Spring Aalto University

Transcription

1 National University of Singapore Spring Aalto University

2 Why Singapore and NUS? Before deciding the destination for exchange semester I was sure that it would be some other continent than Europe. I had never been outside Europe and student exchange would be great opportunity to spend couple of months somewhere outside Europe. I chose National University of Singapore for my first alternative and fortunately managed to get a place from there. I chose Singapore and NUS because of various reasons. Firstly, the culture is totally different from ours, even it is popular place to live among western expatriates. Also the location of Singapore is great for exploring South-East Asia more deeply. Secondly, the climate for Finnish guy is extremely exotic with average temperature of above 30 degrees. Thirdly, NUS is one of the top Universities in the world and has scored high scores in different rankings. Referring to these three earlier mentioned aspects I was positive that Singapore and NUS are suitable place for me to spend an unforgettable exchange period. After the semester I can say that I was right. Application process After getting the positive result from our school regarding to the exchange destination the real game started. Lot of different applications and forms had to be filled and sent to the host University. There were also different due dates and without being focused you could easily miss something important. Singapore is a country which is known of its comparably strict laws and high level of bureaucracy. Exchangers will get the first taste of it during application process. s from the school and immigration authorities were long and time consuming. However they included lot of important information, so all the messages had to be read carefully. The most important application is the student visa application. Without it it s not possible for us to study in Singapore. There were couple of different fees to be paid and forms to be filled, but luckily the instructions were good and at the end it was quite easy to complete. The last part of the student visa process is in the beginning of the exchange semester when ICA officers come to the school to complete the applications. Remember to print all the required hardcopies to make your life easier! Also remember to print every single receipt just in case. Only exception is the passport photos which can easily be taken in NUS. Other important application is the campus accommodation application. In Singapore the rent prices are so high that I warmly recommend campus housing. Normally, there will be two choices for residences, Utown and Prince George Park (PGR) Residences. I managed to get an apartment from Utown Residence which is the more popular alternative and it is that for a reason. I strongly recommend to apply for the Utown apartments first, even without AC. Regardless of your apartment in Campus, the rent price for the semester will be very reasonable, around e/month. Things to do before Exchange Semester Before leaving Finland and starting semester in Singapore there are couple of things that must be done for your own safety and convenience.

3 At first you have to be sure that you have required vaccines. The most relevant vaccines are Hepatitis A and B, Tetanus and Typhoid fever. Also Japanese encephalitis is recommended by YTHS and I took it just in case but that s not compulsory. Singapore is not located inside the malaria zone but if you have plans to travel to countries where malaria may exist you can buy needed medication either from Finland or Singapore. Many of the exchangers in Singapore will travel a lot like I did as well. Do remember to get a proper travel insurance, just in case. Even if you do not travel a lot, proper insurance is highly recommended. Buying Helsinki-Singapore-Helsinki flight tickets will be big part of your travel budget. I flew with Finnair both ways, because they had straight flights. It s not the cheapest alternative but I was happy with it. There are also lot of companies that offer flights with one stop and very reasonable price. Also be sure that you plan your amount of luggage before buying the tickets. I managed with one 23kg check-in luggage and one 8kg cabin bag. To be honest my cabin bag weighted double the allowed size when I came back. When buying the flights for both ways you have to decide the date you come back as well. Our orientation day was on Friday 8 th January and it is recommended to arrive couple of days earlier in order to take care of the basic everyday stuff. If you are buying the ticket back at the same time I strongly encourage to buy a flexible ticket and pay a bit more of it. Without that you should have pretty clear plans when you are coming back. Many of the exchangers will travel after semester in Asia. Life at NUS After landing to Singapore the first thing I felt was the warm humid breeze which reached me after I came out from the plane. The climate in Singapore is warm and extremely humid meaning that you will be sweating all the time when you are outside. However the climate is very warm you should have some warmer clothes with you. Singaporeans like to set air condition comparably low inside. In school and in public buildings AC is running full power all the time and without warmer shirt or longer pants you may catch cold pretty easily. I got an apartment from Utown Residence without AC. At first it may feel that there is not possible to live in Singapore without AC but you get used to it in few days. However fan was running all the time in my room. First night was horrible and I was sweating all the time. At the end I managed to sleep about three hours, but fortunately next night was much better. The accommodation in Utown Residence was a four room apartment with common kitchen, livingroom and bathroom. Room was quite small but it doesn t matter because the time spent in the room was little. In the room there was a bed, desk, fan and a wardrobe which were basically everything you needed for one semester. The residence doesn t offer any pillows, mattresses or sheets so you have to buy them in the first day. The facilities in Utown campus are awesome. There is a pool, gym, shops, barber, Starbucks, library, food courts, restaurants, everything. Actually, for a local student there may not be need to go outside of Utown for a long time. There is everything you need. There are also lots of sport facilities next to Utown such as tennis courts, football field, multipurpose hall, basketball courts

4 etc. The days when you have school you have to go to the business faculty which is located next to PGP in the other side of the campus area. But the transportation inside campus is easy and convenient due to the campus bus lines, which are free for students of course. Courses Service Design DSC411G This course dealt with different kind of services and how to enhance the service to improve customer experience. Professor of the course was a kind American lady from Cornell University. The most important assignment of the course was to prepare a presentation for certain function of Marina Bay Sands, the iconic Hotel Complex in Singapore. Our assignment was to prepare recommendations about improving the customer experience of MBS lobby restaurant Rise. Biggest part of the workload of the course was spent with this assignment. At the end of the course we had an opportunity to present our findings and ideas for the management of MBS and Rise restaurant. Have to say that it was a unique and extremely educational experience! Asian Markets and Marketing Management - MKT2401A The main focus in this course was in Asian business environment. At first we studied different simple marketing management tools which included little bit simple math as well. We had also couple of case studies related to some marketing problems of big multinational companies. Personally I found this course interesting and useful. It gave me lot of information about current state and future of Asian Markets. Professor was an Indian middle aged man, whose teaching was interesting and easy to follow. Consumer Behaviour - MKT3402C A brief description of this course could be how consumer behave in different situations and marketing contexts. Actually, I think that course was more related to psychology than marketing. In course we discussed deeply about human mind and how different ways of marketing actions affects consumer s decisions. Most of the things discussed in course were totally new for me. Teacher was American man in his forties. The most of his teaching methods were a bit extraordinary and sometimes it was hard to follow what was going on. However, course was interesting and total workload was quite low. Organizational Behaviour - MNO3301 Organizational Behaviour course was about human behaviors in groups, teams and organizations. In the course focus was from both individual and organizational point of view. Teacher was a Dutch lady in her thirties and she was really nice and her teaching was easy to follow. In the course we had couple of quizzes and presentation to be presented. At the end of the course we had individual assignment about our own personality and what is its effect on working in groups. Human Resource Management - MNO2302 The content of this course was related to the different HRM policies in organizations. The workload of this course was comparably heavy. We had to hand in four one-pagers about various topics discussed in class, couple of group presentations related to different HRM topics and couple of individual assignments. The professor of the course was local middle-aged lady with strong

5 Singlish accent and consequently, first few lectures were quite hard to follow. As a teacher she was extremely passionate and her feedback on assignments were very broad and useful. Picking the right courses Before the beginning of semester we had to choose courses we would like to take in NUS. In the introduction day we got our initial schedules and most of our schedules were far from originally planned ones. If you don t manage to get all the wanted courses, don t worry. In the first week you have time to change them and almost everyone managed to get the courses they wanted. However, you should prepare some additional courses just in case if there is no room for initially chosen ones. Good planning will help you to get the suitable schedule where lectures are not scattered on every single weekday. Especially if you want to travel, good initial planning makes your life much easier. Living in Singapore Singapore can be seen as an Asia for beginners because of its strong similarities to the western countries. Infrastructure of Singapore resembles more of a European city than Asian one and when first time in Asia, Singapore is comfy place to start explore Asia. Singapore is also famous of its security and extraordinary crime levels. That is one of the main reason why Singapore is so popular place to have a residence among western expatriates. If you like to travel all around the South-East Asia, location of Singapore is great for that. If you had to describe traditional Singaporean, it would be impossible. The population of Singapore is combination of various ethnic groups in which Chinese, Malay and Indonesian are the biggest. The beauty of Singapore is that how well they have managed to mix different ethnic groups and cultures to the same location. For example, in Chinatown it feels that you are in the middle of Chinese city and only couple of MRT stations away there is Little India where most of the people have Indian origins. Cost of living in Singapore is about at the same level than in Finland. There are lot of different publications where Singapore is said to be one of the most expensive city in the world. But you should remember that in these comparisons focus is strongly on housing prices, cars and luxury products and an exchange student doesn t need neither of those. If you manage to get residence with reasonable price your costs of living can be even lower than in Finland. The cost of public transportation and is at the same level than in Finland but taxis are lot of cheaper. What comes to groceries, some of the western import products are more expensive but on average price-level is at the same level. Singaporeans like to eat outside often and the prices of the meals in food courts are comparably cheap. With 2-4 Euros you can get a good meal and it s cheaper than prepare food yourself. Also, the supply of different types of food is broad in food courts and usually you can choose among 7-15 different stalls what to eat. There are Indian, Chinese, Taiwanese, Malay, Indonesian, Korean, Japanese and even Western stalls in every food court. Sometimes it may be hard to choose because of broad selection of stalls but everything should be tried at least once. Although Asians like to use lot of oil and empty calories in their food there are lot of heathy choices as well. In

6 restaurants price levels are maybe a bit more expensive than in Finland and especially the price of alcohol in clubs and bars is remarkably higher than in Finland. When having an exchange semester in Singapore, you should explore Asia as much as you can. Flight tickets and hotel prices in South-East Asia are very reasonable and you should definitely take and advantage of that. It is also possible to do daytrips to Malesia and Indonesia. We went couple of times to Malesia on daytrip to play golf and we had also couple of longer weekends in Vietnam and Hong Kong. In spring semester we had couple of chances to do longer trips in Philippines, and Bali. After the semester I went to Australia and New-Zealand because I was already halfway there from Finland! There are also lot of places worth visiting in Singapore such as Marina Bay Sands, Sentosa Island and Pulau Ubin but in the end traveling was definitely the best part of the exchange semester. Final Comments In our University exchange semester is definitely an opportunity that should be used. We have so many amazing alternatives all around the world. We get also financial support from Aalto, KY and Government which is important help for us and it is an advantage most of our exchange friends from other countries don t have. If you haven t spent longer period in Asia before, I strongly recommend Singapore and NUS for exchange destination. But wherever you decide to go, I m sure that the exchange period will be an unforgettable experience. After graduation when you have a permanent job it s much harder to do trips like that. If you have dreamed to explore some country or continent exchange semester is the best way to do that!