Student Report
Name of the University: Singapore Management University
Exchange semester: Fall 2014
I. PRACTICAL INFORMATION
Before leaving Norway
Four months before departure, we received a Student Guide from SMU by email. This guide
explained everything we needed to know in order to complete our online application. SMU is
state of the art with respect to technology, so everything from application to course selections
are done online. The Student Guide was quite intuitive, and all the deadlines were emphasized
with red letters, so it was easy to note.
As an exchange student at SMU you have to choose four courses. SMU has a private Intranet
database, to which you will be granted permission after you have been accepted at the
university. In this database you will find all the courses offered, and associated course
information. We will recommend later students to read carefully about the courses that seem
interesting, and make a ranked list of about ten courses.
Applying for a visa
As a Norwegian citizen you do not need to have a visa in order to get entry to Singapore. But
you need as a student you will need a “student pass”. This is also done online on the
Singaporean Government’s webpage. You will need to fill out a form, and mail a copy of
your passport and a passport picture. Then you will have to book an appointment at the
immigration office, called the ICA. We will recommend setting the date time for this
appointment as close as possible to your arrival. When having this appointment booked, you
will only have to show up at the ICA office with a printed version of your application form,
your passport, acceptance letter from SMU and a passport picture. You will then be provided
a visa. You need this visa in order to get your student card at SMU, which serves as an access
card to the buildings at the university.
Travel
We went to Singapore in the fall term and was advised to be there before the 6th of August,
this to ensure housing and ICA before the term starts. We booked our tickets through finn.no
and Qatar, but there are also other options as Skyscanner etc. We will recommend later
students to book their tickets far in advance, since the price increases, as the departure date is
getting closer. We paid just over 5 000 NOK for a one way ticket. We flew from Gardermoen
to Doha in Qatar, then to Singapore. The trip as a whole lasted for about 16 hours.
Housing
SMU does not provide housing for their students. You will have to either rent a room in a
student collective, or rent an apartment in the private market. Renting in a collective saves
you quite a lot of money, but provides next to nothing in terms of facilities and comfort, and
these apartments are often located a bit out of the city. We rented an apartment on the private
market, which is quite expensive, but it’s only for four months. Some of us stayed at City
Square Residences, and we would really recommend students to rent an apartment there. The
apartment complex has their own gym, pool, bowling lane and BBQ, and it is located a 20-30
minute walk from downtown, as well as SMU. But again, it´s quite expensive so prepare to
share a bedroom with another person. We were six persons sharing a three-bedroom
apartment. We paid 1000 SGD, approximately 5 000 NOK, per month each. In addition we
had to pay gas, Internet and electricity costing around 100 SGD per month per person. There
were a lot of other exchange students who stayed there as well. Same goes for Sophia
Residences located just 5 minutes from SMU and the biggest MRT-station, but around 100
SGD more a month. Be careful with the apartments, as some of us didn’t get all of our deposit
back.
Costs
As mentioned above, housing in Singapore is quite expensive. But apart from that, you don’t
need to spend that much money on transportation, food and books. Most courses does not
have a textbook, it’s mostly Power Point slides. In terms of transportation, the MRT is really
convenient. It is an underground tube network with many stations and lines. The trains leave
every fifth minute, and you can go almost wherever you want, and it’s cheap. The
Government subsidizes the taxis, so that is somewhat cheap as well. A regular 10 minutes taxi
ride costs about 50 NOK. In terms of food, it’s easy to find good food at food courts and get a
proper meal at about 15-20 NOK. Groceries aren’t that cheap, so it’s actually cheaper to buy
dinner at food courts than make dinner at home. Over a four-months period, we cooked dinner
at home only twice!
The nightlife in Singapore is amazing, with a lot of cool clubs. Many of these clubs are
located at the top floor of skyscrapers with a magnificent view. It’s usually a cover charge
including one drink and drinks in the bar are quite expensive, almost the same price as back
home.
Culture and language
English is the official language in Singapore and everyone in the country speaks English
perfectly well. The country is located in the middle of South East Asia, creating endless travel
opportunities. We highly recommend you to grasp this opportunity, since Singapore has
limited opportunities when it comes to cultural experiences etc.
During the semester you will definitely meet a lot of different and interesting people. You
gain a lot of knowledge about different cultures, which is very interesting.
II. ABOUT THE SCHOOL
SMU has a great campus with different faculties: i.e. Law and Accounting, Business,
Economics and Social Sciences. The campus is situated in the centre of Singapore, and you
can walk to many of the best attractions. There is a well-equipped gym, swimming pool on
the roof and a sports hall on campus. There is a couple of hundred exchange students, the
classes averages about 30 people with a maximum of 45 students per course.
Course registration
The course registration is quite easy; first there is a round where you select 4 courses. We got
all four courses we wanted even though a few of us missed out on the first round of
registration. If you`re unhappy with the courses you got in this round it’s absolutely possible
to trade courses when the semester starts. The school has a bidding system called BOSS, you
will get 100 credits to bid with and the bidding period lasts about 1 month. You will get the
information you need for the BOSS system on the orientation days when you arrive.
Academic calendar
As mentioned, we arrived in Singapore before the 6th of August. First day of lectures was on
the 18th of August, but we were advised to join the orientation day on the 14th of August. The
week before between our arrival date and start of lectures was used to look for an apartment
and other practical needs as Student Pass and Singaporean phone numbers. Last day of classes
was 20th of November. Examination period went from 24th of November until the 5th of
December depending on courses taken. During the semester we had a recess week (Fall
break). This is a popular week to travel with new friends around Asia. In addition we had a
day off on the national day and the Hindu festival Diwali.
Arrival and orientation days
Upon our arrival, we had received all needed information to “survive” our first days in
Singapore. On the week before term start, SMU arranged orientation days. Here will you get
all further information needed for the rest of your semester. The administration and the faculty
were well prepared and very helpful.
Some of the one-year exchange students arranged a welcome-party one of the first days after
arrival. This way we got to meet the other exchange students before the lectures started.
The International Office
Office of Global Learning (OGL) will provide you with all the information you need several
months before your arrival. They will also be the first people you meet at SMU during the
reception period.
Social activities
SMU arranged several social events to make it easier for the exchange students to get to know
each other. We were also very fortunate with our choice of apartment complex. Here, we got
to know a lot of exchange students from, among others, France, Italy, Chile, Israel and
Sweden. During the semester, several of the apartments arranged parties and gatherings
before we went to the clubs. On Facebook, there are several groups you can join to see events
happening in Singapore. This was a very popular group for all the exchange students –
especially events at the clubs. This way most exchange students ended up going to the same
events. Everyone was very outgoing and looking for new and international friends. We got to
know the native students trough lectures and several group projects. There is also a bar at the
campus, were you can meet up with your classmates and your new friends. SMU also had a
lot of sport teams, and other organizations like BI.
III. ACADEMICS
In the classroom
The classes are small and there is a lot more class participation than what we are used to in
BI. It is important to participate during the lectures, hence also important to be prepared for
your lectures. You are evaluated continuously and the final exam only accounts for about 40%
of the grade (different for each course). There are also a lot of group projects and
presentations, which means that you will get used to work with people from other nations and
cultures. We were very impressed with our professors, which had a lot of experiences.
Some courses have books, while others only depend on slides and lecture notes.
Exams
The exams usually count for about 40% of the final grade. The final grade can be divided into
assignments, group projects, presentations, games, quizzes, mid-term exams, class attendance
and final exam.
Library and technology
The library is well equipped, including three Bloomberg terminals that can be used for
research. You can book the facilities on campus, like project rooms and seminar rooms.
Description of courses – All courses on Bachelor level
FNCE203 – Analysis of Equity Investments
Interesting course for stock evaluation, but a lot of the course was very similar to Strategy and
the project was almost identical. Not the best professor, but OK. Final grade was divided into
four group assignments, a group project w/presentation, class participation and a two-hour
MCQ/short answer final exam.
QF302 – Investment and Financial data Analysis
This course is very quantitative and is using statistics to analyse big data. In addition to the
weekly three-hour lecture we had 10 two-hour Matlab sessions after some of them. We didn’t
know this before the course started, but it was interesting to learn some coding. Final grade
was divided into 6 individual one-page reports from Matlab, a group project w/presentation,
class participation and a two-hour MCQ/short answer final exam.
MGMT102 – Strategy (Mandatory)
Final grade was divided into class participation, group project, two individual assignments
and a three-hour MCQ/short answer final exam.
TRAD201 – Shipping Business
This is a basic course about every aspect of shipping. It’s very nice to take this course in
Singapore, as it’s one of the shipping capitals of the world. Three very good lecturers teach
the course and have a wide experience from the industry. Final grade were divided into class
participation, a group project w/presentation, a 30 minutes mid-term exam and a two-hour
MCQ/short answer final exam.
QF301 – Structured Finance
The course covers different structured products as options, futures, swaps and ways of
hedging these products. The prof. is really good and easy to understand, and he has designed
the course to give you deep understanding. There are 10 small weekly assignments that count
toward 25% of the total grade. Participation counts 10%, an analytical group project 30% and
Final exam with 70 MCQ counts 35%.
QF204 – Probability and Finance theory
The prof. is very good and understandable. The course itself is fun if you like math and
probabilities, but I would not recommend anyone to take it as an exchange student, it´s very
hard and very time consuming. It´s about finding probabilities to financial problems and
finding prices on financial products using integrals and functions. Weekly home assignments
counts 20% of the total grade, participation 10% Mid-Term 30% and final exam 40%
FNCE221 – Investment Banking
This course gives you an understanding of how it is to be and investment banker and what
they do. The prof. is very experienced with ceveral years in M&A. The course main focus is
about raising capital, and high participation in class discussions is expected. The exam and
class is mainly theoretical, and the group project is time consuming and fun. Participation
counts 30%, group project 40% and final MCQ quiz 30%.
MGMT102 – Strategy
This course was mandatory from BI. The course mostly focused on case analysis and their
different strategies. The course depends a lot on the teacher in this course, as they do things
very differently in each classroom and as some are a lot more inspiring then others.
Your grade is divided into class participation, two short case analyses, one detailed case
analysis, one group project and one final exam.
MGMT318 – Design Thinking and Innovation
This course is quite easy and not very demanding. The course is mostly based on your
creativity and your way of including design thinking into your ideas and thoughts. It might
seem like there is quite a lot to do in the beginning of the course, but in the end the course is
really light compared to the workload in other courses. What will take a little bit of time is the
group project with the meetings and everything, as the Asian are not as effective as you would
like. This is though a good course if you want to get to know Asians, as the teacher puts you
in a mixed group of both international and local students. The grade is divided into class
participation, group exercises within the classroom, group project and one final test (this test
is only a power point presentation.)
POSC103 – World Politics
This course focuses on the different theories in world politics, like liberalism, realism etc. The
course is demanding, as it contains a lot of reading and preparation for class, since you will
have a quiz every week that will have an impact on your final grade. The course is a little bit
disappointing, as the syllabus does not include any discussion or reading about today’s
problems. The grade is divided into class participation, class presentation, quizzes, one
research essay, one mid-term exam and one final exam.
FNCE201 – Corporate Finance
The course focuses on the analysis of financial problems; some topics were capital structure,
payout policy, corporate governance etc. This is a demanding course where you should work
efficient throughout the semester, as the teacher is quite strict and expect that you have
prepared for class. My teacher, who even though he was strict, made you want to work with
the course. The grade is dividend into class participation, group project + report, a news
reading recommendation and one final exam. A recommended course even though there is a
lot of work.
MGMT102 – Strategy
This course was mandatory from BI and was very good. We had cases during the lectures and
did one group project where we could choose any company we wanted to analyze and one
final exam. In addition was class participation important as it accounted for 20% of the grade.
ECON102 – International Economics
International Economics is a mix of micro- and macroeconomics. For my course we had two
midterms, a group presentation and one final exam. A lot of the final exams ‘questions was
based on the group presentations, so it is necessary to pay attention in class. The course is
very theoretical and relatively simple if you already understood the micro- and
macroeconomics from BI.
FNCE201 – Corporate Finance
This course is about corporate and capital structure. The course is based on general finance
knowledge and is very informative and theoretical. I found the course to be quite difficult
because of the language barrier. Since I did not know any of the terminologies in English it
made it more difficult. We had one final exam and a final group report which needed to be
presented.
COMM101 – Management Communication
This course was very useful. It focuses on writing different letters: formal letter, delivering
negative messages, persuading letters and also an oral pitch. And the course does not have a
final exam, but if you skip classes more than three times you will automatically get an F.