Name of the University: Keimyung University
Exchange semester: Fall 2015
PRACTICAL INFORMATION
Before leaving Norway
We received the acceptance letter from Keimyung University about 7-8 weeks before the semester started. The International Office at Keimyung will send you information regarding documents you will have to submit, like health insurance, choice of dormitory and meal plan, visa and medical history.
Before you leave for Korea you will be assigned a buddy (a Korean student), who will help you get around and get familiar with campus and schedules.
The buddy will contact you either by email or social media. The biggest chatting app in
Korea is called KakaoTalk, and I recommend you getting this before you leave. If you are thinking about getting a phone plan, we managed without having one aslong as there was a wifi connection.
There is two seasons in Korea and Daegu, so during summer it is really hot, and winter it can be similar to Norway, (-10 degrees). So bring a warm jacket and some wool clothing.
Applying for a visa
For the visa application you will have to bring the letter and papers already filled out by
Keimyung University that you received with the acceptance letter along with the visa application form found at Korea’s embassy in Norways webpage. The fee was approximately 800 NOK and paid in cash. It took us 5 working days after a visit to the embassy till the passport with visa was ready to be picked up.
Travel
Traveling to Korea by plane can take any route you see fit for your budget. Andreas went to China first so he went from there. Stian went to Oslo-Dubai-Seoul for 5000,- NOK and a 27hour travel time. This can be shorter, cheaper or more expensive depending on when and how long you want to fly.
From Seoul to Daegu there is an express train called the KTX that departs from Seoul
Station to Dongdaegu station, this will take 1h30mins and cost 315,- NOK. The other option is going by express bus, this will take 4 hours and cost 120,- NOK.
Tell your preassigned buddy when you will arrive and he/she will most likely meet or arrange someone to meet you there.
Housing
Housing can be provided by the school. You will be able to choose of the three dormitories to stay in ( KELI house, International Dorm or General Hall.
In KELI House you will be paired with a Korean roommate in a double room. There is shared bathroom and showers.
In International Dorm you will be paired with 2 International students in a room with a bathroom with shower and toilet.

There is a curfew at all of the dormitories at 23:00 every night, including weekends. You can apply to sleep outside campus.
We chose to move out of dormitory after one month due to this curfew and the cafeteria food. We found an apartment close to dormitories where we shared a 2-room with kitchen, bathroom and laundry room for about 1700,- NOK per month for each of us. If you move after a month you will have to pay a cancellation fee, so if you want to stay outside of dorms get an apartment before paying the dormitory fee.
Costs
The cost for the dormitories are from 4000 – 5500 NOK for the entire semester. If you want the meal plan aswell to eat at the dorm cafeteria it will cost 1500 NOK for the semester. We took the meal plan and ate at the cafeteria for one month, but the food is not really of the best quality and nutrition. There is rice for every meal, and different soups. The western section is mostly bread and salad. You can easily eat outside or at the other school restaurants for about 20,- to 50,- NOK depending on where you go.
Culture and language
Daegu is a big city, but not very international compared to the other big cites in Korea.
Generally it is viewed as a conservative city. It is located four hours from Seoul by bus or
1,5 hour by the KTX (high speed train) and less than one hour from Busan which are both more international.
The general English knowledge in Korea is limited. At the University most people have some English knowledge, but a lot of Koreans are quite shy to speak English. They say you will have to take a Korean language class at the University, but we found out you do not need to take this, and I would recommend not to if you do not have a great interest in learning this language. The International Office will offer a Korean Culture Exchange
Program where you can learn anything from tea ceremonies to traditional pottery and calligraphy.
II. ABOUT THE SCHOOL
The School
The campus and university is located about 20 minutes with the subway from the city centre in Daegu. The school was founded 115 years ago by Christian missionaries.
Keimyung has a huge campus and to walk across will take you about 30 minutes. The student body is approximately 28.000 students. The dorms are located about a 10 minute walk from the main class buildings. The school has restaurants, coffee shops, a travel agency, bookshops, libraries, electronic shops, medical aid facility and more.
Course registration
A few weeks before the semester starts you will receive a email from the International
Office about which classes will be available that semester and instructions how to register. I had to fill out a form and send back to the International Office. You can change, add or drop classes the first days of the semester, so if you see another one you would rather like. It is possible to change.

Academic calendar
Arrival date: 1. September
First day of the semester: 2. September
Last day of classes: 16-22. December
Examination period: 17-23. December
Any special events/holidays: 18-20 September
(Korean
Thanksgiving)
3. October (National
Foundation Day)
9. October (Korean
Language Day)
Other: 20-22. December
(Dormitory closes)
Arrival
We arrived in Daegu on September 1 st . Before leaving to Korea you will be assigned a
“buddy”, which is a Korean student. He picked us up at Dongdaegu Station and took us by the metro to the school. We picked up our keys and dropped off our bags before he took us to E-mart, a big shop to buy bedlinens and things we would need for living in the dorms.
The first day of school we had an introduction day with the international office. We were divided into groups and had tours of the entire campus aswell as a lot of information about the school and Korea in general.
Promoting BI and Norway
There was no such thing as a student fair at the University. That said Koreans are very curious about Norway, the fjords and mountains and the culture. Also why Norway is such an expensive country.
Social activities
The International Office will hold a couple of field trips, we did not attend any of these, but from what we heard they were a lot of fun. You will be able to visit old temples and astonishing mountains. The International Lounge will host a field trip almost every weekend that you can sign up for.
The International Lounge is one of the places at school we spent most of our free time, this is a lounge for international and Korean students where you can study or just speak
English with other students. Here people from different parts of the world meet. This is a great place to hang out in between classes and meet new people.
III. ACADEMICS
In the classroom
The classes are much smaller than at BI. I had classes with about 10 – 30 students. All our classes were in English and the teachers were very competent and had a good knowledge of English and the course in general. Since the classes are so much smaller you will have to participate more in class which will be a part of your final grade.

Attencende is also accounted into your final grade (10-20% of final grade). We had several power point presentations during the semester and there is also homework and handins. Attendance is mandatory.
Course materials
Some of our classes were recommended to buy books for. You can either get these new or go to the printing place at campus and they will print the books for half the price.
Books are still much cheaper then in Norway.
Exams
Most classes have a midterm and a final exam. However the system is very different from the one back at BI. Final exams only accounts for about 20-35% of your grade. The rest is midterms, presentations, assignments, homework and pop-quizzes throughout the semester, which means the workload is more spread out.
Description of courses
CROSS CULTURAL COMMUNICATION
This is a very easy and interesting cource where students from different countries have to prepare a presentation about a recent news story in their country as well as some culture. It was fun to listen to what other students form different parts of the world experience. The full grade is dependant on your presentation, so the course is pretty easy.
KOREAN LANGUAGE PRACTICE (1)
They say this is a mandatory course for all exchange students. If you would really like to learn Korean I say take the course, but if you would rather spend 6 hours a week on another course I would recommend trying to get out of this course. I felt I would have a bigger learning experience if I took another relevant course instead of this one, as I found that it took a lot of time to keep up with the class.
STRATEGIC MANAGEMENT
This was one of the mandatory classes we had to take while studying here. From the course description: “This course is designed to study competition from the perspective of top management, focusing particularly on the sources of competitive advantage and the interaction between industry structure and organizational capabilities”.
You will be graded by a group presentation (with a written report), several pop-quizzes, a mid-term exam and a final exam.

International Trade
Why do many countries engage in international trade? How would the trade pattern be determined? And what are the gains from trade? The study of International Trade Theory facilitates understanding of these questions. This subject introduces to students the factors for which international trade takes place and related trade models that students must be aware of.
This course is analytical and quantitative in nature, there is assignments, exams and group presentations for the final grade
Financial Management:
The course will cover the basic concepts and practices in managing financial resources. It will include techniques of financial analysis used for decision making, the use of financial ratios to evaluate past performance of the firm, financial planning, financial leverage and working capital management and budgeting.
At the end of the course the students will be able to understand and develop skills in managing company resources with the use of financial ratios and other tools.
We were recommended by BI to take this course to have another finance course if we wanted to apply for a masters degree. I found the course interesting but challenging.
There will be homework, handins and group projects as well as midterm and final exam to make up the final grade.
On a final note, how will you sum up the exchange experience?
Our exchange semester was great! We met a lot of different people from different cultures and experienced a lot of new things. The Korean culture is very different from the Norwegian one, which makes the experience even better. The Korean people are very friendly and we made some good Korean and foreign friends. We also took the chance while in Asia to travel to Japan and Philippines with some other foreigners, and even visited Vietnam with a Danish exchange student at the end of the semester.
There is a lot of things to do in Korea, and we would recommend anyone who wants to experience something very different while doing their exchange semester to go here. It might be far away, but you will remember this semester forever. The most important advice I can give is to try to move out of the dorms, finding an apartment is not that difficult and you will have a lot more freedom for about the same price as staying in the dorms.
Do not hesitate do contact either of us through the International Office if you have any questions about Korea or exchange in general.