Student Report
Name of the University: WHU Otto Beisheim School of Management (WHU)
Exchange semester: Fall, 2015
I. PRACTICAL INFORMATION
Before leaving Norway
About a month after I received an exchange offer from BI, WHU accepted me to their Uni. In
the emails they provided me with some general information about the school, a course plan
and information about housing (You register for housing when you apply for the school,
unless you would like to find a place on your own). The first course guide I received was not
the official one for my semester so I waited to fill out my LA-agreement until I received an
official list with courses they offered (They emailed me a list of the official courses they
provided sometime during the spring).
Remember to get health insurance before you leave for Germany. Health insurance is
mandatory for all citizens living in Germany. If you are a Norwegian citizen you only have
to order a Helfo card. It is free and takes you 1 min to order.
Additionally remember to order travel insurance for the whole stay. I am not sure if it is
mandatory, but it is definitely smart to have.
Applying for a visa
Just to clear a potential confusion (since Norway is not part of EU); Norwegian citizens do
not need to obtain a visa in order to live/work/study in Germany. You do however need to
register for a residence permit. This is done after you arrive in Germany, at the local city hall
of Vallendar (The school gives you all the information you need in order to do this
effectively).
Travel
WHU is located in a small town called Vallendar approximately a 15 minute bus ride from
Koblenz. My flight went from Gardermoen to Frankfurt International on August 24th. After
arriving at Frankfurt Int’l I took a train to Koblenz. When you are in Koblenz you can either
take another train to Vallendar or you can take the bus. Train all the way to Vallendar is by
far the easiest way to travel coming from the airport. Just order a ticket from Frankfurt to
Vallendar.
When you get to Vallendar You will see a large grocery store called “REWE” everything
school related (school + housing) is located on that side of the road.
From “REWE” you can either take a cab to your address or walk. The maximum walking
distance from here to any accommodation is maximum a 10 min walk, but since you do not
know the area and you probably have a lot of luggage I would advise you to take a cab no
matter how close your accommodation is. Cabs usually stop in front of REWE.
If you want to take the bus from Koblenz to Vallendar then choose the #8 bus and get off at the
stop “Vallendar mitte”. The bus stop that is the easiest to use in Koblenz is a bus stop called
“Zentralplatz” and it is located in front of a large mall called “Forum”.
In general it is fairly easy to travel around Europe from Vallendar. The trains will take you
pretty much anywhere and you are close to two large cities (Frankfurt and Cologne) where
they have large international airports.
Housing
Housing is provided by WHU, however it works on a first-come first-served basis. I therefore
recommend that you respond very quickly when you receive information about housing.
Some comments on some of the housing units you are offered:
- Löhrstrasse 25: 6 single room apartments in a small house (This is were I lived). The
building must suffer from mold or something similar since the whole building has a very
distinct smell. It is from what I have experienced the only student housing that WHU
offers that has an oven for cooking. Lastly the Internet is very unstable at this place but
that counts for pretty much all of Vallendar.
- Heerstraße: Very new units with high standards.
- HöhrerStraße: A large apartment complex. Very high standard.
- Goethestraße: Two different buildings; one is a 15 stories elderly home which is very
peaceful (very few exchange students live there), and the other building (InPraxi) is a
student housing unit (much like HörerStraße, both when considering standards and noise).
These two locations are the ones farthest away from the school (only a 7 min walk
though).
See more information and pictures at:
http://www.whu.edu/campus/campus-vallendar/wohnen-uebernachten/wohnen-in-vallendar/
Costs
The cost of living is relatively cheap compared to that of Norway. Rent differs from each
housing unit. I paid €550/month for my accommodation and this was one of the most
expensive ones.
I did not have to buy any books as all class material was provided online. This depends on the
classes you are taking, and if you are a bachelor student you probably have to buy some
books. They do not have a bookstore like we do at BI so you have to find places that sells the
books you need. Amazon.de usually have everything you might need when it comes to books.
Within Vallendar you do not need any transportation. When you are going to Koblenz you can
either take the bus or the train. The prices are the same for both transportation methods (3,50
euros each way). The trip will become cheaper if you buy a group ticket, but then you have to
be about five people minimum.
I for sure spent less than I would otherwise have done in Norway, I think on average I spent about
80 euros a week on food.
Rent
4900 NOK
Books
200 NOK
Food
3000 NOK
Transport
? NOK
Other
? NOK
(Average monthly expenses)
Culture and language
The Rhineland area is a very beautiful area and old castles and wine farms are found all over
the place. If you are looking for a cultural exchange experience, this is a very good option.
Vallendar is for sure no big city life experience. However, Vallendar is a very small society.
You actually live in something similar to a small village. The good thing about this is that
everything is close. Nothing is more than 500m away (approximately).
When it comes to language skills staff and students at WHU speak English well. When it comes
to the population of Vallendar in general their English skills are on average very low /nonexisting. This language barrier is nothing to worry about though.
II. ABOUT THE SCHOOL
Please describe:
WHU Otto Beisheim School of Management is ranked as the number one business school in
Germany. It also have the highest percentage of alumni making €80 000 or more per year. The
school is quite small, and class sizes (for MSc at least) range from approx. 6 - 150 students.
The school buildings are situated in the center of Vallendar. The classes are very interactive,
and the examination usually comprises of more than just final exam. Usually every class has
at least one group project.
The school is very focused around management and entrepreneurship, and a lot of the
students have an entrepreneurial spirit. The community at WHU is very different from that of BI.
Since the school is so small everybody knows each other and you meet each other all the time. . The
student body consists of about 75% men and 25% women.
Course registration
You register for courses after you have arrived at WHU. The process is very easy however an
inefficient intranet has a tendency to make the process a little frustrating. You can sign up for
all the courses you want and then drop the ones you do not wish to continue with. That way
you have a trial period where you can test different courses.
The semester is divided into two quarters, so you have exams mid-way through and at the
very end of you exchange semester. You only need to sign up for the classes you are taking
t he first quarter when you arrive, and then you can pick the classes for your next quarter after
your first exams. I do however recommend you to sign up early as they have a limited amount
of seats available in each course.
An important note: There is no official start or end for the sign-up period. This varies in
each course and is determined by the professor. If you forget to sign up (or off) a course,
there is nothing that can be done to help you. They are very strict.
Also, sometimes you have to sign up for the exam separately from the course registration.
They told us that they changed this and we did not have to sign up for courses this way after
all, but it is smart to figure out if you have to sign up for the course and the exam separately.
You never know if they changed policy again. Again the school will provide you with all the
information you need with regards to this topic.
Academic calendar
Arrival date:
August 24th
First day of the semester:
September 1st
Last day of classes:
December 10th
Examination period:
Until December 20th
Arrival
The first week is comprised of a couple of mandatory information meetings, and many
“events” for the exchange students. The student pub, located conveniently right next to
campus, is where you will meet the people you are to spend the next four months with. The
classes did not really start properly until a couple of weeks into the semester so the first few
weeks were kind of slack.
The International Office
The people at the IRO are very helpful if you have any questions regarding your Learning
Agreement, transfer of grades, etc. Most of the information they provide is given via e-mail
prior to your arrival, but they are always available if you ever need help with anything.
Promoting BI and Norway
I did not promote BI in any official way. Even though it would have been fun to
participate in an international day like the one we have at BI.
Social activities
The introduction week is very including. The VIP (Vallendar integration…) really tries to
arrange activities for the exchange students.
Exchange students also always have their own night at the local pub called Tauschie
Tuesday, which is always very fun. Many full time students also join this and you all have
a good time.
There are also a couple of school parties through out the semester. Most of them are
located in “the Vaulted cellar”, which is huge hall located in the basement of the school.
The hall looks kind of medieval and parties there are always fun.
You are also more than welcome to try out for any of the sports they offer at the school.
During the fall semester the students organize a huge sporting event called Euromasters,
where universities from all over Europe come together and compete in a sporting arena in
Koblenz (Tips: Search for «WHU Euromasters» on youtube).
III. ACADEMICS
In the classroom
Lectures are very long here in my opinion. 2x90 minutes with a 15 min brake in between. You
usually have one lecture a week per class, so you do not have too many lectures per week. The
teaching style is very mixed. Some teachers are very theoretical, while others are much more
practical.
Almost all classes have some sort of group project and overall I would say that the teaching
style is significantly more practical oriented than that of BI. While working on case projects
etc. you will get to know many Germans, and the professors always mix exchange students
and German students so that there are no groups consistent only of exchange students or
Germans. This is actually a rule at the WHU. “At least one exchange student has to be
assigned to each group whenever there is a group project”.
The workload is not more than BI. It is about the same. I would actually go as far as to say
that my first semester on master level at BI was harder than the semester I spent at WHU.
The rumors that people tell you, that WHU is so hard and that the workload is so high are a
myth!!!
Course materials
The professor provides you with almost all of the course material. I personally only bought
one book. In the classes I had we did rarely even use articles. Most of the time it was just the
slides and cases that made up the curriculum. I guess this vary from course to course though.
From what I have heard most of the entrepreneur- and management classes require more
reading than what the finance classes do. Again this also depends on the class. For instance
my financial reporting class required quite a lot of reading but my financial valuation class
consisted of only doing exercises.
Exams
The form of the exam differed between written, multiple choice or a combination of the two.
As long as you study throughout the course you will have no problem receiving a decent
grade, and often the exam only accounts for 50% of the grade. I actually liked the
examination system here. You have two quarters in a semester, which makes the curriculum
very comprehendible, and exams only lasts for 90 minutes.
The grading normally is a combination between presentations, individual/group papers, class
participation and a final exam at the end of the quarter.
Library and technology
You have access to school resources 24/7 with your student ID. This means that you can
connect your laptop and watch movies, sports or have pre-parties with friends in the
auditoriums at night.
The technology standard is quite low compared to BI. The wifi crashes all the time, other than that
everything is pretty good. They have a decent sized computer lab in the library where you can do school
work or whatever else you want to do.
Printing slides is very popular here (I rarely did this since I found it quite unnecessary) and you can print
either at school or you can go to the local copy shop and find slides for all classes there. The latter is slightly
more expensive but considering that the printer system at the school was always messing up my prints I
found it easier to just pay a little extra to get it right.
Description of courses
Course code & name
Master/
Bachelor
Exam form
Prerequisites
Game
theory
Master
In class group
None
work +
individual
homework 80%
Individual
presentation 20%
Health economics
Master
60% final
exam
10% group
work
30% group
work
International
financial reporting 1
Master
Financial valuation
Advanced
management
accounting
Appr
Comments
oved
as
Elective
None
Elective
80% Exam
20% Cases
Some basic
accounting
knowledge
would make it
easier for you
Elective
Master
60% Exam
40% case
competition
Basic finance
Elective Very
interesting
course you
should
definitely
take this
course
Master
60% homework
40% Exam
Basic
management
accounting,
(Økonomi
og
virksomhets
styring)
Elective
Summary
It was a very interesting semester. I saw a totally different culture. Believe it or not,
Vallendar, Germany is a totally different world from that of Scandinavia. I made a bunch of
new friends from all over the world, and the school offered some interesting courses.
This is for sure an experience I that I would never have wanted to be without. No matter if
you want to go to the WHU or any other place I would definitely recommend strongly that
you go on exchange.