Student Report
Name of the University: Nova School of Business and Economics
Exchange semester: Fall, 2015
I. PRACTICAL INFORMATION
Before leaving Norway
We got some information in June where they asked for personal information for registering us
in the system at Nova, and also we had a firm offering help finding accommodation. Other
than that there was not much information from the school, but after a while you get used to
the fact that things take a bit more time to arrange in Portugal. Everything usually workout in
the end Updated course descriptions was only availiable after I arrived in Lisbon, so this
caused some problems since they did changes in the forecasted schedule.
Travel
Sas, Norwegian and TAP Portugal are all flying direct between Oslo and Lisbon in summer.
There are less flights availiable in the winter season, but TAP Portugal flies all year around.
The airport in Lisbon is very closeby the city, so one can easily take a taxi or use the metro
system.
Housing
I got accommodation trough a organization called InLife Portugal. They picked me and two
Norwegian students up at the airport when we arrived and we drove around in Lisbon to see
five apartments. The three of us got each our room in a big apartment together with four other
exchange students from all over the world. Since the apartment was brand new there were
some delays due to the day we could move in that caused some trouble for us, but they
compensated us for this in the end. When we got to move in, I really enjoyed living in the flat.
Be careful in paying deposits for a room booking before leaving Norway, since there have
been some incidents where people have been cheated.
Costs
Rent
Books
Food
2500 – 5000 NOK per month,
depending on if you want to share or
not. I spent 500 EUR a month for a
big room with a private bathroom,
the other ones in my flat payed 375400 EUR with two shared
bathrooms. The apartment was
newly renovated and really nice.
0. Most of the teachers are using
comprehensive power point slides,
and if necessary are books often
availiable online. Research papers
are also often replacing the standard
school books.
You can have a good meal at a
restaurant for 10 to 20 euros.
Transport
Other
The cafeterias at school are very
cheap, and a meal costs about 1-5
euros. I often had dinner out, since
there were a lot nice and cheap
places. Just avoid some of the really
touristy and expensive ones down
near Baixa-Chiado.
A monthly student card for the
public transport system costs about
36,5 euros a month. Single tickets
costs between 1,40 and 1,85 euros.
Taxis are really cheap, use them if
you are going home from the clubs!
Clothes have in general the same
price level as in Norway. Shopping
is quite good, both in the city centre
and at Colombo.
Culture and language
At Uni both the professors and the students speak English surprisingly well. In the big stores
and restaurants people tend to have an overall good English. A bit harder to communicate
with the ones working in the smaller stores, the taxi drivers and bus drivers, but you will
always manage
You can experience a lot of the culture only by visiting Lisbon and the areas aroud which you
can reach by the local trains. If you take the train towards Cascais there are plenty of
possibilities for enjoying a day at one of the beaches just a 10 minutes walk from the train
strations. The beach in Cascais is worth a visit, also the Carcavellos for surfing. Nova Surf
Club and Erasmus Life Lisbon(ELL) arrange surf trips and surf courses that I would really
recommend if you want to try surfing.
Algarv and Porto are absolutely worth a visit. You can easily travel here by train. If you are
craving for some adrenalin there is a skydiving place in Evora, Skydive Portugal, that offers
skydives from 3400 meters til 5000 meters. That was really cool and they also offer a 10 %
discount if you are a member of the ESN Why wait?
II. ABOUT THE SCHOOL
The Nova School of Business and Economics (Nova SBE) is a well-recognized Portugese
Business School, located in the central parts of Lisbon. It is the faculty of economic and
management and sciences of the Universidade Nova de Lisboa. It is a member of CEMS, and
is a Triple Crown business schools world wide. Nova SBE has approximately 2100 students,
and offers specializations in economics and management at a bachelor level, and economics,
finance, management and a special CEMS master, at master level.
Course registration
To get the courses we had to use a online bidding system, where you divide a certain sum of
given points and bid for the the courses you would like to have. There was a huge caos with
this in the beginning, but after some days things worked out and I got the courses that I
applied for.
You get aceess to the course schedule and course descriptions approximately four week
before, and you are self responsible for making sure no courses clash. The enrollment for
bachelor is in mid-august, and for master in the beginning of September. The add-drop period
is approximately two weeks after the courses have started, one for the first and one for the
second term.
Academic calendar
Arrival date:
First day of the semester:
Last day of classes:
Examination period:
Any special events/holidays:
Other:
24 th of August
7 th of September
7 th of December
The courses can either
be half-semester
courses or full
semester courses. The
first half-semester
courses have exams in
the end of October(20th
to 26th), and the rest
has exams from middecember and 18th.
(Bachelor has exams
in January)
8th of December.
Arrival
There were arrangements in the first week arranged from the school, other than that there are
two student organizations that arrange a lot of activities every week from the beginning of
September. The start up at Nova was a bit of a chaos. The bidding system for course
registration did not work when it was suppose to, and there were a lack of information both
among the students and the staff.
Be sure to enjoy the first weeks before school starts. There is heavy workload when school
starts so be sure to get to know people in the beginning and join in on as many things as
possible.
The International Office
We received some information during the summer, and they also responded quickly to
questions. However, I have some experience where they are not that helpful in their answers
which gave me a hard time in the beginning.
Promoting BI and Norway
None. Not an option 
Social activities
The courses have a lot of group works, which give you the opportunity to get to know native
students well. There are also a lot of international students taking their complete masters
degree at Nova SBE. Through school and the Erasmus organizations, ELL and ESN, you can
join in on arranged trips to Porto, Argarve, Coimbra and moreover. They also arrange a lot of
parties trough the semester.
Furthermore, there are also surfing clubs, running clubs and other kinds of sports clubs one
can join in on.
III. ACADEMICS
In the classroom
The classes are quite small, from 20 to 40 students. Participation is important, and the
Portuguese students love discussions. Prensentations, group works and cases are very
common. Teachers are in general quite informal, and speak English very well.
Each course does in general have several hand-ins and presentations in addition to the exam,
which makes the work load quite heavy. However, some courses are a lot easier than others,
so be careful when choosing your subjects.
Course materials
Powerpoint slides are the most common, in addition to reasearch papers and cases. Additional
books are availiable online and in the library, so you don’t have to buy them. You are usually
provided with the material you need.
Exams
Exams do in general count for between 30-50 % of the total grade. The grades are based on
points between 1-20, where 10 is required to pass. Each course had its own rules for whether
all parts of the course had to be passed individually, or if the average point counted as a total.
The exam was supposed to cover the whole course, but as the exam is only 1,5 hours, some
exams was very specific about specific topics/lectures.
Except from the exam, participation, presentations, groups works and hand-ins counted. You
don’t study for your exams for weeks like you are used to in Norway as the presentations,
hand-ins and group cases have due all the way until the exams.
Library and technology
The school is old, and so is the library! There are few places for studying, and circumstances
are not optimal (bad reading light, cold rooms, not enough study spots etc). Me and some of
my collegues found some good library in the city that we enjoyed more than the one on
school. Biblioteca Camões(near Chiado) and Biblioteca Nacional de Portugal(near Entre
Campos Metro stop) are good options that we used a lot.
The school has several computer rooms, but we never used them as we brought our own
computers. The classrooms often lack power outlets, so make sure you have a good battery if
you like to write on your computer during lectures.
Description of courses
Course code & name
Master/
Bachelor
Exam form
Prerequisites
Approved
as
Comments
2161 Microfinance
Master
Final exam 1,5
hours.
Elective
2375 Corporate Social
Responsibility
Master
Final exam 1,5
hours
Elective
2177 Public Finance
Master
Final exam 1,5
hours
2217 Corporate
Governance
Master
Final exam 1,5
hours
2243 Real Estate
Finance
Master
Final exam 1,5
hours
Knowledge in
finance
Elective
2255 Financial
Modelling
Master
Final Exam
1,5 hours
Knowledge of
excel.
Elective
2259 International
Financial
Management
Master
Final Exam
1,5 hours
Intermediate
courses in
economics
Elective
Elective
Elective
Group work
and 1 hand-in.
Good course.
Big group
work and
presentation.
Ok course,
pass as ethics.
2 problem sets,
2 blog posts, 1
critical review.
Home work
every week,
but no group
work. Good
course.
5 cases and
take-home
exam. Good
course.
Group work
and
presentation.
Workload good. The
topics are a bit
hard, but
interesting.
Two group
case in excel.
Practic exam
in excel.
Workload –
good.
Two
problemset,
mini-case
study and
presentation.
Work load –
good. Really
good
professor.
On a final note, how will you sum up the exchange experience?
I had some trouble in the beginning due to problems selecting courses and getting approved
for the courses that I needed. The work load at Nova is really high. So make sure to make the
best out of the time before school starts and enjoy the weekends off Nova offers a different
way of studying then I am used to back from Norway, with a lot of hand-ins, presentations,
cases and group works in almost every course. I learned a lot from all the presentations and I
enjoyed that part, but arranging all the group work can at some point be a bit tricky.
Overall, Lisboa is a great city to both study and live in. People are really welcoming and
helpful here, nevertheless you have to get used to the fact that things go a bit slower here then
back in Oslo. Don’t stress, it will work out in the end Make sure to enjoy all your time off:
Go surfing, enjoy the sun, take a run in the park, go to Bairro Alto for some sangria and
drinks with your friends, go to the beautiful castles in Sintra, spend som days at lovely beach
in Cascais and travel around in Portugal