Student Report
Name of the University: Grenoble Ecole de Management
Exchange semester: Fall 2012
I. PRACTICAL INFORMATION
Before leaving Norway
We received a pdf information file before the summer vacation with all necessary
information. Additionally, we got mails throughout the whole summer of important deadlines,
housing accommodations, and a list of names and e-mails of all the other exchange students.
Applying for a visa (if applicable)
You do not need a Visa for coming to France
Travel
We travelled with Norwegian from Oslo to Geneva. Then we took a train from Geneva to
Grenoble, be sure that your plane arrives in Geneva before 18.00. Because the last train from
Geneva to Grenoble is around 18.00. There are no direct flights to Grenoble from Oslo in the
fall semester. However if you travel in January it is direct flights with Norwegian.
Housing
There are no campus residences, but there are many private student residences, many of them
close to school. We lived at Studea Carre de Halles that is a student resident approx. 5-10
minutes from the school. We rented the apartment in advance before we came to Grenoble.
These apartments are new and we truly recommend it. The advantage of renting in a student
residence, is that you get free internet, all administration is professional and organized by the
management, there is laundry in the building (so you do not have to buy / rent a washing
machine, or take the laundry out to find a laundry !). It offers cleaning once a month,
electricity bill can be controlled much better, and if anything is not as it should(for example,
light bulbs capitulates, you experience problems with your stove or refrigerator etc.) will the
person who sits at the reception help you right away. In addition, it is very reassuring to live
in a building one must have alarm key to enter the house. Another option that is certainly
recommended is the student resident Privilodges. Privilodges Campus is perhaps even nicer
than Studea Carre des Halles, as they have a bath and a mini gym in the basement. This
residence is also located right in the center. When it comes to price, there is probably a little
lower on the private market than staying in student accommodation. It also depends on which
floor you want to stay in (views high / low / mountain / city), location, porch, corner
apartment, etc. I would say that in a student residence costs around 500-600 euros a month.
Stay away from the residences in the part of the city called Fontaine; this is not a safe area to
be in!
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Approximately how much per month did you spend on rent, books, food,
transportation, and other personal expenses?
4500NOK
Rent
600 NOK
Books
2000 NOK
Food
Transport 100 NOK
Phone
expenses
200 NOK
Cultural and social effects from the exchange experience
Coming to Grenoble was a great experience and it was fun to meet so many new people with
different cultural background. However, it seems that in the classes of master it is much more
French students than in the bachelor program where it is a bigger mix of different
nationalities. It is a great knowledge to learn about different cultures and their habits and it is
probably an advantage in future career. If you want to experience the country even more, the
school arrange trips to different places in France where the international students can take part
in.
II. ABOUT THE SCHOOL
The name of the school is Grenoble Ecole de Management, and consists of two
“departments”: Ecole Superior de Commerce (ESC) and Grenoble Graduate School of
Business (GGSB). We went to the program called Graduate Certificate in Global
Management program (English Track 2 - Master 1). There are 4288 students in total on the
school, where 2500 of them are international students. The school is very international with
107 different nationalities. The school is new and very modern. As Grenoble is a city with
many innovative high-tech companies, this is naturally also one of the specialties of GEM.
Course registration
We got a list of different courses in July, but the courses were already fixed, and we could not
choose between different courses.
Academic calendar
Arrival date:
First day of the semester:
Last day of classes:
Examination period:
Any special events/holidays:
Other:
There is a welcome desk from 22 August until
16 September where students of GEM help
incoming students finding a place to stay and
other administrative stuff.
6. September
14.December
17-21 December
We got a week vacation in the end of October
Arrival
The first thing you do, whether you have found housing or not, is to register at school at the
welcome desk Aloha. Here, there are French students who speak English who help you to find
housing, banking, apply for CAF etc.
The International Office
There is an international office that can help you with practical issues, but the main resource
for such issues is the Aloha office. Other than that they give out a lot of information (all of
which was in English), which can help you quite a lot.
Promoting BI and Norway
There was no officially arranged promotion of BI or Norway at the school
Social activities
In general the French students are quite welcoming and easy to speak to. In our information
meeting at the beginning of our stay a professor “warned” us that the French people is
somewhat reserved and that you had to take initiative yourself if you wanted to get to know
them better. This statement was incorrect in my opinion, and the French did not seem reserved
in my opinion.
There were some exchange students in our class as well, most of them being Chinese. As the
general environment in the class was open and friendly, there were no problems in getting to
know the other exchange students ether.
There are a lot of different student organizations in the school, but for exchange students that
are staying for only one semester it didn’t feel like we had to the time to get into a student
organization. But in theory it should be relatively unproblematic to join one, and I did speak
to some other exchange students that had indeed done that.
In the beginning of the semester in particular there are a lot of different activities tailored for
exchange students to get to know each other. The first couple of weeks there were parties and
other social events nearly every day, and later in the semester there was activities arranged
with the aim of exchange students to be integrated with the French. If social activities and
meeting new people is important for you, this school will most definitely provide you with the
opportunity to do exactly that!
III. ACADEMICS
In the classroom
- Describe the teaching style
The teaching style is a mix between lectures and casework. The teachers are easy to
speak to and expect you to participate in discussions in class.
- Language of instruction? Any problems?
The language of instruction is always English, and I haven’t had any problems in
understanding what the teachers say.
- How would you evaluate the level of study in relationship to the level at BI?
I would also say that the courses in general are somewhat easier than the courses that I
have had at BI.
- Is the teaching primarily practical or theoretical?
The teaching is a bit more on the practical side compared to BI.
- Did professors use cases, group work or lectures (or a combination)?
The teachers used a combination of all of the above.
- How is the workload compared to that at BI?
-
-
The workload at the school is, in my opinion, significantly lower than the workload at
BI.
Describe the relationship between professors and students.
The relationship between the professors and students is quite relaxed and non-formal.
They are easy to approach and speak to.
Describe the relationship between the students in the classroom.
The French students surprised me in that they were somewhat noisy and were
speaking together at the same time as the professors were lecturing. This was
something that I found a bit annoying, and even more so since the teachers had to
spend time to try to get them to stay quiet.
Course materials
The course materials that were used were mainly Powerpoint presentations to and a few
articles. It was only one course that required us buy and read a book, which I found somewhat
strange. The main course literature is hand-outs and notes taken in class. All of the course
materials that were given to us were written in English, and the materials were easy to
understand and mostly relevant to the course.
Since most of the material was Powerpoint presentations it was mostly to give you an
overview of the subject, and less about in depth knowledge.
Exams
-
-
Was the exam based on the course materials or on the lectures?
The exam was based on what we learnt in class, and the course materials were mostly
summaries of what we went over in class.
How was the course evaluated?
o Final exams (written and home assignment)
o In-class quizzes throughout semester
o Small assignments and/or papers
o Presentations
o Group work
o Class attendance
o Class participation/debates
It differed a lot between the different subjects/courses
Library and technology
The library is open for all students, and not as overcrowded as the one at BI in the exam
period. There are some computers that students can use throughout the building, but since
most students have laptops these are not used very often.
The school has two different webpages that they use for; practical information such as
schedules, student e-mail, grades, etc (MYMSC) and course literature, hand-outs, information
about the courses (Moodle)
Description of courses
Course code & name
Master/
Bachelor
Bachelor
Exam form
Prerequ Approved as
isites
None
Elective
Comments
Operational supply chain
management
Master
1.5 hours.
Multiple
choice
None
Elective
Master
2 hours. Short
answer
questions
None
Elective
Corporate Finance
Master
3.5 hours.
Calculations
None
Elective
International Business
law
Master
2 hours.
Theoretical
exam
None
Elective
Information systems for
managers
Master
Continuous
assessment
None
Elective
Organizational
behaviour
Master
Continuous
assessment
None
Elective
Fairly easy as long as
you have had any
logistics class at BI.
Incorporates a lot of
cases in class
Our biggest course.
Some interesting
topics, and fairly easy
to understand. A
couple of
presentations during
the semester is also a
part of the grade in
this course
Should be easy as
long as you have had
any Economics
classes previously.
Mostly practical
(calculations)
If you are interested
in EU and how it
work this can be
interesting. This
course is mostly
theoretical. Possibly
the hardest (but not
too hard) course since
it requires some
amount of reading
and memorization
Interesting course if
you find knowledge
about technology
interesting.
Interactive classes
with a very
enthusiastic teacher .
Grades are based on
quizzes and cases
Aimed towards
understanding leaders
and different styles of
leadership.
Interesting for those
that aspire to become
a leader. Grades are
given based on small
assignments and
presentations
Human resource
management
Example:FIN123
Finance
4-hour
written exam