Student Report
University of St. Gallen
Spring, 2013
I. PRACTICAL INFORMATION
Before leaving Norway
Before leaving we received an information email from the University through the
international office at BI in the end of August. In the letter was a link to an online page, with a
number of forms to fill in. On the online page you should basically fill in all formal
information about yourself. You also had to decide if you wanted to rent a room through the
university’s housing office in St.Gallen. Here you could enter your own specifications, and
choose between three different price brackets and other specifications you might have about
your future flat. It was a bit of work to complete all the registration, so it is really important,
as they say, to read every email you get from the university carefully. Before leaving, you
have to choose potential courses you want to participate in to BI to get the learning agreement
approved, but the real distribution of courses aren’t carried out before you are in St.Gallen,
and you have to bid for courses through the School’s bidding system.
Applying for a visa (if applicable)
To live in Switzerland as a student you need a visitor residence permit. However, you do not
need this in order to enter Switzerland. You will receive all the information needed when you
arrive at the university, and there is no rush to get the residence permit. The permit is obtained
at the City Hall after filling out relevant forms received by the housing office and getting
these stamped. The cost of the residence permit is less than NOK 500.
Travel
Travelling to St. Gallen from Oslo is of course, easiest done by plane. The nearest airport,
approximately 1 hour by train from St. Gallen, is Zurich. The flight is around 2,5 hours long.
The cheapest and best tickets we found were the youth fare tickets from SAS, found under
“Offers” and “Special Prices”. If you order a couple of months in advance the price should be
around NOK 1000. Trains from the airport directly to St. Gallen leave multiple times an hour
and tickets are easily bought through machines at the station.
If you are planning to travel a bit in Switzerland, the Half-Fare travelcard, and
optionally Track 7(Gleis 7), should be considered. These can be bought at the airport/trains
station before your first travel, and they will send the card to be picked up at the train station
in St. Gallen. With the Half-Fare card you travel for half fare with all trains in Switzerland,
and with Track 7 you travel for free after 7 pm. additionally you receive a discount on travels
with bus, boat and for other activities as for example restaurants and ski resorts. They each
cost approximately NOK 900, and you need the first in order to be able to buy the second.
There are endless attractions around Switzerland, and you don’t have to travel a lot before the
cost of these cards is earned.
Housing
With regards to housing there are two options; using student housing, or the private market.
Student housing is easier, but more expensive, from NOK 4000-5500, while you can get
private housing for less than NOK 3000. Although private housing is cheaper, student housing
is recommended, much because of the social experience of living with other exchange
students. There are quite a few forms to be filled out before you leave for St. Gallen, and we
recommend that you are early in starting to do this. Student housing requires an advance
payment in order to receive housing.
Both Felicia and Mathias lived in an apartment facilitated by the student housing.
Felicia lived with two other exchange students, with 30 exchange student in the same house,
the apartment was bit outside city in Ruhsitzstrasse, so you had to buy a monthly bus card to
get to school. The monthly rent was NOK 4500. Mathias lived with three other exchange
students. There were four students in each of the four floors of the house. The apartment was
in Rosenbergstrasse, very close to the city centre and within walking distance to the
university, and the living standard was very high. Mathias paid approximately NOK 5000 pr.
month. Other students in the same apartment paid a bit less, even though rooms were just as
large. Location and living standard varies a lot, and both prices and distribution seems a bit
random. If you go for using Student Housing, make shure you ask for an apartment close to
the city centre, e.g. in Rosenbergstrasse.
Costs
Rent
Books
Food
Transport
NOK 5000
NOK 500
Norwegian prices
Norwegian prices
II. ABOUT THE SCHOOL
The city is very small with about 70,000 citizens, and the university has approximately 7,000
students, so during the semester, the city is filled with a lot of students. The university is
placed on a hill above the city centre of St.Gallen, so you will get a lot of training walking the
stairs! The buildings of the University are maybe not the most inspiring locations, but you
have all the facilities you need and expect. In the weekends, you have a lot of opportunities to
travel, not just around in Switzerland, but you are also in a great position to travel to the
neighbouring countries like Italy, Germany, France, Lichtenstein and Austria. In February and
March, you have a lot of opportunities to go skiing, you are only a 2 hour train trip away from
St.Anthon, or a 1 hour bus trip away from smaller local ski resorts in Switzerland.
The sports facilities at St. Gallen University are great. Many activities are free, and
those that are not are generally very cheap compared to usual rates. You can do almost any
sport thinkable, usually with a professional instructor. Mathias did tennis lessons, volley-ball,
badminton, rock climbing and frisbee. Other examples are skiing, horse riding, lacrosse,
basketball, martial arts, dancing, paragliding, sailing, hiking, and the list goes on. Make sure
you drop by the Sports Office as early as possible to get a program, and sign up for activities
early, as they often become full.
Course registration
The course registration goes through a bidding system where you have to bid for courses to
get your courses. You get an amount of credits and the bidding is like a game, where you have
to have a tactic to get your courses. Each round lasts for one week, and then you know which
courses you got, and which you didn’t get. But you shouldn’t worry you won’t get courses it
will always be some “free courses” in the end, and you will get a lot of information about the
bidding in the introduction week.
Academic calendar
Arrival date:
First day of the semester:
Last day of classes:
Examination period:
Any special events/holidays:
Other:
02. February
19. February
24. Mai
13.-24. Mai
Spring break: 1.-14.
April
Optionally centralized
exams in June/July
Arrival
Describe the introduction week + Social activities
The introduction week contained a German course and also social activities in the evening
arranged by the “buddysystem” , which can be compared to “fadderullan” at BI. It was
activities like a trip to Luzern, swiss fondue night, bowling, ice-skating and other theme-based
evenings. The introduction week made it easy to get to know other exchange students, and
have a lot of fun. The “buddysystem” also arranged activities through the whole semester, like
a ski trip and other social events. It was not that easy to get to know the regular students as
Swiss people have a lot of similarities to Norwegians, but in the classes where you had group
work with regular Swiss students, it was easier to get to know them.
The International Office
The International Office at both BI and St.Gallen answered all the questions you asked for,
and it was really easy to feel safeguarded.
III. ACADEMICS
In the classroom
The teachers at St. Gallen use their own preferred teaching style. You can experience
practical, theoretical, cases/lectures, block seminars, formal/informal lectures etc.
Both the level and the work load at St. Gallen are higher than at BI. As an example,
we experience two 3-point courses at SG as a much larger work load than one 7,5-point
course at BI. Most exchange students take less than the normal 30 ECTS, and we would
recommend you to go for 23 ECTS and do one extra course at BI before or after your
exchange period. Consider choosing more qualitative courses than you normally would, as
quantitative courses at St. Gallen are very technical.
The first number in the course-code displays the level of the course. Generally, courses
starting with 5 or lower are relevant for bachelor’s exchange students. Some courses with 6
are ok, but make sure you have the required prerequisites. Courses with 7 or more are
master’s courses.
The semester for exchange students is very short and intensive. Full-time students
follow the same lectures as exchange students, but they have a four week “break” of exam
preparation before they have their exam period in June/July. This is called “centralized
exams”. Exchange students have the option to choose subjects with centralized exams, but
this is very rare, and almost all exchange students finish their exams in the “de-centralized”
exam period. These exams are generally easier. Consider taking a block course during spring
break, in order to reduce the work load at the end of the semester.
Course materials
The teachers at St. Gallen use the course material they prefer. Material varies from
books/literature to online articles, to Powerpoint slides and hand outs.
Exams
The courses and classes were very different depending on the particular course. Classes may
have mid-terms, presentations, class participation, oral exams or papers. It is therefore
important to read the course description very carefully so you don’t end up having just 100 %
written exams. The good thing about the different types of classes is that the workload get
more diversified during the semester, but almost of all the courses had a part of written exam
in the end of May, which is a bit busy, because you have lectures until the exams and there is
no “exams period” as such.
Library and technology
St. Gallen University is very well equipped. We spent very little time at the library, but it
seemed. The school has good computer rooms and printing facilities. Make sure you go to the
IT-course during the introduction weeks.
Description of courses
Course code &
name
4,162 Asia
Compact –
Investment
Management
(Singapore)
4,254 Linear
Models and
Variance
Analysis
6,264
Behavioural
Economics
6,302
International
Economics
Exam form
Prerequisites
- Course
participation 15%
-Midterm exam:
15%
- Student
presentation in
groups: 15%
- Hand in paper in
groups: 15%
- 1,5 hour written
exam: 40%
1 hour oral exam
for exchange
students: 100%
(- Home exam:
50% and oral exam
50% for local
students)
1,5 hour written
exam: 100%
Finance I
- Independent
studies (hand in
paper and
presentation): 50%
- Oral exam for
exchange students:
Approved as
Elective
8 ECTS
Mathematics
Statistics
Econometrics
Elective
3 ECTS
Microeconomics I
Elective
3 ECTS
Macroeconomics I
and II
Elective
6 ECTS
Comments
A two week block seminar
during spring break. First week
in Singapore, second week in
Kuala Lumpur, including
lectures, seminars and company
visits. Midterm/final exam is a
few weeks before/after the
exam, some work before and
after must be expected. Travel
and living expenses are not
included.
Very theoretically and
technically advanced. Requires
econometrics. Exchange
students are offered an oral
exam that is very easy compared
to the written home exam fulltime students receives.
Do the assumptions made in
classic economic theory seem a
bit off to you? Then this is the
course for you. Combines
Microeconomics with
psychology.
This is a very interesting course
about international macro
economics, including among
other; trade theory, exchange
theory, monetary/fiscal theory.
It’s possible, and we did it,
50%
4,300
International
Relations
Theory
6,110- 28
Seminar
(KPMG- Private
Banking)
For exchange
students it was a
paper of 4000
words you had to
write in one week
in the last week of
May. (written exam
for the regular
students)
100 % presentation
German
50 % written, and
50 % oral.
4,156- Logistics
70 % written exam,
and 30 % group
presentation.
without Macro II as a
prerequisite, but it’s hard and
the workload is large.
A course primarily for students
studying International affairs.
Interesting if you are interested
in politics, maybe not the typical
“business course”
None
6 ECTS
Interest in
wealth
management,
research,
thinking out of
the box.
Test in the
beginning of
the semester.
3 ECTS
This is a very interesting
seminar; you meet 4 times
during the semester. You work
on a real case for KMPG in
groups of maximum 3.
4 ECTS
Business
knowledge
4 ECTS
You learn a lot of German
during the semester. You are in
a class with 10-15 that meet
twice a week, and it is a lot of
talking, and you actually learn a
lot, not only German, but also a
lot about other cultures, because
of the diversity of cultures in
class.
The course is primarily
consisting of exchange students
in a small class with 15 students.
You get to know the logistic
service business from a close
hold.
A final note
The exchange experience has given a lot new perspectives of how to study. St.Gallen is a
place you should go if you like an academic challenge. Even though it was a lot of school
work to do, you still had time to be social and get to know people from all around the globe.
The good thing about Switzerland is its position in the centre of Europe, so the travelling
options around in Europe are huge, and we have never been in so many countries in such a
short period. The stay in St.Gallen, have definitely given perspectives about the future, and
given an indicator of what to do, and also what not to do in the future.