final report michael stein - uni-freiburg.de report michael stein.pdfa really good preparation for...

Final Report Michael Stein About Studying at the University of Toronto and

my Internship in Vancouver

Michael Stein

Final Report Michael Stein

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My name is Michael Stein and I am studying at the University of Freiburg Forestry and

Environment. I had the great opportunity to take part in the Bachelor Plus program from the

University of Freiburg together with the DAAD and Canadian partner Universities. I studied

at the University of Toronto for two semesters.

With this report I will try to give an overview for prospective participants in the Bachelor

Plus program about my preparations for my stay abroad, about the two semesters at the

University of Toronto and about Canada and Toronto in general. I hope this report will give

prospective students some advice and useful tips.

Preparations:

A good preparation is essential for a successful stay abroad and I definitely recommend to

start early thinking about what is to do and what is needed. The First thing is to apply for

study permit at the Canadian embassy. It is possible to do this online which is probably the

easiest way. The documents you need can be downloaded from the homepage of the

embassy. Others will be provided from the University of Freiburg.

If you need to apply for BAFÖG it is very important to start early gathering all the required

documents. Applying for the Auslandsbafög is much more complicated since they need

much more information’s from you than for the normal Bafög. So try to apply at least six

month in advance and if you can’t manage to get some documents because of various

reasons speak with the people from the BAFÖG office in most cases they can help you.

In my opinion the best way to withdraw money over here in Canada is using a credit card

from a German bank. There are several banks in Germany which offer free credit cards

when you open a bank account. Setting up a Canadian bank account is in general not


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necessary because it is normal to pay even the rent in cash. Nevertheless several Canadian

bank institutes offer free bank accounts for students and it is very easy to set up one after

your arrival.

A really good preparation for your stay abroad was the English course which is offered for all

Bachelor Plus students within the program. Formal English is different than the normal

spoken English. As well this course can help you to prepare yourself for the IELTS test

Very important is to book a bed in a hostel or a room in a hotel in advance. Accommodation

in Toronto especially in the summer is rare and very expensive. It is also important to

mention that there are really bad hostels and expensive hotels. You can avoid a lot of

struggling by booking in advance.

It is very difficult to find a room for the semester in Toronto when you are in Germany. I

recommend doing this after arrival and with the help of the housing service from the

University and from the Centre of international experience (CIE).

After the arrival I recommend that your first thing to do is to go to the CIE because the

people over there are pleased to give you an overview about what you will have to do next

and a first orientation where everything is located on the campus. The CIE used to have a

small info counter at the Pearson Airport where incoming exchange students could go to get

a first orientation. I recommend checking their homepage for further information’s before

you fly to Toronto.

The health insurance from the university (UHIP) is mandatory and the costs are CAD 456 for

your whole stay which you can pay easily by credit card in the Uhip office after arrival so

there is not much to worry about.


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My Fall Term:

I arrived in Toronto at the end of august and fortunately I found a room in a shared house

after two days. I paid 560 CAD per month which is comparatively cheap for Toronto but it is

about twenty minutes away from the university by bike.

I bought a bike because in my opinion the public transportation system in Toronto is

sometimes really annoying and also pretty expensive (104 CAD for a monthly ticket). I didn’t

expect it but conditions for cyclist over here are not that bad and it is possible to reach

everything by bike and alive ;-). Even in the winter it was possible to ride the bike because

over here in Toronto normally it will not have that much snow.

The University of Toronto has about 70.000 students spread over three campuses. I was at

the St. George Campus in downtown Toronto. According to some international rankings the

University of Toronto belongs to the 20 best Universities in the world with high academic

standards and great facilities such as two large gyms, swimming pools and an ice skating

arena and so on. The level over here is excellent. In my opinion courses are much more

challenging than back home in Germany because you have to work a lot during the semester

for assignments, presentations and midterm-exams. A good organization is essential for a

successful studying. I took four courses in the beginning but decided to drop one after two

weeks due to the high workload. I took Conservation of Canada’s Forests, Urban Forest

Conservation and Geographic Information and Mapping I and will give you a brief overview

about each course.


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Conservation of Canada’s Forest: This course gave an overview about the different types of

Canadian Forests and current conservation issues. The most interesting aspect in this course

was that it was not only focused on environmental problems but as well on problems which

indigenous people face in Canada fighting for their property rights. For this course it was

necessary to write two assignments and one final exam.

Urban Forest Conservation: This course was about trees and parks in an urban environment.

Why it is important to manage this resource and how. This course was very interesting for

me because I never thought about the importance of trees in cities and had no idea how

many benefits they provide us. For this course I had to work hard for various assignments

and group works which needed to be done but I learned very much.

Geographic Information and Mapping I: I took this course because I had two classes in

Freiburg about geographic information systems (GIS) but I always felt that there was a lack

of practice. This course gave me lot of opportunities to practice because I had to create six

different maps and submit them as assignments. This course was very challenging and had a

high workload but I learned so much and understood that ArcGIS is a fascinating program

with a wide range of application opportunities.

To sum up I’d like to say that I enjoyed all of my three courses which I took and that the first

semester definitely broadens my horizon. You have to work hard over here but there are a

lot of people who can help you (Profs, Writing Centre…).

My Winter Term:

After the short winter break I started again with five courses but I decided finally to take

again only three courses due to the high workload and because I wanted to be as focused as


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possible on these three courses. As I did it above for the fall term I will give you in the

following a short characterization of the courses I took and how I liked them:

FOR310 Bioenergy from Sustainable Forest Management: This course was all about the

sustainable production of biomass for bioenergy. Various opportunities are available and

range from using wood residues from harvesting operations to using woody biomass from

short rotation plantations planted and managed to only produce biomass for bioenergy.

Another big topic was how and in which form biomass is used. Again various options are

available for instance using biomass for the production of wood pellets or burn wood chips

in combined heat and power plants (CHP). Canada has a huge potential for producing

energy from biomass but currently the concurrence of other energy sources is too strong to

make the production from bioenergy out of biomass economical viable on a bigger scale.

The workload for this course was high but I learned so much especially because the

professor was really knowledgeable in his field. This course definitely broadened my

horizon. During the semester we had to write one big term paper which was due to the end

of the semester and we had to hand in various problem sets. I really liked the task which

asked us to prepare in a group of four people a presentation about one certain topic to

stimulate a discussion about this topic in class. After the semester we had a take home

exam with a time frame of two days.

FOR410 Bioenergy and Biorefinery Technology: This interdisciplinary course is designed for

(chemical) engineers as well as forestry students and particularly helpful together with the

FOR310 course. Whereas the FOR310 course is focusing more on the sustainable production

of biomass this course is focusing more on the sustainable and most efficient usage of

biomass. Some chemical knowledge is necessary and I had some doubts in the beginning if


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this course would lead too far into the chemical world but the course instructor Sandy Smith

was a big help and very engaged to help. Most of my class mates where chemical engineers

but eventually I finished this course very successful and gained again lots of valuable

knowledge.

FOR300 Forest Products from Sustainable Forestry: This course was about products

produced from forest materials such as paper, wood-plastic composites as well as lumber

products. We also discussed how these products can be produced in a more sustainable way

without harming the ecosystem forests irreversible. I was a bit disappointed since the

organization of this course was a little bit chaotic and I had already covered many aspects in

my minor in Freiburg. However I liked the lab sessions which were an essential part of this

course.

Toronto:

Toronto is Canada’s largest city with more than 5.5 Mio people living in the Greater Toronto

Area (GTA). Toronto as well it is one of most multicultural cities in the world with people

from more than 170 different nations living in the city and forming ethnical neighborhoods

such as Chinatown, little Italy or Greektown. Toronto offers people a large variety of

activities from shopping in the Eaton Centre in the downtown to doing a hike in the large

and beautiful High Park. Major attractions are the CN Tower one of the largest buildings of

the world which offers you a stunning view over the lake Ontario and the whole GTA, the

Royal Ontario Museum which is free for students on Tuesdays or the Art gallery of Ontario.

A nice thing for sport fans is that Toronto has its own team in every big North American

league and therefore you can watch over here NBA basketball, NHL hockey or MLS soccer.


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The location of Toronto offers nice opportunities for travelling. You probably don’t have that

much time but the winter break will come. Montreal and Quebec are in driving distance as

well as the Niagara falls and Chicago and New York in the U.S..

Prospective students should be aware that the living costs over here in Canada are higher

than in Germany. As I mentioned above the rents are pretty high, mobile calls and food too.

The prices for clothes are pretty similar than in Germany.

In conclusion I have to say that I enjoyed my stay over here in Toronto. A big City with great

opportunities and excellent University.

My Internship in Vancouver:

The most time frustrating thing during my stay in Canada was definitely the struggle to

apply for a valid visa which would allow me to do a paid internship. As long as you are fine

with doing an internship at the University for instance in a research project or in an urban

tree inventory you actually do not have many problems because your study permit include a

permission to work on-campus. But if you want to work for a company or an organization it

is very hard and time consuming to obtain such a visa. I thought that I simply would apply

for the International Experience Canada Visa but it turned out that you cannot apply for it, if

you already have a study permit. So I definitely can say that this visa is not an option for

Bachelor Plus students. I finally did an unpaid internship which is another solution because if

you are unpaid you can stay in Canada as long as your study permit is valid.

However I found a great three month lasting internship with FPInnovations in Vancouver.

FPInnovations is one of the world largest private non-profit research organizations working

in forest research. They have various facilities all over Canada. I worked in Vancouver with


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the forest feedstock group. The main focus of the group is on bioenergy derived from wood

residues such as hog fuel from sawmills or harvesting residues which normally stay on site.

Canada with its vast forested areas and big forest industry has a huge biomass potential

which can be used for the production of electricity or/and heat. I worked in the lab where I

determined fuel quality, I worked on a database and I also had the chance to get out for two

field trips where we did machine productivity studies. These trips also offered me the

chance to see forest operations in Canada which differ so much in nearly everything to the

forest operations back home in Germany. I worked together with great colleagues who

taught me so much so I really much enjoyed my time with FPInnovations in Vancouver.

Acknowledgment:

I had a wonderful and mind blowing time in Canada and I want to thank everybody who

made my stay so enjoyable. Especially Professor Spiecker and Marianne Stadler for giving us

students this extraordinary opportunity, the great people from the CIE at the UofT, all my

Professors and course instructors who taught great courses especially Professor Tat Smith

and Professor Sally Krigstin. I want to say thank you to all the great and helpful Canadians I

met especially the whole Manson Family! Last but not least I want to say thank you to the

great people from FPInnovations especially the forest feedstock group headed by Dominik

Röser.

I hope I can give with this report some helpful advice for prospective Bachelor Plus students

and that I maybe even convince people to take part in this great program. If there are any

questions please do not hesitate to contact me ([email protected]) I’m more than

happy to answer them all.

mailto:[email protected]


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Pictures Toronto:

Skyline from the Toronto Islands

University of Toronto Hart House


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A map created for my ArcGIS course


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Pictures from Vancouver:


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