International Office Stress-free Master’s degree

Even though they are currently in a stressful phase – the stress of graduation – Ivett Stribli and Minaam Qamar are sitting quite contentedly at a conference table in the RUB admin building. Both have obtained, resp. are about to obtain, their Master’s degree as international students at RUB. And this stage is all about writing applications and making future plans.

From Hungary and India to RUB

Minaam Qamar is from India; he is currently writing his Master’s thesis in Material Science and Simulation. Ivett Stribli is a Hungarian national and pursues the Master of Education degree in English and Educational Science at RUB. She obtained her last mandatory credits one day prior to the interview and is now about to work as teacher in training in Essen, starting in 2019.

Why, then, are both less stressed than many other students? In the winter semester, they were offered graduation grants, which are awarded biannually to international students by the International Office. The purpose of the grants is to facilitate the last few month prior to graduation.

“My family has been supporting me financially for years to enable me to study in Germany. I’m very happy that this grant has taken much of the pressure off everyone,” says future teacher Ivett Stribli. She invested the grant money in, for example, certified copies and translations that she needed to apply for a trainee teacher position. At first, she wasn’t sure if she should apply for the grant, since she was earning money working as a graduate assistant. “Therefore, I read up on the grant and learned that having a job doesn’t disqualify me for it. I’m very glad that I took the chance and submitted my application,” she says.

Minaam Qamar intends to pursue a PhD after completing his Master’s degree. If possible in Zurich or perhaps in the USA. “In order to submit PhD applications, I had to pay a fee, and I also needed language proficiency certificates that I obtained by completing expensive tests,” he says. “Studying in Germany had already swallowed up my entire savings. The grant helped me get by without a part-time job.”

Simple application process

Both students found the application process simple enough. “The International Office website provides all relevant information. You can apply online. A few weeks later, I got the reply by email,” explains Ivett Stribli.

“It required very little effort on my part. I had already compiled my documents for my PhD application and many of them could also be submitted for the grant application. The entire process took maybe one day in total,” says Minaam Qamar.

The students had learned of the useful funding scheme directly at the International Office resp. in the Facebook group Be in go out. “Most people are not aware of the support RUB provides to us international students. Whereas in fact, assistance is available in many places,” says Ivett Stribli.