Student Report from Universität Mannheim Fall 2013
I. PRACTICAL INFORMATION
I receiveid an email in the middle of March from Universität Mannheim, saying I was
accepted. After that I received some more email with information, and an official acceptanceletter in the mail. I also had to fill out the Learning Agreement before 1. June. That was a little
more work than I had expected. The timetable with courses for the Fall-semester was not all
done when we had to hand it in, but I managed to fill it out. You get an account on the
UniMa-onlineportal, and there is all the information that you need. They have a “to-do-list”
before you arrive in Mannheim. It is very helpful. You don’t need a visa while studying in
Germany. I travelled from Gardermoen to Frankfurt by plane. From Frankfurt to Mannheim it
is a 30-minue trainride. The first stop is Mannheim, so it is very easy.
The University provides housing, and they send out email about it. There are a couple of
different Studenthouses. Ulmenweg is a 25-minute bus ride outside of the city, and there a lot
of international students there. Therefore it is very social. There are also some closer to the
city. I found private housing. I went on WG-gesucht.de and sent some messages. I skyped
with a girl and got that room. A friend of mine started looking in July, and she did not have
any luck. So I recommend to start the search early if you want private housing. The best place
to live is in the citycenter which is called the Quadrate. From there you can walk to
everything. But it is not a problem to live outside because there are many different tram-lines
and the 60-bus.
Rent and food is much cheaper than in Norway, so everyday cost is not as high. The
professors use Power Points, and that is what you have to study for the exam. I didn’t have
any required books, so I didn’t buy any. And if they use books, they have them in the library.
Money on food will be more of you choose to eat out, or if you make dinner at home. We ate
out a lot because it was so cheap and social. A meal out is between 5-12 €. A semesterticket
cost 145 €, and is very handy to have. You can even go to the boarder of France with that
ticket, so that is recommended if you want to travel. I also bought BahnKarte with 25% off on
traintickets. It costet 29 euro for 4 months. If you party and travel, the cost will increase.
Rent
Books
Food
Transport
Other
250-300€
NOK 0, but
printing out
the power
points ended
up being
around 20€
300€ ish
Semesterticket
145€
Weekendtrips
150€-300€
depending on
where you go
The professors all talk English, and the students as well. It is more in the everyday life that the
german language is needed. For example in the stores and hairdressers. I would recommend to
attend the Summer Academy in August to refresh your german, or learn some basics. It is
always good to know some german. I attended the Summer Academy, and it was the best
month of the exchange.
By living in Mannheim and being a student you get to see the culture. You see the small
differences that makes it different than from back home. It is what you make out of it. It is
difficult to say how you experience the culture, but it is there in the everyday life. From how
they do their grocery shopping, their lectures and how environmentalfriendly they are. By
living with two german girls, I feel like I got to experience the culture first hand. There are
always festivals around in Germany, so good reasons to get around. We went to Oktoberfest
in Munich, and Wurstmarkt (one of the largest winefestivals in the world) in Bad Dürkheim.
There are good ways to travel around. On LTUR they have last minute deals around in Europe
and Germany. We also used carsharing to go to Berlin, which costed 1/3 of the price of a
trainticket there.
II. ABOUT THE SCHOOL
Universität Mannheim is the second largest barock castle in Europe. Only the one in
Versailles is bigger. It is located in the city center, and very easy to walk or take public
transportation to get there. Mannheim is very well known for their Business Administration
academic area, and the students are very focused on their grades and future. The University
has around 12 000 students.
You get an account on their studentportal, and from there you can register for the courses.
Some courses you need to register for a spot in the class, and some you just have to meet up in
the first lecture. You register for the exams in October online. It is possible to change some
courses during the semester, but that is only possible in courses without any mandatory
attendance.
Academic calendar
Arrival date:
First day of the semester:
Last day of classes:
Examination period:
Any special events/holidays:
Other:
Because I attended the
Summer Academy, I
arrived 30. July.
2. September
2. December
4-20. December
It was two public
holidays during the
semester. German
Unity Day 3. October,
and All Saints 1.
November
Summer Academy 1.29. August
Because I attended the Summer Academy that was kind of my arrival week. They had
pubcrawl the first day. During the days we had school from 09.00-13.30. Other than
that we could attend trips and excursions in the area.We also had Barbeques by the
river, went to whine and beertastings and other fun things. When the semester started,
VISUM, (the group who is responsible for social gatherings for the international
students) arranged many parties and social events. It was not difficult to make new
friends, and everyone was very opend minded and friendly. The week the firstsemesters started we attended a pubcrawl with the german students. That was very
fun!
The international office sent out many emails in advance, so we were well informed
about things. They were very helpful, and if we had any questions or needed any
thing, they could always help.
It was difficult to get to know normal German students. Because we hung out us exchange
students, we did not get so many new friends who were german. I thought that I would hang
out with the two german girls that I lived with, but I was always doing something with the
other exchange students.
The VISUM group is responsible for arranging activities for the exchange students. They
have “Stammtisch” every Monday, which is very social and where a lot of friendships started!
They also arranged parties, movie-nights, Berlin/Frankfurt/Oktoberfest-trips, runningdinner
and other things. A very good studentgroup!
III. ACADEMICS
The lectures normally last for 1,5 hours, and most of the courses have exercises and tutorials
in addition to the lecture. In the lectures with the German students you cant be surprised if the
students talk loud to each other. It was difficult to hear the professor sometimes because of all
the noise. It is different in the classes with only international students. Some tutorials and
exercises last for 1,5 hours as well, or just 45 minutes. It is not mandatory to attend, but not
everything will be uploaded on the studentportal. The lectures take place every week until a
week or two before the exam. The exam last for 90 minutes and is often 100% of the grade.
The grading system is numbers instead of letters. 1 is an A. You have to have better than 4 to
pass. The teaching style is all based on power points. In MAN 301 International Strategic and
Management it was an exercise with active communication between students and teacher. In
the tutorial it was a student at the year above who was the teacher. In those classes it was
often a case that we discussed. During the semester we had the option to write a case-study.
This case-study was 50% of the questions on our final exam, so it was an advantaged to have
done it. In the Operation management it was an exercise and a tutorial, an in both it was how
to solve the assignmentsheets that we were given the previous week. In International
accounting we had a case-study that we had to present, and that counted 20% of our grade. All
the exams were based on the power-points. If you wanted to keep up with the curriculum
during the semester, it would have been much more work. We ended up being at the library
all day long from the last week of November, until our last exam. We also had exams two
days in a row, so that we had to read for more than one exam at the time. It is difficult to get a
spot on the library (at least at the BWL-library), so you have to be there before 9-10 in the
morning to get a spot.
It is not aloud to bring your bag or jacket inside the library. You have to put them in the
lockers outside. It is a couple of computers there, and the printing machines work very well.
You use your student-card to pay for print-outs.
I also took two german classes during the semester. One was an oral german course. In this
course we had to have three presentations in German and they should last for about 20
minutes. That and communication in class was what we were graded on. In the general
german course, we had homework, class-participation, a small test and a final test at the end
of the semester. They all counted in on the final grade.
Description of courses
Course code & name
MAN Human
Resource
Management
MAN 301
International Strategic
and Management
OPM 301 Operation
Management
International
Accounting
Summer Academy
General Deutsch
Sprachkurs B1-1
Mündlicher Deutsch
Sprachkurs B1.1
Master/
Bachelor
Bachelor
Exam form
Prerequisites
60 minute
written exam
Bachelor
Bachelor
Bachelor
Comments
None
Approved
as
Elective
90 minute
written
None
Strategic
6 ECTS
90 minute
written
20% Case-study
presentation
80% 90 minute
written exam
Two tests during
the
course,homewor
k and
classparticipatio
n
Tests and
homework
Three
presentations
during the
semester
None
Elective
6 ECTS
Basic
accounting
Finance
6 ECTS
None
Elective
4 ECTS
Be at B1 level
in german
Be at level B1
in german
Elective
3 ECTS
Elective
3 ECTS
4 ECTS
This semester in Germany has been one of my best experiences in my life. I have gotten so
many new friends from all over the world, and I have been challenged in so many new ways.
Both academicly and personaly. It is very interesting to see how different cultures are even
though we live so similar lifes. I have gotten a broader view of what I will do in the future,
and how many opportunities I have. Academicly it has been very challenging to get into their
ways of teaching and studying. It is hard to remember to study when we were just having fun
all semester. We had to get into their way of studying, and we did not do that before it was a
little late. But all in all, it was very fun!