Student report
Name of the university: Northumbria University/ Newcastle business school
Exchange semester: fall 2013
I. PRACTICAL INFORMATION
Before leaving Norway
The university sent me email about all the important stuff that I had to be aware of
before my arrival in Newcastle. There was also a facebook page for all the international
exchange student where you could ask questions and they replied very quickly.
Travel
I travelled with a plane to Newcastle airport. There is unfortunately no direct flight from
Oslo to Newcastle but you can transferee in Stavanger, Copenhagen, Edinburgh or
London.
Housing
It was easy to apply for a university accommodation, you got an email from the
university where they told you how to apply for it online. The only thing you have to be
aware of is that you are only staying for one semester, and for some reason you will be
registered for the howl year. You just have to send the accommodation office an email
about it so you don’t have to pay for the howl year.
The university accommodation is located in the city campus and it is only five minutes
walk to the school and city centre. The facilities around the campus are also very nice
and a lot of social activities are around the campus. There is a huge sport centre with
swimming pool. There is a grate pub called Habita where you can take a beer with your
friends, where they show Football matches in the weekends.
There are also a lot of opportunities to rent a privet house in Newcastle if you feel that is
more appropriate. It might be about 20 minutes from the city centre and the school but
you can get it for a cheaper price.
Costs
Accommodation Rent
3 550 NOK/ month
Books
Free, you can borrow it at the
Library
Food and drinks
3500 NOK/ Month
Transport
Free, You don’t need any transport
to get around in the city.
Sport centre
750 NOK/ pr semester
Other
500 NOK/ month
Culture and language
Everything happened in English so it was quite okay. The Gordy (Newcastle) accent
from the local people was a little bit hard to understand, but none of the teacher spoke
with the accent so it was no problem.
There was a grate opportunity to travel around in the UK. There was an organisation
called fast friends witch arranged trips around UK for students. We went to Edinburgh,
Liverpool, Durham, Alnwick Castle(Harry Potter Castle), lake district and Hadrian’s Wall.
II. ABOUT THE SCHOOL
Northumbria University contains of two buildings, one old part and one new. I studied at
the Business School building witch is for people studding business and law. The building
is very nice, it is modern and it looks quit similar to BI. There are some big rooms for
lectures and some smaller rooms for the seminars. There is a cafeteria, and some study
and computer areas as well.
There is also a big library building located in the city campus where you have a lot of
opportunity to study, which is open 24 hours. You can book a group room for group
studies or you can go to the quiet zones for individual work and reading. There are also
a lot of computers available to use. There are a lot of books and academic journals
available to borrow. You can also borrow all the books for your courses at the Library so
you don’t have to by them.
Academic calendar:
Arrival date:
12. September
First day of the
23. September
semester:
Last day of classes:
13. December
Examination period:
6- 15 January.
Any special
3 weeks Christmas
events/holidays:
holiday
Other:
Course registration
You get an email from the university where they ask you to fill out what courses you will
like to have for the semester. You have to choose eight different curses in the order you
want them, and send it by post to the university. After a wile you get an email back
which confirms the courses you have been allocated, there is no possibility to change the
subject after you have arrived.
Arrival and welcome week:
When I arrived at Newcastle airport there was a meat and great service who
welcomed you. They where driving you to the accommodation and there was some
people how helped you to get settled down in your flat. At the evening there was a
welcome event for international students at the student Union Reds bar. It was very
easy to make friends there because everyone is in the same situation and they all want
to get to know you. The welcome week was amazing and about the same as the one
we had at BI. It was some events every evening in the student Union Reds bar. There
was Headphone disco, Masquerade ball, concert with Labrinth and Naughty boy, Foam
party, UV rave party and a lot of more fun.
Promoting BI and Norway
There was a facebook page made by the university for people who want to study abroad
in Scandinavian where people could ask questions about Scandinavia. This gave us an
opportunity to talk to other people about studying in UK and they could ask us.
Social activities
We were mostly European international students who where hanging out together in
the weekends. We had flat parties and went out together in different clubs. The nightlife
in the city is very good since this is a typical student city with about 60 000 students.
There was also a Scandinavian Society for people from Norway and Sweden in
Newcastle, this gave us a great opportunity to meet other Scandinavian people as well.
III. ACADEMICS
In the classroom
The teaching style contains of both lectures and seminars. You have two lectures and
one seminar per week. The lecture is quite similar to the one we are used to from BI. The
seminars are in smaller groups and you have to prepare some cases or presentations for
every seminar. All the lecture and seminars are obligatory so it is important to attend.
Course materials
The course material is very similar to what we have at BI. The lectures are hold by a
power point presentation and it is related to the reading in the books. In the seminar we
used a lot of different case studies with questions to answer.
Exams
I had one multiple-choice exam in the end of November, which was based on the lecture
and seminar materials in the course. I also had a lot of small presentations in a group
where we could choose a brand to work with and we had different topics from the
lecture to cover in the different presentations. At the end I had individual assignments
that covered most of the topics in the lectures. I did not have any final exams but this
depends on the subjects you are taking.
Description of courses
Course code & name
Master/
Bachelor
Marketing management and
strategy
Bachelor
Exam form
-
Strategic management and
leadership
Bachelor
Global marketing and
communication
Bachelor
-
-
Comments
The course is very
interesting. It is a
typical marketing
subject. It is build on
theories that we have
had earlier but with
some new
approaches to it.
Multiple choice They require you to
exam 20%
read and use a lot of
Individual
journal articles and
assignment
other sources for the
80 %
assignment to get a
good mark.
Individual
The Course is very
assignment
interesting and has
70%
an international
presentations
approach on the
30 %
topics.
Individual
assignment
75%
Presentations
25 %
To sum up my exchange period
I had a great time in Newcastle and I wish I could have this opportunity again. The time
goes very fast so you just have to enjoy it when you can. I was very scared before I
arrived on how this would be like and if this was something for me or not, but when I
came here and met all this amazing people it was the best time of my life. I also
improved my English a lot and it came very easy from the beginning. I also learned a lot
about other cultures sins I meet a lot of people from al over the world. Now I have made
friends for life from all over the world. Take the change and go abroad!