Exchange Report: BI Norwegian Business School in Oslo, Norway. Quinte Stout. Introduction My name is Quinte Stout. I am 20 years old and I am a third year bachelor student. I study Economics and Business Economics (Economie en Bedrijfseconomie) and Law (Rechtsgeleerdheid). The first half of my third bachelor year, from the 8 th of August until the 15 th of December, I went on exchange to BI Norwegian Business school in Oslo, Norway. In this report I will share my application procedure, both for the university and for housing, the other preparations I had to make in advance, the courses I took, a financial overview, a description of my daily life and a list with tips. Application Procedure The application procedure starts with applying for studying abroad at the Erasmus School of Economics. At the website I looked for different destinations and after some research I chose BI Norwegian Business School (BI) as my first choice. I had never been to a Scandinavian country before, the university seemed quite prestigious, their information was clear and you could see what kind of courses they had to offer. I wrote these reasons also in my motivation letter, which I submitted along with the other required documents before the application deadline for studying abroad in January 2014. In February every applicant received the selection overview with the information who was selected for what destination. On a mandatory information meeting, everyone received their selection letter. Now I had to wait for BI to contact me. In march I received an e-mail with the application procedure at BI with a link and a list of the required documents I had to upload. In April I received my letter of admission. Housing With the application at BI, there was also information about how to apply for housing. You have to read all the information sent to you carefully. Before the 1 st of May I had to fill in an online preapplication form. At this moment, you had to choose between the two housing partners of BI, namely SiO and BSN. BSN has students houses at walking distance from BI s campus. SiO has housing throughout the city, with all different price categories depending on location, furniture and with how many people you share the bathroom and the kitchen. I did not mind to live further away from the university for a lower price and therefore I chose SiO. At the website of SiO you could decide your first and second choice of location and type of room. I chose Bjerke, because it was one of the cheapest locations, not that far away from the university and not far away from the centre either. I had to share the kitchen with other people, which I didn t mind and I had to share the bathroom with one other person. Having a private bathroom comes at a higher price. However, I did not want to share my bathroom with more than one person. Other locations I can say something about are Krinsjå, and Song. Kringsjå is a big student village with its own pub Krinsjå Pub and it has football fields, where I played some football with other exchange students. Also there is a big lake nearby where you can run or walk. However, Kringsjå is a little bit further away from the university and the city centre. Song is also a (smaller) student village, but you have to take a ten minute walk to the closest metro stop. But when you arrive there, it is only one stop to BI. Most of the BI exchange students lived at BSN and at Kringsjå. So at these places you will be able to meet more people that have more in common and go to BI as well.
Bjerke, where I lived, has a very good bus connection to both the university and the city centre. Also, the busses drove regularly and the bus to the centre drove all day and all night. The view of Bjerke is spectacular. If you are on the right side (and I lived on the top floor), you have a very good view of the city of Oslo and the Oslo ford. I could see the boat arriving from my kitchen windows when my parents came to visit. Other preparations Furthermore, after your admission, you receive information about subscribing for the subjects. It was recommended to take four subjects, but if you wanted you could take five. You did not have to make any preparations for your visa, you had to hand in certain documents after arrival (among these a handwritten declaration that you had sufficient funds to support yourself during your stay in Norway) and the International Office of BI took care of the procedure with the police. I booked a plane ticket for the 8 th of august. On that day there was an arrival service of BI at the central station of Oslo. Basically there were a couple of students with BI t-shirt telling you where to go, providing you with a map and helping you to buy your first 30-days student Ruter transport card (students get a discount). Because at that point you haven t got your student card yet, it is important that you carry your letter with admission with you, to prove that you are studying in Norway when they check your card and want verification that you are a Norwegian student (which is a requirement for the student discount). Also make sure to have a credit card before you go to Norway. A lot of payments, such as tickets, laundry payments and rent payments are done with a credit card. Also you can pay with credit card at all locations, the local supermarket, bars and even vending machines. So having a credit card is not just convenient, but it is a necessity. Also make sure you are insured. I already had an ongoing travel insurance in which I am covered 180 consecutive days abroad so I did not have to arrange for insurance. Courses Norwegian Culture and History. 7,5 Credits. Result: B. During this course, which was meant especially for exchange students, an overview was given of Norwegian history in one three hour lecture a week. Also, a lot of Norwegian cultural aspects were discussed, such as Norwegian painters, play writers, but also Norwegian habits and characteristics. There was an excursion to the open air museum at Bogdøy. Also there was a guest lecture about gender equality, since Norway is considered a leading country in gender equality regulations. Examples are a 40% company board quotum and a six week compulsory maternity leave for men. Of course Norway s welfare state and oil money were not forgotten. I would recommend everyone to do such a course when you are in a new country. It really added a big value in understanding the culture and the country. Also, it made me able to put important places in historical context (such as the palace, the parliament building, the main street Karl Johans Gata, named after the first Swedish- Norwegian king) and I could recognize the different painters and their famous paintings (more than just the Scream of Edvard Munch). The course was closed with a three hour written examination consisting of three questions, from which you only had to answer two. If you just write down as much as you know while answering these questions, it is only necessary to know the big lines of Norwegian culture and history in order to get a good grade. As mentioned, the course added value in my experience being in an unfamiliar foreign country. I think the subjects covered in the lecture were relevant for the course. The lecturer was also competent and could give very good lectures. He was able to discuss also some difficult material such
as an article about democratic capitalism, while clearly making the distinction in what is important and what is less important; he did not lose himself in details. A compact book the history of Norway: from the ice age until today was required for the course. The book was a nice read, but the articles provided by the teacher were more important for the examination material. International Maritime Law. 7,5 Credits. Result: B. This course was a compulsory course for students following a three year bachelor program with a specialization in shipping management. Exchange students could also take this course and because of my interest in law and the maritime world, I chose to take this course. The content of this course was both theoretical and practical. A number of things were not new to me, because in the Netherlands I had taken the course commercial law, in which maritime law was also discussed. Though, at BI the material was discussed from a more practical view, whereas in the Netherlands it was more about the laws. There was an excursion to classification society DNV GL. This is a private company specialized in checking and controlling ships from the design table to the disassembly of the ship, applying their own strict safety standard. Before going there, I did not even know what a classification society was, so I learned a lot. A problem with this course was the fact that one teacher got ill and got substituted. Although the substitute teacher could give good lectures, I had the impression that the communication between the lecturers was not optimal, specifically about the required exam material. It turned out that the new teacher went way deeper into the material than necessary. Another teacher did not have much visual aids, so with learning for the examination I could not rely on the slides of his lectures, I had to rely on my notes and the books. What really saved me for the subject were some available old examinations with answers, so I could anticipate on what kind of questions would be asked and what was important and what was not. Persuasion and Dialogue for Leaders. 7,5 credits. Result: A. This elective course was about giving a persuasive speech about a controversial subject and have a good discussion afterwards. This was a very interactive course in which active participation in the lectures was required. The course covered not only argumentation, but also mutual learning, body language, visual aids and ethics. These last mentioned specific topics were taught by guest lecturers, such as a actors and ethics experts. Especially the actors could give really good specific advice to each individual person. The grade of this course consists of the grades for a speech manuscript, the delivery of the speech, the discussion afterwards with the opponent, the discussion as the opponent, the short discussion with the audience and the written reflection after the course. Although I had experience with debating and was familiar with most of the theory about argumentation, I learned a lot during this course. I am certain that I will apply material taught in this course in my life; not just with discussions with people with different opinions, but also with conducting meetings in such a way that there will be an optimal constructive outcome. For this course two books were recommended, but you do not need to read them. It is more important that you apply the things you learned during the lectures in your speech and discussion. Project Management. 7,5 credits. Result: A This elective course was about managing projects. It explained what a project is and how to start, organize, control and evaluate projects. Also the course taught about stakeholder management, risk management, cost management, models for internal and external project structures and other
project related material. This course can be useful when you are involved in projects, but also if you have to organize an event. There was a two hour lecture every week by an expert in this subject, who got his doctorate in project management and was involved in a big project in Norway s Ministry of Defence. The syllabus with papers he provided were more complicated, but overall he managed to keep the course quite simple. This course was concluded with a four hour written examination. For this examination the material was not that difficult, but you had to know the charts, models and cost calculations in great detail. The lecture slides (and attending the lectures) gave a very good basis for learning the material. The added papers in the syllabus were not that necessary and I would not recommend buying the book; I did not buy it either and see my result. For this exam you needed a calculator and BI only allows one specific quite expensive calculator at examinations. However, exchange student could borrow this type of calculator from BI for twentyfour hours for free. My compliments for this awesome admirable attitude of BI that chose not to profit from its exchange students and did not force them to buy this calculator! Norwegian Language Course. Result: Passed BI also offered a Norwegian language course. The costs where not that high (1500 NOK) and because I disliked not being able to understand any Norwegian, I decided to take the course. It consisted of two lectures of three hours a week on the Monday and Wednesday evening. During the course I met a lot of new people as well, also including international students that were going to do their complete bachelor degree at BI. The lectures where not that demanding, mostly we did some reading and speaking exercises the first hour and the rest of the time we spent making exercises individually and practicing. The course was concluded with both a written examination in which reading, speaking and writing were covered and an oral exam. Because Norwegian is not that difficult (there are a lot of similarities with English, German and Dutch), I was quite quickly able to have simple conversations in Norwegian. To pass the examination Nivå A1 is not that difficult, so the expansion of your Norwegian language skills depends more on your objective about how much of the language you want to learn: During the course you get the means, it is up to you how much time you spend on it. For this course you are required to buy a book. I also bought a dictionary. Financial Overview EXPENSES INCOME Plane tickets 270 EUR Dutch Government 1625 EUR Introduction week 120 EUR Erasmus+ Grant 1050 EUR Household 100 EUR Parents 640 EUR Clothing 50 EUR Savings 1575 EUR Language course 180 EUR Books 210 EUR Trips 590 EUR Rent 1980 EUR Transportation card 190 EUR Washing 50 EUR Phone 20 EUR University 50 EUR Groceries 550 EUR
Personal care 50 EUR Going out 200 EUR Loss on deposit 100 EUR Banking costs 30 EUR Untracked Cash 150 EUR TOTAL 4890 EUR 4890 The plane ticket price is for both flights together and with two suitcases included. Also the train ticket from the airport to the central station (with Flytoget) is included. The introduction week is the expenses during the first week Fadderullan. These expenses include tickets for parties and alcohol consumptions during the party and pre-party, known as vorspiel. Household expenses are for things I bought at IKEA, such as a lamp, clothes hangers and utensils. It also includes the iron, washing powder and a drying frame I bought together with my neighbour. I bought some clothes during sale and a hat, which I put under clothing. Unlike food, clothing in Norway is not that expensive. The expenses for the trips are for three trips: Trolltunga (100 EUR), Helsinki and St. Petersburg (400 EUR) and Copenhagen (90 EUR), though half of the expenses of this last trip were invested in importing beverages containing alcohol. The transportation card was a 30-day student card for 390 NOK, which entitled you to travel unlimited in the Oslo central zone, including the entire subway network, many busses and the ferries to the islands. In the first week you could get a free SIM card. I used it as a prepaid card, but in the month November I bought 1000 MB data. Looking back, I could have also done that in the preceding months: It was not that expensive (10 euros) and it would have prevented me from getting lost a couple of times. Under University are the expenses I made in the university for food, coffee and copying. Washing was 20 NOK a time. There were also dryers, but my neighbour and I figured we would save money if we would buy a drying frame. I did not go out that much, so if you go out more regularly, these expenses will be considerably higher: A beer in a bar (0.4l) will cost at least 6-7 euros. Beer in the supermarket cost around 3-3,50 euros per half litre. Not to mention wine and liquor sold in the state-owned monopoly company Vinmonopolet with strict opening times. The loss of my deposit (of 6000 NOK) for my room was not due to cleaning costs for not leaving my room clean when I left, but due to depreciation of the Norwegian Kroner. The last category untracked cash is a small correction for the cash payments I made. Payments I made for other people I got back in cash and I did not exactly keep track of my cash spending. It is probably mostly spend on buying groceries. The money from the government consist of approximately 380 euros for the months September until December, existing out of 280 euros basic grant uitwonende beurs en 100 euros for not using the student public transportation card OV-Vergoeding buitenland. Make sure you make the right preparations, especially for the transport restitution: you have to deactivate your transport card before you leave! The first month, August, I only got the normal home living grant thuiswonende beurs, because the government counts from the first of the month and I arrived the 8 th. The Erasmus Grant contains 270 euros per 30 days. This was the only advantage of going to
an expensive country: it entitled you to receive a higher grant. The application process was slow and vague. I would recommend to read every e-mail you receive carefully and have patience that everything is going to be alright. My parents money is financial coverage for study related costs, such as the costs for the books and the language course plus a fixed amount of 50 euros a month. First weeks When I arrived at my room I met my new neighbour who arrived the exact same day as I did. This meant we were both new to Oslo so we decided to discover some things together. It turned out to be an awesome guy who also studied at BI (master). We also went to Copenhagen together and we are still in touch. But first, we had to go to IKEA because I did not have any blankets. Fortunately, I had curtains and the furniture in my room was nice, but the light of the lamp was weak. In the kitchen there were also enough supplies to cook with, but I wanted some extra utensils. So I bought these things at IKEA. I went there by taking the free bus from the centre: the welcome package provided by the welcoming BI students provided me information about this. The semester started with a mandatory information meeting after which the Fadderullan started. This is an introduction week for new students with second year students as buddy, Fadder. Exchange students got mixed up in this group as well and I ended up in a group with Norwegian International Marketing students, with two other exchange students. I attended most of the activities, but not all of them, because some tickets for parties are really expensive. This introduction was a great way to meet Norwegians, but most of the time I was the only exchange student in the group. Happily the group did exclude me, which other exchange students experienced in other groups. If you do not feel comfortable in your group I would recommend to just go to another group which is more open to exchange students. Looking back, the first weeks were awesome, but also kind of strange (suddenly you are in the middle of a group of partying first year Norwegians). Daily Life I had three days of lecture, Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday and had the rest of the week of. The Norwegian Language Course was on Monday and Wednesday night. Especially in the first month I engaged in activities and I did some small trips with my neighbour, for example to the islands in the Oslo fjord. Because the grocery store Kiwi was really close, I went there multiple times a week, mostly in the morning, to buy cheap new bread and milk. For vegetables and fruit, I went to Grønland. This was a neighbourhood with a lot of immigrants and really inexpensive shops. When I had to study, I did not only study in my room, but also went to BI to study. The university building brand new and very modern with excellent study facilities. There are places to study everywhere, all equipped with sockets for your laptop. If you want to study with multiple people you can also reserve a small room, in which it is quit but you can still talk if you want. Also, on Sundays I went to church at Jesus Kirke at St. Hanshaugen. This was a very international oriented church where I met a lot of nice people from different countries. They have a Norwegian service in the morning with English translation and a English speaking service in the afternoon with food afterwards. When I came there for the first time, a couple of people took me to explore the city that afternoon, which was really nice.
Tips - Buy your vegetables and fruit at Grønland: that really saves you a lot of money! - Do your regular shopping at Kiwi or Rema1000. Rema1000 has bigger shops with more products. - Lawo is a nice nightclub where BI students go out. Note that Norwegian really dress up when they go out. - Another place you can go to is Chateau Neuf. However, this place is one of the few places that is 18+ so the average age will be quite low: in the rest of the city, most of the bars are 20+ and at other bars even a higher age limit applies. - Do a typically Norwegian hike. I went to Trolltunga, 11km hike, but you can also go to Kjeragbolten. - Places to visit in Oslo: the Ski jump at Holmenkollen, the art museum Nasjonalgalleriet, the parliament building Stortinget (there are free tours in English!), the fortress Akurshus Festning, and visit some museums at Bygdøy. - You can go to Copenhagen with a really cheap ferry (100 NOK! ~ 12 EUR), you leave around 16h30, arrive the next morning and leave again at 16h30 back to Oslo. Although you don t have much time to visit Copenhagen (approximately seven hours), it is extremely cheap and the trip is quite nice. - In august, the weather was quite warm, at the end of November however, it starts freezing and snowing. Be aware of this temperature range when you pack you clothing. It might still be summer when you arrive, but also bring a warm jacket, gloves, a scarf and good shoes. If you have good hiking shoes: bring them as well! Final remarks I have to admit that I underestimated the costs of living in Norway. It is an expensive country! But, it is also a wonderful country. Oslo is not that big, so it is a really nice city to live in with everything nearby. Norwegian are really kind and speak good English. For me, it was an unforgettable experience and I would really recommend you to go on exchange and expand your world view! If you have any questions, do not hesitate to contact me and send an email to this address: quintestout@hotmail.com