Maastricht University The Netherlands Benjamin Hui Shun Chi (IS & MGMT) Spring 2016 Exchange Report
Table of Content Cover Page Table of Content & Summary Monthly AcJvity Log General Exchange info Items to bring Useful Links & Contacts 1 2 3-4 5-6 7 7 Pros Young University Students can and willing to speak English Relaxing city Easily accessible to/from several airports Good Asian Market with Asian restaurant Summary of UM Cons AUendance required Small city Too much Hong Kong exchange students Course quality depends on students quality Well-known for heavy workload
Monthly Ac6vity Log Jan: I arrived Maastricht on 27 th Jan in the evening to catch the compulsory introducjon days on 28&29. My accommodajon is at Brouwersweg 100, which is a student dorm for exchange students. You need to take a bus to the dorm if you are carrying luggage, it takes you around 10 mins from the stajon to the dorm. For the few days in Jan, I basically familiarized myself the environment and also handled bank, mobile data and party a bit with other exchanges. Feb: The school starts on 1Feb, but then followed by a 9-day holiday called Carnival, which is the biggest fesjval in Maastricht. I would recommend to experience the fesjval for 1-2days and then go for a long trip as you would not have such a long holiday with the Jght schedule of UM. I went to Northern Europe for Aurora and I am lucky to catch it! I recommend to stay in Tromso Camping as you can see Aurora at your doorstep. Back to UM, you need to read chapters before class and teach others if you are the facilitator. I took Corporate Strategy & System Analysis and Design in this period. As class Jme is short, most of the Jme are self-studying, you could manage to travel to nearby cijes at dayjme and study at night. I went to Namur, Luxemburg, the Hague and Aachen. Mar: As one period consist of 7 educajon weeks, March is the most intensive month. Three and a half weeks of study and an exam week right ager the short Easter holiday. You will get used to the PBL study system and all those presentajons. I enjoyed Corporate Strategy a lot as UM has a lot of internajonal students and in class we can discuss pracjces of different corporate around the world and learn from different culture, which I think is the essence of exchange study. I sjll managed to go on four short trips Scotland, Switzerland, Manheim & Budapest, Prague, Berlin. Maastricht is close to many airports and I highly recommend students to compare various flights from various airports for their Jme slots and fares. (E.g. airports in Brussels, Bonn, Amsterdam, Eindhoven and Maastricht.) This can save you lot of money.
Monthly Ac6vity Log Apr: Right ager the exam period, there is a week reserved for resit, which is basically a period for students to retry if they failed their courses in period 2&3. This week has totally nothing to do with us and therefore it is a prime Jme for long trip! I went to Iceland during this 9 day holiday. Ager the holiday a new period will commence and you can study 2 more courses. However I only chose to study one during this period to free up Jme for interviews and intern applicajons. I also joined an event called IT Management Day which is held by student associajon here and met some IT companies. May & Jun: May is another long studying month with only 2 days of public holiday. As I only study one course, I finished my project in advance and I travelled to Morocco. It is one of the easiest African countries for us to reach due to its geographic proximity to Spain. I have my final exam on 31May and ager my exam I travelled one last Jme within the Netherlands and closed my bank account, returned key and said goodbye to all my Dutch/German friends in Maastricht. Some students will travel one more month and go back to Hong Kong by July, if so it is advisable to book everything in advance as summer is the peak travelling season. I chose to return to Hong Kong in early June right ager I seuled everything and concluded my fruimul exchange semester.
General Exchange info. 1) Visa Procedures I had to leave HK right ager my HKUST fall semester exchange, therefore I prepared for the Visa once I received the instrucjons. It is advised to do it asap as it is required to mail some documents to the Netherlands and the processing Jme is much longer when it is approaching the deadline. 2) Orienta6on Ac6vi6es The OrientaJon AcJviJes are compulsory, which I think is quite interesjng. Students will walk you around the small city and introduce some important landmarks to you. Also they will tell you where to get a bike, where to do shopping and which boujques they like. It is a good Jme for you to meet other exchange students as well. 3) Interna6onal Services & Ac6vi6es There is a buddy program in Maastricht, which is called MyBuddy organized by SCOPE, through this events you can pair up with a buddy who is a regular student in UM and have fun together. Also SCOPE offers business/career-related events like IT Management Day and some workshops. Their events are ogen in English and Exchanges are welcomed. 4) Accommoda6ons hup://www.maastrichthousing.com/ Most of the exchange students choose their accommodajons from Maastricht Housing as it is reliable and trusted. The exchange student dorm are the P/C/M- buildings at Brouwersweg 100 and you can meet a lot of exchange students there. However many regular students told me that the rent is ridiculous there and given the same rent we could have rent a room right in the city center. Therefore if you want to really live with local students instead of exchange, or live somewhere closer to the stajon, you can search for some Facebook groups like this one: hups://www.facebook.com/groups/116816401678059/ 5) Courses Registra6on UM s course registrajon is completely different from HKUST, you do not need to consider anything about class quota or Jme clash. As the school will assign class Jme and adjust number of tutorial ager the registrajon of the course. Just remember to register your courses before the deadlines and choose courses that you are interested in. I took 3 courses in UM and I think UM provides quite a lot of IS/MGMT courses for students. Course HKUST Difficulty (5: hardest) EBC 2072 Systems Analysis and Design EBC 1017 Strategy EBC 2027 InternaJonal Business Strategy ISOM 3210 InformaJon Systems Analysis and Design MGMT 4210 Corporate Strategy MGMT 4230 InternaJonal Management Overall score (5: best) Remarks 4 3 Intensive course, you need to learn to draw Process flow & ER diagrams in days, required pracjcing 1 4 Easy course with a lot of diversity, lots of internajonal insights. 2 3 Similar to Strategy with some duplicajons, but more in-depth.
General Exchange info. 6) Teaching & Assessment Methods The famous Problem-based learning teaching method is the symbol of UM. You can learn more about it from the web or other students. It is suitable for students acjvely parjcipate in class who ask quesjons and share experience. Grades are usually assessed by 4 components: AUendance, FacilitaJons, Project and Exam 7) Sports & Recrea6on Facili6es Next to the dorm there is a tennis court and a basketball court, you can borrow basketball with your key. The gym is so expensive and far from the dorm. There are many different sports team in UM and I trained with the University Korpall team for several Jmes. Your major exercise in Maastricht should be biking around the city or doing bike trip to nearby towns. 8) Finance & Banking (including currency / expenses) Bank card, OV-card and Credit card are all you need to leave your dorm. UM partnered with the bank ING, which offers an amazing mobile app that can transfer money instantly with just a few clicks. Everywhere accept payment by bank card except buses, where you can use your OV-card. You can withdraw money from other countries with the bank card with good exchange rate too. 9) Social Clubs & Networking Opportuni6es ISN offers parjes, social gathering, study trips and many networking opportunijes to exchange students. There are also many social events in the city that you can just walk-in as Maastricht is a small and close community. 10) Health & Safety Maastricht is a very safe city and I have never heard of something bad happened to anyone other than geqng their bike stolen. SJll be aware of your environment at all Jme. 11) Transporta6on Bus and bike for local transportajon. Make use of: Busradar, 9292.nl and skyscanner app for your transport informajon. 12) Climate Maastricht is windy and quite cold during Winter. I wore trousers with heauech, long sleeves with 1-2 jacket(s) throughout my whole exchange period. I do not have chance to wear shorts/t-shirt other than exercising. 13) Communica6on One reason that I love Maastricht is everyone here speaks perfect English. They respect foreigners and my classmates will chit chat in English just to make sure that I don t feel excluded.
Do s Laptop Chargers and adapters Winter clothes Credit card & Cash HKID & Passport Personal Medicines A big backpack for backpacking Vacuum bags One set of smart casual for video interview/career events Items to Bring Don ts Pillow Hangers Beddings Too many clothes Things that you can buy easily in supermarket Useful Links & Contacts Housing: hup://www.maastrichthousing.com/ hups://www.facebook.com/groups/ 116816401678059/ SCOPE: hup://scope-maastricht.nl/ Studydrive: hups://www.studydrive.net/ universijes/maastricht-university/ Transport: 9292.nl Feel free to contact me if needed by asking my personal contact informajon from SBM Exchange Team by emailing to bmugexch@ust.hk