Dipto Bormon is a first-year student in the Information Engineering B.Sc. degree course at HAW Hamburg. He is from Bangladesh, which is also where he completed his first HAW Hamburg semester because he didn’t receive a visa in time to move to Germany.
Dipto chose HAW Hamburg because the course modules in Information Engineering matched his interests and his previous studies. At HAW Hamburg he could also increase his knowledge of computer science and information technology, as well as of programming languages such as C, C++ and Java. He was highly impressed by the programme’s coursework, which is arranged in seven semesters, with a significant piece of the educational plan involving lab work, undergraduate projects and a practical semester in industry.
When he was offered the opportunity to study at HAW Hamburg, Dipto expected to be in Hamburg at the beginning of the winter semester in September 2021. However, due to the corona situation in Bangladesh, the German Embassy in Dhaka discontinued their activities in the visa section for several months. This resulted in an unexpected waiting period for visa applicants. He applied for a visa appointment in January 2021 and was offered an appointment in January 2022.
At first he was disappointed that he would only be able to start his studies online. Unfortunately for Dipto, a lot of the teaching at HAW Hamburg in the winter semester was returning to in-person classes because the corona situation in Hamburg was not as bad. Of the five classes Dipto had to take in the first semester, two were offered online (Learning & Study Methods 1, Beginners German) and three were in person (Mathematics, Software 1, and Electrical Engineering), which meant he couldn’t take them and will have to catch up in Hamburg.
Dipto made the best of things, even though the lectures were really long and he had never participated in a class that lasted three hours before. It wasn’t always easy to concentrate for so long. The time difference of five hours between Germany and Bangladesh also made it a challenge. But thankfully everyone from the professors to the general staff were very friendly and got on well with international students. In the project tasks, the participants were very helpful. Dipto got all the help he needed from the professors and was fascinated by the methods for delivering lectures using the latest digital technology.
Even though Dipto was in Bangladesh, he still found it easy to meet the other students. After everyone was enrolled, the International Office started a WhatsApp group through which he connected with my classmates. He thinks this was a fantastic idea. He got to know some of his professors on the orientation day and has been connected with all of them since.
