Preparing for exchange

Preparing for exchange The first email from the International Office of the university came in November. It included all the information about the enrolment and documents, which needed to be sent. Each student needed to do online enrolment and send after that the enrolment documents as hard copy by mail. They included signed application for admission, curriculum vitae, secondary school leaving certificate (translated in English or German) and transcript of records. After the enrolment is accepted, university will send invitation letter. To complete the admission, students need pay social contribution, which is around 250 euros. This allows students to use student services and includes student travel ticket for public transportation for the semester period in the state of North Rhine- Westphalia. Exchange students can try to get student apartment from Kölner Studierendenwerk. These apartments are cheaper than normal apartments. This is a big plus, because the rents in Cologne are highest in Germany after Munich. However, the application for apartment in Kölner Studierendenwerk needs to be done at least 3-4 for months before the semester starts, because there is high demand to student apartments. International Office will keep exchange student posted about almost everything before the exchange. They sent various emails before the exchange. First about registration for pre- semester language course, which is taught in March. Then about apartment offers for exchange students and later about course selection and start of the semester. Exchange students can choose whether take part in pre- semester language course and arrive to Cologne in March or not to take part and arrive to Cologne in beginning of April when the semester starts. The registration for the language course should be done as soon as possible, because there is limited number of places for pre- semester language course. There are two welcome weeks in each semester. One is in beginning of March before language course and another is in the beginning of April before the semester starts. These welcome weeks are very

useful, because during them students will get all the information that is needed to settle in Cologne and to start the studies. Additional to all course registrations, getting student card, student meal card and library card, getting to know the campus and going to all the events of welcome week, exchange students need to do Anmeldung, which is basically a registration as resident of the city of Cologne. This is a compulsory procedure to all the exchange students even for exchange students of EU/EEA area. Although it is relatively easy, because through online registration service it is easy to book a time for Anmeldung and just go there with required documents. Another procedure, which is not compulsory, but recommendable is opening a German bank account. With German bank account there are no transaction costs, which are applicable if one uses Finnish credit card in the ATMs. Completed Anmeldung is required for opening a bank account. Germany is still pretty much a cash- based economy and Finnish credit cards are only accepted in limited number of places. For example Finnish or any other international credit cards do not work in grocery stores like Lidl, Netto or Rewe. Some restaurants or bars might accept them, but most of them do not. Basically payment options are German credit cards or cash and for exchange students the cash is the easiest way. Traveling to Cologne is relatively easy. There are two nearby airports, Dusseldorf and Cologne. Dusseldorf is the larger of these two and there are better connections to it. One- way flight to Dusseldorf costs around 140 euros from Helsinki depending on the carrier chosen. From Dusseldorf it is easy to travel to the Central Railway Station of Cologne by train and it takes around 30 minutes. Exchange studies Summer semester started on beginning of April and ended in the end of September. There were two teaching periods. First was until last of week May and after that there was one week semester break. Second period started in beginning of June and lasted until mid of July. The

exams were mainly held in the last two weeks of July, but some courses had exams also in the first half of August. The course selection of WiSo faculty was very wide. The faculty offered tens of different business courses in English additional to normal courses in German in both undergraduate and graduate levels. Students could freely choose courses from various topics they were interested in. The registration for courses is not very simple, because for some courses online registration is used, but for some registration is done directly with the lecturer. However, International Office will keep students posted about registration for courses before the semester starts. I chose mainly economics and psychology courses as my exchange courses. The courses are listed below: Economic Psychology (UG, 8 ECTS) The course was taught by Prof. Dr. Hölzl and evaluation of course was based on 60 minute exam, where was needed to answer 120 multiple- choice questions. This course had only lectures, two times a week for the whole semester. Lectures dealt mostly with psychology of economic and consumer behavior. The lectures and the topics covered were interesting. The course altogether was very useful and it was very interesting to learn to psychological factors and biases that affect our decision- making. The exam was relatively easy, but quick answering was needed. International Economic (UG, 8 ECTS) The course was taught by Prof. Dr. Brandt and was evaluated based on course exam. Course content was international economics, trade, theories of trade and trade policy. Course had one lecture and one exercise session a week for the whole semester. Course was well taught and gave good introduction to international economics. Course exam was 90- minute exam and

had three different parts. Due to short time and non- multiple choice questions very quick answering to questions was needed. Topics in Psychoeconomics (UG, 6 ECTS) The course was taught by Prof. Dr. Alos- Ferrer and evaluation of course was based on presentation and course paper. The course type was seminar, so there was only two introductory lectures in the beginning of semester and after that each student needed to pick up one academic article in field of behavioral economics and concentrate on studying the article. Based on the article was prepared 15- minute presentation, which was held for the seminar group and based on the paper and discussion of presentation was written course 10 page course paper. The course altogether was interesting and it taught a lot of behavioral economics and especially research in that field. German language course (UG, 9 ECTS) Semester German language had two 4- hour lectures every week. This course was very useful way to learn more German and it supported well the whole language learning process, because you were using the language same time outside the classroom. Free time and other information Cost of living Cost of living in Cologne and Germany is smaller than in Finland. Food and beverages in stores and eating in restaurants can be 20-30% cheaper than in Finland. Rents are also smaller than in Helsinki although Cologne is one of the most expensive cities in terms of rent in Germany. Near the university, there are a student restaurants where is available student meals for the same price as in Finland. Good thing with these restaurants is that they are open in the week to almost 9pm. There was no need to buy any books for most of the courses, because most of

the books used in courses are available in the library of the university. Only the course book for the semester German language course was required to purchase from nearby bookstore. Accommodation As accommodation I was able to get a room from a WG (Wohngemeinsaft), which means a flat share. Most of exchange students lived in WGs with local or international students and the price range was between 350 and 550 euros depending on the location and the flat. Most popular areas for students are nearby the university in Lindenthal and Ehrenfeld, but also bit farther areas such Innenstadt and Nippes had many students living in them. WGs are best option if there are no flats available through Kölner Studiedenrenwerk, because it is relatively hard to get a small non- shared flat, if one is not willing to pay much for it. Best site for finding a room in WG is http://wg- gesucht.de. Travelling The transportation network in Cologne is good and it is easy to get to university from many directions. From university it is also easy to get to center of Cologne, Innenstadt by tram. Trams were the main transport mode in the city center, but busses were also useful especially in longer distances. It is easy to travel to inside Cologne by different public transport, but also by bike and from Cologne it is easy to travel to by train to cities and places around. With the fastest train it is possible to get Frankfurt airport in one hour. It is also easy to travel to nearby countries France, Belgium and Netherlands in just couple of hours. This allows travelling around the nearby countries during a weekend. If there is more time available, it is possible to travel farther to Eastern Europe or South Europe either by train or with shared car. The travel tickets are about the same price as in Finland and for longer trips in Germany or other countries nearby, Interrail tickets are easy and cheaper way to travel with train. The two nearby airports also allow traveling to more distant destinations. Low- cost airlines such as Ryanair and Wizz Air operate from Cologne airport and it possible to get very cheap flights to different destinations from there. Cologne airport can be reached by train in 30 minutes from the Central Railway Station.

Additional to travelling with your friends, there are trips organized by student associations and other parties. For example there are pm2am student trips, which are normally weekend trips with students from different universities in Germany to nearby cities and countries. These can be very cheap for example a weekend trip to Prague with bus and accommodation in hostel could cost 100 euros. In these trips it also easy to meet new people from other cities in Germany and get to know one city well in a weekend. Free time In the Cologne it is easy to get to know other students around the university campus. The University of Cologne is one of the largest universities in Germany with its 48 000 student body and the campus area is due to that very large and spans over many areas nearby the main building. Behind the main building is a nice park, where especially in the summer it is a good way to spend free time between lectures or just to study outdoors. In the summer there are also different activities available in the park. You can play football or other sports there or just chill with your friends. Nearby the university is located also the bar street of Cologne called Zulpicher Strasse. There are many bars and nightclubs in the area and they are very popular among students, especially exchange students. In the beginning of Semester the local CEMS/PIM Club organizes a lot of events in which exchange students will get to know the city and especially local bar and nightclub scene. The events are held weekly, sometimes twice a week. They are very good way to get to know other exchange students and also local students from WiSO faculty. Cologne and German culture Cologne is the fourth largest city in Germany after Berlin, Hamburg and Munich. It has population of around 1 million, so it twice size of Helsinki. Cologne is the largest city of the most populous German state, North Rhine- Westphalia. Cologne is located in Western part of Germany near to Dutch and Belgian borders. Through Cologne flows the Rhine River. The landmark of the city is Cologne Cathedral (Kölner Dom), which the largest Gothic Church in

Northern Europe and a UNESCO World Heritage Site. It is the highest building in skyline of Cologne with its height of 157 m and construction of it were started in 13 th century. It is a must- visit for anyone in Cologne. The church interior is remarkable and with one of the highest church naves in the world it has very majestic appearance also inside the church. Another must- visit places in Cologne are the twelve Romanesque churches around the Altstadt and the several museums in the city. These churches are even older than Dom. The oldest of them is St. Severin, which has been established in the 4 th century and the oldest parts of the current church date to the 10 th century. Of the museums, Museum Ludwig and Roman- Germanic are must- visit places. Museum Ludwig is modern art museum and has third biggest Picasso collection in the world. Romano- Germanic Museum is archeological museum and has large collection of Roman artifacts. Cologne is also famous for its Carnival, which is on the largest street fests in Europe. It is held annually in February or March and there is a weeklong fest, where people go out masqueraded. Weather in Cologne is very pleasant for a Finn. In the summer the temperatures can reach to 30 degrees Celsius every week and the weather is mainly sunny and warm also in April when the semester starts. In Cologne there are many nice parks, restaurants and cafes around the city where to study, meet friends or watch football. In Germany football is the national sport and you can see the Bundesliga games in almost every bar. Cologne has its own team in Bundesliga called 1. FC Köln, but its easier to watch their games through TV, because getting tickets to their games might be bit difficult due to huge demand. German cuisine has also wide variety of different dishes. Traditional dishes are mainly around different kind of wursts (sausages), pork or chicken dishes and potatoes and there are plenty of different beers to eat the dish with. Cologne has its own type of beer called Kölsch, which is very close to normal lager. However, if you want to cook more homelike foods in Cologne, the ingredients can be easily bought from Lidl or other grocery stores. Final comments

Altogether Cologne is nice city to spend a exchange semester and the University of Cologne is a good university to study. University of Cologne is one of the leading universities in Germany and the academic requirements are even higher than in Finland. The Faculty of Management, Economics and Social Sciences (WiSo faculty) is also good place to study, because there is great variety of different subjects. There are available courses from psychology to information systems and this variety will give a good opportunity to study subjects that are not available in our home university. Doing exchange in Cologne was a great experience. It was nice to get into German culture and improve German language skills. It was great to travel around the Europe and to get new approaches to business through psychology and behavioral economics courses. Altogether I can recommend choosing Germany and Cologne to anyone who wants to do exchange in big city with international atmosphere with good travel connections to anywhere in Europe and opportunity to learn more German language.