exchange study report - aalto
Post on 10-Jan-2022
3 Views
Preview:
TRANSCRIPT
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.
top related