The National University of Singapore (NUS)
Spring 2013 Exchange
Hogan Wai (Year 2 GBUS)
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I.
Monthly Activity Log
January
School starts quite early in Singapore compared to Hong Kong and your winter break will be cut
short as you will be leaving for Singapore in late December/ early January. I chose to arrive in
early January and I had a couple of days before school began to explore the city and settle down.
It was also quite busy during the first few weeks as I had to sort out my student pass, deal with
course registration problems, and attend multiple orientation activities. Afterwards you will have
a lot more time for traveling if you wish to do so.
February
The Chinese New Year is around the corner once January ends and it was a time for me to travel
to Malaysia. If you do decide to stay in Singapore for the Chinese New Year, be sure to catch
some of the events in Chinatown. The annual Lion Dance Competition is quite interesting and lets
you catch some exciting acrobatics and moves that you aren’t accustomed to seeing in Hong Kong.
For me, I joined a Kuala Lumpur trip hosted by an organization called Singapore UNI. Unless you
are heavily into clubbing, do not join tours organized by this group; they overcharge for tours and
there isn’t much to see. With a bunch of friends, we decided to leave the tour and explored Kuala
Lumpur on our own. Unlike Singapore, Kuala Lumpur is rural and dangerous; do not venture out
on your own into the city unless you are with someone. Otherwise, be sure to visit places such as
the Petronas Tower, Chinatown, Batu Caves etc.
March
Midterms awaited me when I returned from Kuala Lumpur and I took some time to briefly look
over my notes for the exam. You can also take the chance to travel during the spring break at the
end of March. Popular destinations included Indonesia, Thailand, and Cambodia. Booking on a
flight on a budget airline to these countries is advised due to the huge difference in cost – but you
need to book early as these flights tend to be quite popular. I chose to stay in Singapore during
this time and I explored a city quite a bit.
April
Because I was taking mostly continuous assessment modules, I had my final exams early. Most of
my exams were held before the end of April. There is not much of a difference between the
midterm and final; but you do need to keep your guard up a bit higher as the weightage at NUS
towards final exams can be significantly higher for final exams. You will also be finishing up on
group projects so you won’t have much time to do anything else. That being said, I had friends
who traveled during the month so if you can balance your time, you might be able to fit in a
weekend trip to a nearby destination.
May
You would have reached the end of your stay at NUS soon and say goodbye to your friends by
now. Take the chance to explore any places in Singapore that you have not been to yet! One
reminder here is to hand over your student pass to immigration when you leave Singapore as you
may run into problems entering the country again in the future if you do not surrender your
student pass.
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II.
General Exchange Information
Visa Procedures
Note: Please check the relevant procedures and documents required for yourself according to your own
citizenship.
The procedure for student pass registration starts before you go to Singapore and the SBM office will
provide the necessary details for filling out online forms. Make sure you pay all the relevant fees for the
student pass online so that you won’t have to do so on the day you physically submit the paper part of the
application at NUS. In most cases, you will be admitted into Singapore visa-free for 30 days. During
those 30 days, you need to apply for and receive your student pass or else you will not be allowed to
continue your stay at NUS. The university (NUS) will arrange a date where you will go the multi-purpose
hall to physically submit the paper part of your application. Make sure you don’t lose the small white
piece of slip that you filled out on the airplane; it’s required to complete the process. You will get your
student pass a couple of weeks after you complete the in-person part of the student pass registration at
NUS.
Orientation Activities
The one compulsory orientation activity that you need to go to is the business school orientation for
exchange students. Do not go to another orientation offered by the International Students’ Association
(ISA) – that is not the right one to go to fulfill the orientation requirement set out by the HKUST SBM
office. Another important note is that you should keep an eye out for orientation activities such as tours
around the city and excursions to different places around school once you receive your exchange offer.
These orientation activities offer a chance for you to make friends and learn more about Singapore and
they are quite important when you arrive in Singapore. It was too late when I learned about these
activities so be sure to sign up as soon as possible!
International Services and Activities
The ISA offers a host-buddy program and I joined this program. It’s a good way to pair up with a local
buddy and find out more about Singapore. Do take the initiative to keep in touch even with your busy
schedule – the local buddies are very friendly and are keen to learn more about Hong Kong as well!
Accommodation
Options for accommodation include UTown, Prince Georges Park Residence (PGP), and residential halls.
If you are in need of some local flavor and prefer a loud and cheerful atmosphere residential halls are
worth a try. I stayed at PGP and there are three types of rooms: A (air conditioning and a private
washroom), B (no air conditioning and a sink), and C (no air conditioning). In progression from most
expensive, A is the most expensive and C is the least expensive (due to the facilities available). It is very
hard to get type A rooms at PGP unless you have a special medical reason that requires you to be in a air
conditioned environment. I would personally recommend that you choose UTown as a lot more of the
exchange students stay there and the rooms and facilities are much newer than PGP. PGP looks good on
the outside, but it’s quite run-down on the inside. You may ask me more about this if you have any
further questions.
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Course Registration
Course registration is split into two systems: one for business modules and one for non-business modules.
Business modules are very hot commodities and you need to basically make up your mind as to which
business modules you will take before you leave for Singapore. If you do need to change and swap
business modules, it will be a bit difficult. I looked for a business school officer named Clarisse Sy and
she’s quite friendly and helpful – so if you do need to do something with your modules she’s the person
that I would recommend.
A special note for accounting modules: it is stressed upon by the registration folks at NUS that you are
not allowed to enroll in accounting modules at NUS. However you can get around this with some work.
Sit in for the first class of the accounting module that you are interested in and talk to the professor
straight away after the course to indicate your interest in taking the course. The professor for my
accounting course was quite nice and offered me a spot in the course given that there were spaces. If you
run into any difficulties as an accounting/ finance student needing to take accounting modules, send me
an email and I’ll provide more information as to what you can do.
For non-business modules, you need to log into a separate system to register for those modules. It is not
the same system as what the local NUS students use (CORS). I’ve pasted the link here for your reference
(https://aces01.nus.edu.sg/PRJXIA/Student/Login). Bidding for tutorial times is also something that is
different compared to HKUST (you will come to appreciate the HKUST registration process once you go
through the NUS course registration process). You will need to physically register for your tutorials if you
have courses that require tutorial slots.
I would recommend that you choose 3-4 modules in total as the workload can be quite demanding for
some of the modules. I started out with 6 modules but I dropped 2 in the end as I did not see the point of
doing so many modules on exchange.
Teaching and Assessment Methods
At NUS, the teaching style does not differ from HKUST too much with your typical lecture. The biggest
difference is the emphasis on class participation in modules of higher levels. Professors will lecture as
usual but expect students to add to the discussion and answer questions in class. It is quite hard to
participate in class because most students have their hands up when a professor asks a question. It would
be wise to prepare beforehand so that you would have a chance to answer the professor’s question.
ACC3601: Corporate Accounting and Reporting
Equivalent to ACCT 3030 (or ACCT 3020) back at UST, this is an intermediate accounting course.
Unlike ACCT 2010, it focuses more on decision-making in accounting treatment and less on the rote
learning aspect of accounting. The workload required by the professor in this course was not too high (a
final, a midterm, 3 group essays that are 4 pages each). Professor Edmund Keung was responsible for
teaching this course during my period of study and I enjoyed his style of teaching. He uses many
interesting life stories to explain accounting concepts and sometimes uses a Cantonese phrase to reinforce
accounting concepts. Do be prepared before class as most students in this course are taking Auditing or
Taxation concurrently and that means that they do have a slight advantage over UST students in
accounting knowledge.
FIN3130: Financial Modeling
Financial modeling is usually a course that is only offered at the MBA level to students; at NUS it is
offered to undergraduate students. Professor Lee Hon Sing’s class is quite tough compared to the other
courses that I took one at NUS. If you want to do well in this course, you will need to do quite a bit of
Excel modeling practice work and VBA programming outside of class. His exams do follow what he
teaches in class, but it is still recommended that you do not blindly memorize the template Excel sheets
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that he gives you as he changes the templates to test your understanding during exams. The group project
is the hardest component of the course and a large part of it will be based off of running a simulation to
simulate option prices. Still, the reward of taking this course is very high and I feel that it justifies that
workload needed; it would be especially useful once you return to Hong Kong!
FIN3101: Corporate Finance
As a core course at NUS, this corporate finance course mirrors that of what you learned in FINA 2303 in
Year 1 at UST. There are a couple of additional topics that are covered in this course that are not covered
in FINA 2303 (ex. mergers and acquisitions, dividend policy etc.). Overall, the course differs from FINA
2303 in that it does not only focus on calculations, but that it emphasizes decision-making after
calculating some numerical output from a question. Professor Zhang Weina is a moderately demanding
professor. For the course you are required to give an individual presentation, complete a group report and
presentation, and take two exams. To succeed in this course, you need to practice and understand the
questions that she puts up on the course website (you do not need to do a lot of questions, but you need to
be able to understand the ones that you actually complete). Keeping up-to-date with recent financial news
in topic areas like recent IPOs, mergers and acquisitions etc. is also something that will be beneficial as
the professor likes to refer back to recent financial events when asking questions in class.
FIN3103: Financial Markets
Although the title of the course is "Financial Markets," the course focuses more on various topics in
finance that you would not necessarily cover in a normal financial markets course. If you are looking to
learn about the properties and characteristics of different markets, taking this course under Professor
David Reeb is not recommended. That being said, Professor David Reeb is a very good professor who is
knowledgeable about various areas of finance and is the best professor that I had while I was at NUS. The
class differs from other classes in that the only form of assessment is based on case studies. You will be
doing 12-14 case studies over the module and write a 2-page brief on each one. The downside is the
heavy emphasis on participation (30% of your grade!) in the class. Singaporean students in finance are
not shy to share their opinions in class so you need to be quick and smart when you answer his questions
in class!
Sports and Recreation Facilities
There are gyms and fitness training rooms at PGP and Utown if you wish to keep fit. A new pool opened
at Utown shortly before I left and it’s meant to be more of a leisure pool than one where you
competitively swim in to train. Alternatively, there is a full set of sportsand recreation facilities in a single
area near YIH (Yusof Ishak House) if you wish to swim in a pool for training, play soccer on a grass pitch,
run on a track etc. The facilities at NUS aren’t as new as HKUST and the gyms are not air conditioned
(do keep that in mind if you decide to play badminton, floor ball or any other sport inside a gym).
Cost and Expenses
Your school fee that needs to be paid will be to HKUST and not NUS. You would be responsible mainly
for your accommodation, books, and flight ticket. An approximate breakdown of the costs:
Accommodation: 2000-3000 SGD per month
Flight Ticket: 2500 HKD round trip on Tiger Airways
Food: 3-10 SGD per meal
Travel: this depends on how much traveling you do (I used around 600 SGD for my trip to Malaysia; I
was ripped off a bit)
Compared to Hong Kong, the NUS Co-Op shop that sells textbooks sells the books at a cheaper price. If
you have a local friend who has a membership card, you can get a further discount when buying books.
Although it might be a little problematic to haul all the books back to Hong Kong, do consider getting a
couple of books at NUS if they are expensive in Hong Kong.
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Health & Safety
Singapore is an extremely safe place so there is not much to worry about regarding your personal safety.
Like I mentioned in the monthly log, if you are traveling around Southeast Asia, do exercise some caution
and use your common sense.
You are given a thermometer among other goodies at orientation and it might come in handy when you
want to check your temperature. There is a university clinic near YIH and you may want to go check it
out if you are battling the flu or any other illness.
Food
Singapore is famous for its food and although I prefer Hong Kong food over Singaporean food, I must say
that Singaporean cuisine is not shabby. Depending on your appetite and budget, there are many options
for you to consider when it comes to food in Singapore. Some of the more famous foods include nasi
lemak, mee goreng, and Hainanese Chicken Rice. The NUS canteens also offer a good array of food for
you to select for your daily meals. The Engineering canteen is well-known for being the best canteen in
NUS – though do try the other canteens as each canteen has a couple stalls that are good (wonton noodles
at Science, Western cuisine at Biz, Yong Tau Foo at Arts etc.). If you are keen to learn more about some
places to try food in Singapore, feel free to contact me.
Transportation
Singapore’s transportation system is sufficient (though it does not match up to Hong Kong’s
transportation network in terms of convenience and reliability). The metro and bus will take you to most
places in Singapore. You will need to get an ez-link card to use the public transportation system in
Singapore.
Climate
The weather in Singapore is similar to Hong Kong if not more humid and rainy. Singapore has two
seasons: a rainy season and a sunny season. You will suffice with mostly t-shirts, shorts, and flip flops.
Flip flops are especially important as you do not want to be caught in the rain with normal shoes (trainers,
Converse etc.). Your shoes will be a mess if you are caught in the rain and hence flip flops is the only
type of footwear that will not be damaged if you are caught in a heavy rainstorm. Do bring a couple longsleeved shirts as the air conditioning in school buildings and malls can be quite strong at times
(Singaporeans love their air conditioning very much!).
Communication
You will need your passport when purchasing a SIM card in Singapore. Otherwise, there is not much of a
difference in communication systems in Singapore compared to Hong Kong.
Cautionary Measures
Do note that if you want to go out at night and you plan to return after 11 PM, there are no campus shuttle
buses available and that you will need to walk back if you stay at a residence far away from the bus
station or metro station. Also, the only form of transportation available at that time would be taxis and
they tend to charge outrageous fees late at night so do plan beforehand if you decide to go and have a
drink at Clarke Quay or any other place.
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III.
Items to Bring and Contacts
Item to Bring and Contacts
 Singapore Dollars
 Credit card
 Clothes (shorts, t-shirts, flip flops)
 Passport
 Bed sheets
 Pillow
 Camera and camera charger
 Stationeries
 Notebooks
 Umbrella
 Business suit
 Laptop
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