Student Report
Name of the University: University of International Business and Economics
Exchange semester: Fall 2015
I. PRACTICAL INFORMATION
Before leaving Norway
I received the acceptance letter and information regarding the semester and courses about
the months before the semester started. The content of the information was different
deadlines, courses, housing and visa application procedures.
The university will also give you an offer a buddy if you want to. This buddy will help you
around the campus and the first couple of weeks to get you settled. If you chose to have a
buddy, the university will send you information on how to contact them.
Applying for a visa
For the application you need to fill out the application form and apply for a X2 visa. (You can
find the form on the Chinese embassy website). You need to bring this form and the papers
you received from UIBE to the embassy. The fee is on 300kr and you also need to bring som e
pictures, it takes around 2 weeks before you get your passport back. The X2 visa only offer one
entrance. This means that if you want to travel while you are in China to Macau, Hong Kong or
abroad you need for reapply for another visa with multiple entrances when you arrive campus.
This can be done at the visa application office on campus in building 6.
Travel
I ordered my tickets from Emirates. It take around 13 hours depending on the route. When
you arrive the airport you get to the school by subway or taxi. It is recommended to take a taxi
and that you have the school address in Chinese since the cab drivers do not speak English,
or get your buddy to meet you at the airport. The fee is around 100 RMB. You also bring a
pen when you travel by plane, because you need to fill out a form you will receive on the
plane. If you fill it out on the plane you can get into the line for visa immigration much faster.
Housing
The information you will receive from the university tells you that the housing at campus does
not open until a couple of weeks before the semester begins. However, if you plan to arrive
early, there is a high chance of vacant rooms you can pick. I chose not to live on campus,
because I did not like the standard of the housing there. The rooms were very dirty, especially
the bathroom. However, this is something you have to consider yourself. The cost for living
on campus is around 2000 RMB pr. Month, while outside campus it can cost around 3000 4000 RMB pr. month.
The rooms offered at campus are of different types and at different buildings. They offer
rooms where you share bathroom with 4 people, and where you share with the whole floor.
However, you must share bedroom with another partner. There are no curfew etc. if you
chose to live on campus.
If you chose to live outside of campus, it might be difficult to find apartment. This is because
many Chinese people do not like to rent out to foreigners, and they usually rent out for a
minimum of 1 year. I recommend you to find somebody that know how to speak Chinese to
help you.
Costs
Including the rent, if you chose to live on campus you have to pay for the electricity. The
dorms do not have Wi-Fi, however the campus have it. Food and transportation in China is
very cheap, it is also recommended to use UBER here for transportation. It much easier then
trying to get a cab .
Culture and language
The Chinese culture is very interesting, something you will experience immediately when you
land in Beijing. The city itself is very interesting. It has a lot of sightseeing sites and is a good
place to travel from. The school will offer you language courses you can take for free if you
want, however this will not give you credits.
The English level among the Chinese population in Beijing is very poor, they do not
understand and cannot read. The most frustrating thing you will encounter when eating is that
most restaurant in Beijing does not have an English menu. I recommend you to download
Pleco, an English-Chinese dictionary.
II.
ABOUT THE SCHOOL
UIBE is a prestigious private school among the Chinese population. The Chinese tend to call
the school for “little Switzerland” because of the small campus. The school is located on the
north-east area of Beijing close to the subway station Shaoyaoju, which is connected by line
10 and 13. The area around of UIBE is not very “fun”, however it is close to Sanlitum which is
a bar/club/shopping area where most student tend to be.
Course registration
The course information will arrive around two months before the semester begins so you can
fill out your LA to BI. When you arrive campus, you have to apply again at the school on the
orientation day. You will also get to have an tryout week where you can change courses if
you don’t like the. Note that the school is divided into 3 schools, School of International
Economics (SIE), School of Business (SOB) and School of International Trade and
Economics (SITE). All three schools have different deadlines.
Academic calendar
Arrival date:
First day of the semester:
Last day of classes:
Examination period:
Any special
events/holidays:
22. August
24. August
4. December
7-16. December
1 – 7. October
(Golden Week)
Arrival
Upon my arrival I did not meet my buddy, but for me it was no problem check into the dorm
after managing to explain to taxi driver where I wanted.
The International Office
It was a bit hard to get the information you want from them, however you will get it at the
end.
Promoting BI and Norway
There were no such activities at UIBE. The Chinese students tend to be a little interested
about Norway because they have never heard about it.
Social activities
The school will offer field trips to different location for the international students.
These tend to be very cheap and a good experience. For social activities, you have
to look for the international students, since the Chinese have this policy that they
only accept Chinese student. For example, I wanted to join the football team but they
couldn’t accept me because of this policy.
III. ACADEMICS
In the classroom
All of the courses I attended were in English, the professors have a high level of English but
some might have difficulties understanding them because their poor pronunciation. The
classes often have around 30-60 students. The classes differ from each other but they usually
have hand-ins and many presentations.
Course materials
Some of books required for the courses are free for exchange students. If not, you can
buy them at the school bookstore for around 50 RMB pr. Book. In most classes you don’t
really need the book, but more the PowerPoint which will be handed out.
Exams
In some classes you will have a mid-term and a final exam. It is a different grading system
in China. You will be graded by your collected effort in presentations, assignments, mid term, final exam, class attendance and participation.
Library and Technology
The school did have a library but I did not go there once so no information can be provided.
The technological level of the campus are of much lower quality compared to BI.
Description of courses
MBA 501 – Managerial Economics
Managerial economics is concerned with the application of economic principles and techniques to
business-decision-making problems. The overriding objective of a firm is to maximize profits. The
course will not only introduce a set of tools and techniques that will help managers to achieve this
objective, but also provide a way of thinking toward business problems including costs, prices,
profits and competitive strategies. Efforts will be made to relate the classroom discussions to
specific Chinese problems.
In this class I had assignments, mid-term and final exam. The level of the course was fairly easy
and recommended.
IB 501 – International Business Environment
“The objective of this graduate course is to provide graduate students with ideas of international
business of both theories and practices. The course consists of normal lectures, case studies, class
discussions and presentations, and tests or term papers.”
For this class I had a presentation, a report and final exam. More work was needed for this course,
but the level was not high. Also recommended.
IB 502 – Economic Foundation of Business studies.
“This course deals with the application of economic reasoning to real world decision-making
problems faced by business. It covers the following main topics: demand analysis, demand and
economic forecast, export management, production and cost theory and applications, pricing and
output decisions under different market structures, game theory and practices, pricing techniques
and analysis. A large number of questions and cases studies will be discussed in the class. This
course is suitable for students with introductory microeconomic and econometric backgrounds.”
This course required a final exam and presentation. I did not like this course, and would not
recommend it.
IB 503 – International Business Theory
“This is the core course in the International Business (IB) Master program, designed to provide
graduate students in the field of IB with a critical overview, including both economic and
organizational theories of multinational enterprises (MNEs). The overall course objectives are: To
provide the students with a broad overview of international business theories: To familiarize the
students with the basic concepts, theoretical approaches and some of the most important academic
literatures in the field: To enable the students to develop the intellectual background necessary to
critically analyze the questions and evaluate opinions in the field.
This course had a lot of assignments, it also required a presentation and home exam. It was really
easy and the easiest way to get a good grade.
All the courses was on master level and accepted as elective courses.