Exchange Study Report

University of Canterbury- Spring 2013

Hung Phan – K241063

28/Jun/2013

I) Preparing for the exchange

I received several emails from the University of Canterbury (UC) 2 months before my department from

Helsinki. The International office of UC informed me about the process of applying for exchange student

visa, as well as necessary travelling information such as insurance guidance, restricted goods in New

Zealand and on-campus living introduction package. In general, the process was simple and quick to

follow. UC was so kind that they assigned me a personal mentor, whom I found later really helpful. It is

highly recommended that you buy the insurance package offered by the School, as it is convenience and

the price is quite reasonable.

II) Travelling to Christchurch – General

I decided to fly to Singapore to experience the Lunar New Year there before my flight to New Zealand.

The flight time to Singapore is approximately 13 hours, not including transit time, so the total travelling

time from Helsinki to Singapore can be somewhere around 15 hours to 20 hours depends on connecting

flight schedule. Staying in Singapore at the Eve of Lunar New Year is a nice experience, as the city is not

so crowded as it usually is and people give you free oranges in almost every food court and restaurant

(giving people oranges in Lunar New Year is a tradition of Chinese-descent population, with the believe

that oranges will bring luck and prosperity for the coming year). Staying in Singapore before going to

New Zealand is also good for dealing with jetlag and exhaustion when travelling from Europe to Oceania.

From Singapore, I fly to Auckland and then to Christchurch. The whole trip took me around 14 hours,

when I finally arrived at Christchurch in a warm summer evening. The city looks peaceful and tidy. Later

on, I found out that under the effects of the big quake in 2010, Christchurch city center is now a large

construction field with thousand of abandoned building blocks being “systematically” broken down by

construction companies from all around the world. New Zealand government has planned to invest

USD10billions to rebuild the city center and surrounding area with the term of the plan span over 20

years. So right now, Christchurch is considered as one of the world’s center for building construction and

after-earthquake reconstruction researches. Due to this reason, plus global economics recession is yet

over, you may find construction company/engineer/worker from all over the world in Christchurch. But

in general, it is still a safe and sound town.

Christchurch Square (old time). The Cathedral was, sadly, collapsed during 2010 Earthquake. Image source: Internet

III) Exchanging at University of Canterbury

1) General condition and Studying

The first semester at UC normally starts in the middle of February and end in July. Orientation would

take place 2 weeks before the commencement date. Students are required to be present for the

orientation as they get the chance to learn about the school, register for the courses, and possibly meet

other exchange students and also new fiends from the local host university.

UC has one big campus with ideal location, 30 mins away from the airport and about 20 mins away from

city center. The facility is quite good with a large recreational center, safe and beautiful surrounding

neighborhood. As some of the school’s buildings are under construction after the effects of the Big

Quake in 2010, don’t feel surprise when you have to take an economics course in Engineering campus!

James Hight- Center Library of University of Canterbury. Image source: Internet

As said, there were a good variety of courses being offered at school in general and economics major in

particular. Students are able to choose the courses freely, on both undergraduate and graduate levels.

Of course, the students are required to present themselves eligible for taking those courses. Thus, they

have to gain permission from the host university, or from the course instructor that they meet the

needed requirements to take these courses. The students aren’t obliged to follow any certain programs.

They just need their courses to be approved by both home and host universities that they could take

these courses and those are transferrable.

Normally, each course at UC equals 7.5 ECTS credit. In one semester, a fulltime student will have to take

4 courses, meaning they’ll have to acquire 30 ECTS credits in total.

During my exchange period at UC, I took 4 courses: Introduction to Macroeconomics, Organizational

Behavior, Business, Society and the Environment; and Game Theory.

Details about these courses are as follows:

ECON223-13S1(C): Introduction to Game Theory for Business, Science and Politics

This is a 6 CR undergraduate course. Game theory itself is the science that studies strategic interaction,

the interplay of competition and cooperation between rational people. This course is introductory and

non-mathematical, emphasizing a small number of key strategic ideas and principles that you will learn

through examples, realistic exercises and small games in the class. There are two mid-term exams in this

course with no routinely assignment, which I found uncomfortable and weird, as the course is so long (4

months) with a wide range of topics related to basic concepts of game theory. The professor is quite

good and friendly, but sometimes he lost his track and just “circling around” the topic for an hour or so!

Every session is video-recorded, so student does not have to worry much in case they miss a class or so.

ECON105-13S1 (C): Introduction to Macroeconomics

This is a 6 CR undergraduate course. It demonstrates an understanding of the contemporary world

economy and how it differs from past periods of time, discusses the measurement of economic variables

and how rises and falls in these variables impact on people, explains the reasons for and consequences

of Reserve Bank actions; and identify and explain changes in policy settings and analyze the effects of

policy changes on economic outcomes that matter to people. The course is divided into two parts with

the first half focusing on New Zealand economy history, as well as basic concept of demand-supply in;

while the second part illustrating monetary policies and the effects of those policies on the people.

Similar to Game Theory, this course also has two mid-term exams, in additions to 20 small online

tutorials and a 15% assignment; so student can review what they have learn thorough the course on

regular basis. The lecturer is really enthusiastic about his teaching (he once wore a Santa Suit into the

class to illustrate an example about seasoning effect!); and has a great speech delivery method. The

course lectures are also video-recorded, which I later find useful for my final exam reviews.

MGMT206-13S1 (C): Organisational Behaviour

This course provides an introduction to the study of individual and group behavior in organizations. The

course is taught in two parts. In the first part we examine individual-level topics such as personality

differences; perception and learning in organizations; workplace emotions, theories of motivation; and

stress management. We then move on to discuss team and organizational-level processes, including

decision-making; group dynamics and teamwork; communication; power and conflict management;

organizational structure and design; organizational culture; and organizational change. There are 10

small online-base quizzes, one online final exam and a 4000-word assignment due right after the term-

break. The outline of this course is similar to that of Introduction to Management in our School (same

textbook, ORGB); but I find the content complicated and redundant for most parts.

MKTG230-13S1 (C):Business, Society and the Environment

This course is a general introduction to the changing responsibilities of business to society and the

environment. The objective is to help student understand the impact globalization, consumerism and

the environment has on business and vice versa. You will learn about ways in which business

organizations are affected by and can respond successfully to the needs of society and the environment.

It addresses each topic at a global, New Zealand and organizational level. The content of this course is

quite similar to that of the book-exam course “Corporate Social Responsibility” at our School, but is

more detailed and realistic. There are one exams and two 3000-word assignments, one about Human

Consumption Footprint (a model developed by Turku University of Applied Science!) and the other one

about New Zealand Seafood Companies’ Corporate Social Responsibility. I quite enjoy this course, as CSR

has long been one of my favorite topics, and the professor is really into what’s she teaching (Praising

Finland, Sweden and Nordic countries all the time for their outstanding level of consumer-right

consciousness and CSR in compare to New Zealand or Australia!). However, it would be much better if

the last part of the course, which is about CSR, is addressed on global level, instead of domestic level.

2) Cost of living

o Housing and On-Campus Living condition

You can choose between living on and off-campus, but off-campus housing is a little bit difficult for half-

a-year exchange student, as landlords are reluctant to sign 6 months contract; so unless you have

friends or relatives who live in Christchurch, it is highly likely that you will live on-campus. On-campus

living is convenience in every aspect, although the price is quite stiff: 280 Nz Dollars for one week,

double that of off-campus facility! However, most of the exchange students live on-campus, and facility

condition is excellent. There is a large common room with billiards pool, wide-srceen TV with spacey

self-study area, not to mention that lecture theaters are only 10 minutes away from your doorstep; so I

think on-campus living is worth the money. The only minus point is heating facility in the winter.

Sometimes it is so cold inside the room that there are streaks of ice on the inside of my room’s

windows! Also Internet package is extremely expensive (80 dollars for 30 GB); but me and my two

flatmates later on found a family package from an external Internet provider at 150 GB/90 bucks, so it

was OK then.

Most students choose to dine out or cook on their own because on-campus dining is expensive and

limited of choices. Groceries and convenience stores are in walking range, plus there is a pizzeria and a

Japanese ramen shop inside the campus; so you student does not have to worry much about food

choices. Price of food is quite similar to that in Finland, but eating out is much cheaper and diversified,

from take-away Asian food to Western fine dining. You must pay for the laundry, which costs you

around 3 bucks every time you wash and dry clothes.

Ilam Apartment – One among three on-campus student apartments. Image source: Internet

o Books and printing

Prepare to spend few hundred dollars on the textbooks. If you are lucky enough, you can find some

cheap used books in several bookstores around the campus or online. You will also have the option to

borrow textbooks from school library, but there are only a few books available for each textbook, so you

must be really lucky if you can grab one from the library! Printing in the computer labs costs you 5 cent

for every page.

o Social Activity – Travelling

The bests way to get in touch with fellow exchange students, as well as degree student, is to join house

party and participate in student clubs such as tramping club or sport clubs. I focused mainly on sporting

clubs, such as tramping and fitness, but with several hundred clubs, UC provides something for

everyone. Having in enrolled in a club means that you get emails about events and discountswhatever

segment the club or society represents.

UC has strong sport tradition; with 2 of their current rugby club’s (Vipers) squat members are in the

national team (a.k.a the All Blacks- holding World Champion). Tramping club is also a great place to

meet people and to travel around with them in mountainous area of Christchurch region. New Zealand

is an amazing country with endless beauty that will never stop to amaze you, so my advice is that you

should go travel as much as you can, especially if you stay in the South Island. New Zealand is famous for

its travelling services, so they offer a wide range of recreational activities in tourist-attraction places

such as bungee jump, sky diving, offshore fishing trips etc …. Those activities are really nice but

sometimes quite expensive; so if you want to enjoy New Zealand to the fullest, be ready to spend some

big bucks here! And do not forget to enjoy the famously enormous Ferg Burger in Queenstown or the

world-renown Akaroa Fish n Chips; they are both rated as GIF (Good as F***). North Island is more

about big cities with building blocks, so I do not recommend future exchange student to spend more

than 1 week there for travelling purpose. Fans of “Lord of the Rings” triology should not miss the Shires

tour in Matamata, where you can sit in the Green Dragon Inn and enjoy a big jug of ginger beer!

Amazing New Zealand. Image source: Various

IV) Conclusion

People keep asking me why I choose to study in Finland, a country that is 10,000km away from

home and different in almost every perspective, and then go to exchange in New Zealand, a country

that is literally on the other half of the world from where I study. I simply think that it is ideal to

travel the world and to look at it from different perspective when you are young and care-free; so I

did not hesitate to choose the most distanced country in the list to do my exchange; and my

experience here proved that my choice was right. New Zealand is a spectacular country with friendly

people and beautiful nature that will never stop to amaze you.