For the first time, the Otago Polytechnic product design team welcomed a group of four German students into their fold.

Max Wiztrock, Lucas Balcilar, Steven Kulicke and Malwin Schlogel(not pictured) all study industrial design at the largest public University of Applied Sciences in Berlin and Eastern Germany: Hoschschule fűr Technik und Wirtschaft, Berlin.

The four men wanted to travel and study, so their university recommended Otago Polytechnic.

Max particularly enjoyed the class size.

It’s quite nice to have a class so small, you can ask the teacher anything. You even have your own desk. At home our class sizes are much much larger.

Lucas agrees: “At home we don’t know the first names of our teachers, here we don’t know their last names! It’s more casual here, it’s cool.” He was particularly impressed that, when he first arrived, his lecturer helped him furnish his house. “He drove us to the second-hand shop and everything. One teacher even lent us her car to go on a road trip!”

Lucas says he’ll definitely recommend Otago Polytechnic to friends back home. “The classes are so small you feel more comfortable asking for help.”

All four men took part in the 2016 Debrief exhibition with the rest of their Design colleagues.

Their focus now is on designing the perfect tour through New Zealand and Asia, before returning to Germany to finish their studies.

Andrew Wallace, Design Lecturer, says the four international students offered a cross cultural experience. “Product design involves working with global teams, so having these four students here really helped all our students with networking for the future.”