General Information About the School

Transcription

1 Exchange Report Study Program: Automotive Management Exchange Semester: Fall + Spring Academic Year: Host University: EBS Universität für Wirtschaft und Recht Country: Germany

2 I General Information About the School The EBS Universität is divided over two locations: the Law School is situated in the city of Wiesbaden, and the Business School is located in a very small town, Oestrich-Winkel, which can be reached by train (station: Hattenheim). I lived in Wiesbaden, as the facilities there seemed more agreeable. Besides being a rather nice city, there is not much of a student life going on. The campus in Wiesbaden is accessible for business school students as well, but offers limited room for personal study. The campus in Oestrich-Winkel is rather old, which has a certain charm, but the facilities are not too great: WIFI was not always working, and there were very limited study spaces/pcs available. The restaurant was relatively cheap, but the quality of the food rather disappointing. Other supermarkets or similar facilities were about 15min walking time away. Wiesbaden itself is quite good to go out for dinner, but for more than that you would need to go to Mainz (rather large student population, approximately 10mins by train) or Frankfurt (large city, approximately 30mins by train). There were several gyms and sporting facilities such as an indoor swimming pool available in the city. It s quite a characteristic city with some landmark buildings, and the Christmas market is always worth a visit. It might be difficult to find an apartment in the city however, as it is not really a city where lots of students live. The business school of EBS offers several MSc programmes, as well as an MBA (all are rather well-known within Germany). The faculties are divided over the following areas: - Finance, Accounting, Controlling, and Taxation - Management and Economics - Marketing - Operations In addition, the Business School incorporates several institutes specializing in certain topics: - Strascheg Institute for Innovation, Transformation, and Entrepreneurship - Real Estate Management Institute - Insight Mobility Institute - Health Care Management Institute - Institute for Brand and Communication Research - Institute for Supply Chain Management - Market Management Institute - Centre for Corporate Skills and Dispute Competence - Centre for Business Ethics Most MSc programs incorporate subjects from various departments and offer insights from multiple institutes/centres. The Automotive Management program, for example, was structured as follows:

3 Note that an internship completed after the BSc is a mandatory part of the requirements at EBS.

4 II Practical Information After enrollment, you start to receive quite some information on housing and arrival dates. However, it proved to be quite difficult to find a suitable apartment in Wiesbaden they are not really open to housing students, and apartments can be rather expensive. The housing office might be of some help, but the online housing event organized by the university was rather disappointing (not much available in Wiesbaden). You can look for apartments yourself, but you have to search carefully for WG (wohngemeinschaft) on websites like Immobilienscout.de. Living in Oestrich-Winkel might be more easy to arrange via the university, but the town is rather small and there are not a lot of facilities available (especially on Sundays in Germany, on Sunday all shops are closed). In a shared apartment, I paid around 500 per month on housing. The rest of the living costs (food etc.) are comparable to the Netherlands. With the mandatory ( 125 per semester) OV-ticket for the Rheingau area, you can use buses and trains in the entire area between Frankfurt, Mainz, and Wiesbaden. In terms of course selection, it was a bit confusing how the structure of modules and courses was arranged (several courses can be part of one module, but not all courses in a module are necessarily mandatory). However, the MSc programs come with a mandatory set of courses, so you can follow those. Do note that the internship and project paper are mandatory as well, but no information is communicated on these subjects. Information provided by Tilburg University on matters like these is also very limited (or non-existent). The International Office of EBS was quite responsive, but also had limited knowledge on the specific arrangements between Tilburg University and EBS (for example, on the joint thesis et cetera). No mandatory books were required for all of the courses, which saves quite some expenditures on course materials. EBS offers a quite lengthy introduction period of several days, where presentations are held to provide all required information. However, much (if not all) information presented during these days is already communicated via in the weeks/months before arrival most information is not really new. Last I heard, they were considering changing the introduction week to incorporate more interactive and interesting events/presentations. Throughout the intro week and the year, some activities are organized (parties, barbeque), but these varied a lot on number of people attending and organizational quality (depended on students mostly). After arrival, it did not take too much time to get settled: Germany is rather comparable to the Netherlands in terms of culture. In preparation, I followed a language course at Tilburg University, which allowed me to pick up the language rather quickly. However, EBS also provides language courses at different levels (not only German also Spanish, Chinese, et cetera). On campus, the main language was English, as there are quite some international students (from China and India, mostly). The German students and professors, however, spoke German amongst each other. Also, in terms of career perspectives in Germany, speaking German is mostly required, so it is advisable to at least secure a basic level of German. In terms of personal development, I think the exchange contributed mostly in preparing me for my future career. As EBS has close ties with several companies, also in automotive, it has the opportunity to provide research projects in multiple courses in cooperation with companies. As such, the content of courses is more practical, and requires more developed presentation skills in several instances, we were asked to present our

5 results in front of representatives of the company. In addition, multiple company visits were arranged to major players in the automotive industry. I think this is a valuable addition to the education that Tilburg University provides, as there is not much room in their curriculum to explore the practical side.

6 III Academic Information As EBS is a rather international school, where some classes were attended by more international students than German students, all courses are taught in English. In general, the courses I followed were mandatory in the specific curriculum for a MSc degree in Automotive Management. The content of the courses was a bit more practice-oriented than in Tilburg, and overall, the level was less difficult. This was also represented in the grading: the average grades are about 1 point higher than the averages in Tilburg. Moreover, the style of teaching was less academic than in Tilburg, and due to the smaller classrooms, more interactive. As such, the contact with professors was more personal than in Tilburg. The workload is not really spread evenly throughout the semester: most of the times, all examinations and project papers have to be handed in in the last 2-3 weeks of the semester. The examinations were mostly in the form of project papers and presentations written examinations were also part of some courses, but limited. The library facilities of EBS were rather limited. An extensive physical library is available, but the use of the online library is quite elaborate. Moreover, just a limited number of PCs was available on site (just 4 or 5). The following courses were part of my curriculum at EBS: Code Course Exam(s) ECTS Comments A.003 Master thesis - 24 Joint thesis with TiU M-AUT4-005 Business Process Written Exam 6 Taught by industry professional, & Information included company visit Management in the Global Automotive Value Chain M-AUT4-006 Distribution Written Exam 6 Taught by industry professional, Channels & Presentation included company visit Dealership Management M-AUT4-017 Developments & Written Exam 6 Included guest lecture by industry Regulations in Presentation professional Contemporary Mobility M-PDV4-002 Personal Mastery Written Exam 3 Choose between several practical courses (leadership etc.) M-MET4-021 Research Methods Written Exam 3 Choose between quantitative and 2 Graded qualitative skills Assignment M-PHI4-016 Introduction to Written 3 Strict in class attendance Ethics Assignment M-ACP4-004 Written Assignment 2 About mandatory internship M-AUT4-012 M-AUT4-013 M-AUT4-015 Strategy, Corporate Foresight & Business Model Innovation in the Mobility Sector Automotive Field Study Digital Transformation in Presentation Written Exam Presentation Presentation 6 Taught by industry professionals, included company research project and company visit 6 Included company research project and company visit 6 Included company research project and IAA visit

7 the Automotive Industry M-MET4-020 Research Methods 1 Written Assignment M-MIS4-003 Internship Proof of Internship M-PHI4-015 Philosophy of Presentation Science M-SCM4-023 Operations Simulation Management assignment Written Exams 3 Mainly Excel skills 7 Mandatory internship, to be completed after your BSc 3 Mainly applied philosophy of science to contemporary subjects 6 Included simulation assignment in groups

8 IV Tips for Future Students - Spending time abroad in an exchange is always a good experience - Start arranging housing/visa etc. in time - If you plan to stay in Germany to start your career, start learning German - For those interested in automotive, I recommend EBS (there is no similar MSc available), but for other MSc programs, I would suggest considering other universities as well - Take into account that you have to investigate and arrange a lot yourself: the host and home universities do not always make clear arrangements/know everything