Report on exchange program. Host university: Copenhagen Business School Fall 2008

Transcription

1 Report on exchange program Host university: Copenhagen Business School Fall 2008 Students: Giang U. Pham (Student number ) MSc International Business

2 1. Summary/Extract This report reflected what I experienced during my exchange program at Copenhagen Business School in fall semester I hope together with other resources, the report provided some reference to students who plan to study in Copenhagen Business School. The report describes about Copenhagen Business School and its facilities, student life, classes and exams, Copenhagen city life and interaction with local residents. 2. Copenhagen Business School a. Before arrival. CBS will send practical information and survival guide to students well advance arrival date, so make sure we have it on hand and understand the requirements or instruction. We can find very practical information in this package, which comes down to place (Glentevej) where we can have inexpensive but stylish hair cut. One important thing is residence permit application. My experience is to prepare it in advance, so that when I arrived Copenhagen, my document was in place and I am not worry too much about this. Secondly, we should send our application for housing as early as possible since there are more than 700 applications on peak semester (I have further information about housing in section about Copenhagen city), and make sure that you received confirmation from Housing Department about your application. Thirdly, you d better communicate with your buddy about pick-up as early as possible, and have his/her contact number and the number of Buddy Team Head on hand when arriving airport, because it is very likely that you do not see anyone at the airport due to changes in time schedules or the buddy is suddenly busy. It is also good to tell your buddy your house address in advance, so that he/she can arrange the pick-up more efficient. Just bring luggage that you can carry, you can buy things easily at Copenhagen at good price. b. Campuses CBS has 4 campuses which locate near each other. The main campus at Soldjberg Plads houses administration and finance and management study. Dalgas Have hosts cultural, historical and language study and Porcelaenhaven is for student resident, international relations, and economic

3 study. The last one is Kilen which has very specific architecture. Lectures usually happen in classy auditoriums, named after the companies like Deloitte, KPMG, Ernst & Young, Nordea, Carlsberg,.. Be cautious with auditorium of your class because it can be changed just few hours before the class starts (that was what I experienced, hope it will be better). Big library locates at main campus where students and city residents can share a place until 10pm in weekdays and Saturday. There are not many available places even in the beginning of semester, so be quick and early in the morning to get a seat. Library is well-equipped with automated system of borrowing and returning books, large collection of books and publications, and the online database is more or less the same with NHH. Each campus has at least two computer rooms, in which students can find Thompson Datastream already plugged in Excel. This is good for me since most of my work need information from this. Wireless is good at convenient places, e.g. classrooms, canteen, halls, library. In Fall 2008, CBS used Microsoft Office 2003 for most of computers and plans to upgrade to Office 2007 in June You can check with your buddy about the upgrade. Canteen or cafeteria in campuses has large open space and variety of food options. To my opinion, the food is tasty, well-cooked but not affordable for daily lunch. c. Interaction with business community All year round, the school actively joins hand with companies to organize workshops, company presentations, company visits and other activities to help students get practical insights about what is happening in business world. From time to time, there are sessions about how to prepare a good job application. All students will be notified about these activities via so that no one will miss them. d. International office Since CBS hosts about exchange students each semester, the International Office has larger team to handle workload. I found that most of my questions were addressed very carefully by the office. Just be patient, clear and details as much as possible on the issues. The office has many assistants (volunteer) who are in first or second year of study (I think). They are energetic,

4 fun and curious about foreign cultures. Every exchange student has a centralized mail box called pigeon hole inside the office for receiving letters or notifications. The office will nicely inform you if you have a parcel coming to your name. At the time I was at CBS, the office organized International Forum. This was the chance for exchange students to represent their home university to Danish and other international students. Even though there were not many NHH students at the moment, I thought we should just stand up and represent our school if we have a chance, so I registered with CBS for the event, made a slideshow about activities at NHH, adding pictures and videos about student activities, collecting brochures and hand-outs from NHH International Office and stayed at the stand to answer questions during the event. It was fun. e. E-campus The main interaction between students and school is via e-campus web-link where we can find upcoming non-study activities, company presentations, system, courses registration, grades and Sitescape (similar to itslearning at NHH). There are also places to post information of books, bikes, furniture, electronic devices or whatever you would like to sell or buy. I tried once and found that it was very efficient to reach the customers 3. Student life As usual, we work on our study, go parties, international dinners or travel when we have free time. From time to time, CBS organized movie nights for students. For me, I found very useful with company events. For instance, I participated in Nordea Market Day and knew about how Global Markets department function. Nordea also let us visit trading room and involved us in small workshops that help us understand more about this room. Another day, I went to reception of JP Morgan to meet people from investment banking businesses and had very interesting discussion with them about life at work. I also participated in Credit Suisse presentation, where we played small game about building a business with given amount of capital. All of these, I think, are helpful for my career search in the future. At week-end, we could take short trip to other towns surrounding CPH or visit museums and castles. 4. Classes and exams:

5 You can see available courses for the semester several months before the semester start, you can also change the courses two week after the semester start if you do not like the courses you registered. I realized that workload in classes are heavier than in NHH. In my classes, I was overwhelmed with exercises and readings. Professors are easy in class but extremely demanding on exam quality. Many students and I thought that we studied very hard and knew most of the contents covered in the classes, but finally our results were not as our expectation. I heard many comments that the courses rely too much on theory and some are not interesting even the name of the course sounds very good. So just try as many classes as you can at the first two weeks and then make your choice. CBS allows student not to sit for the exams if you do not feel confident for good grade, just make sure you know well about procedure to cancel the exams. During my time at CBS, the school had some technical problem with its operation. I observed in some exams, students are required to bring their own printer, otherwise, they have to draw the slides on exam papers, which is very weird to me. I hope it is just one-time event. 5. The city (Copenhagen) CPH is wonderful for living a life. Majority of inhabitants use bike as mean of transportation to schools, to work, pick up the children, or date with partners. The city owns very convenient system of metro, trains and buses, connecting the airport, city center and other surrounding regions. But it would be interesting to have yourself a bike, you will feel much more integrated into CPH culture. Around the corners, there are plenty of cozy café, little pubs and bars for friend gathering. Many people tend to have their favorite pubs where the bartenders can name the drinks of each of customer. International students and tourists can easily find bars of their type around Stroget, the main shopping street which lies at the heart of the city. International cuisines are also various and some of them are quite affordable to students, e.g Italian pizza, Turkish kebab, exotic dishes from China, Thailand, India. Food is easy to find at good bargain all year round at supermarkets, namely Fotex, Fakta, Netto, Lidle, or quite a few Asian supermarkets near central station. For those who enjoy big lawn and walking in open atmosphere, parks are very good options. Try the big Frederikberg Have to see its style of English garden. There is also a big botanical garden in town that will attract flower-lovers.

6 At the beginning of each month, there will be a brochure about cultural activities at the city and our job is to balance time between class and these activities. I used to think that in winter time, these activities will be much less, but in reality, it was not. If you feel bored with cinemas or theatres, you can go to jazz concert, or Tivoli amusement park, or exhibition in the zoo - which is organized almost all year round with annual schedule of which type of wildlife will be exhibited. I was at CPH when there were exhibition about elephant life cycle. Indeed, I was so familiar with elephant when I live in Asia, but I was stunned about my understanding at elephant s life when I came to this exhibition. Early of the semester, the city mayor welcomed new coming people to Copenhagen with an informal pan-cake party. Every Friday, I took a Copenhagen Post for free at international office. It is very useful for non-danish speaking people like us to keep updated with what is going on around Copenhagen. There are also some little historical lessons about the city and its habitants. I remembered an article about a king named Bluetooth, even though in his time people did not have this technology. Housing in CPH is expensive and not easy to find. Be early with your housing application. If you are lucky, you may be able to choose an apartment to share, or a room in an apartment or a room in a dorm. Usually, the school will tell us what kind of housing we are allocated. There are not many accommodations near the school, so you may expect some time of travel between school and your place. Most of students lived in dormitories, others stayed at private houses. I found that private house was also a good experience since we would know how a Danish family lives. However, we may miss some parties at the dorms or experienced some strict rules from landlords. To those who will live in private house, you may get a place at a good bargain by using your negotiation skill. I was lucky enough to find an apartment to share with another at very good price in comparison with those stayed in dorms. 6. Interaction with local residents The Danes tend to approach to help with information when seeing that you are foreigner and unfamiliar with the things happening around you. So do not hesitate to ask if you have issues.

7 In class, there is little contribution from the participants. Even I knew that the guys sitting next to me knew the answers, they kept silent or discussed among their own group. But if I invite them to join me with the discussion, some are willing to share. I think the Danes are very humorous if we know how to enjoy their jokes and do not take things personally. Danes also enjoy drinking in the week-end, that s why I think beers and alcohol are among those that were consumed the most in this period. 7. What I have gained from the exchange period: I have more confidence in communication with internationals, business people and local residents. I know better how to communicate myself and my ideas with new people. I understand one more culture and know one more country. I learnt how to survive in a new environment and deal with difficulties.