ANR: 750747
Name: Azra Pala
E-mail: azrapala@gmail.com
Exchange semester: Fall semester
Academic year: 2014
Host University: National University of Singapore
Country: Singapore
Admission, arrival, housing
NUS offered us the possibility to sign up for an airport pick-up. Since I knew some people who were arriving in Singapore on the same day – around the same time – I had not signed up for the NUS pick up but I arranged it myself. There were several introduction and information sessions. Some of them were formal; handing us our schedules, explaining us the adding and dropping of modules etc. But there were also informal activities: a lunch with all the exchange students from the business school, a campus tour, a city tour through Singapore, a welcome party etc. NUS offers on campus accommodation but due to the limited spots not every exchange student can get a room. Luckily enough I did get a room on campus and I could move in as soon as I arrived in Singapore. I had my own room which was 10m2 and offered all the necessary furniture (closet, bed, desk, shelves) and the bathroom and kitchen I shared with my flatmates.
Location of university/city
I lived in Singapore, which is a great and vibrant city. Singapore is big, modern, clean and a true melting pot of different cultures. The citystate is only 50 years old and its inhabitants have many different origins; China, Malaysia, Indonesia, India and The Philippines. Most western people are expats or students. The NUS campus is located in a very convenient place in Singapore. There is a
MRT (metro) station on campus and the Singaporean MRT system is very well organized and cheap.
This enables you to travel anywhere in the city very conveniently and fast. The special thing about
Singapore is that there is not really one city center, there are many districts where things are going on. And where you go depends on what you would like to do. Big shopping malls and foodcourts/ restaurants can be found at every MRT station and on Sentosa island you can find Universal Studios, beaches, aquariums and plenty of other fun things to do. To do sports you can just stay on campus since NUS offers lot of clubs/ teams you can join. Whatever sport you are into, you can practice it at
NUS! There are teams for soccer, swimming, volleyball, tennis, climbing, kayaking, water polo; you name it! There are 3 gyms, soccer fields, tennis courts and an Olympic pool on campus. Since
Singapore is a city state and a true metropolitan city with 5.5 million inhabitants, hence it was an entirely different experience from living in Tilburg.
Academics.
The courses I took in Singapore were: Investment Analysis and Portfolio Management, Human
Resource Management, Organisational Effectiveness and Asian Business Environments. I took the finance course because I would like to do my Master in Finance and so far I have only had two finance courses in Tilburg. If you are interested in gaining more in depth knowledge on shares, bonds and forming portfolios then this is a great course. Human Resource Management is not offered within
IBA so it was a nice course to add to my curriculum. Organisational effectiveness is a complementary course to Strategic Management and Organisational Behavior. Since the latter two were covered in
IBA, this was a nice complement. Asian Business Environments was a mix of micro and macro economics with a focus on Asia with an extensive coverage of the Asian crisis. I could recommend all of the courses I followed at NUS. I found the difficulty of the modules in NUS slightly lower than in
Tilburg but the workload in NUS was higher. I mostly had seminars, which were interactive classes with small groups of people (max 30). The seminars were mandatory, individual and required you to be prepared before coming to class. Plenty of extra material was used’ we did a lot of cases in which we applied the materials covered and we were offered many extra articles and papers (so not just material from the textbook was used). The level of English was good, since it is one of the main languages used in Singapore. Singaporean students are very competitive and it a big part of your mark was determined by group projects/participation hence it was quite difficult to obtain very high grades. Nevertheless, I am happy with my academic achievements at NUS.

Social life
There were a lot of social activities organized by the local NUS students and the university. Every week, your mailbox would be spammed with activities for charities or Master Classes/ seminars. Often there were the se “parties” where there would be music and food/ drinks. But it weren’t the kind of parties we’re used to in Tilburg (it would be during the day and there wouldn’t be any alcohol). I did have a lot of contact with both local and exchange students but most of my friends were exchange students. The contact with locals was present and most of them I’ve met in class or during group projects. Singapore has a perfect location for traveling, so this is exactly what I did! During the semester I mainly traveled to Indonesia and Malaysia and after the semester I have backpacked for 6 weeks and I visited Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam. The traveling was truly amazing since it gives you the opportunity to experience the “real Asia”. Singapore is being called “Asia light” since it is so modern and well organized. If you go to Bangkok or Ho Chi Minh City then you can experience the crowded, traffic jammed cities packed with little street food stands and markets and this is exactly what all other Asian cities are like.
Living costs
Unfortunately since I am a TiSEM student, I did not receive any grant from TiU. Also because my exchange was to a non-European destination, I was not eligible for an Erasmus grant. From the moment I heard I would be going to Singapore I started working extra hours and saving a lot of money. Next to that I received stufi, money for the Dutch OV you don’t use while you're abroad and my I also received money from my parents. Singapore is a pretty expensive destination and according to some magazines it is “the most expensive city in the world”. The main reason for Singapore being so expensive is that housing is very expensive. I was very lucky to be granted on campus accommodation, so these costs were comparable to those in Tilburg. When you eat at foodcourts the food is not that expensive, you spend 4-6 Singapore dollars for a warm meal. Nevertheless, if you want to eat at restaurants or Western food, it is more expensive. Fruit is very cheap but things as milk, cereal and yoghurt (which are imported from Australia) are quite expensive. The most expensive thing in Singapore would be alcohol and clubbing. Alcohol and tobacco are taxed very severely in
Singapore so when clubbing you pay around $30 entrance fees (almost anywhere) and around S$18 for a be er/ coke. The housing had to be paid at once, so after paying this you don’t need to consider the housing in your monthly budget anymore. For 4 months, I have paid S$1800 dollars for my room.
Furthermore, I spent approximately S$800/900 per month but this amount does not include the traveling to other countries. Textbooks in Singapore are really cheap (in the university bookstore) and there is an app called “carrousel” which is the Singaporean “Marktplaats” where you can buy secondhand books/ calculator etc.
Culture
I did experience a culture shock while being on exchange. Asian people really are different from
Western people. Just to name a few things their culture, their food, their values, ways of doing things, the way they view their role in society, th eir notions of “success” and safety. Singaporean people are very hardworking, achievement oriented and competitive. Every students strives to get into university and get very high grades. But even though they spend a lot of hours per day at their work/ university they are less efficient than Western people. You notice they experience a lot less time pressure than we do in the Netherlands. They do not have a ‘9 to 5’ mentality and they really take their time to finish their work, even if this means that they spend a lot of hours per day at work. This was different from my expectations becaue I had expected “Asian people” to be more efficient. I did like their collectivism, family is very important. Also people always take time to have lunch/ dinner, they do not eat while traveling or while sitting behind their desk. I did not like their competitiveness, especially not in university. NUS makes use of a bell curve system in which your grades depend on the performance of the entire class; not only your own perfor mance. This sometimes leads to a quite “hostile” environment – especially during peer evaluations – because the “worse” your class mates do, the higher your chances to receive a high grade. I really did not like this concept. By traveling t other
Asian countries I really have learned a lot about Asian people. I have learned how to behave myself respectfully in their culture, I have learned the differences between the people in SouthEast Asia (for example theThai, Malay, Vietnamese and Indonesian people). Since I am doing an international study, this cross cultural knowledge is very valuable. Other Asian countries were different from
Singapore because they were way more poor, way less organized, less clean and “Western” oriented.

Personal development
Something I have learned – especially during traveling – is to be more patient. I have become more relaxed and I am putting less time pressure on myself. When it comes to my academic performances,
I have learned the benefits of keeping up the work and studying regularly instead of trying to do everything in the last 3 weeks of the semester. The most important thing I have learned is how
“adaptable” we people are… With a little effort you can make friends and feel at home anywhere in the world.
Tips for future students
I would definitely recommend an exchange period! It is the perfect opportunity to learn more about yourself, to get out of your comfort zone, to meet new people and to get in touch with different cultures and ways of working. I would also recommend my host university. NUS is ranked as the #1 university in Asia and it is a great opportunity to be able to study at such a highly ranked university.
The lectures, facilities and campus life offered by NUS are great and Singapore itself is an amazing city. Bring along your good mood an open mind and try to enjoy every moment. Of course every person gets a little homesick once in a while but try to live in the moment and take every opportunity that crosses your path.”You only regret the things you don’t do”.
A picture is worth a thousand words
.The campus
A famous foodcourt (Lau Pa Sat at Raffles Place)

Marina Bay Sands
Sentosa Beach