Student Report
Name of the University: KAIST College of Business
Exchange semester: Fall 2015
I. PRACTICAL INFORMATION
At KAIST there is only one contact person for the exchange program, which resulted in the
information prior to the exchange to arrive later than I had wished. However, once the person
responded the information was more than sufficient with every bit of detail I needed for the
arrival and stay. The only piece of information that caused a bit of an issue was regarding the
selection of courses. I were given a list of all courses available in English at an early stage, I
picked out some courses and got them approved by BI. The course selection itself happens the
first week of school. By that time the list of available courses had changed, and there were
also some rules to course combinations I were not aware of. Since the course approval at BI
may take two weeks, while the course registration happens over a week, this may cause some
issues. However, BI responded quickly so this didn’t become a real issue to me, though I
would recommend being prepared with more courses than required before entering the
registration week.
When staying in South Korea for more than 90 days a visa is needed. Applying for the Visa
was very easy. The embassy webpage provide useful information of all the papers you need
for the application process. The embassy is in Oslo, but myself I sent the application in the
mail since I were not in Oslo when I applied. This takes a bit longer so I would recommend
applying early. A piece of advice would also be to only get a single entry visa. During the
orientation week at KAIST, the exchange coordinator takes all the exchange students to the
immigration center to get alian registration cards. These cards allow multiple entries in Korea,
hence you save some money by buying a single and not a multi entry visa.
The travel to KAIST was pretty simple. Incheon International Airport is connected with Seoul
by subway (about 4,250 KRW which is about 30 NOK), and the airport is also connected by
bus (called Airport Limousine Bus, at 15,000 KRW which is about 110 NOK). The exchange
coordinator provided a route description to show the taxi-drivers when arriving at a
destination relatively close to school. This description can also be used to get a taxi straight
form the airport, which costs about 60,000 KRW (roughly 450 NOK) and takes about 1,5
hours.
KAIST provide housing at the cheap price of about 400,000 KRW (roughly 3,000 NOK) for
the entire semester. It is possible to rent outside of school, but it is considerably more
expensive, so no exchange student did this. The dormitory room you share with another
person. Each person get 1 bed, 1 desk, and 1 closet. The rooms are small, but myself I didn’t
spend much time in the room. Especially since each student at KAIST get an assigned to a
lab, where you get your own desk (cubicle). These labs has a refrigerator, a microwave and
there is a keypad on the door so it is relatively safe to leave valuable items on your desk.
In general most things are cheaper in South Korea than in Norway, but not everything. I found
myself eating at restaurants for every lunch/dinner as you can really nice food from 4,000 to
9,000 KRW (30-70 NOK). The subway rides are cheap, it is based on distance so the price
varies. The minium fare is 1,250 KRW (10 NOK), but it takes you quite far. The subway card
can be recharged at every subway station, and the subway card can also be used to pay in
cabs. I found that some things such as clothes were roughly at the same price level as in
Norway. Electronics is slightly cheaper, but to buy cheap electronics I would recommend
doing that while/if traveling outside of Korea, to e.g. Malaysia.
There are quite a few cultural differences between Koreans and the western culture. The
culture in Korea is more polite, hiararcial and respectful. With very different norms, gestures,
and greetings than I was used to. However, Korans are very understanding of foreigners lack
of Korean culture, meaning they don’t easiliy take offense if a foreigner does something
culturaly inappropriate in Korea. They let you know nicely, and they get very excited and
happy if you actually try to adapt to the culture. During the exchange there were lots of
opportunities to explore both Korea and abroad. Myself I travelled to Busan, and Jeju in
Korea, and Singapore and Tokyo abroad. Seoul itself is an extremely large metroploian area,
so exploring Seoul is an adventure itself that no one is able to complete in 4 months.
II. ABOUT THE SCHOOL
KAIST is one of the top universities in Korea, which got quite apparent when speaking to
people outside campus. Education is extremely important in Korea, so people were very
impressed when they learned we studied at KAIST. Strictly speaking it is the engineering part
of KAIST which has achieved the top rank. The KAIST college of business has its own
campus is Seoul, separated from the KAIST main campus. The campus in Seoul is relatively
small compared with BI, and lies north-east of the city center, in an area called Hoegi.
At KAIST exchange students attend the MBA programs, specifically Tehcno-MBA, which is
very different from the master program at BI. The courses was relatively easy, but there were
a higher workload as most classes required article readings or some kind of assignment.
However, the classes were very different. In some classes was just a lecture with 3
assignments over the semester, while others had discussions/cases and readings/assignments
for every class. The learning outcome from the different classes was similarly different, but I
would recommend to read the syllabus carefully.
As previously mentioned the coruse registration and add/drop period happens over the first
week of the semester. However, this is only partly true as the semester is divided into 2 x 8
weeks. Some courses goes over the entire period, but others only last for the first or the
second half of the semester. The add/drop period for the 16 weeks and the first 8 weeks are
done the first week, while the courses for the last 8 weeks are done around the midterms.
During the add/drop period students can attend any class even though they are not registered,
so it is possible to get a taste of what the class is like before actually deciding on a particular
course.
When I attended KAIST the exchange students were recommended to arrive the 23rd or 24th of
August, and the orientation week (for exchange students) started the 25th. The semester itself
started the 31st of August, and ended the 18th of December. For the first 8 week courses the
exams were during a week halfway into the semester, when the 16 week courses had
midterms, and for the 16 week and the second 8 week courses the exams were during the last
week of December (before the 18th). It happned that there were sevarl exams during one day.
However, the exam structure were different than the ones at BI, they were less demanding and
more relaxed. With a timespan varying from 1,5 hour to 3 hours. The exam were more similar
to high school exams than exams at BI, conducted in the classroom with the teaching assistant
supervising.
During the introduction week you get all the information you need for the semester. There
were also people from a cellphone company, and a bank that visit if anyone wanted a Korean
Sim-card and a bank account. I would recommend getting a Korean Sim-card, but the bank
account was a bit redundant. Other than that the exchange coordinator was very helpful with
any request, and helped us set up trips for larger adventures such as trips to the DMZ/JSA.
There was a session where exchange students could promote their home university, but it was
optional and was rewarded with free pizza.
During the fall semester there is one holiday week, which is the Korean version of
thanksgiving called Chuseok. During this week there are no classes, and it is a great
opportunity to travel. However, tickets/housing during this period are sold out/booked quite
early, so it is adviced to book something early. During that period I was at a theme-park called
Everland as it had a sale for foreigners during this period.
My experience was that between the exchange studens social activites were arranged all the
time. In Korea the “mandatory” messaging app is called Kakao Talk, and in this app we had a
group were constantly someone was arranging something. Everything from a weekend trip to
a lunch. By going to KAIST as an exchange students you get assigned a mentor. The relation
between the exchange student and the mentor, or any other native speaker, was very different
in the group. Some got really close friends, while others only met their mentor once.
III. ACADEMICS
As previously mentioned classes were very differently. E.g. in one class no attendance were
needed, and there were only 3 assignments in addition to a mid-term and a final exam. While
in another there were 1-3 articles for every lecture that were discussed in class, 5 discussion
questions (1-page assignments) , 6 cases (4-page assignments), a term-project, a presentation
of the term project, a mid-term, and a final exam. There were more group porjects in general
than at BI, which was a valuable experience as working in teams with people of different
cultural background was taught me a lot. The workload was very different in the different
classes, but as stated earlier while the courses was easier than at BI they could require a lot of
work. The teaching style was also a bit different as there in general were more discussion, and
classes were more practical related than scientific and abstract. It is an MBA after all.
The school had a library in addition to the study labs. There is also a computer lab, and a
Bloomberg lab at the school, which gives access to valuable databases. KAIST also provide
useful software that can be downloaded to PC’s or MAC’s.
There were books for each course, but each course also had extensive power-point
presentations and case-collections. I ended up not buying any books as I found them
redundant, I did however buy the case-collections as they were essential for the different
courses. All of the exams were based on the lectures, slides and cases, hence the books was
only useful if you had problems understanding the content covered in class.
Here is a list of the courses I attended:
Course code & name
MGT 521: Marketing
Research
MGT514E: Managerial
Economics
MGT 661: Mergers and
Acquisitions
MGT629: Business and
Management in East Asia
Master/
Bachelor
TMBA
TMBA
TMBA
TMBA
Exam form
Additional work
3-hours
written exam
2-hours
written exam
2-hours
written exam
1,5-hours
written exam
Group term project with 3 deadlines with
a final presentation
3 individual assignmetns
7 group cases, 2 that had to be presented
5 discussion questions, 6 cases, group
term project with a final presentation
On a final note I would like to say that my experience in Korea at KAIST was amazing. I got
to experience so much, and I learned a lot about working with people of different cultures.
This taught me e.g. why people of different background may behave differently in a business
situation. The exchange inspired me and I learned a lot about Korean and East Asian culture,
both the social culture as well as the business environment/culture in the region. After
spending 4 months in Korea it was sad having to leave, and it is definetly a possibility for me
to work and live there for some years. I also learned a lot about myself, by being the only
student from BI going to Korea, as well as the only Norwegian to attend KAIST. It was a very
valuable experience I will miss and cheerish.