University of Applied Sciences, Fulda

Part Two

Relaxed rules and regulations and non-hierarchical relationships are all new and foreign to the interviewee: ". . . that we didn’t have to be actually present, which is rather foreign to me . . . so that was a particular freedom in that. Secondly, there was no coordination like the strong coordination of your study program . . . in Turkmenistan we had a clear picture at the beginning . . . here it is rather free. And it has been free to me at the very beginning or too free and too spontaneous, where you had to cope with that somehow by yourself, which I found a few months later very good and useful for other spheres of your life, like to act independently."
Once again the formal outcome of the studies is of great importance: ". . . [what is important to me] first the knowledge I get here and, second, the diploma . . . I would like to for my country, then, if I am, if I go back, in Turkmenistan and diploma is the, the— well, the matter which matters . . ."
It is also a source of worry that the students are responsible for keeping records of their credits themselves: ". . . that all the credits we do here, I am rather pragmatical and purpose-oriented in this concern, that all the credits we get here are to be kept by ourselves . . . I would like to make sure about the data, about the data keeping . . ."
As for the city, the evaluation is positive: ". . . that is good for the city to have such courses to get more opened to outside, in religious concerning, or in cultural concern . . . the courses that we have at the university would bring a balance to this, well, conservative tendency in Fulda."

The Philippines

Part One

According to Hofstede's rankings, the Philippines have a very high power distance. ". . . the professors would just give us some guidelines and how to do it, but nevertheless he was always there to supervise . . . give a lot of comments and would continually improve what we were doing . . . attendance is a must every time . . ."
The Philippines are among the countries with low individualism. The professors, or the authorities can have great influence. "They are very influential, somehow, because you get a lot of ideas from them and since they have a lot of, um, experiences . . . you spend a lot of time together talking about these ideas . . . sometimes we just met on the street or on a café, and then we talked about
certain things . . ." This openness, however, does not mean that one need not observe the unwritten rules: "Even though you are close to the professor, don’t be sure that you’re going to get good grades. You have, you still have to pass, um, all the exams and meet the requirements . . . you still have to differentiate that they are the profs, that they still have the power to fail you or to pass you depending on your performance . . . you can still express your opinion, but you still have to be careful. You have to know your border, you still have to show respect to him– and even though you are outside the school you have to still call him professor or sir . . ."
Receiving guidance is of great importance: ". . . every term we go to our guidance counsellor . . . they give us advice . . . guidance counselling is very important, every term it has to be done . . . you get the guidance and you can graduate."