Experience report BI Norwegian Business School
E-mail: josephinedm@outlook.com
Study Program: Organization studies
Exchange semester: Fall
Academic year: 2015-2016
Host University: BI Norwegian Business School
Country: Norway
I GENERAL INFORMATION ABOUT THE SCHOOL
Oslo is the biggest city in Norway, but with only 650.000 inhabitants, it doesn’t take too long to
find your way around in Norway’s capital. What I really liked about Oslo is that it is a lively
city, but if you want to escape from the city life, you can take a ferry for 8 minutes or a metro
for 15 minutes and then you’re in the middle of Norway’s beautiful nature.
BI is a private school in Norway, where students can’t study for free like at the other
Norwegian universities, but pay a fee of about 8000 euros per year. That made that we were
all really impressed when we first entered BI’s building when we arrived in Oslo. BI Oslo
consists of only one huge building, situated a bit in the north of the city, a 10 min metro ride
away from the center.
II PRACTICAL INFORMATION
BI arranges everything very well in my opinion. They send clear emails in time about what you
have to do, when you have to do it, when you will get an email with more information,…
You don’t need a visa when you go on exchange to Norway and the arrival is organized well
by BI. They will send you the dates on which people will be waiting for you at Oslo central
station and I would recommend to arrive on one of those dates, because it is really nice to
know someone is there waiting for you and explaining you what to do (though most things are
really arranged well in Norway, so you will be perfectly able to find your way on your own if
you have to). From your arrival on, everything will be self-explanatory; there are arrival
events, where you will meet other exchange students and the exchange coordinator will
explain to you how things will go from that moment on. After the arrival days, there is
fadderullan, which is TOP-week for BI and then the courses start.
Housing
BI will send you all the information about how you should arrange your housing in Oslo. You
basically have 3 options; BSN, SiO or arrange something yourself. I would not recommend
the last option, since that will mostly be more expensive and you won’t live together with
people from BI. BSN is quite expensive, yet a good option. But I went for SiO, when you rent
your room via SiO, you have got many locations and different kinds of rooms to choose from.
I lived at Kringsja with own bathroom and shared kitchen, but I would recommend to choose
for Bjolsen or Nydalen. Every location is alright, but at Bjolsen and Nydalen, many other BI
students lived together, they are situated close to BI and most importantly: there is always a
night bus to those two locations (I did not enjoy paying my taxi fares to Kringsja). Whenever
you would have a problem with your housing, you can contact SiO very easily, so as most
things in Oslo, housing is arranged quite well.
Living Costs
Oslo, and Norway in total is quite expensive. In the supermarket, I would say that the
cheapest products in Norway are about 2-3 times more expensive than the cheapest same
products at home. The biggest price difference is of course for alcohol. The cheapest six pack
half liters of beer in the supermarket costs about €15 and a beer in a bar costs about €8. It
sounds weird now, but eventually, you will get used to those prices. What I eventually spent
most of my money on was on trips I think, and this I would really recommend; going on trips
with the friends you make there is the best part of exchange.
In my average month, I paid about these amounts for the following things:
- Housing: €440
- Food: €180
- Transport: €45
- Trips: €190
- Miscellaneous: €200
Academic Calendar
Our arrival dates were 7, 8 and 9th of August, then we had one week of introduction and the
next week (17th of Aug), the semester started. We had class up until the 20th of November
without break and then most of us had exams until the 14 th of December, but some had their
last exam on the 22nd of December. This depends on your courses and the dates are already
known when you pick your courses.
The International Office
BI has an international office and the person who was responsible for that was very nice, but
she will leave BI from next semester on. You can pass by at the international office at school
if you would have any questions or problems.
Social Activities
On the arrival days, BI organizes activities for the incoming exchange students. Here, I met so
many fellow exchange students, so it is very good to be able to join on these events. At
fadderullan, you get a group of fellow students and mentors. Almost all the others of my group
were Norwegians, that was nice in some way, because that was almost the only way to get
Norwegian friends in the whole exchange. On the other hand, did almost every exchange
student spend his exchange with only other exchange students, so it would have been nice to
also meet exchange students at fadderullan.
Along the year, more events are organized by BI, like a cabin trip, coffee hours or BI-nners
(free food for internationals once a month). If you want, you can also join ESN Oslo, but they
are more focused on students from the University of Oslo than on BI students. BI has a nice
students organization, with its sub organizations, but that is not very open for exchange
students. So I would say that there are not that many nice options to join anything in Oslo/ at
BI.
On my exchange, I went to Bergen, combined with Trolltunga by train, twice to Copenhagen
with the free mini cruise of DFDS, went to Stavanger and Preikestolen and we ended our
exchange period with a visit to Tromso and the northern lights. I would recommend all these
trips, especially the hike to Trolltunga and ending exchange with a trip to Tromso were really
good decisions.
Culture and Language
Norway is quite the same as the Netherlands in many views, so I had no culture shock when
moving to Oslo. I would say that the people and their way of handling things in daily life are
very similar to the Dutch way. I also expected it to be like that, so there were no big surprises
for me. I think the biggest difference is in the drinking culture; let’s say they usually don’t only
drink one beer for its great taste. Next to that, I felt like people in Norway would see each
other more like equals in comparison to the Netherlands, where we have more clearly
outspoken rich and poorer people and also the difference between men and women in
Norway are even smaller than in the Netherlands. But those are only small differences.
Almost every Norwegian is able to speak English, and they don’t have a problem with
speaking it, so it was no problem that I didn’t follow a course to learn Norwegian. When doing
groceries, I always tried to reply in Norwegian, and that was about all the Norwegian I, and
most other exchange students learned.
Personal Development
I feel like my personal development is less than I would have expected, I think that might be
because Oslo is not a very big step when you move over there from the Netherlands. Though
I did learn a lot about other cultures, but mostly within Europe, since about ¾ of the
international students in Oslo come from Europe.
Before going to Oslo, I didn’t meet up or talk with other students that were going to Oslo from
Tilburg, and I am really happy about that. Doing it all on your own is really a good experience.
Next to that, are you this way not tied to anyone so you can do exactly what you want. So this
I would really recommend. What I would have done differently is not worry about money too
much at the beginning, just don’t convert everything into euros. Also did I feel like I was too
often not present because someone came to visit. Exchange is only a 4 month experience
abroad and you’re home before you know it, so you better enjoy as much as possible there,
with your friends there.
The most important lesson I learned is that I should do everything I want in life, without being
afraid of not achieving, because without trying, you’ll never get there. I already knew this, but
exchange made me really believe it and want to go for it.
III ACADEMIC INFORMATION
As an exchange student, you can only pick English courses. I would say that the academic
level at BI is lower than in Tilburg. Most courses are being thought in small groups of about 30
students, and thus there is more interaction during classes than in Tilburg and the relationship
between students and teaching staff was quite informal. I think the course Financial bubbles,
crashes and crises was very interesting, and though I did not agree, many students were very
enthusiastic about Persuasion and dialogue for leaders, and further would I not really
recommend any of the courses that I chose.
Most courses had or a written exam or a group paper/ project. The group papers were mostly
quite easy and it is nice to learn to work in a group with students from other countries. I only
had two written exams, so that was alright to study.
BI has a nice library and many places where you can work with a group. In comparison to
Tilburg’s computers, BI only has a very little amount and their condition is not that good. So
almost everyone took their laptops to school to work on.
Course
ELE3706 Persuasion &
Dial. for Leaders
Prerequisites
None
Exam
Oral and
written
assignment
Written
exam
ECTS
7,5
ELE3732
Financial
bubbles/crashes/crises
None
ELE3744
Dynamics
None
Group
paper and
MC exam
7,5
EXC3505 Strategy
None
7,5
EXC3631 Intl. Business
Environment
None
Group oral
presentation
and paper
Group
paper
Business
Comments
Attendance is
important for your
grade
7,5
7,5
Lectures quite easy,
exam and paper
harder than expected
(but not difficult)
Lectures don’t have
much to do with the
exam. Easy
Interesting content,
bad teacher, easy
Tips for the future students:
Exchange was an awesome experience, I would definitely recommend it. BI was really nice,
you feel at home there very quickly, everything is arranged well, the people are nice and the
country is beautiful. But I think that every exchange is a nice experience, wherever you go. So
if I would have to choose all over again, I would personally go for a country where I expect a
bigger culture shock and would ruin my bank account less.
When going on exchange, I would recommend you to not worry too much about it on
beforehand. Once you are there, you will have friends before you know it and whenever you
would get into trouble, that will become a good lesson. Take as much opportunities as you
get.
I would love to help you if you’d have any questions about exchange, BI, or Norway. So you
can contact me on the email address on the top of this document.
A picture is worth a thousand words