Travel report VYSOKÁ ŠKOLA EKONOMICKA Prague, spring 2015 Mikael Mattila 240420
1. Preparing for the exchange In Finland At the beginning of the fall I received my first email from the Prague University of Economics, (Vysoká Škola Ekonomická v Praze, abridged VŠE). First I needed to fill in some personal information about myself and log in to the ISIS which is the VSE's equivalent of Aalto's Oodi service. Then, after about 2 months, closer to Christmas, VSE contacted me again asking if I wanted to stay in the dormitories. You could choose between a single-bed room and a two-bed room in the dorms, however there was a limited amount of single-bed rooms. Since there were too many who wanted a single-bed room they were chosen by a raffle. There are plenty of twobed rooms for everyone though if you want to stay in the dorms. The closer the exchange came the more emails I got from VSE concerning the exchange. Communication with VSE went very well and the emails covered everything I needed to know about my exchange. Everyone also gets assigned a personal Buddy from VSE during the exchange who will help you settle in to Prague and to the school and who will also pick you up from the airport when you arrive in Prague. This system worked really well at least for me. My Buddy was a great help and a friend during the exchange. Course registration Registration for courses started at the beginning of January and lasted about two weeks. You could still, however, change your courses during the first official week of lectures if you wanted to do so do not stress too much about them.
Arrival to Prague Travelling to Prague is really simple and easy. I had booked the flight a few days after Christmas and it was really cheap, around 70e. Norwegian flies directly from Helsinki to Prague a few times a week. The flight time is about 2 hours. I took a flight to Prague on February 6th, a weekend before the orientation week started. This turned out to be a good choice since I had time to get to know the people who were already there and settle down before the orientation week, which was going to be pretty busy, started. When I arrived I had my assigned Buddy at the airport to pick me up and take me to the dorms. During that weekend she also assisted me in i.e. getting the public transport card which is about 10e for a month if you are under 26 years old. For those over 26 it will be about 20 euro. Your buddy will also assist you during the first day of school. On the first day you'll get the library card, student card and all you need concerning the school. The orientation week itself has a lot of information you already know so attending every single info package presentation might not be needed. If you re uncertain about some things, however, you will get your answers during that week. Living in Prague The Dorms I ended up getting a two-bed room so I shared a room with another exchange student. At first I was not really sure how it is going to work out but my roommates were simply awesome and I'm really glad I chose to live in the dormitories. The dorm room itself had two rooms each with two people, so 4 people total. There was a shared small kitchen, shower, toilet and closet space for everyone. The rooms are really basic but also pretty cozy. There is also a joint balcony between the rooms. In the dorm area, which lies in Prague 3, there are 3 or 4 dorm buildings which are meant for exchange students. There is also a student canteen 20 meters from the dorm entrance where you can eat pretty good meals with student discount for about 2e. The school canteen in the university also offers meals with same price but in my opinion they are not as good. I did not
think I would miss the abundant salads and vegetables from Rafla during my exchange so much since there is no salad with the meals. It is available though with extra cost. There is also a small but decent enough gym in the dorms which is about 6e per month. The two-bed room cost about 425e for the whole semester. The single-bed room is about double as expensive. Dorms are definitely the best place to get to know people and make new friends. My roommates eventually became my closest friends during the exchange. Before the parties there is always somewhere in the dorms pre-party where 20 people have squeezed in to a one dorm room for awesome time. Getting to the school and to the center from the dorms is really easy since there is a direct tram line which goes by the dorms and stops by the university and in the center. The trip to school by tram takes about 14 minutes and to the center about 17 minutes. Figure: A two-bed room dorm apartment
2. Studying The summer semester started with orientation week on February 9th and officially the week after on the 16th when the first lectures were held. During the orientation week there was no teaching about the courses. Even though the semester officially goes on till the end of June the exchange students are provided with a chance to complete the final exams during the last lectures in May. This system worked well in my opinion and most of the students were done with their exchange studies already in mid-may which left a comfortable two weeks to enjoy warm Prague before leaving back home. The summer semester at VSE The courses at VSE during the summer semester lasted the whole semester which is a big change compared to Aalto's spring semester for example, where there are 3 periods. So basically the whole exchange semester was one period and all the courses were completed at the end of it apart from intensive courses. To avoid huge study load at the end, depending on a course, there are usually mid-term exams in the middle of the semester to which you need to study the stuff you have so far covered during lectures, exercises etc. For the final exam, if there is one, the emphasis is on the teachings after mid-term exam. Intensive courses Another big difference to Aalto's courses are intensive courses which last 3-5 days, i.e. a weekend or from Monday till Friday. These courses are usually worth 3 ECTS and are literally pretty intensive which means you only study that course during the week about 5-8 hours per day and during the last lecture there is an exam. I personally took two of these and liked them very much. Also, what I heard from my fellow exchange students they had a lot of good things to say about these courses. I highly recommend them if you want to make some free space to your
timetable between the courses and for travelling, for example, and also because, at least in my case, both courses were held by visiting professors from abroad who really had put effort into the teaching. However, attendance is usually mandatory, or at least it affects your grade a lot, so you'll probably have to skip all your lectures from other courses which might lead to some extra work during those weeks. Generally about courses VSE offers a wide range of courses for undergraduate students which can be taken freely without having to follow any kind of program. Most of the courses are taught in English but there are also courses in Russian, French and in German. The workload during the courses was slightly easier than in Aalto based on the courses I took, and the courses are not really difficult either. The power point slides and the material given during the lectures are enough to get a good grade so you do not need to get books. If you are looking for an exchange with really demanding courses Prague might not be for you. List of the courses I studied: Doing Business on Russian Market - 6 ECTS - 2MO647 Name of lecturer(s): Ing. Ilya Bolotov, MBA, Ph.D The course was taught by a Russian professor who was very enthusiastic about the subject but the lectures were usually a bit dull. The lecture was once a week which was for theory and after that there was a seminar which usually consisted of a case study which was to be done in a group and discuss it or present it to the rest of the class. The grade consisted of attendance (10%), group case work at the end of the course (30%) and the final exam (60%). The course was pretty easy, especially the final exam which was to be completed in a pretty strict time limit. However, you could use your laptop during it so as long as you knew where to search for information you did well. It seemed like a lot of time was wasted for a 6 credit course even though the subject and the teachings were quite interesting.
Economics of Life - 5 ECTS - 5IE252 Name of lecturer(s): Ing. Tomáš Miklánek (examiner, instructor, lecturer) Initially according to my study plan I attended the first lecture of microeconomics but decided to switch to Economics of life since it fit better to my timetable. In hindsight, I should have sticked to microeconomics since this course did not offer much. The course was on a Monday morning and consisted of a lecture for the theory and seminar for the calculations. During the course we used basic Economics math to calculate i.e. rational decision making when choosing a life partner or when having babies. Lectures with theory, however, were quite useful but overall this course did not offer much for me. The grading was 20% for attendance with extra points for active contributors, 30% for mid-term exam and 50% for final exam. The exams were based on the lecture slides and the same calculations we did during the seminars so as long as you studied them through a couple of times you would pass the exam easily. Project Management - 4ECTS - 3MA621 Name of lecturer(s): Richard Brunet-Thornton, Doctor of Philosophy (examiner, instructor, lecturer, supervisor) The course covered different project management tools and a thorough phase-to-phase description of big and small projects. There was one lecture per week which in the beginning was the professoer explaining how the course works and after the second or third week the students held the lectures as a group work of a certain project management topic given by the professor. Also, we had to design our own project which was kind of like a term paper and present it to the class at the end of the semester. There was no exam for this course. The grading was 20% for attendance, 40% for the held lecture and 40% for the own project.
The course itself was interesting and I learnt a lot of useful ways and tips how to implement a project, succeed in it and avoid the usual mistakes during the process. Also, the professor created a nice atmosphere to the lectures with his sense of humor and his 20-year's experience in the field of project management. Basic Czech for Foreigners - 3ECTS - 2RU135 Name of lecturer(s): PhDr. Anna Antošová, CSc. (examiner, instructor, supervisor) I chose basic Czech simply because I wanted to learn a new language, something I have not done since 5th grade I believe so I was pretty excited about this course. During the course the professor kept the tempo pretty slow so that everyone was on track. The course had mid-term and a final exam ( both 25% of the grade). Attendance was 25% and a short description of your home country which was to be presented to the class in Czech 25%. This course is useful especially if you want to be able to understand Czech at least a bit, and also if you want speak more than the usual tourist phrases. Three months was a pretty short time to learn anything concrete but it is definitely worth taking if you want to test if you still can pick up a new language. Besides, Czech is not that hard even. International Negotiation Strategies - 3 ECTS - 2MO336 (intensive) This was one of the most interesting courses I took. The course had some theory but the main focus was on practical exercises on negotiation technics and simulated negotiation situations. The teacher was a visiting professor from France who had really put effort into the lectures. The course was intensive and the lectures were about 6 hours from Monday till Thursday and on Friday there was a final exam and a negotiation situation you had to prepare. Final test was 60% of the credit which was mostly about reflecting your own performance during the course using
the theory taught during the lectures. 40% if the grade came from the negotiation exercises during the course. This course taught me a lot of useful negotiation skills and ways to analyze, and most importantly understand different negotiation situations especially hidden motives some negotiation parties might have. Understanding the International Economic Order - 3ECTS - 2SE324 (intensive) Name of lecturer(s): doc. Ing. Pavel Hnát, Ph.D. (supervisor) This was my first intensive course at VSE and we had lectures from Tuesday till Thursday, about 6 hours per day, and on Friday there was the final exam. The exam was 50% of the grade and attendance/participation another 50%. The course gave a lot of general education focusing on economical, political and social forces in the world's economy. The topic was really interesting in my opinion. The lectures consisted of many different small case studies after the visiting professor had finished a topic. I liked the structure of the course even though at times it was a lot of individual talking by the professor. The final exam was pretty easy if you paid attention during the lectures since lot of the questions were about the above mentioned case studies. A very interesting course overall. Human Resources Management in International Context - 3 ECTS - 2OP320 This was one the basic human resource courses that were offered during the semester. The course had a human resource manager from Tesco's Czech office as a teacher, Nahal, originally from the USA. She had very few slides during the lectures and focused rather on giving real life examples and encouraged the class for discussion. I liked her approach since she could tell a lot of stuff from her personal experience.
The course grade consisted of final exam (55%) and active lecture attendance (45%) which also included a group case work. The final exam could be done from home but it had a 24 hour time limit. There were two case essay questions in the exam which was relatively easy but you had to invest some time for them. 4. Free time and other information Price level Price level in Prague is a lot cheaper than in Finland especially in restaurants and drinks. You can get a good meal for 7-10e and the price of beer varies from 1-4e, usually around 2e. If you are a fan a sports, and other cultural activities also, Prague offers a wide range of possibilities with cheap price. I attended a couple highest Czech league football and ice hockey matches with good seats for about 10e per game. Also, movies, theatre, operas etc. are a lot cheaper than in Finland. Buddy System Buddy system organizes different activities during the exchange i.e. parties, skydiving, carting and trips to other neighbor countries. At the beginning of the semester they organize an icebreaking weekend (IBW) 150km from Prague on a countryside which you should sign up early if you want to get a ticket since the places are limited. I attended the IBW but I was ill the whole weekend so I could not really participate to any teambuilding activities and parties which were held there. A nice event anyway I heard a lot of people say. It's also a nice place to get to know people at the beginning of the semester.
Travelling Travelling from Prague is cheap and easy no matter if you choose a plane, train or a bus. Even renting a car is pretty cheap. I did trips to Budapest, Dresden and to Bologna. Inside the Czech Republic I visited the small southern cities such as Jindřichův Hradec, České Budějovice and Český Krumlov which is a very idyllic small town definitely worth visiting. I had good experience using Student Agency, a bus firm, which operates to many cities abroad i.e. a round trip to Budapest was 36e, travelling time was 8 hours and the buses have free wifi, free coffee and tee, and personal display for movies, series and music. Also, taxis in Prague are cheap. The starting fare is about 1,7e. If you try to negotiate the price the taxis by the main square always ask a lot more. Figure: Český Krumlov
Night life Prague offers a countless amount of bars and clubs. Only downside with them is that smoking is allowed inside them so your clothes will stink the next morning. Also, sometimes in bars there is so much smoke in the air it is not worth even going in. The nightclubs are smaller than in Helsinki but there are more of them. The places I found best were Nebe and Roxy and of course Juve which is a bar right next to the dorms always filled with at least a few exchange students. Juve offers beer with a decent price of 1e, cheap and pretty good food and good atmosphere. The Bar is also a pretty interesting concept: There is a tap on the table and they charge you based on how much you have taken from the tap. You can also compete against other table since there is a big screen on the wall which shows which table has drunk the most, pretty crazy but a lot of fun. Buddy system organizes big Nation2Nation (N2N) parties on Tuesdays which have a different national theme of a country. You can buy a N2N-pass during the orientation week which allows you a free entrance for the whole semester. I believe it was about 10e. A little tip when planning the courses you should not take too much stuff for Wednesday 4. Final comments Exchange in Prague at VSE was a great experience for me. I was able to meet new people from all over the world, make new friends and spend an amazing spring in beautiful Prague and travelling in Europe. I definitely will not forget the dorm living which was a unique experience. Especially the intensive courses where really interesting which I would not have been able to take in Aalto. Prague offers a lot for everybody in my opinion: good restaurants and nightlife, cheap price level, lots of travelling possibilities in-and outside of the country and a lot of culture in a historical city. I can recommend Prague and VSE for everyone who wants to have great time during one's exchange and pick up a few great memories for the future.