Name of the University: University of Mannheim
Exchange semester: Fall 2015, Master
I.PRACTICAL INFORMATION
Before leaving Norway
We got the information from University of Mannheim around the beginning of May. It is quite early compared to other exchange universities. We then got all the information from the school regarding the log-in data into https://myunima.uni-mannheim.de/incomings , where we can book the language course and provide every information for preparation and discovery when you first come to Mannheim.
Applying for a visa (if applicable)
In the end of May they sent us the letter of acceptance to apply for visa as we are not from
Norway so we need to apply for student visa to study in Germany. You need to contact
German Embassy in Oslo to get more information about what you should prepare to bring there. As we got scholarship from BI and also scholarship from government, we didn’t have to pay for application for German visa. It was quite easy and straightforward as the international office in Mannheim will tell you what you should do and where you should go to extend your visa. When going to Germany, we had to go to K7 to register for our stay here and we got the form from International Office or we can take from K7 and then afterwards they will arrange you a date for extension of visa
Travel
We bought the plane ticket to Frankfurt from the end of July at around 800 NOK and from
Frankfurt airport we booked ticket online and took the Flixbus to Mannheim with just only 5
Euro (apprx. 50NOK) to Mannheim. In Mannheim, public transportation is quite much and our place is easy to find out so just check the route on the internet, usually we used google apps to check for transportation to the place and we could find out easily. We bought daily tickets first and it is cheaper when you went in a group from 2 people, around 4 Euro/each in group of 2 for 1 day.
Housing
Luckily, we got houses provided by the university in around June, and we booked it through the portal https://myunima.uni-mannheim.de/incomings they sent us. You should pay attention to the time for registration otherwise you may not get the chance for student house and have to use more time to search for private houses. We have no experience in finding the private houses, but it can cost around 400 Euro for private housing. The school also provided the website for private housing in the web Myunima so you can also try to find the house there in case of not getting accepted for the student houses.
Our dorm was quite convenient near Luisenpark, quite close to the city center, so usually we use public bike VRN (as they are partners with Mannheim and provide the bike for students here for free until the end of November) to go to school just around 20 minutes including the walking time to the bike station.

Costs
Rent
Books
Food
2600 NOK
0 NOK
1200 - 1500
NOK
Transport 0 NOK
Other 500 NOK
Culture and language
A lot of people we meet here are exchange students as University of Mannheim is quite popular in Europe. There is an active students’ life with many parties a week so many students want to come here to experience the real students’ life time. They are all nice and easy to get acquainted with, even the native Germans are really friendly and helpful. All the students in Mannheim are really good at English speaking so there is no need for you to worry about any language problems here.
Also, the life here as we said above is quite active with a lot of organisations for students as
VISUM which always organise parties, events for students here in Mannheim with special care for exchange students, such as Running Dinner to experience different types of foods in different places, International Dinner for students from everywhere to cook their own foods, or Sunday events for going out to some place or ice hockey events, etc. Besides, Mannheim offers a great number of free sports for students, namely swimming pool, fitness place for women, dance, yoga, self-defence for women, etc. You can find all in http://www.hochschulsport.uni-mannheim.de/angebote/aktueller_zeitraum/index.html
. Also, sometimes, VISUM or our student houses give free ticket to cinema or national theatre to experience entertainment activities. You won’t reget when choosing the University of
Mannheim because you can have a really memorable time here in University of Mannheim.
II. ABOUT THE SCHOOL
The school is a huge castle located in the Quadrate, which is the city center, and close to the main station. It has several libraries and learning areas in the castle. There are also some computer labs in L7 and many classrooms in other buildings on the street, most of which are for language and culture classes. The school also has a large open area where students can relax or play sports. There are several cafeterias on campus with reasonable prices.
Course registration
Some courses require registration while others do not. When and how we registered depended on specific courses. Most marketing courses required registration by email during the enrollment week. Other courses required online registration at Portal 2 in the week following the enrollment week. The registration period lasted only one week and students could freely added or dropped courses during this time. After the registration period, students could deregister from courses by contacting relevant professors. The status on Portal 2 also showed whether we were admitted to the chosen courses. Some courses only had limited seats, so not all students had a chance to attend the courses that they registered for.
Academic calendar
Arrival date:
First day of the semester:
Last day of classes:
August 24 th –
September 4th, 2015
September 7 th , 2015
December 11th, 2015

Examination period: December 10 th – 22 nd ,
2015
Arrival
There was one information session for all exchange students and one for students in Business
Administration only. The latter was followed by a reception at the canteen, where students had a chance to mingle.
The International Office
We received quite sufficient information from the international office regarding study and events for exchange students.
Promoting BI and Norway
The school held an event where exchange students introduced their schools and cultures to others at the beginning of the semester.
Social activities
German students are good to work with. They are efficient, serious, and straightforward.
The university and many other organizations such as Visum and Insight held many activities for students to socialize. For example, the university sports institute organized a sports day when students had a chance to try different kinds of sports. The international office held an international dinner where exchange students shared food of their own countries. Visum held several parties and trips for exchange students. Our favorite activities were those held by
Insight. Insight offered international students great opportunity to learn about German culture.
For example, they invited us to a German house where we cooked, had dinner, and watched a movie together. They also held several events in which students learnt to bake cookies and got to know more about Christmas in Germany. Most of Insight’s events were free of charge.
III. ACADEMICS
In the classroom
The teaching style is quite theoretical. Students mostly sit and listen to lecturers. In some case there is discussion, and students have the opportunity to participate more actively.
The workload is a bit heavier than that at BI. For some courses, besides lectures, there are also weekly or fortnightly exercise sessions. Some courses are more practical than what we learn at BI.
Course materials
The main course materials are lecture slides. Many marketing courses require students to buy lecture slides at 10 EUR for each course. Some courses entail case studies. There’s no need to read books.
Exams
The exams were mostly based on lecture slides and cases. There was no need to read books.
Some courses had only one final written exam while others also had mid – term presentations and assignments. The exams have quite high time pressure.
Library and technology

The library is always packed. The online library does not have as many resources as BI library. Besides, most of the database on the online library is in German.
Description of courses
Course code & name Master/
Bachelor
MKT510 Price &
Product Management
Master
Exam form
1-hour written exam
Prerequisites Approved as
None Elective
Comments
MKT531 Marketing
Theory
MKT560 Service
Marketing
Master
Master
1-hour written exam
None
None
Elective
Elective
Have both qualitative and quantitative exercises, very interesting but a bit challenging
Theoretical but interesting
MKT611 Sales
Management &
Customer
Relationship
Management
MAN630 Introduction to Entrepreneurship
CC501 Decision
Analysis
Master
Master
Master
Presentation
(40%)
1-hour written exam (60%)
Presentation
(20%)
1-hour written exam
Written exam
Case study
(20%)
90-minute Final exam (80%)
None
None
None
Elective
Elective
Elective
Lots of theories and models
IS 602 Business
Intelligence and
Management Support
Teams
Master Assignment
(40%)
1-hour written exam
None Elective
Interesting as lecturer is quite enthusiastic and very helpful for explaining the project
New experience when doing the project because it is quite applicable in the company like KPMG as KPMG is the one who delivers the case

The exchange semester at the University of Mannheim was a great experience for us. We made some good friends, got to know German culture, and learnt how German people work.
Even though most courses that we have taken are theoretical and the teaching style is not so different from that at BI as we expected, we have had a great opportunity to develop our academic knowledge of diverse areas because the course contents are quite different from those at BI.