Name:
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Lotte Barendse
barendse.lotte@gmail.com
Master Organization Studies
Spring semester
2015
LUISS Guido Carli
Italy, Rome
Gentili Signore e Signori,
Spring semester 2015 I had the opportunity to study in the most beautiful,
interesting, historical capital of Europe – ROME - and it was absolutely
fantastic! Every time when I walked through the city, it felt like I walked in an
enormous museum, because everywhere you look there are pretty, old
churches or other buildings, fountains, and squares.
National celebration day in Italy
From April onwards the weather was (in general) very good, which made the
city (and the parks and beaches) even better. Next to the historical part and the
weather, there are so many other typical Italian things I really love: relaxed
lifestyle, good wines/aperol spritz, delicious food, and amazing ice creams!
During this semester I went out for dinner plenty of times, since Italian food is
the best. There are a lot of places where you can have good pizzas and pastas,
especially in Monti and Trastevere. If you’re sick and tired of pastas and pizzas
(not possible), you have to try aperitivo! It’s a really cool concept where you pay
around 10 euros for a drink (cocktail, wine, beer) and an unlimited buffet.
Especially Momart, Doppio zero, Gusto and Freni e Frizioni are bars with very
good aperitivo-buffets.
In Rome, night clubs are very diverse: for a fancy night out you can best go to
Art Café, whereas Vibe and ShariVari are more mainstream, but much fun!
Especially in the summer the clubbing scene is very good, because many clubs
move outside and this gives such a cool and relaxed ambience (f.e. bosco della
fragole and Nice club).
Next to the fun stuff, there needed to be some time spent on the university, but
this was not at all a punishment, since the university is incredibly pretty. In
Rome there are different universities, whereas the partner university of Tilburg
University is LUISS. LUISS has 3 different buildings spread in the northern part
of Rome. I lived close to the Law faculty, but the courses I followed were given
at the main campus. Luckily there was a free shuttle service from the Law
faculty to the main campus, which takes you approximately 15 minutes. By walk
it’s 30 minutes, and very nice to do when the weather is good. When you can
follow your courses there you are lucky, since the main campus is so beautiful!
It is not as big as the campus of Tilburg University, in my opinion it looked more
like a big high school. There is a really good coffee bar with terrace where you
can start the day, a big garden, bikes and cars (!) you can rend for free and a
church which functions as a huge study room. Costs for book do not need to
be high, since there are some printing shops that copy books – way cheaper
than buying the real ones! For some courses I didn’t even need books, but only
papers that were provided by the teachers. Therefore my total costs for books
were not more than 50 euros. LUISS has around 1300 students, and in my
semester there were more than 200 exchange students from all over the world.
Before my arrival I received the needed information far in advance. The first emails I received from LUISS were in September, and the application needed to
be completed before the beginning of November. The student exchange office
of LUISS was very willing to help and responded quickly. Via them, I arranged
my room, and I was very happy with it. They have contact with different
landlords for renting rooms to exchange students, so I received an e-mail from
one of those landlords who had a room available at Via Tarvisio – nearby piazza
Istria. She sent me photos and I liked it very much and decided to go for that
one. However, many exchange students arranged their rooms by themselves
via Facebook groups (f.e. Erasmus students in Rome 2014-2015; or Andrea
Rispoli Venier is a man with a lot of houses for Erasmus students). Most
students lived around piazza Bologna, piazza Istria or in the surrounding of Via
Regina Margherita.
For my room I paid 550 euros a month, which is double the rent I pay in Tilburg,
but in Rome the renting prices are mostly between 500-600 euros. I saw my
room in real-life a week before the general welcome day at LUISS took place,
since I wanted to have some time in Rome before I had to start. These first days
I hang out with my roommate (another Erasmus student) and some fellow
students from Tilburg University, and we discovered Rome together these first
days. I would recommend to go a few days in advance to get to know your
roommates, district, the city center and arrange the basic stuff like an Italian
sim-card and metro card. Phone costs are around 10-12 euros a month and a
card for public transport (metro, tram and bus) is 35 euros a month. In busses
they do not check regularly (I never got checked and used the bus very often),
so there are students that do not buy the card for public transport. However, I
heard some people that got a fine of 50 euros. You can also buy separate
tickets for €1,50 which are valid for 100 minutes (but only one way in the metro).
ESN LUISS is a great group of LUISS students who
take care of the exchange students. They arrange
many different activities during the semester, like city
trips, parties, dinners, pub quizzes, beer pongs and
so on. In the beginning, I subscribed for the welcome
week and a trip to Venice, Padova and Verona. Both
activities were so much fun and really handy to meet
many other exchange students. The welcome week
consisted of good parties, dinners in typical Roman
places and activities in the city center.
Carnival in Venice
I arrived on the 8th of February and the first mandatory introduction day was at
the 14th of February. The week afterwards the lectures started. The semester
consisted of 13 weeks, with a break of one week in-between. After these 13
weeks, the exams started, which was middle of May. At LUISS you have 3
opportunities to pass the course, but if you pass all your courses the first time,
you can be done at the end of May/beginning of June. Because I finished almost
all of my courses pretty early, I had plenty of time to travel through Italy. I went
to Amalfi Coast and surrounding (Sorrento – Positano – Amalfi – Napels),
Sardinia, Sicilia and Florence, and I loved every place so much! Italy is so
beautiful and especially in the summer it’s good to change the high
temperatures in Rome for some pretty beaches on the islands (although Rome
has some good beaches as well – Anzio, Santa Marinella).
Isola Bella – Sicily
Amalfi Coast
I chose Italy (Rome) especially because I expected the culture to be very
different from the Netherlands, and this I found to be true. Not only the way of
teaching differs, but their whole lifestyle. Especially outside the city center,
people are so generous and interested in you. I had a specific coffee bar around
the corner of my house, and my roommate and me went there very often. We
really got to know the owners and other guests who came there every day as
well. Sometimes it was hard to understand each other, since not everyone
speaks English and my Italian didn’t improve as much as I wanted to (my bad,
I should have practiced more), but most of the time Italians try very hard to
understand and help you. I love the way they enjoy life, having dinner late at
night with a lot of good food, good wine and family/friends.
The way of teaching differs as well, since they teach mostly in very small
classes. In 3 of my courses I was with 20-25 other students and in one course
I was with 80 other students. The lectures are more interactive, and students
are stimulated to participate. For some of my courses I got a grade for
participation. Making group assignments with a couple of LUISS students was
interesting as well, since they mostly wanted to put as many content as possible
in it without critically analyzing if it was valuable or not. For me this was very
weird and we discussed this a lot of times.
The grading system in Italy is very different: they receive a grade between 130. In Italy it is very hard for students to get a job. Therefore they are very driven
to earn high grades, but high grades there are only between 28-30, which
means a 9 or higher in the Netherlands. Most of the students do get these
grades when they study hard, so I think the courses are a bit easier to pass with
high grades compared to the grading system of Tilburg University.
Below you find the courses I followed (all master courses):
Course
Creative Industries and
Business Model
Innovation
Corporate Strategies
Prerequisites
None
Exam
Written
+ Oral
ECTS
6
Comments
Group assignment +
presentation
None
Written
8
Global Organization
Design
Project-Based
Organizations and
HRM
None
Written
6
Group assignment +
presentation, weekly
quiz
Individual assignment
None
Written
6
Group assignment +
presentation,
presentation case
study
Rome is for sure the best city to study in Europe. It is so diverse, big, interesting,
and pretty: you’ll never get bored. So stop hesitating - don’t look further, Rome
is definitely the city you have to apply for!
Saluti,
Lotte Barendse
Do you have any questions after reading my report? I would love to talk to you about my time
in Rome, so just contact me via: barendse.lotte@gmail.com