Student Report
Name of the University: University of Mannheim
Exchange semester: Fall / Spring, 2015
I. PRACTICAL INFORMATION
Before leaving Norway
After being nominated by BI to University of Mannheim, I got a mail from the university in
the end of April/ beginning of May with information regarding the steps before arrival. Here
you get the information you need, and fill in some personal details for their online student
portal. A little later, you will get access to the portal, and there will be a checklist of things to
do before arrival in Mannheim. Here you get the information about paying the semester fee of
60 euros, and information about the international summer academy during August, which I
strongly recommend to attend.
Applying for a visa (if applicable)
No need for visa for Norwegian students in Germany.
Travel
The best way for getting to Mannheim is by plane. SAS have routes to Frankfurt from Oslo
several times a day. I paid approximately 1100 NOK for a one-way trip (with extra luggage).
From the airport, you want to take the ICE train to Mannheim. It’s really easy since
Mannheim is the first stop with the train. It takes a little less than 30 minutes and it costs 25
euros.
Housing
You get information in the “MyUniMa” portal regarding housing. The student networks offer
housing in dorms around the city and outside. They have a housing in Hafen, which is right
outside the quadrate for 300 euros. Personally I will strongly recommend finding a private
accommodation which is just a little bit more expensive, but still cheap compared to Norway.
The apartments usually have a Norwegian standard and lies in the quadrate where everything
is happening. The rent is usually from 300-450 euros depending on size and so on. As I said,
you want to look for accommodation inside the quadrate if you want to live central. The
benefit of arriving in August is that since the German students arrive in September, there will
be “buyers” market for accommodation. Check http://www.wg-gesucht.de/ before arrival.
You can choose the page to display in English if your German is bad. On this page, you can
create an ad that you seek an apartment and so on, much like hybel.no or finn.no.
Costs
Approximately how much per month did you spend on rent, books, food, transportation, and
other personal expenses?
Rent
Books
Food
NOK 3700
NOK 0
NOK 2000
Transport
Other
NOK 0
NOK 10005000
This is just an example on how much I used during my semester here. You can live
like a king or live really cheap in Germany. It depends on you.
Culture and language
-
-
Did you have any language problems with the faculty or other students?
The faculty speaks English and all the information is in English, so as long as you
speak a little English you won’t experience any problems with the faculty or other
students.
How were the possibilities to experience the country and the culture?
During the summer academy, you will get offers to travel to different activities/places
in Germany and during the semester, with Oktoberfest, Berlin and Paris as some
examples of the trips you can join. Mannheim is almost in the centre of Europe so it’s
easy to travel around Europe by train. If you are planning to take the train much, you
should consider buying a “Bahncard” which gives you 25-50 % discount on all train
tickets. With Paris only 3 hours away, it could be a good deal.
II. ABOUT THE SCHOOL
Please describe:
The school lies on top of the quadrate, which is Mannheim. It’s actually a baroque castle
dating back to the 1700’s. It is the second biggest castle in Europe, only beaten by Versailles.
There are 12.000 students and many international students as well in Mannheim. The school
is rated as the best business school in Germany, and is a well-known school internationally.
During the semester, there are lectures like the ones at BI in the different classes you choose.
Depending on which classes you choose, you will have lectures in big lecture halls with 700
students or in small classrooms with 20-30 other students. The German students have a bad
habit of talking pretty loud during lectures, which can be annoying. The business faculty,
which is the biggest, is located in the eastern part of the castle. The business library is also
located here with silent libraries and open libraries.
Course registration
- When and how did you register for courses?
The registration for courses happens during two weeks in the middle of September. If
you register for the summer academy, you have to do this before the 1st of July. All
registrations happens on the online portal, but not all classes’ needs registration. When
you get the course catalogue with the different courses you can take, there will be
information on what you need to do for the respective courses.
Academic calendar
Arrival date:
First day of the semester:
Last day of classes:
Examination period:
Any special events/holidays:
Other:
1 August
7 September
11 December
15-22 December
No
Summer academy is
the whole of August
Arrival
Upon arrival I was already member of some Facebook groups with other people in the same
boat as me, so we met up and started to get to know each other already. You will be
invited/information about these groups in mails before you arrive in Mannheim. The first days
went to register in the city and at the university. After that the summer academy started and
we had German class from 09.00 – 13.00 in the weekdays. You will also get a German
student as your buddy during your stay in Mannheim, which will take you to different
activities and help you upon arrival if you want.
The International Office
The International Office is very helpful if you have any questions or need help during your
stay in Mannheim. All the information I received before arrival in Mannheim was sufficient
and I did not have any questions about my stay.
Promoting BI and Norway
After the real semester starts in September, the university arranges an international week for
all the new students and the ones going on exchange. We promoted BI with a stand during the
international week. There is also an International dinner during that week where all the
exchange students prepared food from their respective country and brought it to school so
everyone could taste food from all over the world.
Social activities
- How was the relationship with native students and that among exchange
students?
It’s a bit hard to get to know the German students if they’re not in the buddy program or
attending the visum activities, however there are so many exchange students from all over the
world you will get to know so there is no shortage of possible friends to do stuff with.
- Are there any special activities, student organisations, and gatherings for
exchange students?
During the summer academy, there are only exchange students in Mannheim, so all the
activities and parties are for them. Every Tuesday, Visum, which is the student network for
the exchange students, arranges party’s during the semester. Every Thursday the different
faculties arranges a theme party at Schneckenhof, which is the castle courtyard for the
business faculty. Visum also arranges trips to other cities, social gatherings and activities
during the semester as well.
III. ACADEMICS
In the classroom
The teaching style is the same as at BI. You listen to a professor and take notes. Depending on
which courses you choose there might also be oral discussions in class and so on that inflicts
your end grade. For the 6 ECTS courses, they offer exercises and tutorials after lectures so
that you can get to work with the information you have learned. I recommend attending these
regularly since they are very helpful in understanding the course material. The lecturers are
mostly highly educated doctors and professors in their field of work, so if you are asking a
question after class or speak by mail, you should always use their title and then their last
name. The workload is just the same as BI.
Course materials
The course material is the PowerPoint presented in class, and later uploaded to the learning
portal. In some classes, there are also papers and scientific reports, but everything is found on
the online portal. There is no need to buy books, and if you really need a book to learn
something, you can get it at the library.
Exams
The exams is what is most different from BI. Depending on the ECTS of a class, you will
have an exam for 60 min. or 90 min, which is intense. 1 minute equals 1 point on the exam. It
was pretty intense in the start, but you get used to it and maybe even start to appreciate the
short exams. The exams is based on everything from lectures and course material online of
the professor explicitly haven’t stated anything else. All my classes were evaluated with a
written exam in December, which counted 100 %. There are also classes, which have home
assignment, oral discussion in class, group work or presentations. When you get access to the
course catalogue in June, you can check which classes are evaluated with the different
criteria.
Library and technology
The library and learning facilities is very much like the ones at BI. You are not allowed to
bring your coat and food into the library, but there are lockers outside. The library is split into
many parts, and most of the library is silent library. There is also a learning centre connected
to the library where you can do group work on big screens.
Description of courses
Course code & name
International summer
academy
Master/
Bachelor
6 ECTS
Exam form
Prerequisites
German test
None
Approved
as
Elective
Comments
Intensive
language
course,
learned a
lot of
German
during
these 4
weeks
Fin 401 – Corporate
finance and risk
management
Tax 352 – Taxation of
multinational firms
Bachelor
6 ECTS
90 min written
exam
Basics from
BØK courses
Finance
course
Bachelor
3 ECTS
60 min written
exam
Elective
Fin 363 – Stock
market anomalies and
trading strategies
Bachelor
3 ECTS
90 min written
exam
Opm 301 – Operations
management
Man 301 – Strategic
and international
management
Bachelor
6 ECTS
Bachelor
6 ECTS
90 min written
exam
90 min written
exam
No
prerequisites,
except basic
understanding
of accounting
Just interest in
the stock
market and
willingness to
understand
how it works
Some math
knowledge
None
Elective
Elective/
strategy
Strategy
Therefore, to sum up my experience abroad I would say that these 5 months
have been the time of my life. I have gone from knowing none German, to
understand a decent amount. I have learned much new relevant academics in
English while also building on my knowledge from BI. On exchange, you will
meet so many interesting persons from all over the world and expand your
network. You will also learn about new cultures and see the world from a new
perspective. This semester have definitely influenced my future career
possibilities to the better with a more international angle.