482863 B.Sc. exchange

University of Economics, Prague TRAVEL REPORT, SPRING 2017

Sisällysluettelo

1. Preparing for exchange ................................................................................................................. 3

Travelling to university ...................................................................................................................................... 3

2. Exchange studies ........................................................................................................................... 3

Studies overall ................................................................................................................................................... 4

Courses .............................................................................................................................................................. 4

3. Free time....................................................................................................................................... 6

Cost of living ...................................................................................................................................................... 7

Things to do on the free time ............................................................................................................................ 8

Good to know .................................................................................................................................................... 9

4. Final Comments .......................................................................................................................... 10

1. Preparing for exchange Preparing for the exchange in Prague is extremely easy. For a European there’s no need for a visa or other documents. Only thing you have to do is to inform the foreign police if your stay exceeds three months, but if you’re staying at the dorms this is taken care of for you. University contacted me for the first time in late September. After that they send some emails with instructions for course registration and applying for housing. Note that the instructions they provide are not always very clear and I myself spent a lot of time trying to use their systems and finding information. Be really careful with all the deadlines and if you need help, international office in VSE is very helpful so don’t hesitate to contact them if you have any problems.

Travelling to university Travelling to Prague from Helsinki is easy and luckily very affordable! There are many airlines with direct connections to Prague daily. I booked my flight already in November and paid only 70€ but you can get cheap flights even if you book just a couple of weeks before. From the airport you can get to the dorms with public transport within an hour and the ticket only costs you 32 crowns (=1,2€). From the airport you might want to buy more than one ticket for the first days since the tickets can not be purchased from trams or anywhere near the dorms. At VSE every exchange student gets their own buddy. Mine came to pick me up from the airport and took me to the dorms. Your buddy will help you also when the school starts with some paper work and with getting the ticket to the public transport.

2. Exchange studies Orientation week started on February 6th and the semester a week later, on February 13th. During the orientation week, we had some lectures about the school and things related to our exchange program. The university had also organized some other program with buddy system (organization that arranges events for exchange students). In the end of the orientation week Buddy system organized icebreaking weekend. I decided not to go because of its high price and was happy with my decision. A lot of my friends went there and enjoyed it though. The semester officially ends in

July but all exchange students can take their exams when the teaching period ends. My last exam was on May 12th. If you want to stay longer it’s possible to take the exam for example in June.

Studies overall VSE offers a great selection of courses in English so you can rather freely choose what kind of subjects you want to take. There are a lot of courses for both bachelor and master students and some courses are available for everybody. The enrolment happens in three rounds, first round ended after the orientation week. The amount of ECTS per course varies at least from 3 to 8 so it took me some time to find good courses for 30 credits. There are two type of courses, normal ones and intensive courses. Intensive courses are taught during three days and are worth three credits. I strongly courage to take these courses. I enjoyed both my intensive courses and they also decreased the work load during semester. Overall all the courses I took were easy compared to Aalto. Most courses have lecture and seminar every week. Attending seminar is obligatory but depends a lot on the teacher. Skipping seminars for intensive courses is also accepted so in total you can miss half of the seminars in some courses. The level of teaching was surprisingly good. All my teachers spoke English well and were skilled in their field. The exams were held the next week after the teaching ended. Multiple choice was used in maybe half of my courses and I heard it was popular type of exam in other courses too. In VSE the grade usually consist of many different parts and the final exam rarely is 100% of the grade. I didn’t prepare too much for the exams but had no trouble passing them. Saying this, there’s still work to do since all the exams are on the same week.

Courses Basics of Project Management (3MA682) 3ECTS The course is taught by R. Brunet-Thornton. He has years of experience in project management and is a native English speaker. The course is built around a case study. The whole course group is divided into two groups which you work with for the whole course. There’s no exam but a presentation of the results of the project and an essay in group. Overall the course was very easy. We only had one lecture each week and didn’t have to do a lot of study on top of that. The teacher stresses that the course is about understanding project management and the process of a project not techniques. Saying this I wouldn’t say the course was that useful although I quite liked it. There’s also another course of project management where they use some programs, take that if you want to learn more concrete things.

Doing Business on Russian market – in English (2MO647) 6ECTS This course was by far the easiest one I took. Topics involve different aspect of Russia’s culture, economy and geography. Mr. Bolotov is very passionate about the subject and likes to discuss with students. The course has a lecture and seminar every week and you are allowed to skip 4 seminars (+intensive courses). Almost no one went to the lectures after the first weeks because, to be honest, the lectures didn’t bring much value to the course. During the course, we had to make a small presentation in groups and the final exam was an open book exam that consisted of multiple choice questions. The topics on this course are interesting which was the reason why I picked the course. I have to admit I cannot say I learned much during the course. Therefore I would not recommend the course if you’re expecting to really learn about the subject. International Business Operations (2MO362) 6ECTS IBO was the hardest course I had. We had a lecture and seminar every Monday and it was only allowed to skip 2 seminars. Topics included for instance risks, payments and incoterms. In seminars, we had interesting cases to solve. Grade consisted of a mid-term exam that included the content of lectures, final exam that was about a case study and active participation. We also wrote an essay in groups and presented it in class. I found the course interesting and probably the most useful of my courses. The teacher, V. Hincica, was very strict with some of his rules, for example you were not allowed to come to lecture if you were more than 5 minutes late. He also made students to go in front of the class and explain some things which I think not everyone was comfortable with. Overall I would recommend the class if you’re interested in the subject and ready to work a little more than in average classes. International Trade for Exchange Students (2MO337) 6ECTS The course had two teachers Mr. Bolotov and Mrs. Sterbova. Each held half of the lectures and seminars which were on Wednesdays. The course had different names and was available for both undergraduate and graduate level and also for Czech students. Grade consisted of active participation in seminars, essay, presentation and final exam. Content of the course involved different aspects of international trade such as World Trade organization, tariffs and financing. Lectures usually had too much content and sometimes the seminar was spent going through rest of the lecture slides. This also meant that the final exam was difficult. It was multiple choice and there were over 80 slides full of text from every lecture. This was a big negative, it felt like the teachers tried to include every aspect of international trade to this course. I took the course because I didn’t get into another course I had selected and I found the subject rather boring and hard to follow. I would say the course can be good if you interest yourself in international trade and economics.

Insurance Industry and Insurance Products (1BP491) 3ECTS The official teacher of the course was Mr. Stadnik but I only saw him at the exam. We had several different teachers during the course. Topics covered different aspects of insurance products and the industry. The teacher completely changed the syllabus during the course and in the end, we had a midterm exam (20%) and final exam (80%). Unfortunately, the teacher lost my midterm exam so I only did the final exam. Some of the visiting teacher were excellent and some were not. I found the topics on this course interesting but because of the difficulties in communication with the teacher and the uncertainty of the syllabus I would not recommend this course. Branding and (Re)Positioning in International Market (2MO338) 3ECTS This course was an intensive course taught by Agnieszka Zablocki from University of Vienna. The grade consisted of active participation, presentation and a paper done in groups. During the first day we mainly concentrated on theory and the next day we worked with our presentations for almost the whole day. Presentation was done of our chosen company and the essay on a case study. I enjoyed the course. Ms. Zablocki was a good teacher and we had good discussions in the class. The topic wasn’t discussed in too deep level so I would recommend this course even if you haven’t studied marketing before. International Negotiation Strategies: Techniques and Simulations (2MO336) 3ECTS This course was also an intensive course. The teacher was Irena Descubes from Rennes School of Business. She had years of experience in negotiating and teaching and shared many interesting stories on the power of negotiating in real life situations. During the course, we did several case exercises in pairs and in groups. The last case study was graded and was 40% of the grade. 60% of the grade consisted of a final test that we had to turn in within a week after the course. The test basically meant writing about different techniques we had used in the last case study. I enjoyed this course a lot and learned new techniques to use when negotiating. I would definitely recommend the course for anyone who is even a little interested in the topic.

3. Free time Prague is a beautiful and vivid city full of amazing architecture and history. Not to forget the great opportunities for free time. Prague is full of great restaurants and bars and also activities like bowling or going to Sauna or you can always take a boat ride at Vltava river. Czech culture is interesting and offers a lot of fun moment time to time.

Cost of living Prague is an excellent choice pricewise for a Finn. Everything is very affordable which is great for an exchange student. Eating in restaurants costs usually 150-250CZK (1€=25CZK) and a beer 25-50CZK. Especially restaurants in Zizkov (the area of the dorms and school) are very affordable. Restaurants typically serve Czech specialties and of course Czech beers.

Traditional Czech meal – gulash Cost of accommodation is also cheaper than in Finland. A nice shared flat in the centrum costs around 500€ or less per person. I decided to stay at the dorms since it was the easiest option. There are two dorms Jarov F and Jarov G. F has been recently renovated but there are plans for renovating G too. All in all, I got a room in F and was happy with it. Rooms in G are a lot cheaper but also lack a good kitchen for example. All units have two rooms in them and most rooms have two beds. Getting a single room is still possible. Just follow the timelines for applying housing and pick yours the first day. I paid around 280€ per month for my single room. In the room there’s a bed, study table and a closet. The common space has a small kitchen, dining table and bathroom and shower. The dorms have lobbies that are open 24/7. From the lobby, you can for example rent a vacuum cleaner for an hour (10CZK=0,4€), book washing machines (3hours for 30CZK) or ask if any problems occur. Location of the dorms is good. Tram ride to school with number 9 is 15 minutes and to city center 20-25 minutes. Supermarkets are close and there’s also some restaurants nearby. Talking about trams, the public transport in Prague is both cheap and good. Student ticket for 3 months only costs

720CZK (=28€). Trams go every 4 minutes in rush hours and operate even during the night. So coming back to dorms from a party at 4am is not an issue.

My dorm room

Things to do on the free time Living in the dorms it was extremely easy to make friends and find things to do. Buddy system organizes events every week. Nation to Nation party every Tuesday, Buddycafe on Wednesdays and trips almost every weekend. The city itself is also full of things to do and places to explore. There are nice parks like Letna and Petrin hill to spend an afternoon at or you can go to wander around Prague castle or Vysehrad. My advise is to start exploring places right away so that you don’t run out of time! Traveling Travelling from Prague is easy. There are many great cities just a bus ride away like Berlin, Vienna, Krakow and Budapest. For traveling overseas busses are definitely the best option. Check websites like goeuro or Regiojet (excellent Czech bus company) for cheap tickets. For Poland you can get tickets to Krakow for only 7€ one way from Polskibus. Although traveling overseas is easy and popular amongst exchange student, I would also recommend traveling inside Czech Republic. It is easy to make day trips with busses but renting a car is cheap too. I visited Pilsen, the home of Pilsner beer, spa town Karlovy Vary, Kutna Hora and Bohemian Switzerland national park.

Beautiful Spa town Karlovy Vary

Bohemian Switzerland national park

Good to know Cuisine: Czechs love their beer. Beer can be found everywhere, it is cheap and it is good. Beer is big part of the culture so I would recommend to try different beers. Beer is often cheaper than water in restaurants and having a beer with your meal is a standard. There’s even a restaurant with a terrace at university! In food Czechs love meat and potato, cabbage and dumplings. They also have

sauces with almost every food. For a vegetarian, options are limited in traditional restaurant. Often the vegetarian foods are different kind of fried cheese. Food is heavy but delicious. Few tips for Czech food: Lokál Dlouhááá (in the city center), Zalezitost (close to dorms, probably the best gulash I had). Bars and pubs: Popo café Petl (in the city center, cheap and popular), Bernard pub (brewery’s own pub and restaurant), The Pub (a beer tap in the table). Czech people: The history can still be seen in the way Czech people think and behave. They are very clear that they belong to Central Europe although the culture for a Finn seems very eastern European. Czech people don’t always seem so friendly and helpful. This might be due to lack of language skills. For example, when you go to a supermarket close to dorms it is hard to get service in English.

4. Final Comments I truly enjoyed my time in Prague and would definitely recommend spending a semester studying in VSE. Prague is a beautiful city that has a lot to offer. It always felt safe, is centrally located and lets you enjoy exchange semester without worrying about money. Although the level of teaching wasn’t always as good as in Aalto, I still think the exchange taught me things academically too. I think the courses overall were fine and for example included a lot more interaction with other students than courses in Aalto. I also appreciated how well the school took care of organizing housing for exchange students. Studying in Prague will give you many new friends and experiences. Studying, partying and living with people from different cultures and learning from them was the best part of my exchange. Exchange semester is a unique opportunity to step out of your comfort zone and expand your thoughts. So once again, Prague is an excellent exchange destination I can warmly recommend.