Experience report
ANR: 230182
Name: Anran Ni
E-mail: fujikun229@126.com
Exchange semester: 2014/2015 fall semester
Academic year: 3
Host University: National Taiwan University
Country: Taiwan
TOPIC: Admission, arrival, housing
To my surprise, after asking my arrival time and flight number several times, there was
no arrangement for picking up. Since my friends who exchanged as well and I had no
clue after arriving at evening, we had to search the hotel for the first day. And to be
honest, it was really expensive. On the next morning, we took taxi to find our
accommodation NTU offered before. It was a dormitory, which had restroom inside the
room, though to some extent, was not that clear and new. On 10th, Sept., the
management college held an orientation included the brief introduction of NTU and a
short-tour of the campus. And on 11th, they provided a one-day tour of Taipei and
guided us the famous sightseeing as well as traditional food.
TOPIC: Location of university/city
NTU is located at one of the most developed area in Taipei, Taiwan. There is a shopping
circle nearby where we can have dinner at night market, go for shopping or other
recreation activities. The cafeterias are quite good, and the 24-hour convenience stores
are helpful that you can buy nearly every daily item there. The infrastructure such as
equipment in the library is old and not that user-friendly, while the variety of food and
recreation activities is more compared to Tilburg’s.
TOPIC: Academics
I had 5 courses, namely Investment, Creativity and Innovation In IT/ Technology, Global
Merger& Acquisition, Japanese Business, and Industrial Organization. I like Japanese
Business because personally I am interested in the development of Japan. The Industrial
Organization is very similar to advanced Microeconomics, which is challenging but
really closed to our major. Generally, I think Tilburg University expresses a better
teaching performance, especially on English level and workload arrangement. There is
one thing I feel a little bit uncomfortable that parts on the lecturers did not care about
plagiarism, and one of my team members among those courses even tried to copy a
report he found on Internet directly since the lecturer would not find out. Overall, I
think I did a good job for my courses I took, and most of them were relative to my future
study.
TOPIC: Social life
There was a welcome-party held by the local students of management college. Honestly,
I was really disappointed since it charged 400 NTD but only offered snacks, and the
location was really far away from NTU and hard to find. The worst is there was even no
tables and music. What kind of party it was! After this, I totally lost interest of any
activity held by NTU. I met and knew several local students and other exchange students
on the orientation day and had dinner with them several times. We had conversation
about daily life, politics, etc. On the holiday, since the regulation of the visa (that I can
not leave Taiwan), I traveled a lot of cities in Taiwan with my friends.
TOPIC: Living costs
The total amount was much more than I thought and planned, even higher than in
Europe. Mostly I spent my living expenses on food, shopping and travelling apart from
housing rent. If you want to sleep well during the travelling, you have to pay a relatively
unmatched high price of hotel. I spent 9000 euros around in less 5 months, which
indicated approximately 2000 euros per month. Food cost was around 600 euros, and
the housing rent was 120 euros monthly. I shopped a lot during the anniversary of the
shopping mall, which led the average cost become much higher.
TOPIC: Culture
Basically, the culture in Taiwan is very similar to my own culture. Before the exchange, I
was really curious about its democratic policies and how they are working. However,
after having discussion with local students and hearing from TV shows, I found the
democratic they claimed was not that wise. Sometimes they just used “against every
decision the government made” to prove the existence of democratic. At the same time,
a lot of local residence knew very little about the situation in Mainland China when they
made judgments. Overall, the host culture is a more “ traditional” version of my own
culture plus the influence from America and Japan, which I respected and tend to know
more.
TOPIC: Personal development
The Taiwanese are very friendly and easygoing, which increases the charming of this
place. If I had chance, I would study harder for Investment because I did not prepare it
very well. The best experience was that I heard a concert with my friends on the last day
of 2014, and counted the last 10 seconds with thousands of people, which was really
exciting. The worst experience was my friend and I got food poisoning after having
dinner near the campus. During the travelling, I had unforgettable and sweet
experiences that I would remember for a long time. The most important thing the
exchange experience tells me is I am better than I thought on academic aspect and I
should be more confident for myself.
TOPIC: Tips for future students
Exchange period can benefit your study program and even your future life. However, if I
had another chance to pick destination, I would prefer to choose other cities/ countries.
Taiwan is so much different than I imagined. If I went there before, at least I will not be
attracted by its food or sightseeing. And I felt upset about NTU and hard to believe it
was the best university in Taiwan for its imprecise academic requirements and
unreasonable management system. I should have asked students who studied in NTU
before more about the courses and life in Taiwan, then I could consider my exchange
decision in a deeper thought.