Uni à la UBA – just an alibi for having the time of our lives?

The classes of our “Cuatrimestre” here in Buenos Aires started three weeks ago, and after some first impressions of the faculty, professors, style of the classes, and the tutor program of the university, it’s safe to say that the Universidad de Buenos Aires (UBA) is nothing like what we’re used to from home. Turns out that our home base Maastricht University (UM) is not only a lot more organised and on time when it comes to course selections or time schedules of tutorials, but you would also never imagine to have pre-drinks at the SBE faculty in Maastricht – something that’s not all that unusual here at the UBA.

But instead of only going into detail about the amazing tutor program of the university, and all the fiestas and parties that come along with it, that are making our time here even better and busier than it would’ve been anyway, let’s rather have a look at the TOP 15 Most Interesting and Entertaining Features of the Facultad de Ciencias Económicas (fce). But while reading the following, please, keep in mind that I am writing from the perspective of a little exchange student who just wants to travel the world and make good memories. At the same time, there are a lot of hard working students attending this university, who are – unlike us at the moment – really studying a lot and accomplishing great things, and for whom university might look a lot different than for us exchange students, so don’t be too deceived by my view of things.

On the first day of class, big newspapers were handed out at the entrance of the faculty. What we first turned away as advertisements for some student associations or events, turned out to be an essential guide to find the “aulas” (rooms) of our classes. Don’t expect to find them anywhere online – the newspaper is the only way.
Professors come to class at least 15-30 minutes late, by default. At the same time, as a student, it’s okay to arrive to class 1 1/2 hours late, or leave after 30 minutes. A phenomenon we witnessed from the first day onwards, and first perceived as something that would only happen occasionally, but soon turned out to be a regular thing across all our classes.
Many professors also decide that 1 out of the 3 scheduled classes per week won’t take place, period. That’s how my Marketing course went from Monday/Wednesday/Thursday to only Monday & Wednesday classes – I guess the professor just wants a long weekend as well.
In the 15 minutes between the official beginning of a course and the time the professor arrives, the entire class has to bear a 5 minute speech by a group of representatives of some kind of political student association. Afterwards, they force you to take their flyers, which you add to the stack on your desk that you already found there when arriving at your seat.
Smoking is allowed inside the building and the security guards on every floor seem to do nothing else but taking advantage of these loose regulations.
The American-style desk-chair constructs tend to provoke some early morning aggressions when simply crossing your legs moves the entire thing and makes you spill your Cafe con leche all over the place.
Speaking of which: a small Cafe con leche that’s not even all that bad is available for €0,50 at the little kiosk in the courtyard of the faculty. And a tall one (300ml), for which Starbucks would easily charge you €5, only costs €1,20. SBE faculty and CoffeeLovers, we’d be grateful for some price adjustments!
Classes at the UBA might start as early as 7am and the latest classes take place from 9-11pm. These time slots are for all the students who basically work full-time and do their studies on the side. Respect to all those who manage – luckily, we didn’t get any of those times. As if we would’ve made it to the 7am classes anyway.
Maybe it’s due to these extensive hours of classes, or maybe it’s because Argentinians don’t ever sleep. Whatever it may be, apparently, many people are too lazy to take the stairs, which is why there’s always a long queue in front of the elevator, and people wait up to three times for the elevator to return before they can get on. Another interesting moment was when I first spotted the guy sitting on a chair inside the elevator, whose only job it is to push the right button, and thus, getting everyone safely to their desired “piso” (floor).
In general, our schedules are more than alright: Tuesdays and Fridays off, and only two hours of class on Wednesday are leaving plenty of room for extended weekends of travelling, or some much needed recovery time in bed after yet another night out.
Our classes here are a lot different than at Maastricht University: professors tend to talk a lot about their private lives and personal anecdotes, they manage to spend a full two hours on explaining how to properly brainstorm or what the first step of the Marketing Process includes (something that’s covered within 15 minutes of your first Marketing class in Maastricht), and according to UM standards, every single team from my micro-firm class would have failed their presentation, due to poor layout and presentation style, while the tutor here seemed to love it, and praised us all for having done such a good job. It might have to do with the fact that we’re only taking elective classes that the level is a lot lower than what we’re used to, but I’m not going to complain. Going to university in BA is a nice break from our busy schedules and studies in Maastricht!
One big plus of our faculty here: there’s free printing at the student service centre – no need to charge your RicohMyPrint account to be able to print, like in Maastricht.
One big minus: EVERY KIND OF DOCUMENT needs to be signed, even the tutor evaluation form and the course selection sheet. This elevated level of bureaucracy makes a poor exchange student’s life much more complicated than it should be. Especially, when the course selection needs to be handed in a million times because one course always seems to be full or doesn’t fit into the schedule.
Alexia, the email-correspondence-phantom – aka international relations secretary -, with whom we’ve all had a lot of contact since being accepted at the UBA, but whom we’ve never met before arriving here, looked a lot different than we had imagined. The lady that answered all our emails and questions about whether we actually needed to speak Spanish beforehand, or how the course selection works again, seemed more like a tall, trendy Argentinian woman in her 50s, rather than the short, conservative, a bit nerdy, and surprisingly young lady, with a headset around her neck, that we got to meet at the faculty. Regardless, we were finally able to get on her nerves with all our problems in person – Gracias, Alexia!
Last but not least: The tutor program of our faculty is simply amazing! Each one of us was assigned to a tutor that is there to help us with our courses, to find our way around the city, or any other questions we might have. But up until now, they’ve done so much more for us than just take us by the hand and show us around! Every week, there’s at least two scheduled events by the tutor program. Be it Tuesdays at Jobs Bar, a Neon Party, going to “Fuerza Bruta” together, Open Bar on Friday, City tours, a free Salsa course, or a “previa” (pre-drinks) at the faculty – our tutors are making sure that we won’t be bored for even a second. And besides going out with the entire group of exchange students, individual tutors have also took it upon themselves to go out for dinner with us, help plan birthday-surprise parties, act as private tutors for improving our Spanish, or as city guides to show us their “barrio” (district), and give tips and recommendations for all our travel plans. I don’t even know where to start to thank these amazing people for all they’re doing for us. They’re truly making this exchange semester in BA unforgettable – gracias por todo, chicos!

As you can see, the past weeks at our university have been rather relaxed and we’re enjoying the appreciated break from Maastricht tutorial- and facilitation-stress. Maybe going to class here really is just an alibi for enjoying our time in BA and travelling around. After all, who really believed we’d come here to study all day long and improve our Grade Point Average? Buenos Aires and this entire country have so much to offer and we’re aiming for discovering it all. So, stay tuned for our upcoming Argentina travel adventures!