Student Report
Name of the University: Corvinus University of Budapest
Exchange semester: Fall 2014
Before leaving Norway
We received the first e-mail from Corvinus in March, with information about the selection
of courses. Then we did not receive any information before early August. Most of the
practical information was received through Facebook and the ERASMUS student organization
at the school.
Applying for a visa (if applicable)
In the start you will hear that you need to apply for a visa because the semester is longer
than three months. You have 90 days to register with all the papers at the immigration
office. But basically it`s not necessary to apply for a visa since it can be avoided if you`re
passing the boarder within the first three months.
Travel
I flew with SAS from Bergen Airport to Budapest Airport. It’s easy to just take a Taxi from
outside the airport, it`s around 7000 Forint from the airport to the city center.
Housing
Housing was not provided or supported by the university, but really easy to find apartments
online or through the Erasmus Facebook group. District 5 and 7 is the safest choice, and are
close to the school, activities and all the popular bars.
Costs
Rent
4200 NOK
Books
0
Food
1300 NOK
Transport
100 NOK
Other
1500 NOK
Basically normal rent is between 2000 and 3000 NOK a month. I lived alone in a 50 sq. meter
apartment close to the parliament, which is one of the safest and greatest areas in Budapest,
therefore a higher rent. Food are really cheap and therefore it`s normal to eat out around 23 times a week.
Culture and language
No language problems with the faculty or other students, everyone spoke well English and
the lectures were easy to follow.
Erasmus arranged a get to know each other trip in the start of the semester; there it was
possibilities to experience some culture and Hungarian traditions.
II. ABOUT THE SCHOOL
Please describe:
The school is located in the centre of the city right next to the Danube. There are two
Buildings, one old and one new, the old building is beautiful both inside and outside, and
looks almost like a museum. The classes are usually small and it is expected of you to
participate in class discussions. A part of your final grade (10%-20%) is judged by attendance,
presenting homework, presentations and general discussions. Class attendance is
mandatory, and if you miss more than 3 seminars you might fail the course. In late October
there is mid-term week where you usually have tests in all your courses in one week. Not be
surprised if you have 3 midterms in one day. The final exams are done the same way as the
mid- terms. You have the option to take all of them the last week before Christmas, or come
back in January and take some of them then.
Course registration
When and how did you register for courses?
Through Neptune on 6th of June, 8:00. Be sure to login at 7:50 and refresh as thousands
register at the same time, and the courses fills up in seconds. If you did not get the course
you wanted, some courses got more available when the semester starts.
When did the add/drop period end?
15th September
Academic calendar
Arrival date:
26 August
First day of the semester:
1 September
Last day of classes:
8 September
Examination period:
15 - 19 December
Any special events/holidays:
23. October
Other:
Arrival
The first week was arranged by Erasmus student organization, and basically was all about get
to know each other, and partying in different clubs/bars. You probably going to spend a lot
of time later with the people you meet that week.
Introduction week was the first week in the semester, before classes started. All the
information about school and outside school activities was presented the first day. The
upcoming days, the student organization arranged different cultural activities every day,
where you could experience all the famous Budapest sights.
The International Office
The International Office at Corvinus sends out a ton of e-mails every week, with both
important information and a lot of unimportant random messages in Hungarian.
Promoting BI and Norway
There was an international flag party, but no one actually promoted their country in any
ways.
Social activities
The relationship with the Hungarian students was almost none existing. I had some courses
with Hungarian students, but the basically staid for themselves and did not interact with the
international students. Except for one or to two nice Hungarian students that was in the
student organization, and organized big house parties in the beginning of semester. The
Erasmus student organization organized a lot of different activities, parties every week, trips
to different countries and dinners.
III. ACADEMICS
In the classroom
The classes have one lecture part and one seminar part. The lecture part is theoretical and
the seminar part is more practical. In the seminar part you have to be prepared and
participate, and it`s mandatory to be there. The classes is really small compared to BI, and
you gets a relationship with the teacher either if you want it or not. The teachers are
different in they formality and strictness, but in general they don’t tolerate student that
don’t behave. In one class, a student disagreed and was being a bit rude to the teacher, so
the teacher kicked him out of class and gave him 10 less point of his final grade.
The workload differs from course to course, but in general it is much more to do than at BI. It
is a lot of assignments, presentations and homework. The level in easier, but he amount of
work compensate for the easy level. So at the final exam week, you wish you were back at BI
again and had one week to prepare for the exam, not 5 exams on 3 days and 12 hours to
prepare.
Course materials
It is hard to find bookstores that sell the books we need to have for the courses. They have
the books at the library, and it is easy and cheap to copy the whole book if needed.
The teachers use PowerPoint presentations.
Exams
Most of the exams were based on the course materials or on the lectures. But some of the
teachers also talked about materials in class that later showed up on the exam, so if you miss
a seminar/lecture it can be that you don’t have the whole material for the exam. All the
courses have a maximum of 100 points.
An example of how the course was evaluated:
35 % Written Final exam
25 % Mid-term exam
5 % Presentations
15 % Group work
10 % Class attendance
10 % Class participation/debates
Library and technology
Nice, big library at the new building.
Description of courses:
Course code & name
Master/
Exam form
Bachelor
Corporate Finance
Bachelor
Prerequ
Approved as
Comments
Mandatory
Gets better
as finance
knowledge of Basic
isites
90 min
None
written exam
finance. Teacher was
strict, but really good
and fair. Homework
for every seminar,
but great learning
process.
Decision Techniques
Bachelor
90 min
None
written exam
Mandatory
A boring class
as Strategic
because of the
teacher. It was too
practical and difficult
to pay attention to
the teacher. But also
useful and
interesting subjects.
Personality Types and
Team Dynamics
Bachelor
2 hours
written exam
None
Elective
The teacher was
great and made the
classes more
interesting with
practical learning
methods. Maybe too
much of the same
material over and
over again. But
overall an interesting
course.
Introduction to
Bachelor
International Business
90 min
None
Elective
written exam
In general an
interesting course,
but too much
theoretical facts.
Also a big group
project that you
have to work on the
whole semester.
Hungarian for
Beginners
Bachelor
90 min
written exam
None
Elective
Nice and cute
teacher. She is nice
with the grades, and
makes it easy to
learn the difficult
Hungarian language.
On a final note, how will you sum up the exchange experience?
It was an incredible semester where I had a lot of academic, cultural and personal positive
challenges. Exchange is also an opportunity to establish a wide social network with new friends from
all over the world. I have grown in a personal level and had a lot of great experiences both from
school and social settings. I`ve learned about cultural differences, seen how hard it is to actually work
in groups with people from different nationalities (communication problems). And also been able to
experience how different, both positive and negative sides, it is to live in another country than
Norway. The social context is important when it comes to exchange, if you`re not social in the period
you`re not going to have such a great experience. Budapest is a big, beautiful city with lots of things
happening all the time. You experiences new activities, beautiful unique buildings, and in general
new places every day.