GUIDELINES FOR WRITING THE STUDENT REPORT Name of the University: Stellenbosch University Names of the students: Monica Paulsen and Marthe Myren Leistad Exchange semester: Fall 2011 I GENERAL INFORMATION ABOUT THE SCHOOL The school and its surroundings: The University of Stellenbosch (USB) is a public research university. USB’s main campus is situated in Stellenbosch (1hour outside of Cape Town), and the MBA department “Bellville Park Campus” has its own location in the suburb of Cape Town Bellville (25 km outside of Cape Town and 35 km from Stellenbosch). Bellville Park Campus is close to the main access routes, the Cape Town international airport, shopping malls, cinema, restaurants, sport facilities and the winelands. According to the QS World University Ranking 2011/12, USB ranked in the 401-450 category in the world. In terms of this ranking USB is 3rd in South Africa (and in Africa). Current faculty divisions and special areas: The MBA offers a learning experience, which focuses on the unique challenges of South Africa and Africa while also taking international practice into account. The MBA will equip participants with theory as well as real-world management and leadership competence. USB is one of the top providers of MBA degrees, Master degrees and PhD programme, and executive education in South Africa. USB is the only business school in South Africa with the two international accreditation: EQUIS and AMBA. Students: In total 28 193 students was enrolled at USB in 2011. The number of post-graduate students in 2011 was namely 10 043, witch represents 35.6% of all students. When it comes to the number of exchange students at the MBA program they normally take in 15 students in total every semester. BI have only sent one student before us in 2008. Study structure: The MBA has a full-time structure, and runs over two years. Students attend classes over a period of 11 months and finish their research reports in the next year. II PRACTICAL INFORMATION Information before you left We received our first information packet form the university shortly after we got our exchange offers in the beginning of Mars. The international student office provided us with good and solid information, and they responded quickly to any additional questions we had. Visa Procedure and travel experiences Since you are staying more than 3 months within South Africa you will need to apply for a temporary resident permit. You find the application here: http://www.saemboslo.no/Consular22.htm. Download and fill out these forms: Application for temporary residence permit (BI 1738), Medical Certificate (for your doctor to sign) and Radiological Report (for your x-ray). The following documents need to be attached to the application: 1 Approx. cost: Temporary visa permit Application form A medical report A radiological report Police clearance 2 Passport photos Passport and copy of passport Official letter of admission from USB Proof of medical cover Proof of sufficient funds Letter of nomination Airplane ticket Make an appointment with your doctor so that he can fill out the form. You need an x-ray of your lungs due to the possibility of tuberculosis If you are an Norwegian citizen: download from politiet.no and send the form to your home police district Passport must be valid for no less than 30 days after expiry of the visa. You will receive this from the USB International office. ANSA This must be a letter from Lanekassen informing that will receive student founding during your stay. This is provided by BI International office You need to have booked airplane ticket before applying for the visa. The length on the visa will depend on your return date. If you don’t know when to return arrange a generous return date with your travel agent that have the possibility to be changed. NOK 200 NOK 900 New passport cost NOK 450 Between NOK 7000-1000 The price of the visa is around NOK 500. We did not experience any problems when applying for the visa since we had all the required documentation with us to the embassy. We ordered our ticket through Kilroy and paid extra to have the possibility of changing our return date and return location. We paid NOK 10 000 for the ticket, but family and friends that have visited us have paid between NOK 7000-9000. These following company’s travels to Cape Town: - British airways - South African Airways - KLM - Turkish Airlines (normally the cheapest) - Qatar Airlines (through Dubai) If you want to travel within South Africa, check out these companies: - http://www.flymango.com/ - https://www.1time.aero/ - https://www.kulula.com/ - British airways - South African Airways (SAA) If you want to fly to countries next to South Africa, these can be considered; - http://www.airnamibia.com.na/ - https://www.airbotswana.co.bw/ During our stay in South Africa we travelled by plain to Durban and Johannesburg by using local cheap companies (1time, kulula and flyMango). These can be compared to “Norwegian” 2 in Norway, and are absolutely recommendable. In addition we used Air Botswana when travelling home from our trip around Botswana. We travelled to see Mozambique, Swaziland, Namibia and Botswana. All countries can be recommended, and are all different from each other. Visiting a local tribe on one of Mozambique’s beautiful islands; Survivor Island. Academic Calendar The MBA-year is divided up in the following four terms (2011): Term 1: 18 January – 4 April Term 2: 11 April – 22 June Term 3: 18 July – 16 September Term 4: 19 September – 24 November For BI students term one and two will be the same as the spring semester in Norway, and term three and four will almost be the same as the fall semester. Since the official Orientation program started on the 13 of July, the school recommends that we should arrive in Cape Town no later than the 11 of July in order to finalize accommodation and car rentals before classes started on the 18 of July. The orientation program consisted of both practical information and social events, and was carried out between the 13 of July until the 16 of July. Moreover, the examination period was scatter throughout the term since the students were assessed on a continuous basis. Reception We experienced a very professional, hospital and personal reception by the USB. In addition to the official orientation program, the administration and faculty invited us to several social events with our professors and new classmates. 3 Housing As the MBA department is not situated in Stellenbosch all the exchange students decided to live in Cape Town city center, which we would recommend. There are some areas in Cape Town you should not live in because of safety. Good areas to live in are: Green Point, Sea Point, Gardens, Fresney, Bantry Bay, Clifton and Camps Bay. We were advised to find an apartment with 24 hour security, drive-in garage and not to live on the first floor. We lived in Sea Point and found the apartment by using the South African “Finn.no” called Gumtree.co.za. We ended up renting an apartment through “Accommodation warehouse” (website: forrent.co.za). You can expect to pay per person between ZAR 3000 and 5000 for housing a month, in addition comes electricity and Internet costs. Many of the exchange students rented a bigger house to share with swimming pool and ocean view. They also paid between ZAR 3000-5000 per person. If you need a place to stay for the first days we recommend Bellevista Lodge, which is situated at the campus, or Sunflower Backpackers in Cape Town. If you are looking for other backpackers, check out: backpackingsouthafrica.co.za. USB will send you general information on housing suggestions as well before traveling to South Africa. There is no permanent housing (dorms) at the student’s disposal at the Bellville Park Campus. Here are some pictures from outside and inside our apartment: Car and public transportation Since the USB is 25km from Cape Town city center, a car is a must! Public transportation is close to zero, and not recommendable. Driving by care from Sea Point to the school takes about 30 minutes, and you are most of the time driving on the highway. Many of the drivers 4 in SA do not have a driver’s license nor hold any kind of third part insurance. When renting a car, make sure that you have insurance included and additional third party insurance. We rented a car from July to end of November through a company recommended to us by the USB: TravelCape Car rental (http://www.renta-vw.co.za). The person we were in contact with was Adele, phone number +27 219497266, email: adele@travelcape.co.za. If she does not answer, contact the boss: leon@renta-vw.co.za (Leon de Kock). Many students have used his cars before. The company is cheap and reliable, especially because they replace broken cars within 24 hours. Our rental car was a VW Polo Playa, and we paid ZAR 120 per day (insurance included). It is not recommended to buy a car because of the short time you will live in Cape Town, and it will be difficult to sell it in the end. Costs These are the most important cost per month: - Apartment: ZAR 3000-5000 - Car: ZAR 3600-4000 - Food: ZAR 2500-4000 - Telephone and Internet: ZAR 500-800 - Books (onetime buy): ZAR 750-1500 The International Office There is an international office at the campus for the MBA students in Bellville. Cailin Human, the exchange Student Coordinator, was responsible for us as the incoming exchange students. Her office is at the Bellville Park Campus. We received all relevant and necessary information from her before we arrived to Cape Town. Cailin Human, and hear collogue Gabrielle Chanelle met us at USB on our first day and stayed with us through the orientation program. Exchange promotion Since the students at the MBA program and all students at Bellville Park Campus cannot exchange to Norway, we did not promote exchange to BI. Social Activities - The age of the MBA students ranks from 26 to 50. This means that some of the students are more interested in social engagements than others (E.g.: those with family normally are not that socially). But overall all the MBA students was very warm and welcome and we felt a part of the class. - Since we were only 15 exchange students it was easy to get to know all of them and easy to arrange social activities together. But of course clicks was made and since a group of 6 students shared one house and another group of 5 students shared a house they were more 5 - - - social together. But overall, all exchange students was really friendly and social. The nationalities present was: Germany, France, Canada, Finland, Norway and United Arab Emirates. Since the department we attended was of a small size, there were no student organizations that we could attend. But, at the main Campus in Stellenbosch there are various student organization to attend and exchange students are very much welcome. The first week of school is introduction week only for the exchange students. We had time to get to know each other socially during activities and dinner. USB also took us to the main campus in Stellenbosch. During the semester there were no special activities only for exchange students. Instead we were integrated with the class and all activities they attended we were invited to. The school is much smaller than BI making it more intimate, which we liked. The students, professors and the administration were very kind to us. Picture of all exchange students attending a wine festival in Franshoeck Culture and Language Language: As a student you will be a part of the English speaking MBA, and all courses will be in English. Many of the professors are born in South Africa and will have an Africans-English accent. In the beginning this can be a little bit challenging to get used to. Some of the professors are international. As an exchange student you do not need to provide any minimum English requirements, like IELTS test or the TOEFEL test. As a born South African student, the most spoken langue is Afrikaans and the second most used is English. But all students are very comfortable speaking English. 6 Culture and country: As the semester is different in SA than in Norway we had a lot of time to explore the country and the culture. Travelling by car or by air is the best. We have visited all of Cape Town surroundings and driven down the famous Garden Route. A safari trip to Durban with our family, and a visit to the Kruger Park with study friends were fantastic. We also had time for an 8 days car trip from Johannesburg through Swaziland and into Mozambique, exploring their culture and fine beaches. A 22 hour buss drive to the capital of Namibia, Windhoek and one week of exploring the Namibian desert is recommendable. Last but not least a one week “wild camping” safari in Botswana is something we will newer forget. Looking back we have really explored and seen so much of what Africa has to offer. These are different buss companies to travel with within South Africa and from South Africa to neighbor countries (E.g.: Botswana, Namibia): - Intercape: www.intercape.co.za - Translux: www.translux.co.za Travel guides: We strongly recommend using lonely planet when traveling in Africa. - Lonely Planet: South Africa, Lesotho and Swaziland - Lonely Planet: Botswana and Namibia Cultural and Social Effects from the Exchange Experience Before travelling to South Africa none of us has ever visited the African continent before and our knowledge was scarce. By living there and exploring the culture and the people our knowledge has grown and our viewpoints changed. By going on exchange you are moving out of our comfort zone, which is important and hopefully will change the way we approach people in the future. We think and hope that selecting an African country for our exchange period will give us an competitive advantage since Africa is a country that are exploring there future business opportunities at the moment. In addition, South Africa is seen as the “gateway” to Africa. By exploring and feeling the culture and business we believe that this has given us a different viewpoint on Africa and South Africa and their business. III ACADEMIC INFORMATION The Teaching situation All the courses were taught in English. Since this is a MBA, the program had a stronger focus on linking theory with practical business examples from the students or the lectures prior work experience. All thought USB also had a high academic standard; they didn’t focus so much on articles and also less focus on renaming theory. Instead they focused primarily on the application of knowledge and in-sight to business problems. Moreover, the professors used a mix of lectures, cases, group work, web-based assessments of pre-reading multiplechoice questions, business visits, written exams and presentations in our learning process. The friendly relationships between the students in the classroom contributed to a very good learning environment. The professors were also very friendly and they practiced an open door policy, which made it easy to stop by their office and ask questions. Furthermore, the workload varied very throughout the term, but in general we would say that the workload was a bit less than what we experienced at BI the first year of our Master degree. 7 Required Literature All the literature of the MBA programmer is presented in English. The literature consisted of both books and articles, but the focus was mainly on books and lecture slides. Furthermore, tests and exams focused primarily on the application of knowledge and in-sight to business problems. Hence, most tests are open-book and require the analysis of problems or cases. Therefor the exams are mostly based on what has been covered and discussed in the lectures. Exams Each module had a minimum number of assessments based on the number of credits for that module. The final performance mark therefore included; online assessments, class tests, group work, individual and group assignments, class participation and presentations. To pass the exams you had to have a god understanding of the literature, and even much better understanding and in-sight of business problems and solutions. Other The USB Bellville park campus has an own library with a variety of books, computers and databases that we were able to access. Moreover, the library staff was also very knowledgably and helpful. The Internet in South Africa is under development, since the current Internet is very limited and expensive. This situation resulted in that we were informed that all the students at the campus had to pay for the amount of MB and GB used. We all got an account where we could monitor our usage and the cost associated with it. Since all the exchange students used the Internet moderately we didn’t have to pay for the Internet in the end. Furthermore, the IT platform Webstudies and our USB e-mail was used to distribute information. Moreover, plagiarism is a huge focus area. This resulted in that we had to deliver in our assignments through the IT platform “Turn it in”, which controlled the document for plagiarism. Description of Courses The courses we took at USB: Course name: Prereq. Exam Major at BI Approved as (Common/elective/extra) Information Management None Written school exam Marketing Common Business Environment None Written hand in Marketing Common Internet Marketing None Written hand in Marketing Elective ………………………………………………………………………………………….. Both the common courses took place in the third semester from 18 July – 16 September: 1. Operations & Information Management About this module: What knowledge, resources and methods are required to ensure the smooth and efficient running of a competitive business. This course focuses on the management of an operation and one of its key resources: information. What we learn: Competition and operations management of global organisations; demand management; order fulfillment process; volume and variety; e-commerce and the impact on operations, technology and productivity; operations and information quality; the global supply chain and information; the information resource; managing information technology to deliver strategy; enterprise systems; managerial decision-making and knowledge management; information strategies; technology challenges and future trends. All thought this course contained other topics than what we had learned before at BI we would characterize this course as relevant and very interesting for our academic carrier. This 8 course had a mixture between a practical and theoretical focus. Since some of the topics where new and different from what we had learned prior (e.g. IT), this topics was more difficult to understand and learn. 2. Business Environment About this module: This module explores the international, regulatory, societal and ethical environments in which we do business. It examines the different dimensions that are required to create and maintain a viable business model within different contexts. What you will learn: Identify the management challenges for modern organisations brought about by the international, regulatory, societal and ethical environment within which they operate; understand that different dimensions are required to create and maintain a viable business model within this environment. This course had a stronger theoretical focus than the Operations & Information Management course. We were also more familiar with some of the topics thought other previous business courses that we were enrolled in at BI before we left. 3. Electives All the elective courses were thought in the electives week between the 12 to the 19 of November. In this period a variety of professors from other well-known schools around the world came to USB to lecture these elective courses. The school offered a list of 14 different electives, which we could choose from. We both choose the elective course Internet Marketing, which was a very interesting, relevant and practical course we enjoyed to learn more about. The written exam in this course is to be handed in the 15th of January 2012. We did not have any school between the 16th of September to the 12th of November, and we finished our semester the 19th of November 2011. Names and e-mails: Monica Paulsen: monica.paulsen@gmail.com Master: Strategic Marketing Management 2010-2013 Marthe Myren Leistad: marthe.leistad@gmail.com Master: Strategic Marketing Management 2010-2013 9