When we arrived at the airport of Chennai on Saturday morning at 6 am we were picked up by an assistance teacher of the Humanities and Social Sciences Department. He escorted us to the IIT campus and answered the first questions. He was really friendly and helpful.
Department Office
The University of Madras has different departments. We studied in the department of Humanities and Social Science, a small section contrary to the others. The department officer was really obliging and introduced us to the different rules. Moreover he informed us about new information from Germany and about course matters.
Administration Offices – Campus
We had to be registered at the administration department and to apply for our student identity card in the library. The Administration Office on the campus was also responsible for our final grade certificates. The second important office was the CCW (Office of the Hostel Management) where we had to pay the fees for our room and for the mess card in a regular interval of one month.
Immigration Office – Chennai
Within two weeks after our arrival we also had to register at the Immigration Office in Chennai (North of Chennai) where we spent lots of time on administrative affaires and on filling out documents. It strains and the motivation declines quiet fast. It is obligatory to register – if it is not done within the given time, a punitive damages of 1700 Rupees must be paid.
Hostel Office
The Hostel organisation was managed by the hostel warden of Sharavati. She assigned us a room and was responsible for the hostel administration. The warden had her office also in Sharavati, thus there was no problem to contact her if difficulties arose.
Quality of staff supervision and care for foreign students
The quality of staff supervision was very good for Indian relations. Our responsible professor Mr. Subramanian was a great assistance with organisation and administration. Moreover he supported our choice of our courses and helped us to find out the differences in the course plan. He introduced us to our teachers and suggested literature for the classes. We got our formulas and marks quickly and had to ask for the student identity card just two times. Especially the Administration Office and the Immigration Office work in detail and follow the Indian regulations.
The care for foreign students was extremely sufficient. In the beginning it was quiet hard because we got an empty room with just a bed, a table and a cupboard. Thus we had to organize a mattress, bed sheets, a pillow, a lock for the room etc. but we did not know where we could it. Furthermore the internet connection did not work in the beginning but they fixed it immediately.
Finally – after a few weeks – we settled down in Chennai and enjoyed the nature as well as the monkeys we had to live with.
Extracted from the “my stay in India” report by Lisa! See the full report here.
Lisa is a lovely german girl that I met in india, and we had a great time with all the indian IIT team… :-)