"Dear Prof. Dr.

re.

of course

..." how often have I hesitated for minutes, googled the right title and worked on grandiose formulations before sending e-mails with questions to lecturers.

From day one, I was taught at university that professors (female form not necessary, I didn't have a single class with a female professor in my bachelor's degree) were demigods and had to be treated with the necessary respect.

For fear of appearing stupid or wasting their valuable time, I mostly kept my questions and doubts to myself.

If I did say something, the reaction was often sobering: on every possible occasion, lecturers accused me, at least subliminally, of simply not trying hard enough.

That seemed normal to me for a long time.

Today I ask myself what this behavior is supposed to mean.

I think one could simply treat adults who voluntarily decide to study with respect.

You could communicate with them as equals and take their comments seriously instead of accusing them of being lazy.

Even if I love a lot about the university, there are also some points that really upset me.

This text shortly before the end of my studies is about what regularly made me angry about my studies.

The hierarchical posturing with constant demonstrations of power is just one of several aspects.

Next is the bureaucracy.

For every little thing that needs to be done at the university, you get lost in the document jungle: You send the application for recognition signed by the lecturer to the examination office.

To register, you need the signature of your supervisor on form 1, who then sends it to the course coordinator, whereupon form 2 is automatically created.

Alas, when money is involved!

I can understand that so many people have already dropped out at this point.

Happened to me often enough.

Unfortunately, this jungle of bureaucracy is part of everyday life at the university: First of all, it has to be tediously clarified who might be responsible for the matter.

Reading through websites and asking employees is usually only moderately helpful.

Then there is a form for everything.

Most of the time, this has to be filled out by hand by different people and then handed in during the office hours of clerk XY (approximately Monday 11:15 a.m. to 12:33 p.m.), digital submission: impossible.

It gets even more complicated when you want money.

Let's take a look at Erasmus funding, for example.

In principle, all students for stays in other European countries are entitled to the funding.

That's roughly 200 to 400 euros per month.

Letters of recommendation, learning agreement and countless other forms are required for the application.

Many of them with signatures from home and host universities.

It all takes months and is all in all days of work for money that everyone is entitled to anyway in the end.

You could also just transfer it directly.