STUDENT REPORT
Name of the university: Corvinus University of Budapest
Exchange semester: Fall 2015
Before leaving Norway
We received a lot of emails from Corvinus in March/April about important dates, like course
selection and orientation day. Final email and acceptance came in June. Then there was no
more email until August.
Applying for visa (if applicable)
In the start they tell you to get a visa because the semester is longer than three months. You
will receive an email from Corvinus about paper works in the beginning of the semester, and
you will have 90 days to register with all the papers in the immigration office. But if you are
planning on traveling over the boarder within the three first moths, it won´t be necessary.
Travel
Booked a flight with SAS from Bergen one month in advance. I also recommend travel with
Norwegian when they have very reasonable prices.
I took a taxi from the outside the airport in Budapest, it´s around 7000 Forint, to the city
center.
Housing
Housing was not provided or supported by the university. I came to Budapest without any
places to stay. I book an AirBnB at the beginning, and came in contact with a girl form
Holland on Facebook, and we found an apartment together. There are a lot of apartments
online that Hungarian companies rent out, and you can also use Facebook Erasmus Budapest
group on Facebook. Here you get connected with a lot of other exchange students who have
flats/rooms for rent the coming year. I will also recommend checking out Budapest, Hungary
Apartment Rentals on Facebook.
District 5 and 7 is near the school and very safe. I lived in district 6, with a lot of other
students. It is also near the school, but not as near as district 5 and 7.
Costs (pr. Month)
Rent
NOK 3000
Books
NOK 0
Food
NOK 1500
Transport
NOK 100
Other
NOK 2500-300
You will get an Erasmus Grand of around 11 000 NOK for the semester in addition to funds
from Laanekassen.
Normally the rent in Budapest is between 2500 and 5000 NOK a month. It depends on where
and how you want to live. I lived in district 6, just behind the Opera and paid 3000 NOK,
which is a very popular place and close to many restaurants and bars. Food is very cheap, so it
is normal to eat out 3 – 4 times a week.
Culture and language
I had no problem with the language. The coordinators speak English, and the international
students also speak good English and it is easy to communicate. Some Hungarian people have
difficult of understanding and speak English, but in general they can communicate in English.
In the beginning of the semester Erasmus arrange getting to know each other trips, so you will
be able to get to know the Hungarian culture a bit more. Therefore I recommend you to plan
your schedule to finish the week on Wednesday or Thursday, so you will be able to travel in
the weekends.
ll. ABOUT THE SCHOOL
Location
The school is located in the center of the city right next to Danube and at the beginning/end of
Vaci Utca, the main shopping street. The school consists of 3 large buildings, two old ones
and one new building. The old building is very beautiful, does not look like a school from the
outside. It is very close to public transport, so it is easy to get there by bus, tram or metro.
Courses
Through Neptune you will be able to choose courses. It will open at 8:00, so be sure to log in
at 7:50 and refresh as thousands of students register at the same time. If you didn´t get the
courses you wanted/needed, you will be able to change the courses for almost 2 weeks after
the registration opens. If there were any courses you needed that you did not get, you can
contact the school, and they will try to fix it for you. You usually get the courses you want.
The add and drop period started at 10th September and ended at 22th September.
The classes are usually small and it is expected of you to participate in class discussions. It
has the same structure that we have in High School in Norway. You will have midterms, that
will count up to 30 % of your grade, group works and presentation that will count around 520% of you grade, and in the end you will have a final exam that will count from 25-40 % of
your grade. They will also take attendance in class, and if you skip more than 3 classes you
automatic fail the course. In the midterm week, you can end up having all of you exam in the
same week; this goes for the finals too. In the description you will get on email, it will say
that exam period is from 20-23 December. The school semester will be 14 weeks, midterms
in week 7 and finals in week 14. My final exam was from 14-17 December, so you will be
able to travel home before Christmas. But you can also choose to take the final exam after
Christmas, in January.
Two things I would like to point out is that there is very bad with places to study at the
school, it is not like BI and the WIFI was very bad, it did not work 50 % of the time.
Academic calendar
Arrival date
2 September
First day of semester
14 September
Las day of classes
7 – 10 December
Examination period
14-18 December
Any special events/holidays
23 October national holiday
Other
Arrival
The first week was the orientation week and Erasmus Students Organization in Budapest
arranged it. There were a lot of activities and parties to get to know each other and Budapest.
Here you meet some people you probably will spend you time with at your stay in Budapest.
ANSA Budapest also has “Fadderuke” you can join. This is for the new Norwegian students
and for people who are on exchange from Norway. I joined the ANSA Fadderuke and I got to
know many new people that I have been become friends with now. Later in your stay, ANSA
will arrange pub quiz, Halloween parties and October fest, which is very nice.
The international Office
You will get a lot of emails every week, with both important information and a lot of
promoting and unimportant messages in Hungarian.
Promoting BI and Norway
There was an Erasmus Expo event, where I and two other from BI was representing BI and
Norway. Many people were interested in Norway, and especially in BI if they were studying
Business. But the topic of how expensive it is, was brought up every time.
Social activities
There were some Hungarian in one class, but other wise there was no relationship with the
Hungarian students. The Erasmus Student Organization organized a lot of different activities,
parties every week and trips to different countries.
lll. ACADEMIC
In the classroom
You have one lecture part and one seminar part. The lecture part is more theoretical with a
class of 50+ students and the seminar class is more practical with a class of 25 – 30 students.
In some courses you have to prepared and participate before the seminar and it is mandatory
to be there. The classes are really small and you will get a closer relationship to the teacher
here than you have at BI. The teachers are different in their own way, and the level of English
varies.
The workload is higher than BI, there is assignments, group work, mandatory participation
and more, and the group works take a lot you time. The level is lower, but that does not mean
that it is easy to get good grades. If you fulfill all of your assignments and participate in class
you will be able to reach a good grade. In the midterm and final exam week you don´t won´t
have a week to prepare your self like you have in BI, you might just have 12 hours to prepare
for an exam.
Course material
There are no bookstores that sell the books you need. They have a library, but some books are
not allowed to take out of the library and it is usually waiting list for the books you can bring
out of the library. The easiest way is to copy the book, and use the teachers PowerPoint
presentation.
Exam
Most of the exam was based on what you reviewed in class with the teacher from the seminar
and lecture. I had one course where he based the exam on recommending readings, which he
did not tell us about, so everybody was a little bit shocked at midterm. As long as you attend
and pay attention in class you will have the material you need for exam.
An example of how the course was evaluated:
15% class attendance and participation
25% group assignment
5% group consultation
30% midterm exam
30% final exam
Library and technology
There is a nice library at the new building, but not much place to sit and study. The library is
a little bit stricter than at BI, you have to show you library card every time you come in to a
security guard, and you cannot bring you bag and jacket inside.
Like I said earlier, the WIFI on the school is very bad.
Description of courses
Course code &
name
Decision
Techniques
Master/
Bachelor
Bachelor
Exam
form
90 min
written
exam
Prerequis Approved as
ites
None
Mandatory
as strategic
Personality
types and Team
Dynamics
Bachelor
2 hours
written
exam
None
Elective
Comments
Hungarian teacher
speaks English.
Boring class
because of the
teacher. Very
practical and useful
course, but I don´t
recommend this
course.
The teacher is from
the US and very
good. Highly
practical course, but
very interesting in
terms of selfdiscovering.
Analyzing your type
Chinese
companies:
Business
Strategy
Bachelor
Presentati
on
None
Human
Resources
Master/
Bachelor
90 min
written
exam
None
Tourism
management
and marketing
Master/
Bachelor
2 hours
written
exam
None
and how
personalities values
and difficulties to
teams. Relevant to
other course as well.
Good class
atmosphere.
Mandatory
This is the teacher
as
you will never
entrepreneurs forget. Very
hip
motivating as well
and have a lot of
business
knowledge. You
don´t have a final
exam, only a
presentation with a
group.
Elective
Italian teacher with
a lot of knowledge
and experience in
Human Resource.
Classes are very
theoretical, but very
good teacher. This
is the class I learned
the most of.
Elective
Two different
teachers, both from
Hungary and very
good. Interesting
course with an
insight in tourism
and marketing. Easy
course. After this
class I can
guarantee that you
want to travel more.
I really recommend
this course.
I am really glad I traveled. It was an incredible semester where you learn a lot about different
cultures and personal positive challenges. You get to experience so much new things and
wide your social network with new friends from all over the world. I personally have grown
into another level just by being here for 4 months, both in school and in social context. Not
only have my English speech improved, but I have also managed to become less introverted
and more extraverted. I have also seen positive and negative differences from Norway that I
will bring with me in my life.
The social network is important if you are going to have a good time at your stay. I
experiences new places and activities every day. For example, suddenly I found my self one
hour away from Budapest center, in the forest, doing zip line down the threes, which was an
awesome experience.