Student report from ESC Rennes, France
Name of the university: ESC Rennes School of Business
Exchange semester: Fall 2012
Before leaving Norway
We searched through all the possible schools at BI’s exchange pages before applying. ESC’s
website has information about every course, which gives you an indication of the courses. The
application went smoothly, but there were difficulties with housing. Some of us got problems
with getting an apartment, so we advice students to get all the help you can get from the
school and make sure they follow through. You apply for the courses online. All of us had
problems with selecting courses, and none of us got all the courses we needed. The
administration was not very helpful and they were hard to reach, so we are going to take an
extra course when we get home. You do not need a visa when studying in France. You are
only required to have the European health insurance card, which can be ordered for free on
NAV’s website.
We took a plane from Oslo to Paris and from Paris we took the train to Rennes. If you take the
train from Charles de Gaulle to Rennes, it takes you about three hours. If you leave from
Montparnasse in Paris, it takes you about two hours. There is also an airport in Rennes, but
we recommend taking the TGV. It is fast and simple. When you arrive at the train station we
advice you to buy “carte jeune”. This is a discount card for young people on train tickets,
which you can use in France.
Housing
If you are lucky you will be provided with housing by the accommodation team, but some of
us had to find a place on their own because it got full early. Before you leave, you have to fill
out a form of what kind of housing you prefer. If you want to live alone, how much you can
pay, etc. We advice you to be as early as possible and get a place to stay before you arrive.
Otherwise, you would have to stay at a hotel while you have to find an accommodation, and
that will take up much of your time. We recommend living in the city centre if you get the
chance.
Costs
Rent: 2500 – 4000 NOK
Food: 1000 – 1500 NOK
Transport: 300 NOK
Books: 0 NOK
Other: 1000 NOK
Generally, it is cheap in Rennes. That includes groceries, eating out, etc. The good thing about
ESC Rennes is that you do not have to pay for books. You will be provided with handouts in
every course. It costs €33 for the metro and bus card.
Culture and language
There are many international students at ESC Rennes, so you will not have any difficulties
with communicating with the other students, teachers and the staff. You will probably meet
difficulties with talking English in shops, etc. You are therefore advised to learn as much
French as possible. France is a country known for its culture and beautiful scenery. There is
also a vacation week during the fall, so you have plenty of opportunities to discover Brittany
and France.
Rennes is the largest city in Brittany two hours south west of Paris and it can be compared
with Bergen in terms of size. The city has many great restaurants and the architecture is
beautiful, with its famous medieval walls. There is a huge market every Saturday, which is the
second largest in France.
Cultural and social effects from the exchange experience
It has been a wonderful experience being abroad. You will meet students from every
continent, and that has been both important and interesting. If you have taken the course
“Business communication” at BI, you will be amazed how the theories will be taken into
practice. It will benefit you in your future career especially if you are going to work for an
international company.
About the school
Please describe:
The school is small, compared to BI in Oslo. It is modern to some extent, and is located northwest in Rennes. It is close to the centre, but Rennes is in all a small city so nothing really is
far away.
The academic staff of the ESC Rennes School of Business is composed of some 70 permanent
faculties and over 100 adjunct faculties. Research and teaching are the central activities of
faculty members and there is an intimate link between the two.
Faculty diversity reflects the global nature of the business school: the academic staff is drawn
from 25 different nationalities. The common language of faculty members is English, this
being the principal international business language.
At ESC Rennes there are approximately 2800 students, whereas 700 of them were
international students this year.
It is mandatory to show up for lectures, and you can only be absent 3 times before you fail the
course. All the courses are in class, with normal lectures, but also a lot of group work and
discussions, and students are expected to participate in class.
Course registration
The course registration takes place in mid July online, and this is very important to do it right,
as it is difficult to change or add classes after arrival in Rennes. The only courses which you
can sign up for after arrival is French Language and French Culture. When we registered
online, we could only choose 6 courses and each business course has 5 ECTS’s and we
wanted to choose French Language as well, but the French courses only has 3 ECTS so we
recommend to choose the business courses online during the registration period in July, and
add French courses when you arrive at ESC Rennes in September. It makes everything a lot
easier. Lisa and Henrik did not get all the courses that they signed up for, and had a lot of
problems getting registered at other courses to fulfil the demand of 30 ECTS from BI. It was
rather hard to try to add business courses, or any other courses than French Language and
French Culture. To drop courses was easier, and was done during the first two weeks – the
registration week and the week after.
Academic calendar
Arrival date:
Late August/beginning of September
First day of the semester:
Introduction week: 3 September
Course start: 10 September
Last day of classes:
22 November
Examination period:
5 December – 20 December
Any special events/holidays:
One vacation week in the last week of October.
Arrival
There is a possibility of having the Welcome team to meet you, but it is very easy to find
where you are going, because of the small size of the city. One of us made an appointment
with the team, but they showed up very late so we do not think it is necessary to meet them at
arrival. The Welcome team arranged events like bowling, eating out, etc. during the
introduction week. There are also hosted parties which were popular.
The International Office
There is an international office here, and they have been very busy as almost every single
student has had problems with the courses. They vary a lot in terms of customer service, so if
you get problems with anything keep asking and try different people.
Promoting BI and Norway
There have not been any activities that we have done to promote BI, but we have all talked
positively about both BI and Norway and we get the impression that many students would like
to come to Norway.
Social activities
The relationship with the French has been good. They have usually been easy to work with
and they also respect that you do not know the language very well. The student environment
in general has been very good. There are many exchange students and we made a lot of
friends. The Welcome team has hosted many parties which many students go to. At BI we
have many different student organizations like football, lacrosse, wine tasting, etc, but here
there are not that many possibilities. They do have some sports organizations, but they consist
mostly of French students. One of us went to football trainings. There were not many
foreigners there, but the French were including and helpful.
Academic information
In the classroom
The teaching style at ESC Rennes is classroom-based, with classes of around 30 students. It is
expected that you have read the assignments before coming to class, and that you are active
during the class. How active you are also count for your final grade. All classes are in
English. There was however a few courses where there were only a few exchange students
and the teacher therefore sometimes answered questions in French, which was annoying. But
most of the professors are not French, so usually it was not a problem. We would say the level
of study is a little bit under the level at BI, but you are expected to do a lot of presentations
and group assignments during the semester, so you stay quite busy. The teaching style is
primarily theoretical, and the professors use a lot of cases, group work and presentations in
class. We found the workload to be easier than at BI. Even though we had more presentations
and group work that we were used to, it was still easier to get a good grade or good feedback
on our work than at BI. The presentations was actually good to have, because this was not
something we had any experience in from BI, so it was good to learn it. The relationship
between the professors and the students are closer, because the classes are smaller. There is
much more back and forth-communication this way, and it was a good way to learn the
material. The relationship between the students was very good. It was usually a good tone
between people, and it was more enjoyable than the big auditorium lectures we are used to at
BI, where people are more distant. It was also a great experience to share a classroom with
people from literally all over the world, and being able to interact and work with them.
Course materials
We were always handed papers and booklets to be used in class. At ESC Rennes they don’t
use books, so you don’t have to spend money on it. We were often handed online articles, and
PowerPoint was usually used by the lecturers. It was good to get handed the slides from the
PowerPoint before class. But we found it annoying that we didn’t have books to read before
the exams, and it was a bit confusing at times. But the materials we were handed was mostly
good. The materials used were meant to give the students a broad overview of the subject.
Exams
The exams were mainly based on the course material, which had always been presented in the
lectures, and they lasted from two to four hours. The grade in a course was never based solely
on an exam. Mostly there was a presentation or a group project (or both) that counted for
40%, and then the exam counted for the rest (60%). But in some of the classes’, oral
participation in class counted for 20% of the final grade.
Technology
The library is always open, and you can borrow the different books that are recommended to
read for each course, but you may have to be on a waiting list for some of them. There are
some computer rooms, but we never used these. Usually everybody bring their own PC to
school. There is a student intranet, much like It’s Learning, which is used a lot. Most of the
information you need is put on there, like your agenda. Most of the teachers use Google Apps,
where you find relevant information and articles for each class. These two sites are not
connected, which makes it somewhat confusing. The IT system in general was not good
compared with BI. For the first three months, we did not have Internet on the school, which
made it very frustrating. The printing system was also painfully complicated. The school
received many complaints for their technology, both by students and lecturers.
Description of courses
As this report is written by four students, we had a lot of different courses because we could
choose what we wanted. And whether a course is mandatory or not depends on what you
study at BI. There were no specific prerequisites in any of the courses, other than what you
have learned at BI anyway. All courses are worth 5 ECTS, except for the French Language
and Culture courses which is worth 3 ECTS.
Course code & name
Master/
Bachelor
Bachelor
Exam form
Bachelor
2000-word
paper
3-hour written
exam
Elective
The one course we had to take. A little
difficult, mostly because of the
teacher. Only theoretical.
Easy and very interesting.
Elective
A very good course.
3-hour written
exam
3-hour written
exam
Elective
We had a lot of experience in this
from BI, so it was quite easy.
Advanced. Not very difficult, very
interesting.
Bachelor
3-hour written
exam
Mandatory
A bit difficult. The group project was
very time consuming and the
presentation was difficult, as the
teacher asked tough questions.
FI402E Financial
Markets & Portfolio
Management
0LV2F1 French
Language
Bachelor
2-hour written
exam
Elective
Bachelor
2-hour written
exam
Elective
FG001N French
Culture
Bachelor
2-hour written
exam
Elective
A course about how to make money.
Very interesting and the lecturer was
fantastic.
You will take a test before the school
starts to see what level you are in. We
recommend you take this course, as it
will help you improving language
skills.
This was an easy course about French
culture. Interesting much because of
the teacher.
ST401 Strategic
Management
Fundamentals
MO401 European
Geopolitics
HR 443 Strategic
Human Resource
Management
ST 402 Corporate
Social Responsibility
OB301E
Entrepreneurship and
Small Business
Management
FI403E Financial
Analysis
Bachelor
Bachelor
Bachelor
4-hour written
exam
Approved
as
Mandatory
Elective
Comments
Any other experiences/comments about your exchange experience?:
All in all, being abroad has been a wonderful experience and we think everybody should take
the opportunity. We have increased our cultural knowledge, which will help us in a future
career. We are though sad to say that the overall experience at ESC Rennes could have been
better, since we have been having many difficulties regarding housing, IT system and course
selections.
Feel free to contact us through international office if you have any questions!