General report. Host institution and exact dates of semester abroad. Contact with home faculty, preparation, and journey.

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1 General report Host institution and exact dates of semester abroad For my study abroad period I went to Mälardalen University or Mälardalen högskola (MDH), in Västerås, Sweden. I studied here the first semester. The official start date of the first semester 31 th of August 2015, and the ending date 17 th of January However, for international students there were reception days at the university from the 23 rd to the 25 th of August, to get your keys. After these reception days, there was an introduction week with activities. Contact with home faculty, preparation, and journey From the RUG I experienced a lot of guidance in the process before leaving to your destination abroad. I would recommend everyone to go to all the workshops/lectures possible because in these workshops/lectures they give an overview of how the process works and what you have to do and where you should think off! For example, if you need vaccinations (not the case for Sweden) you have to start much earlier than I expected because for some vaccinations you have to go three times before the vaccination really works. Please also remember that you need to hand in a lot of papers before you leave. Especially the Learning Agreement took some time for me to finish. Because I wanted to follow the course Labour Economics, but MDH argued that I was not qualified to follow this course because I was lacking economic credits. I am studying International Business and from the RUG we do not get a distinction between business courses and economics courses. The result was that I send a lot of mails back and forward with Pablo Camacha Sanhueza (from MDH). Pablo responded very quickly so that is definitely a pre, and he was also willing to help. In the end, MDH allowed me to follow the Labour Economics course. On the 21 th of August I left from my home town by car with my dad to Sweden. We drove to Västerås via Germany, Denmark, and then via the bridges to Sweden. These bridges were really big and we had a beautiful view. However, the bridges are also really expensive. Therefore, on my way back home I went with my dad first on a small boat trip from Helsingborg (Sweden) to Helsingør (Denmark) and later the boat from Rødby (Denmark) to Puttgarden (Germany). This route was faster and less expensive and you still had a nice view. Residence abroad Since I am a member of the European Union I did not need a visa. I left the Netherlands on the 21 th of August (2015) and drove in two days with my dad to Västerås, so I arrived in the evening of the 22 nd of August. When you arrive at the university you get your keys and some other information, as well as a map of Västerås. The people from MDH are then willing to help you get to your accommodation with all your stuff. Most of the time, they travel with busses to a student accommodation with all your luggage in the back of the little bus. However, since I already knew where to go, I did not go with one of the little busses. After my semester abroad, I left Västerås on the 15 th of January (2016) and drove, again by car, back to my home where I arrived on the 17 th of January. 1

2 During my stay in Västerås I stayed in the accommodation called Norra Allégatan apartment. This accommodation has around 50 rooms with all international students. Each apartment has its own kitchenette and bathroom. There are three rooms that are bigger, around 26 m 2, but I stayed in a normal room, which is around 17 m 2 and costs SEK for a semester ( ). You need to arrange your accommodation via where you need to give your preferences for your accommodation and then you get an offer that you can accept or reject. I would always recommend you to accept the offer, because otherwise you might get an offer that was not on your list of preferences because that is the only other place left. Norra is in my opinion a good housing alternative. It is around 400 meter from university, there are quite some things already in your room when you arrive (e.g. kitchen supplies and a pillow and summer blanket). Each weekday the reception is also open, where you can always go to ask anything or to say something has broken down, in which case the repairman comes the same day. In Norra there is also a good vibe. And they use slots for the laundry machine, this system works pretty well. However, you should not forget to place your lock in a slot because the schedule is really full. One last nice thing about Norra is that the next building is a small grocery store, where you can buy some groceries in case you forgot something (this store is really small and therefore more expensive than real supermarkets). In this building they also have a part where you can buy meals, I ate a pizza there several times. The pizzas are cheap and really big. When you cannot finish it you can take the rest home, and you have a meal for the next day! On the other hand, the Wi-Fi is for free, but not really good. This is especially the case in the afternoon when everyone is accessing the Wi-Fi. Also, the common room is closed, which makes it less nice to party, however, the partying now takes place in the corridors, on the stairs, or in the entrance room. It would also be great to have is an oven, as in the corridors there is a microwave, but no oven. One last thing is the fact that there were construction activities at the time of my stay (but they are probably over) and there is a kindergarten on one side of the building, which you at one side of the building can hear quite well (although it did not bother me at all I heard some people that did not like it that much). Then there is Junior. This is a place where also a lot of partying took place. Some of the rooms here have a private bathroom, while others need to share. The kitchens are shared with 10 people. This is quite a lot, however, it also means that there can be nice dinners and sharing meals. Junior is therefore cheaper than Norra. Junior is also approximately 400 meter from the university. However, I thought that Junior was really dirty, so that is a big con for me. Another accommodation is Vallby, this is a shared room around 40 m 2. The rooms are shared with two people. You have your own big room, probably around 20 m 2 and then you share the kitchen and bathroom with the other person. One of my friends stayed in this place. It can be nice to share with one other person, it is cheaper than the locations close, and if you have a bike you can easily get to a Lidl, which is cheaper than other grocery stores in Sweden. However, you are really far away from all the other students, 3-4 kilometres, but a lot will let you stay for a night. Also, there are quite some older people in the building, however, if you search well you are able to find quite some nice people. The Wi-Fi in Vallby is really bad, so my friends bought something to strengthen the Wi- Fi. 2

3 Another option is a room in Kristiansborg. You will live here with 6 international students and on the first floor there are some Swedish students. This accommodation is a little bit more expensive than Junior or Vallby. The kitchen and bathroom are shared with the international students only. Kristiansborg is really close to the university, you only have to cross a road and then you are on campus ground. Kristiansborg is a quite requested accommodation, so if you want this accommodation please also select another option because the chances are small that you get the accommodation. The Wi-Fi in Kristiansborg is working quite well, I think it is one of the best working Wi-Fi accommodations where Wi-Fi is included in the rent. Hülphersgatan is another accommodation I visited. This accommodation is for 11 international students who share 2 kitchens and bathrooms. This accommodation is really nice and has a lot of place to sit together with students, e.g. this location has a really nice living room. It is really close to Norra, and meter to the university. However, the Wi-Fi is not included in the rent of this accommodation. Also, there is also a family living in the building. This resulted in some problems with organising parties here. The rent for this accommodation is I think cheaper than Norra and Kristiansborg but more expensive than Vallby and Junior. Then there are Park and Regulatorn. I never visited these locations. But these accommodations are a little bit bigger compared to Norra. And still have their own bathroom and kitchen. The accommodations are both further away from the university, especially Park. However, the rent prices are quite similar to the prices at Norra (but the Wi-Fi is not included). As said before, when you arrive there are reception days. In my case this was from the 23 rd to the 25 th of August from to In my opinion the university is not so hard to find and on the university there is a map where all buildings and faculties are mentioned. When you arrive at MDH you get a lot of information, your contract and key, and they will offer you to help you to your accommodation. After the reception days there are some introduction days. The introduction for the Swedish students is separate from the international students. On the 26 th of August I had an introduction lecture from MDH in the morning. These lectures are not really interesting, since they tell you where to find what on the university, and how they work. But this is quite similar to what we are used to at the RUG. However, this is a great chance to meet your fellow international students and experience your first fika, which is a coffee break with a cinnamonroll and another typical Swedish treat. In the evening, there was a mingle, where you meet your fellow groupmates from your Fadder group and your Fadder (group leader). With this group you do the introduction days. Of course, you can also get to know other students at the mingle. The second day of the introduction, the morning was filled with lectures again. Today, there was also a police officer who told you about the rules in Sweden, e.g. drinking alcohol or riding a bike. In the afternoon there was also an organized trip to the IKEA. On the third day, Friday 28 th of August we started off with a campus tour. This tour was partly pretty obvious, as you visited those places already in the first days. However, they also showed a quiet room, where you can go to relax and where you have to even put of your shoes. In the evening there was a pub tour, where you were showed some pubs. However, you will only visit 3 pubs, while there are much more. My Fadder group unfortunately had 3 pubs that the Fadders did not really like and would not recommend. After the pub tour you would go back to the university where the student organization has a building, Kåren, where the opening party took place. 3

4 The fourth day, we had an interactive city tour. Here you needed to take pictures of some places in Västerås. This was quite nice to do, however, the places we needed to photograph I never visited again. In the end, we ended at the lake, Mälardalen, at a beach place. On Sunday, there were some activities at Björnö and there would be a barbeque. However, the organisation did not get a permit to have a barbeque so this was cancelled. Björnö is an island in Mälardalen, quite close to Västerås. On the final day, there would be activities at Prison-island. I do not know whether or not this activity was cancelled or continued. Because it was on Monday, a lot of people did already start with lectures and could not attend this activity. When you want to party a lot, I am not sure if Västerås or maybe even Sweden is the best option for you to go. There are not a lot of party places, like we have in Groningen. I think there are two good places to party. For the party places, you need to pay for entrance. If I remember correctly, you could go in for free in Blue Moon before on Friday. Most clubs close already at or sometimes maybe Besides, there are also a lot of pubs where you can for example, watch sport. There are not so many people, like students, that want to party in Västerås when compared to Groningen. However, if you like a smaller party, this works quite well. As there were several (pre-)parties organised by international students every week. The price of alcohol is also really expensive. And you can buy alcohol only in a systembolaget and not/barely in the supermarket. All courses I followed at MDH were given in English. There are also courses given in Swedish. The level of English of students, normal people, and most teachers is quite high in Sweden. You can always express yourself in English and I never met any Swedish person that did not understand me. However, when you approach older Swedish people, they are scared to speak English while their level is really high. I also followed the course, Swedish for Foreign Students, level 1. Swedish is quite easy when you are Dutch or German. However, when you are from the South of Europe, like France or Spain it is quite hard to understand Swedish let alone speak Swedish. Grant I received the Erasmus grant of 1350 for my period abroad. Sweden falls in the highest category for the Erasmus grant, which means 270 per month. I received 70% of the grant before I left, and the last 30% I will receive when I deliver all documents to the RUG. Besides the Erasmus I received from the Dutch government for my studiefinanciering and OV-vergoeding. I completely agree that Sweden is in the category of most expensive countries, since my Erasmus grant was not even enough to pay my housing abroad. Besides, the prices in the supermarket are also higher than in the Netherlands. Especially, meat and alcohol are much more expensive (alcohol may be twice the Dutch price). However, if you want, I think you can buy groceries for a week (when you do not buy a lot of alcohol). For Sweden you do not need a visa, vaccination or health check (when you are from Europe), therefore you have no expenses for this. 4

5 I travelled a lot during my stay in Sweden. When you join the International Committee you get a discount on all organised trips by the union. During my stay, they organised a trip to Stockholm, Helsinki, and Lapland. With some friends we also visited Uppsala, Göteborg, and Eskilstuna. And some other people also took some cruises to Tallinn and Riga and visited Copenhagen. All those trips, of course, were quite a big expense. However, I would say that travelling in Sweden is not per se expensive. When you search well you can find cheap ho(s)tels and travel tickets. Study (general) Studying at MDH is quite similar to studying at the RUG. Both have two semesters and four periods, exams after each period, option to do a resit. I perceived the level of studying in Sweden lower than in the Netherlands. The first period, week 36-45, I followed the course Nordic Perspectives on Marketing and Management, this course was 15 ECTS, however, the study load was really low. Once every two weeks you had to prepare for a seminar. Besides, the two exams were open book exams. In the second period, week 46-02, I followed Environmental Economics and Labour Economics (both 7.5 ECTS). Both courses did not have any seminars and only one final exam. I also followed Swedish for Foreigners, level 1 which started in the first period and ended half way November, with an exam in the beginning of December. One problem I encountered is that my exams were on the 14 th of January, while I need to move out of my room on the 12 th of January. When this is the case, you can contact the teachers of the courses and Pablo. In the end, they created another opportunity for both exams, however I was unable to follow one of them. I contacted Bostad Västerås to ask if I could stay two more days, but they did not allow this because I signed a contract until the 12 th. If you have similar problems, go to your own landlord (in my case the Norra reception) because they are much more willing to let you stay one or two days extra. The facilities are similar to Groningen. They have computer rooms, a library, a lot of study rooms and rooms you can hire, there is a student support desk/information desk. One extra thing is that they have a campus nurse, where you can go for free. Another difference between MDH and the RUG is that at MDH you can access the university 24/7 with your student card and pin code. This way you can go to the university and print whenever you want! Other relevant information When you arrive at the airport and you want to ask which bus to take to Västerås, please ask for Westeros because that is how you pronounce the city and some people had difficulties with this when arriving at the airport. When choosing your courses please look carefully at the location where the courses are given, this can be Eskilstuna or Västerås. When you have courses in Eskilstuna this means that you have travel by bus every day, since international students cannot choose an accommodation in Eskilstuna. The bus trip to Eskilstuna takes approximately 45 minutes. However, under bad weather conditions this can be longer. The busses to Eskilstuna are in the morning and afternoon quite busy, since you are not allowed to stand in the bus, this can mean that you have to wait for the next bus. 5

6 If you want to rent a bike during your semester abroad. You can search for yourself. I heard some people did it this way, and their bikes were ok. You also get a paper with information on renting a bike during one of the first days of the introduction week. These bikes are good, and I believe that you can also bring your bike to a repair shop when you have a problem with it, and pay much less. However, these bikes are sold out REALLY quick! So send a mail as soon as possible or maybe even better, go by the shop. When you want to travel please look carefully in case you do not want to spend too much money. The price of bus and train tickets depend on the time you travel. When I went to Göteborg I paid around 20 for train tickets because we went early in the morning and back around Also, there are different bus lines in Västerås. You have city buses where you can buy tickets via a machine on the station or via an app. If you buy a ticket, just select the children ticket instead of adult because it is double money and the drivers do not check what you bought, only if the ticket is still valid (the time is limited). Then you have Swebus, Bus4You (online nettbuss.se), and UL. These buses go to different destinations, at different times, and for different prices! Also try to buy the tickets online because that is cheaper than at the locket at the station, and much cheaper than buying a ticket on board (NEVER do this). When you want to go to Göteborg, it is better to book one night there, as the journey takes quite long. A good hostel is Backpackers hostel, you can walk everywhere from here, you can meet other travellers, it is not that expensive, and on a few minutes walking there is a supermarket where you can buy breakfast/lunch/dinner. When you want to visit Eskilstuna, please go on a week day. Because then you can travel for free from the university with your student card. However, in my opinion Eskilstuna is not that nice. When you want to travel to Helsinki, Riga, Tallinn, and maybe other destinations a good option is to buy a cruise. These are not that expensive (depending on the cabin you choose). You can also travel by bus to Norway. And if you pay attention you can get cheap plane tickets to Copenhagen or Norway. Some extra information for studying at MDH. First of all, there is no study store or something similar. You need to find/buy the books yourself. You can rent a book at the library, however, this is only for a few weeks and there is probably a big list of students who want to borrow the book, resulting in a long waiting line (sometimes even until after the course finishes). Another option is to buy the book. Maybe you can find the book on a second hand site, or on Amazon (but pay attention to the delivery times). Another option is Adlibris this is a Swedish site which makes it hard for you to order. However, the Swedish people are willing to help. A problem you get here is that you need a personal identification number (as for many other Swedish sites). You can buy your book without this personal identification number, however, when you collect your package, it takes more time because they need to find another way to verify that you have your package. Then you also need to get a student card at the student support desk. This is very easy to do. Besides this you also need to create your own print account. This caused a lot more trouble for a lot of students. When you create your print account you get a code that you can only use for a limited period of time. When this time passes before you are able to log in you need to send a message to the operator. Before you get a response some days will pass. So be smart and create your print account as soon as possible! (I was able to print something at the reception of Norra, however, I paid A LOT for this) 6

7 When making exams, please do not forget your passport or another identification card. At MDH they do not work with a student card as identification! I would also really recommend you to join the student union! This costs 200 SEK (a little bit more than 20) for a semester. However, you get discounts for everything! When you eat at Kåren it is cheaper, when you want to party at Kåren it is cheaper, and all trips from the union are also cheaper! (I would recommend you to attend all trips because they were all nice) Besides all the discounts you also get a bag with some papers and a free sim card. This sim card is from Telia (Swedish operator) and when you activate the sim card (by putting 50 SEK on it) you have a half year 500 MB internet a month for free! In Sweden there are, as far as I know, two big supermarket chains: ICA and Coop. Some people say the Coop is the cheaper one, however, I experienced that both supermarkets had some items cheaper than the other supermarket. When you prefer going to the ICA, there is also an ICA which is out of the city centre (and therefore maybe cheaper). This ICA is called ICA Ettan. If you have a car or a good bike you can also go to a bigger, cheaper Coop, which is called Coop Extra Västerås or to a Lidl. When you do not want a big supermarket chain, there are also two (or maybe more) Arabic supermarkets; Sahand supermarket or Hemmakväll. These are much cheaper than the normal ones, but you cannot buy everything there. Beside supermarkets, I also found some really nice restaurants, called Jensens Bøfhus (where you can eat really good meat for not too much money), Kalle på Spången (here you can eat some more Swedish dishes), Choys Garden (this is a Chinese restaurant where you have a cheap buffet). It is hard to really get to know Swedish people. During classes, on university, or in the city most of them are willing to help you or answer a question. But that is it. They do not really look for internationals or new friends. This can be because they do already have their own friends, or because they are closed people. However, you can try to get in though more with Swedes by doing things real Swedes will do, e.g. have fika with them or attend a Bandy game (ice hockey with a ball). Or try to attend activities where Swedish people will be, like the American thanksgiving, Kulturnatt (Culture night), Magisk Ijusfestival (light festival), Hangout with the Swedes, or the Student Olympics. The weather in Sweden is different from the Netherlands. A good thing is that there is much more sun and less rain than in the Netherlands. However, during the winter there is approximately 2 hours less of sun/light. I did not expect the difference to be this big, since Västerås is still South-Sweden. Also be prepared for really cold temperatures, when I left in January it was -25 C. I do not know whether these temperatures are normal or not. But I heard that the coldest temperature they experienced in Västerås was around -35 C. Summary impression of study abroad period I really loved my study abroad period and therefore I would recommend it to everyone! Of course there are some less nice things of studying abroad, but that is also good. Because you appreciate the things at home more! Also I experienced it as a really nice and developing period. 7

8 You are able to meet a lot of different nationalities. When I was in Västerås I met people from all over Europe (e.g. Latvia, Spain, UK, Austria, Germany, Poland, and Bosnia). But also outside Europe, like Australia, USA, and Mexico. However, to do this I would really say get out of your comfort zone! During my stay there was a big group of German, Spanish, French and Chinese who stayed with the people that spoke the same language. This resulted in the fact that they did not speak English making it hard for others to join them. Only when you met one or two of them at the same time you could have conversations. Which were really nice. Of course, it is nice to have someone from your own country because they will understand you more and it is nice to be able to speak some time in your native language, but try to prevent yourself from getting in a big group with people from your home country because then you could have better stayed home. I would recommend Västerås to people only that do not mind a really quiet city, because I really felt like being in a small village. You do not see a lot of people, even with festivities! Also the partying is not so big in Västerås. But besides this, Sweden, and Västerås are really nice. The International Committee organizes a lot of activities and trips, and you can explore a lot yourself! What do you think of kayaking and ice-skating on the big lake Mälardalen? That is an experience you will only have once in your life! If you have any other questions you can always contact me: lauranauta1995@gmail.com 8

9 Specific report Environmental Economics (7.5 ECTS; NAA118) General I followed this course in the second period. This course is given at MDH in Västerås. The course started on the 10 th of November 2015 and ended with an exam on the 14 th of January Every week (with exceptions) we had two lectures, one on Tuesday and one on Thursday. You did not need to prepare anything for the lectures. The only thing you needed to do at the end of the course is a presentation and a paper (in a group) for a pass/fail. This paper and the presentation were not hard. However, the teacher was really unclear, and therefore the assignment was not that clear. I think that the course is a first year course, and the thing that the teacher looked at most during the assignment was whether or not you had a good structure for an academic article. Besides this, you also got the option to prepare two exercise sets, but these were neither obligatory nor graded. I would not recommend anyone to follow this course. The teacher is (in my opinion) not really good/bad. And the material is more basic economics than ENVIRONMENTAL economics. We nearly talked about that. Teacher In my opinion the teacher of the course was not really good. In the beginning the course did not even exist on BlackBoard because he did not know how he could do this! Later on he kept being really unclear. He also did not keep to the schedule he proposed. Another big issue with him was the rescheduling of the exam (because I needed to leave my room on the 12 th and the exam was the 14 th ). In the beginning he said that he was not going to plan another exam. Then, however, he heard from the university that it was obligatory. After this he kept changing the date of the extra exam. Making it unable for us to book plane tickets etc. Finally, just before Christmas he had a definite date. However, then he did not mention what we should learn resulting in the fact that none of the exchange students made the exam on the extra date. About the course (from the MDH site) Objectives The course aims to provide basic knowledge of environmental economics. The course covers: welfare economics and market failure; description of various environmental problems and environmental policy instruments, and analysis of their effect; valuation of goods that are not priced in any market. Course content Efficiency and markets. Market failures: Public Goods and Externalities. Description of various environmental problems and economic explanations for why they arise. Description of various environmental policy instruments. Analysis of the strengths and weaknesses of various policy instruments in different situations. Valuation of goods that are not priced on any market. 9

10 Course book Kolstad, Charles D.; Intermediate environmental economics (470 p) International 2nd ed. : New York : Oxford University Press, c2011 ISBN: (pbk.) LIBRIS-ID: There was also another book on MDH however, we did not use this book at all. Examination Examination (TEN1), 6 credits, marks Pass (G) or Pass with distinction (VG) Assignment (INL1), 1.5 credits, mark Pass (G) Overview lecture program Lecture Chapter (skip subsections III B and III C) 6 7 (skip subsections V and VI) can be replaced by reading the lecture notes on the similar topics (focus on subsections I-III) 12 (focus on subsections I, II) 9 13 (focus on I, II A, II B, II E) (only I and II) 15 (only II) (only I and II A) (skipped) Buffer, repetition, questions, seminar presentations 14 Seminar presentations Relevant for RUG I think this course could be best related to a basic economic course (e.g. Economics for International Business). This is because the course mostly deals with the basic concepts, like MC = MB, what are public goods, and what the effects/results of a tariff are. The study load for this course was quite low. During the course I did not prepare anything. I only attended the lectures, which were not that important either. In the end I read one academic article and prepared a presentation about it. This did not cost that much time either. The only thing I put some effort in was the exam. Course: Environmental Economics, Course code: NAA118, Credits: 7.5 ECTS, Lecturer: Karl-Markus Moden. 10

11 Labour Economics (7.5 ECTS; NAA203) General I followed this course in the second period. This course is given at MDH in Västerås. The course started on the 9 th of November 2015 and ended with an exam on the 14 th of January 2016, however, I took the extra exam on the 11 th of January Every week (with exceptions) I had two lectures, one on Monday and one on Thursday. It was not obligatory to prepare anything before the lecture, however, the teacher recommended you to read the chapter and prepare the exercises before each lecture. I preferred to make the exercises afterwards. Some exercises were discussed during the lecture, and you could always ask about another exercise. The course did not include any paper, presentation, seminar or something similar. I would recommend this course because I thought it was quite interesting. Compared to my study (International Business) this course went into more depth than the courses I normally have. The course was in the beginning a little bit hard for me to follow. Because I did not have all the equations used. However, after some time I understood it better. I think that you need to have a quite high mathematics skill because with some understanding the course becomes much easier. Teacher The teacher of this course was pretty good. He was always willing to help you and because we were not with a lot of people he allowed us to interrupt him whenever we wanted. He also quickly rescheduled the exam without any problems. One thing I could mention that was less nice, is that he did not use PowerPoint or anything like that. He had his own notes, and wrote them on the whiteboard. Therefore he never uploaded anything, in case you missed a lecture you needed to make sure you got the notes. His notes were really good, they highlighted the important issues from each chapter. About the course (from the MDH site) Objectives The course aims to present modern economic theory of labour markets with applications to labour market policy. Course content Labour supply and demand is studied, with applications to labour market participation, employment and working hours. A flow perspective of the labour market is applied to the analysis of job creation and destruction, job search and the matching of workers with vacant jobs. Various theories of wage determination are studied, e.g. compensating differences, human capital, and individual and centralized wage bargaining. The determinants of unemployment are treated from the perspectives of labour market friction, as in the theory of search and matching, and of wage formation, as in the theories of unions and efficiency wages. These theories are applied to questions of labour market policy. Examination Examination (TEN1), 7.5 credits, marks Pass (G) or Pass with distinction (VG) 11

12 Course book Borjas, George J.; Labour economics (469 p) 7. ed., international ed. : New York : cop ISBN: LIBRIS-ID: Specific entry requirements 30 credits in Economics (at least 22,5 credits finished when the course starts). TOEFL test result, minimum score 575 with a TWE score of at least 4,5 (PBT) or 90 with a TWE score of at least 20 (ibt)/ielts test result with an overall band score of minimum 6,5 and no band score below 5,5. The English test is COMPULSORY for all applicants except citizens of Australia, Canada, Ireland, New Zealand, United Kingdom and USA Overview lecture program Lecture Chapter Recommended exercises , 4, 6, , 4, , 5-10, , 4, 6, 8, 9, , 6-8, , 7, 8, , , 2, 5, 6, 8, , , 4, 7, 8, 10 When you make the exercises you can do the exam really well. I believe that if you learn the exercises by heart that the same ones will come on the exam (not even sure that the numbers are changed). Relevant for RUG Compared to International Business I think this course is going a little bit more in depth than the courses I have. Of course the underlying models are quite similar compared to economics courses at the RUG. The study load for this course was quite high for me (compared to the other courses at MDH). However, this could also be because I might not have followed enough economics courses or learned enough economic formulas. Also the courses I had were quite some time ago. However, after the first few weeks I got used to it again and it was less hard. However, when people do not have good mathematics skills I think this course would be hard to pass. Course: Labour Economics, Course code: NAA203, Credits: 7.5 ECTS, Lecturer: Johan Lindén. 12

13 Nordic Perspectives on Marketing and Management (15 ECTS; FOA219) General I followed this course in the first period. This course is given at MDH in Västerås. The course started on the 1 st of September and ended with an exam on the 5 th of November (there was also another exam half way the course). The course existed of several parts/topics: Business Culture, Service Marketing, Relationship Marketing, and Industrial marketing. Most of the weeks there were two lectures, one on Monday and one on Tuesday. For these lectures you did not have to prepare anything, although you could read the book. Besides the lectures there was once every two weeks a seminar for which you had to read a case and prepare a two pages with notes. During the seminar you had to do a discussion, and one of the seminars you had to lead with your team. I liked this course, although it was really easy and not a lot of new information. One side mark is that there is not a lot clearly about Scandinavia. It is more that they use models/theories that would be used in Scandinavia. The workload of this course was quite low for me compared to the RUG, since this course was 15 credits and was less or the same amount of work as a 5 credits course at the RUG. Teacher The teachers for the first exam (Business Culture, Service Marketing, and Relationship Marketing) were all quite good and they were able to make the course interesting. However, the last teacher (Aswo Safari), from Industrial Marketing, was in my opinion not really good. He had some different views on teaching, e.g. he did not want to publish his slides because then other teachers could steal them, he did not lecture but more discuss during the lectures. The second exam was also really different from the first exam and for me harder. About the course (from the MDH site) Objectives The course aims to give various aspects of the Nordic approach to marketing and management. The course provides a general knowledge of culture perspective with emphasis in on the Nordic. In the following parts, the course provides knowledge of marketing from the Nordic perspective. The course provides knowledge about service marketing, relationship marketing, and finally relations in industrial networks. In teaching students' skills in terms of presentation, leadership and analytical skills are central approaches. Course content International Business Culture - explain general principles of international business culture such as; understanding of the meaning of culture in general, characteristics about business culture, business culture problems, differences, dynamics, assumptions and actual behaviour - compare marketing and management in the Nordic countries with other countries from a global and cultural perspective 13

14 Service and Relationship Marketing - manage service competition by help of established service management and marketing principles and models - apply service quality aspects in the management of productivity in service organizations Industrial Marketing in a Network Perspective - analyse relationships of industrial companies, where these are perceived as parts of a larger network. - use the interaction model and other relevant industrial concepts in order to make problem identifications, analyses and suggested actions with emphasis to the marketing situation - write an analysis of an industrial business case in a group together with other students. - in making the case analysis the students ought to be able to find strategic choices, which are represented by the companies in the case and in the course literature, explain why it has evolved as it did and how this could affect possible future actions from other companies in the network. Course book - Grönroos, Christian; Service management and marketing : customer management in service competition (483 p) 3. ed. : Chichester : Wiley, cop ISBN: (hft.) LIBRIS-ID: Ford, David; Gadde, Lars-Erik; Håkansson, Håkan; Snehota, Ivan; The business marketing course : managing in complex networks (271 p) 2. ed. : Chichester : John Wiley, 2006 ISBN: (pbk.) LIBRIS-ID: The Viking manifesto : the Scandinavian approach to business and blasphemy (168 p) London : Cyan, 2007 ISBN: (hbk.) LIBRIS-ID: several articles Examination PM (PM01),5 credits, marks Pass (G) or Pass with distinction (VG) Examination (TEN1), 5 credits, marks Pass (G) or Pass with distinction (VG) (open book) Examination (TEN2), 5 credits, marks Pass (G) or Pass with distinction (VG) (open book) Two separate written examinations covering the course literature (Part 1+2 and Part 3) and five case seminars covering different aspects of cultural, service, relationship and network marketing. During these seminars marketing problems will be presented and discussed. All written examinations and seminars are conducted in the English language. Specific entry requirements Business Administration 60 credits with progression. At least 45 credits must be completed by course start. At least 5 credits of management accounting which can be achieved by the course Cost and Management Accounting I 7,5 credits or similar course. At least 15 credits on level G1F. In addition English course B/English course 6 is required. 14

15 Foreign students are required to submit a test of English equivalent to a TOEFL test result of at least 575 with TWE score 4.5 (PBT) or 90 with TWE score 20 (ibt) or an IELTS test score for academic purposes with an overall band score of 6.5 and no band score below 5.5. The test is mandatory for all applicants except for those from Australia, Canada, Ireland, New Zealand, Great Britain and the USA. Overview lecture program Lecture Content Teacher Course introduction Course introduction Ingemar Haglund 1 Nordic Perspectives Ingemar Haglund 2 Business Culture 1 Toon Larsson 3 Business Culture 2 Toon Larsson Case seminar 1 Business Culture Toon Larsson 4 Service Marketing/Management 1 Toon Larsson 5 Service Marketing/Management 2 Toon Larsson 6 Service Marketing/Management 3 Toon Larsson Guest lecturer Service Marketing/Management Case seminar 2 Service Marketing/Management Toon Larsson 7 Relationship Marketing 1 Ingemar Haglund 8 Relationship Marketing 2 Ingemar Haglund Case seminar 3 Relationship Marketing Ingemar Haglund 9 Industrial Marketing and Networks 1 Aswo Safari 10 Industrial Marketing and Networks 2 Aswo Safari 11 Industrial Marketing and Networks 3 Aswo Safari Case seminar 4 Industrial Marketing and Networks Aswo Safari 12 Industrial Marketing and Networks 4 Aswo Safari 13 Industrial Marketing and Networks 5 Aswo Safari Case seminar 5 Industrial Marketing and Networks Aswo Safari Relevant for RUG Compared to International Business at the RUG I think that this course covers a little bit of several courses. It does not go into much detail because the course exists of four parts. For me the study load of this course was low since most of the concepts I had already covered during my study at the RUG (e.g. Hofstede). However, when you come from a more economic background I think this course could be quite interesting because you learn a little bit about the marketing part and you can easily see if you are interested in it or in a part. Course: Nordic Perspectives on Marketing and Management, Course code: FOA219, Credits: 15 ECTS, Lecturers: Ingemar Haglund, Toon Larsson, Aswo Safari. 15

16 Swedish for Foreigners, level 1 (7.5 ECTS; SVA131) General I followed this course in both the first and second period, as this course took longer than one period. This course was also given at MDH in Västerås. The course started on the 1 st of September and ended with an exam on the 1 st of December. Every week there was one seminar. There were two times on Tuesday from which you could chose, one from and one from For these seminars you had to prepare some homework out of a book with exercises, grammar and texts. Although the teacher is really bad, I would recommend you to do this course because it gives you some basic understanding of the Swedish language making you able to understand some more things in the supermarket for example. However, when you are not from Germany or the Netherlands, and you do not speak any of those languages well, this course can be really hard to complete (e.g. Spanish, Italian, Mexican, French had problems understanding and speaking). Teacher The teacher of this course was in my opinion really bad. We got the feeling that his English level was not really high. Therefore, he sometimes answered a question completely wrong and he started to speak in Swedish completely much too soon. Another thing is the fact that he did not correct us at all! He did not say which answers to the exercises were correct or not and when we had to read he did not correct you and tell that you should change your pronunciation. Therefore, you do the course more on your own with the other students. About the course (from the MDH site) Objectives/Course content Swedish for beginners. The course is intended for students who, apart from their main studies, also wish to learn how to use the Swedish language in simple speaking situations and acquire some knowledge of the structure and vocabulary of the Swedish language. Examination Examination (TEN1), 7.5 credits, marks Pass (G) or Pass with distinction (VG) Course book A book bought at the student support desk with exercises, grammar, and texts. Relevant for RUG The study load is not too high for German or Dutch people. However, when you are not familiar with Germanic languages it can be a really hard course. Course: Swedish for Foreigners, level 1, Course code: SVA131, Credits: 7.5 ECTS, Lecturer: Thomas Asklund. 16