Studying in Belarus

Every school, college, and university here start their academic year on the 1st of September.  This is why it is very important to apply to the university beforehand in order to get to Belarus in time for the beginning of your studies. Of course, the universities understand that there might be situations when your arrival can get delayed, yet nobody is going to wait for you, and you will have to do a lot of catching up with the rest of the class after you finally get here.

An academic year at a university has 2 semesters or terms. During the semester students attend lectures, seminars and other forms of educational activities. Lectures are more about theory -  listening to the lecturer, writing down some important stuff and asking any questions you have. Seminars and laboratory works are more about putting the theory you received at the lectures into practice.

At the end of every semester comes the time dreaded by all students - the end-of-term exams, where you have to prove that you have successfully mastered every subject of the term. A peculiar thing is that winter end-of-term exams tend to start in the end of December or in the beginning of January, so there's practically no time for Christmas and New Year celebrations. After you pass your winter exams, you get to have a short break - about 10 days - before the next semester starts. Summer exams usually take up the whole month of June, so you get July and August for a longer break between academic years. And then on the 1st of September, you start all over again :)

In general Belarusian higher education system is considered to be a strict one. Professors and teachers pay attention to how often their students attend classes, a student can even get expelled from the university for missing too many classes in a semester. Some of the teachers require students to take notes of their lectures or to do a lot of assignments - it's all about discipline and learning material by heart. It may seem a bit strange to foreigners whose educational systems are more relaxed and based on self-studies, yet this kind of system has a clear advantage: you will definitely learn the basics of every subject and won't miss the important things that you have to know about them. How you perform both at the exams and at your future work later on will depend on your own ability to use and adjust every bit of knowledge you have.

But, of course, things change as the global trend influence the field of education worldwide. With the development of information technologies studying in a university becomes more interesting and less tedious. Belarusian universities also have many talented teachers who really know how to inspire their students. You just have to try it yourself!

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