PANGEA: a multicultural programme
Arrived in September 2020, the first cohort of the PANGEA programme is composed of 17 students from the 4 corners of the world! From Brazil to Myanmar passing through Russia, they managed to create an immediate group cohesion around a common passion: palaeontology.
We are very proud of this first promotion. You will find here all their testimonials about the Master’s programme but also their student life in the different institutions of the consortium.
Marcos's testimony
Marcos comes from Portugal!
He is currently enrolled in the Paleobiology track and has already moved to Uppsala, Sweden for the second semester.
Discover what he has to say about the PANGEA programme 🙂
Emma's testimony
Emma comes from the United Kingdom.
PANGEA represents for her the best compromise between studies and knowing different universities and ways of teaching.
She is currently enrolled in the Geoconservation track and will be moving to Portugal for the second term, and to Greece for the third one.
The Erasmus Student Network
The University of Lille has a partnership with the Erasmus Student Network, which offers lots of activities allowing international students to get to know each other.
Their objective is the welcoming and integration of international students and the promotion of international mobility.
They also offer support with administrative procedures (welcome on arrival) as well as visits to Lille / familiarisation with the city, welcome and integration evening during the welcome week.
Fernando and Marie's testimonies
“The program is excellent, the teachers are very good and from different nationalities with outstanding backgrounds, especially Paula Noble, Catherine Cronier, and Maria Triantaphyllou.
Not to mention Sophia Kandi, always helping everyone and facilitating all the bureaucratic processes, and being helpful whenever necessary, especially on my arrival in France, where she got me excellent accommodation.
The content of the program is totally interlinked and easy to connect, making learning a pleasure to participate in. I am completely in love with Microfossils and phylogenetics.
Besides all the countries and universities participating in the program are of high quality.”
Fernando, from Rio de Janeiro (Brazil), enrolled in the Paleobiology track
“Being a student of this Master’s degree is a unique opportunity to be part of an international programme at several levels. During this first semester, I met students from all over the world and I had the possibility to interact with specialized lecturers from Iran, Greece, United States …. And next semester, I will live in a different country for nearly 1 year!
Never outside this program I would have had the chance to meet that many people that don’t share my culture and my language. I am really grateful and proud to be part of this Master’s degree!”
Marie from Nice (France) enrolled in the Applied Palaeontology track
“PANGEA was (and continues being) an amazing experience. The integration with different subjects of paleontology, micropaleontology and geology created a wide understanding of relations in deep time scales and its importance for future climate interpretations.”
Ramon, from Nova PetrĂłpolis (Brazil) enrolled in the Paleobiology track
“PANGEA program is a fascinating opportunity to exchange knowledge and experiences with students, researchers and professors from all over the world. The multicultural diversity of a program receiving students from everywhere on Earth is an invaluable detail, as it allows networking and fraternizing with partners with completely different academic and cultural backgrounds. In my short time being part of the first cohort, I already feel this experience changed my mind and my future lastingly.”
Juan Esteban from MedellĂn (Colombia), enrolled in the Geoconservation track
“I like the fact that the first semester in France was structured to help us build content on our various areas of specialisation. The way the paleobiology track in Sweden is structured is top notch as it majorly focuses on research. This programme is really what I was looking for in terms of education and research”
Paul, from Lagos (Nigeria), enrolled in the Paleobiology track
“I would like to summarize the beauty of this program in two words: ‘diversity’ and ‘passion for geosciences’. Diversity is a rare characteristic in geosciences but in PANGEA we have students from fourteen different countries, as well as teachers from institutes stretching from Nevada in the West to Isphahan in the East. I am pleasingly surprised by how passionate my class-fellows and teachers are about paleontology and how different their approach is towards it. The teaching approach is very innovative and mostly based on case studies which has, apart from deepening my understanding of the subject has also, trained me to geocommunicate properly which is crucial in solving the ‘image problem’ of geology.
Along with studies, we always get to have a lot of fun despite the COVID-19 pandemic. Our super helpful coordinator, Sebastien Clausen, and super sweet international officer Sophia helped me a lot with all the management and scheduling issues.
We have had lectures from geoparks’ representatives and from a team of ‘Total’ as a result of which we have a broder view of the problems faced by and opportunities available in Geosciences. I am hopeful that my remaing journey as a part of this program will be as amazing as this semester here in Lille, France.”
Sikandar, from Budapest (Hungary) enrolled in the Applied Palaeontology track.
