STUDENT REPORT
Name of the University: Kozminski University
Names of the students: Endre Sommer
Exchange semester:
Spring, 2011
I GENERAL INFORMATION ABOUT THE SCHOOL
The school is an old factory facility, but it has been remade and looks okay. The
surrounding is only factories, so there are no stores nearby, but it is about 10 min by tram
to one of Warsaw’s best shopping centers.
The university has economics, marketing, management and law to offer the students.
I don’t know the exact number of students studying at Kozminski, but there is about 100
exchange students.
The study structure at Kozminski is more like I am used to at high school in Norway. I had
many courses and there were tests and presentations through the whole semester, not
only one final exam.
II PRACTICAL INFORMATION
Information before you left
 Kozminski started to mail me all the information I needed in the beginning of January. I
felt I got all the information I needed in time, and if I had any questions the exchange
office at Kozminski answered my mails really fast and precise.
Visa Procedure and travel experiences
 You don’t need a visa to go to Poland so that part was easy. I only ordered my plane
tickets who was really cheap. Wizzair is a Ukrainian air company and I paid like 300kr for
a one way ticket.
Academic Calendar
 I arrived Warsaw the 9th of January and the first meeting at school was the 10 th of
January. The first two weeks was introduction weeks and you could try all the courses
before you signed up for those you wanted to have. My last day of classes was in the
beginning of June and my last exam was about the same time.
Reception
 The reception was good, all exchange students got a mentor and mine was meeting me
at the airport and showed me to my apartment. All the mentors were regular students at
kozminksi and the first week they were a lot with us. The “president” of the exchange
student had arranged a lot of things the first week, so all of us were eating together and
sightseeing the city. So after the first week everyone had already become good friends,
Housing
 I had to find my own housing in Warsaw because the school has no campus. The
exchange office sent me many different apartment offers so we could just mail the house
owners, and get a flat to rent. This was very helpful and made it easy to get housing. But I
also know that some of the other exchange students mailed their mentors before they
arrived Warsaw and got them to help them find a nice flat.
Costs
 The main cost was the rent and that was 1400zl (about 3000kr) a month. We didn’t need
to by books at the university, if you needed some you could only borrow them at the
library. So food and night life was the next thing that cost me some money. A cheap meal
at a restaurant was about 25zl (50kr) with one main course and a something to drink. But
normaly I paid about 30-35zl (60-70kr) for a meal. On special days different restaurants
had promotion days and then you could have beer or something else half price, so
Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday the beer cost 7,5zl (15kr) for one liter. You can save a
lot of money by locating the restaurants with different promotion days. One beer in the
club was about 10 to 12zl (20-30kr).
The International Office
 There is an international office at kozminski and they are responsible for incoming
students. You can always go to the office and ask them if you have any questions. The
international office will mail you all the relevant info you need.
Social Activities
 I have good relationships with regular students at the university, but my closest friends
where exchange students. I was really close friends with many of the exchange students
and we were always going out to eat dinner together and have some beers. We became
like a really close family. There was a lot of partying in Warsaw and the nightlife there is
much better than in Oslo. There is an organization for exchange student all over Warsaw
and they arrange parties and some sports activities through the semester. But the
arrangements we did on our own was the best. But the exchange organization arranged
trips to different cities and these trips were really cool.
I loved the school and Warsaw is a great city, so I believe this was the best semester of
my life!
Culture and Language
 I never had language problems with any other student, but grocery shopping could be
difficult from time to time.
I was traveling with some friends to the south of Poland and we were staying at one of the
mentor’s house and we experienced a lot of Polish culture.
Cultural and Social Effects from the Exchange Experience
 My exchange period has changed the way I think of Norway and the rest of the world.
Norway is an “isolated” country, nobody knows a lot about Norway, but the Norwegians
think they are important.
This period has already influenced my career possibilities, I got to job offers from friends
who are starting their own businesses and I will most likely have a summer job for Audi in
Germany next summer.
III ACADEMIC INFORMATION
The Teaching situation
 All the courses I could choose from were in English except polish for beginners.
The study process was very different from BI, Kozminski was like high school in Norway. I
had 10 small courses, and through the whole semester we had small test and
assignments so the final exams were just small tests as well. So the grades I got was
more a general impression of my work trough the semester and not only the last day, the
exam.
This made the teaching a lot more practical than at BI. I have made business models and
analyzed brand values and advertisement campaigns.
The workload at Kozminski was still smaller than at BI, but I think the fact that I was an
exchange student made the workload a little bit smaller.
Required Literature
 The literature was in English, but we didn’t need any books. Most of all we used the slides
from the classes. And the exams were mostly based on those and the cases we had.
Exams
 Mostly I had written exams, but some were multiple choice and in some courses there
were a final presentation.
Description of Courses
Course name:
Exam
Approved as
Manage working capital to boost profitability
written exam
elective
Strategic brand management
written
Psycology in management
multiple choice
Contemporary management in CEE
written
Doing business in CEE
written
Logistics
written
Carerr planning and job market
multiple choice
Entreprenourship and new venture development final presentation
Psycology of money
final presentation
elective
Retail marketing
final presentation
elective
…………………………………………………………………………………………..
Please fill in all the courses you have taken
Names and e-mails:
Endre Sommer
endresommer@hotmail.com