU.

Mr. Tim Neuenschwander

I am currently studying International Management at the Zurich University of Applied Sciences, School of Management and Law. The bachelor’s degree program I’m enrolled in requires every student to go abroad for two semesters. When I applied for my exchange year abroad, I had to give a range of different schools for me to be placed in, but most of my choices are in Asia, as this is a continent I haven’t really been to and was also keen on getting to know.

Fortunately, I got accepted to AIU. Unfortunately, due to the pandemic, studying on-site in Akita hasn’t been permitted for international students until now, so I was forced to have my classes online. Due to the time difference between Switzerland and Japan (8 hours), I decided to get as close to Akita as possible, so it wouldn’t be such a struggle to have online classes in Japanese Standard Time(JST). I lived in Hong Kong for 3 months and now I’ve been staying in Bangkok for the remainder of the semester.

In Hong Kong

As we don’t know how regulations at the beginning of the spring semester will turn out to be, I can only hope for AIU to be able to allow me to come to Akita in March. Meanwhile, I’ve actually been enjoying studying remotely and got to meet a whole lot of different people I would love to see in real life once I can hopefully enter Japan in 2022. I also know that the current situation is very challenging, and the uncertainty makes all decision-making hard. But still, I wouldn’t want to miss out on such an amazing experience anyways and I really do like my classes and their respective professors at AIU. I am looking forward to what will be possible next March, and I still wish to come to Akita anytime soon.

In Bangkok