GUIDELINES FOR WRITING THE STUDENT REPORT
Name of the University: Euromed Management
Exchange semester: 2
Spring, 2012
I GENERAL INFORMATION ABOUT THE SCHOOL
1. Describe the school and its surroundings – very short
Euromed Management is situated in the beautiful outskirts of Marseille, easy accessible with
the 21 bus from the center. The Calanque mountains surround the school and give a beautiful
skyline. The school is small, easy to get around, clean and well maintained.
2. Number of students - graduate and undergraduate – number of exchange students
Exchange students: 189
3. Study structure
The study structure is based upon a majority of group work and hand-ins. This pre-exam work
accounts for 40-50 % of the final mark. The group work is mostly solving of case studies and
applying these to the course material. The level of the work required to pass is pretty low.
II PRACTICAL INFORMATION
Information before you left
The information package and “informal” acceptance was received in early October (by mail),
and the acceptance letter came in the middle of November. The information was organized
and easy to understand. I here received information about start-up dates, when and how to
apply for classes, housing possibilities and so on. We did not at this point get to apply for
classes and housing, but were informed about the process.
Visa Procedure and travel experiences
As an Erasmus student, no visa was required. It was easy to travel by plane from Oslo to
Marseille, and the prices were decent.
Academic Calendar
I arrived on January 3rd in Marseille and spent the first night in a hostel. The orientation week
started on January 4th and was a perfect way to meet many exchange students and Interact
(the student association for international students). Here we got general administrative and
social information, a tour of the city, and had the possibility of choosing to open a bank
account from several options.
The first day of classes were interesting. I was very surprised of the level of the course that
was taught (meaning that it was very low) and at the same time the mentality of the French
students. Many were loud and unfocused. Each respective course had 10 lessons were the
last one was the final examination.
The 9th course was the final day of classes. This class was much like all the others, but also
contained examination information.
We had approximately 3 weeks from the last class to the examination period. It was a great
surprise for me that school was almost empty during the period between classes and exams.
People barely studied, spending most of their time traveling and doing other things.
All the final examinations took place during one week (from April 23-27th).
Reception
The reception and student services desk were easy to find and were helpful with all requests.
The administration and faculty were well prepared and were helpful upon the arrival. The
international student association Interact made my arrival and whole stay in Euromed great!
They organized many social events and trips every week. The events were for all students
resulting in us internationals being integrated with French students.
Housing
Euromed was helpful when it came to housing. They informed of all the opportunities, both on
and off campus. The on campus studios and rooms were filled up quickly and it seemed that
students from outside Europe were prioritized. I therefore lived downtown in an apartment
that Euromed had proposed for me. After I confirmed my studio, Euromed did all the formal
preparations. All I had to do when I came to Marseille was to meet my landlord and sign the
papers.
I would highly recommend to live close to Prado and the beach as it was easy to take the bus
to school (20-30 min), at the same time close to downtown by metro/bus and close to nightlife
and day life.
Costs
Living in Marseille coming from Norway is cheap. For instance, groceries, clothes, rent,
transportation and many more are cheaper. Most prices are about two thirds of the
Norwegian prices. In Euromed, no books are required for the courses, implying a saved cost
in this area.
The International Office
There is no particular international office, but international coordinators they can easily be
reached in the student service desk in school hours or on email. Exchange students are
assigned coordinators by region (ie. Northern Europe), and have this person as a contact
person during the whole stay. All the relevant information about courses, housing, reception
at Euromed and whatever questions we had were answered/informed about.
Exchange promotion
I did not take part in any particular activity to promote Norway, but I did at all times speak
highly of studying up north by talking about how our school system differs positively, what the
peoples and language is like and so on. People responded very positively and many are
planning to at least visit Norway in near future.
Social Activities
This is in my mind the most important point in this report. There were close to 200 exchange
students and after my stay I knew almost everyone! The exchange students were very openminded and eager to connect with each other. This made it possible to make friends for life
over a short four month period. It is hard to explain the vibe in the group, because it
something that really has to be experienced. If I would have to describe it in a few words I
would say: fun, friendly, warm and exciting.
The previously mentioned student organization, Interact, was trying to integrate exchange
students with the French students. They succeeded this to a pretty good level as all the social
events (parties in particular), were arranged for all students at Euromed. They also made
several “meet the exchange students” events, where they had different cultural themes like
for example an Indian themed night. A part of the reason for their success has to be the fact
that the student bar is cosy, attractive, with low-profit prices on drinks and it being in the
actual main school building. This opposes to BI as the our bar/nightclub is big and has less
charm.
Interact arranged ski trips to the alps, trips to London, Barcelona and many more. These trips
were mainly created for the exchange students, but some French students also joined in.
Summed up: the social experience in Euromed could not have been better!
Culture and Language
I am very surprised to say that the level of the exchange student’s language skills were higher
than expected, whilst the French students had the expected level. Most exchange students
spoke fluent English, mastered their own native language and spoke decent French. The
French students could communicate fine in English, but struggled in particular with the
sentence structure and grammar in written English. A lot of the course was evaluation was
based on group work and due to the French students bad level, we exchange students had to
work a lot extra. The faculty on the other hand spoke good English and French and were easy
to talk to.
Marseille is a very central city in the south of France, making it very easy both to take trains
and cheap planes all over Europe. I have traveled a lot across France before, so I spent most
of my time in Marseille, but many students spent most weekends away traveling and
experiencing the culture.
Cultural and Social Effects from the Exchange Experience
I have been living abroad for 5 years of my life and I feel like all this exchange in the same
way has opened my cultural mindset. For instance, you get used to people from different
places and after a while you adapt a subconscious understanding for their behavior. Due to
this understanding you can rather spend time on getting to know people for who they are.
As I had the opportunity to study in France, I had the possibility to refresh my French
language knowledge, as well as my English knowledge. I almost certainly think this will
influence my career possibilities because I will now have the possibility of working almost
anywhere in the world.
III ACADEMIC INFORMATION
The Teaching situation
Courses are mainly taught in English, but you can also choose courses taught in French. I
took all courses in English.
The level of study in Euromed is extremely low compared to BI! This is a pity. I was surprised
to se how little knowledge the French students had, and how easy the courses were. The
reason why it was hard to obtain good marks was in correlation to all the group work
evaluation. I was frustrated coming from “siviløkonomstudiet” seeing that courses I knew were
both qualitative and quantitative were in Euromed only qualitative. Two examples are both my
logistics courses, operations management and European logistics management. I feel that
the level I obtained in Euromed is on the limit of being insufficient for the ECTS obtained.
The teaching is primarily theoretical. Each lecture was often started with a theoretical
PowerPoint presentation, followed up by group work. We thereafter handed in the group work
electronically and received marks in the beginning of the next lecture.
My workload in comparison to BI was minimal. In each course each week, we had to hand in
some sort of work. Some weeks it took a few hours to complete as homework, other times we
just did it while in class (not during the lecture, but when the professors told us that we could).
In BI I am used to sit in school in quiet areas studying from 8 to 5 (the “breaks” here are
during lectures and of course lunch), but in Euromed people barely studied aside from the
assignments they were given.
The relationship between faculty and students was good in my opinion. Classes were smaller
than at BI, therefore each student had a closer relationship to the professors. It was common
to have a conversation with the professors about different the course material and cases
given.
Required Literature
The literature was in English and was easy to read and understand (very qualitative). We
were approximately given 10 ppt presentations with 30 slides on each presentation as course
material. We had no other required literature, but the recourses from the ppt were available
as e-book on the school network. The point is that the course material was very minimal, easy
to read and interpret. The exception was in one course called E-Business where the course
material given was to scarce to develop an understanding.
The literature was in Euromed the lectures, therefore the exams were only based on the ppt
slides given. The literature was given to give detailed knowledge, but it really only gave a
broad overview. The interesting thing here was that the level was so low that the “broad
overview” gave “detailed knowledge.”
Exams
The exams were all written. The exams often had either or both multiple choice and case
(discussion) exercises.
If you had good English knowledge and also knew the basics in the course, then you would
easily pass. The level to pass in Norway is in comparison to the workload pretty similar
(meaning that its easier to fail in France as you have to have 50% correct). The difference is
that the course material is so much smaller and easier in France making it easy to pass
despite the required score of 50 %.
Other
The library in Euromed was called “the Hub” and was a room filled with lounge chairs and
couches. There were no books available in paper format on campus. The access to
computers is good and works at most times. It occasionally doesn´t work, but the IT services
are very helpful in these situations.
IT was used for everything in Euromed. You can not pass or even attend any courses without
a computer at you disposal.
Description of Courses
Please list all the courses you are taking in the form below:
 Name and code of the course
 Prerequisites, if any
 Exam form
 Comments: Relevance, Difficult/easy, Practical/theoretical, Enrollment problems
B-CES-3-06-99-03-E, E-Business
The exam form in this course was written. The final exam accounted for 50% of the mark and
was quite difficult. This course was mainly difficult because the professor had a very strange
accent, had both bad presentations and the course literature given was poor. Despite this, the
course was in fact very interesting. Halfway into the course, we had a midterm test that
accounted for 30% of the final grade, the rest of the evaluation was based on attendance and
other hand-ins.
B-CES-3-01-99-07-E, European Logistics Management
The exam form in this course was written. The final exam accounted for 50% of the mark. The
remaining 50% was based on two case group works. The professor in this course was
monotone and held long lectures with little variation. The material taught in the course was at
a reasonable level, but the final exam was at a very low level in comparison. We had subjects
like forecasting, inventory management and many more that required quantitative methods,
but the exam was merely theoretical without any calculations.
M-COM-3-08-94-01-F, Fle : French as a foreign language - intermediate/advanced
The exam form in this course was written. This course was highly relevant and challenging. I
learned both grammar at a high level as well as oral examples from applicable situations in
daily life. The exam accounted for 60% of the total mark and had two main parts. The first
part consisted of grammar exercises, the second consisted of a written essay (dialogue in a
pharmacy).
B-CES-1-03-99-04-E, Intercultural management
The exam form in this course was written. This was a course with very little course material
witch made the course easy with just a little common sense. The final exam was in a multiple
choice format, but this did in my opinion not work well for the course. The reason for this was
that the questions in the exam were to diffuse and inaccurate. An example could be: “Are the
results from the case the same as Trompenaars results?” The alternatives would be either
“yes” or “no”. The correct answer would be “both as certain of the results matched and others
did not match. I found this course very poor.
B-CES-1-01-99-02-E Mis (management information system)
The exam form in this course was written. I liked this course very much. Both the professor
and the course structure were good. For every week, we had to as a group prepare a case
study that was not evaluated but had to be handed in. Two of the ten lectures went to so
called in-class case studies, these were both graded. The final exam accounted for 50% of
the final grade and divided into two parts, the first being a case study answering using a
course methodology and a second part where we had to answer two questions from the
course material.
B-CES-1-06-99-03-E, Operations management
The exam form in this course was written. This was my favorite course in Euromed. The
professor had a high level of competence and was a good pedagogical. I liked the fact that
this was the only course where we had to hand in individual work. This resulted in a good
mark as well. The correlation between the courses being difficult, having a higher percentage
of individual work and resulting in a good mark was high for the exchange students as we had
a language benefit compared to the French students. This was also the only course where we
had some mathematics/economics (simple statistics and cost analysis).