Name of the University: Toulouse Business School/ ESC-Toulouse (ESCT) Homepage: www.esc-toulouse.fr Names of the student: Annette Storstein Exchange semester: Fall 2008 1. ACADEMIC INFORMATION General Information about the School Toulouse Business School (ESCT) is situated near the city centre of Toulouse. Toulouse is a beautiful city, a bit smaller than Oslo. It is however the second largest student city in France, after Paris. ESCT was founded in 1903, and it is one of the French École Supérieure de Commerce, one of the Grandes École de Management. It has two campuses, one in Toulouse and one in Barcelona. The school is fairly prestigious in France, and it has received some international attention through the distinctions of EQUIS, AMBA, and AACSB accreditation. ESCT is a fairly small school, with approximately 2350 students in the master program. The school building is quite new and always looks proper. There are a few group rooms, computer rooms and areas to sit and talk on the first floor. Beside the school you find a nice park, where you can have lunch or just relax after lectures. There is a place to sit and eat inside the school also, but no cafeteria, only vending machines. French people usually go out for lunch, and you can find small coffee- and lunch-shops near the school. There is also a student restaurant at the university (T1), a ten minute walk from ESCT. The school has seven departments; Management Control, Accounting and Auditing Economics-Finance and Law Industrial Organization, Logistics and Technology Human Resource Management Information Management Marketing Strategy As an exchange student you can choose courses belonging to any department, as long as they are part of the master program. The master program is a three year program, which gives one specific degree, not easily transferable to any international standard. This is common for the French schools, and it is due to the French education system, not yet transformed to international standards (i.e. bachelor, master etc). The first year is what they call the Undergraduate/Formation Fondamentale programme, and consists of basic management courses. I am not sure whether this is particularly interesting for BI students. The second and third years are what they call the Graduate/Formation Approfondie et Professionnalisante programme. The second year consists of core courses in finance, strategy, accounting etc., in addition to some more advanced courses. This year should be fairly compatible with the basic courses taught in the bachelor at BI. If you are a bachelor student, you will probably be able to find equivalent courses to BI. The third year mainly consists of a specialization course of 20 study points. In addition there is a strategy project early in the year, a research project in the end of the semester and a big exam (Le Grand Écrit) at the end of the semester. All of these four components are optional for foreign students. I chose to only do the specialization course. You can choose between different types of specializations, listed below in the section Description of Courses. These courses might be alright for master students at BI, as free electives or as part of a minor. You will probably not find any major course equivalents at ESCT. ESCT have both a French track and an English track, and there are quite many exchange students that do not speak French. I believe there were around 60 of us this fall (fall 2008), where only about 15 attended courses in French. However, if you want to learn French, this is
a golden opportunity. Even though it may be hard in the beginning, it is possible to take the courses in French. When I was there I took my course (20 study points) in French. It was hard, but it really ameliorated my understanding of the language and my ability to express myself. The Teaching situation The French school system is different from the system in Norway. After lycé (high school, vgs), the French students do a couple of preparation years, before attending university, business school etc. Thus instead of five years as in BI (Bachelor + Master) they only have three years in the business school. This makes it a harder to find equivalent courses on master level, while I think this is not a big problem if you are a bachelor student. The courses are mostly divided into different topics, with mandatory lectures. Attendance is quite strict. There are many good professors, including guest lecturers, and they speak fairly well English. The studies in France are mostly practical, so there are hardly any long papers to write. They mostly stick to shorter exercises or power point presentations, which makes it easier for the foreign students to take the French track. You should be prepared for group works and doing presentations in class. This part also often accounts for some parts of the final grade. The exams are based on all material handed out and discussed in class. Class attendance is compulsory, and also important if you want to do well on your exams. I found the communication with both professors and the dean of my course to be fairly easy. Also even though attendance is mandatory, they usually are less strict with the foreign students. Nonetheless, you should have good reasons for your absence. I consider the workload to be less than at BI if you are on master level, and approximately the same if you are a bachelor student. Academic Calendar Second year students will start in October, and have exams about 15-20 th of December. The semesters for second year students are from October-December and December-February. You might be able to find enough courses as to finish your exchange in December, but you should talk to your dean about this. Third year students arrive in the beginning of September, to have an information meeting. If you do not do the strategy project, your lectures will start about 20 th of September and last until about 5 th of December. The research project is due in January, and Le Grand Écrit is in the middle of December. Description of Courses I chose to only do the specialization course, which is a third year course on the French track. It was called Management Stratégiques des Grands Groups, and consisted of approximately 155 hours. This course is based mostly on cases, introducing different types of strategic thinking. There are many lectures, more than in BI, and the schedule changes each week. We had mostly guest lecturers, and a lot of preparation work. The level of difficulty is not very high, but you should expect to get sudden cases/homework for the day after etc. I found the course to be interesting, but not very advanced. I got the specialization course approved as part of my minor degree in strategy. If you are a master student you should be able to at least get approval of the specialization courses as free electives. I find that BI is less strict with minor courses and free electives, while it is very difficult to get major courses approved. You will not be able to find any major courses at ESCT. An alternative course in the third year is the specialization course International Business, which is a course on the English track. The workload is less than the course above, so if you want to combine school with travelling this is a good alternative. Other third year courses are: Aerospace Management (English Course), Banking and Corporate Finance (English Course), Banking and Financial Markets (English Course), Business Immobilier Développement Urbain et Loisirs, Business to Business (B to B), Business to Consumer (B to C), Contrôle de Gestion et Audit Interne, Entrepreneur, International Business : Going to Asia and Middle East
(English Course), Management & Sustainable Development (English Course), Management de la Franchise, Management des Activités Culturelles, Management des Ressources Humaines, Management en Environnement High-Tech, Management en Ligne (ecommerce, emarketing et ebusiness), Métiers du Conseil en Management and Supply Chain Management. If you are attending the third year at ESCT, the prerequisites are usually a basic course in whichever specialization you choose. These basic courses are taught at the second year at ESCT. If you are a bachelor student that have not yet done basic courses at BI, I am quite sure that you will be able to find equivalents to the BI courses. Required Literature There is virtually no required literature if you go on exchange to France. You receive lecture notes from your professor and maybe some slideshows etc. This will mostly be in the teaching language. The French track may also have some material and lectures in English, but the English track is only in English. The literature is fairly basic, because the main focus in France is on applying concepts and theories. Exams If you attend the second year at ESCT, you will have to do some hand-ins during the year. As a final exam in your courses they often use multiple choice tests or in some cases small written exams. This can be tricky in French, if you have troubles understanding the questions, and also the differences between the alternative answers. However, this depends only on your level of understanding of the language. If you take the English track, I think you will have no great problems with passing all exams. I find the level is not very advanced, and the French students do not work a lot with school. The exam period might be only one week, with more than one exam each day. This can be difficult if you are used to having a lot of time before the exams. There are no aids allowed (except a calculator) on the exams, so you have to know theories and models by heart. Attending the third year at ESCT, I chose to do only the specialization course. My grade was then put together of 4-5 hand-ins/power point presentations done in groups. In total we did perhaps 12-14 hand-ins/power point presentations, and I did not know which hand-ins would make up the grade before the course was over. There is no final exam if you only take the specialization course. The strategy project is done in large groups, and last only two weeks. 2-4 persons will present it on behalf of your group. Le Grand Écrit is an individual strategy exam, which counts for about 5 study points. This is a very hard exam if you do it in French. If you do it in English it will resemble a practical case based on strategy theories from your basic strategy course at bachelor at BI. The research project is approximately the same as the first half of the master thesis in BI that is a literature review stating hypothesis in the end, but with no empirical work. This is done in pairs. Other There is a mediateque beside the school, mostly used by third year students for the research project. I visited it two times. It gives access to databases and is nice to use for finding information, reading journals (they have many journals in paper format) or downloading articles. You can log onto the databases at the mediateque, from school or from your computer at home. There are only few places to sit and study in the mediateque. Students usually sit in empty classrooms/computer rooms at school when studying. There are 5-6 computer rooms in school. These can be used when there are no lectures. Printing is very easy. You bring your own paper, and the rest is free of charge. This works very well. The internet access is also faster than at BI.
The administration has a specific system for giving information to the students. They have an information board in school where the weekly schedules are put up. In addition you have to check the school website (appui) and your webmail every day. Urgent messages are only put out on the website/webmail, not on the information board. For large power points etc the lecturers cannot use the website because the files are too large. This material is therefore often distributed to one of the students in class, by using memory stick, and then sent by email to the rest of the students. Lastly, you have a pigeon hole, where you also receive different kinds of information. It is not the best system, but in some weird way it works. 2. PRACTICAL INFORMATION ON THE SCHOOL AND THE EXCHANGE EXPERIENCE The International Office The International Office at ESCT is very helpful, both with practical and academic issues. They can for instance help you to find a place to live, and they help you to fill out all the paperwork correctly. The school has special days in the beginning of the semester for registration and getting paperwork done. The lady responsible for the incoming students is Madame Corinne Garcia, the International Exchange Coordinator. With her she has Betty Rouzies, the International Relations Assistant. In addition the ladies working in the administration also help the international students with many school issues. They are all very helpful and easy to talk to. I experienced no problems at all when I came down to ESCT; they helped to put everything in place to make the start of the semester easy for foreign students. Also during the semester, you can stop by the International Office in the opening hours to get help for whatever you need help with. If they cannot help you directly, they know who to talk to. Information before you left It was quite hard to find appropriate courses at ESCT. The school does not have updated homepages and there is no student handbook like in BI. The best thing to do is to ask the International Office directly for the course schedule for the semester you want to go there. I think it will be easier to find courses for bachelor students, and for master students taking only free electives. Shortly before the summer holiday I received an information package from the school. It contained all necessary information about the start of the semester, a city map and also some tourist information. Reception Two weeks before the lectures start, the International Office and Madame Corinne Garcia have an information meeting for the foreign students. At that meeting you will get all the information you need. If you have not yet found a place to live, or have any other practical problem, they will help you to resolve them. The Welcome Team (WT) is a team of French students arranging activities for the foreign students. After the introduction meeting the WT shows everybody around the school. Since the school and campus is small, it is fairly easy to get to know your way around it. The students in the WT are very easy to talk to, and can help with many things; especially all things that concern life outside of school. In the end of September the WT organizes an introductory weekend (weekend of integration). The activities prepared by the WT include for instance canoeing, paint ball, outdoor activity park, barbeques, ski trips etc. They are not expensive, because they are subsidized by the school. I really recommend participating in the introductory weekend, and other activities organized by the WT. It is perfect for getting to know the other students, and a lot of fun!!! Visa Procedure and travel experiences If you are Norwegian you do not need a Visa. However, you will have to pay a fee of about EUR 200 for a European health insurance as part of the admission to your school. This is paid after you arrive at the school, and is in addition to the Norwegian travel insurance you
should have before you go. If you have ordinary travel insurance, you will have to extend this, because the stay is more than 3 months. Travel expenses are quite high if you do not book flights early on. Tickets back and forth Oslo Gardermoen Airport and Toulouse airport, Blagnac (Oslo- Blagnac, Blagnac-Oslo) might cost about NOK 3500-4500. However, if you fly with a low cost airline to Carcassonne and take the train for one hour into Toulouse it will be fairly cheap. I have found tickets which are as cheap as EUR 50. It might be difficult to fly to Carcassonne if you have a lot of luggage. Housing It is difficult to find housing in Toulouse. The best time of year is in June-July, and maybe January. If you want to rent from the private market, you should search for housing in these periods. The rents start at EUR 250-550, depending on whether you live with other people (in a collocation) or if you live alone (in a studio). I lived with four other French students and paid EUR 325 each month, everything included. Deposits are normally two months of rent. The school offers student apartments, just beside the school. The standard is much better than private apartments in Toulouse. You will have your own bathroom and bedroom, a living/study room with a small kitchen corner including a stove and a refrigerator. The furniture is quite nice, and the building is newly renovated. The cost, including internet is about EUR 580. You have to go with your laundry to the laundry places around the city, and pay EUR 4-6 for one machine. This is quite normal in Southern Europe, and works pretty well. I came down during my summer holiday, and found a collocation in July. This takes time, and can be very difficult. My advice is to rent a room at the ESCT student building, and just pay the extra price. This will save you from all the problems I had with the apartment, including bad renovation, electricity problems, plumbing problems and internet problems. The standard of living with regards to student apartments is not very good in France, so don t expect too much. Costs I estimate the cost of living to be; Rent: The rent varies between EUR 250 to the highest EUR 580. You should be prepared to pay at least EUR 350 for an adequate collocation or EUR 500 if you want a studio (bedroom, kitchen corner and bathroom without washing machine) of 20 square meters on your own. Food: Food is less expensive than in Norway, specifically if you go to Liedl, Leader Price or Carrefour. The food stores called Champion and Casino are more expensive, but still less so than in Norway. School: There are no books, so you will have very small expenses for school. Health Insurance: The European health insurance will cost you about EUR 200. You have to pay this, even if you have other Norwegian insurances. Apartment Insurance: Probably you will have to insure your apartment/part of the apartment. This is done fairly easy; you bring your rent contract, school admission papers and identification papers to one of the insurance agencies, and you get insurance for one year at a cost of approximately EUR 60. Erasmus Scholarship:
When going to France you will receive an Erasmus scholarship, distributed by BI around mid October. This helps a lot on the living expenses. See the BI International Office s homepage to know how much you can get from the Erasmus Scholarship. CAF Apartment Grant: You can get housing aid from the French government agency; CAF. I got about EUR 80 each month, but if you rent an expensive apartment you will get more. To get this you have to open a French bank account. ESCT gives this information about the cost of living in Toulouse: Other To get around the city I recommend using the city bikes ( Vélo Toulouse ), they are not very expensive, and the city is perfect for biking. There is also a very good metro system, and quite many buses. As an exchange student I recommend you to buy a cheap mobile phone, either pre-pay or fixed contract. It is not as cheap as in Norway, but much cheaper than using your Norwegian mobile phone during your stay. Also keep in mind that the pace of life in Southern Europe is slow. Getting a mobile phone, bank account and insurance can take quite some time, so the sooner you go to the bank/bureau the better. Also, when closing your accounts when at the end of the semester; do this at least two weeks before you leave. If you are entitled to some refund, this can probably only be given to you by check, or possible by a transfer to your French account. They are pretty old fashioned about these things, and very bureaucratic. When closing your French bank account, be sure that all transactions are completed, because you cannot trust the bank to have this sort of information. Social Activities As often when going on exchange it may be hard to connect with the French students. However, compared to Norway, French students are much more open and easier to get to know. Also the Welcome Team really does a great deal to get the foreign students to feel at home at ESCT and in Toulouse. In addition to the integration weekend, they invite you to their parties, send out invitations to student events and organize evenings at the school pub, called Foyer. There are also 3-4 open bar parties during the semester, gatherings with the Wine society WineElse etc. It is easy to get to know the foreign students, through events organized by the Welcome Team, other school events or through the events the foreign students organize themselves by using facebook.
There are lots of things to do in Toulouse. If you like to go out you can meet tons of students, either by going to the school pub, le Foyer, or by going to the student bars located in the student quarter near the bridge St. Pierre. You can go out any day of the week; there are countless happy hours, and a lot of night life. From reading your student email, you will also receive invitations to free student events, like small concerts etc. If you like sports you can participate in activities like rugby, aerobics, badminton etc, organized by the student society at ESCT. In the wintertime you can go skiing in the Pyrenees (2-3 hours from Toulouse), and in the summer you can surf in Biarritz (4 from Toulouse). The student society organizes political discussions at ESCT. This fall (fall 2008) there were some events to discuss political en environmental issues, and there was a huge event on the American Election Day. The event for the American election was really great. If there are similar events while you are there, I really recommend them. You can also enjoy the countless cafés, museums or just walk around the city centre. There are many very beautiful churches and in Toulouse, and the city is called la ville rose because of the red brick houses in the old part of the city. The city is built on both sides of the river la Garonne, which together with the canal du midi and the view towards the Pyrenees makes it a beautiful city to live in. The river bank and the parks in Toulouse are great for recreation on warm days, which you will experience from about April/May to October. Shopping is not great, but you will find what you need. If you should lack things to so, ANSA, an organization for students studying abroad, also have a lot of activities. You can also find events on the homepage of Toulouse; www.toulouse.fr. Culture and Language Being in France, you must expect that people mostly speak French. Even if you choose the English track, some lectures might be in French, and if you work in a group with French students they might prefer to speak French. This may be a challenge. If your objective is to improve your French language skills the school has French courses for second year students, but you can probably also attend this even if you take third year courses. Also you are entitled to a free language course at the University of Toulouse (T1), not very far from the school. These courses, however, tend to start late in the semester, which is a pity, because they are very good. Toulouse is very nicely situated for travelling. There are plenty of opportunities to visit small cities in the Midi- Pyrenees and other regions in the South. These regions have a very old history, and there are many places to visit, including small villages and castles and prehistoric caves. Wine and food has always been an important aspect of the French way of life, and you will have plenty of opportunities to enjoy the French cuisine. If you like to travel to different countries in Europe you can go by bus, train or plane. This is fairly easy and not very expensive. Cultural and Social Effects from the Exchange Experience The French culture is very different from the Norwegian one, and you should expect both positive and negative surprises. My experiences are that the French lifestyle is very social and outgoing, and it is easy to get in contact with other people. I really enjoyed the openness of the French student society, which makes it easier to get to know people than in Norway. A less positive aspect, in my opinion, is the country s bureaucracy and slow systems. Keep in mind that everything takes time. This is difficult to handle for Scandinavians, but your patience will (hopefully) improve as you go along. Going to France challenged me in a number of ways; I learned how it feels to be lost in a foreign country, language and culture, and how differences in communication can give misunderstandings. Also I felt how it is to be the foreigner that do not understand how things are supposed to be done, and that have weird attitudes and habits. I learned how to adapt, and how to manage such a different pace of living, which in the end turned out to be pretty
comfortable when I just managed to change my habits. The exchange has certainly made me more adaptable, patient and humble. I have gotten some great friends and had some really nice times. Lastly, I have broadened my perspective on the Norwegian culture; I learned to appreciate the efficiency we have in Norway, while at the same time being a little more inclined to slowing down the pace and enjoying living in the moment. Summing up, I think Toulouse is a wonderful place to go on exchange. I recommend ESCT to bachelor students and to master students going for other reasons than academic opportunities. Setting school aside, you will fall in love with the city. There is a great Welcome Team waiting to show you how student life is in Toulouse. There are plenty of things to do, and it is easy to travel to other places in France and Europe. I can really recommend Toulouse as a great place to go on exchange. If you have any questions, small or big, do not hesitate to ask me. You can reach me at annette.storstein@gmail.com or at my cell phone +47 93 65 27 27.