Student Report
Name of the University: Maastricht University - School of Business and
Economics (SBE)
Exchange semester: Fall 2015, Master
GENERAL INFORMATION ABOUT MAASTRICHT
Maastricht is a small city located in the south of the Netherlands only a 5 minutes
bike ride from the Belgian border and 50 minutes from the German border. The
closest German city to Maastricht is Aachen which is famous for crowded Christmas
market. The city has about 120 000 inhabitants, but is also a touristy place with
breath-taking river views from big bridges. It is a popular city for students with many
facilities such as student pubs, restaurants, big parks and clubs.
The topography is very flat so everyone uses bikes as transportation. About the
climate, the temperature is a bit higher than in Oslo, but it rains a lot and it is much
windier than in Oslo.
I.PRACTICAL INFORMATION
Before leaving Norway
After applying for exchange by the International Office I received all the information
needed from the university by email. Everything was explained very easily and, if
needed, the international office at Maastricht University was very helpful with
questions and other information.
Applying for a visa (if applicable)
Because I am from Asia, I had to apply for a Visa to study in the Netherlands if I
stayed there for more than 3 months. The application process was quite simply since
the International Relations Department at SBE and the Visa Office at the University
of Maastricht is very supportive. On my receipt of admission letter from the School
by email for my exchange period, I just followed all the instructions listed in the
email, submitted all the necessary online documents such as academic transcript from
BI, scholarship confirmation for Financial Proof (if you do not have a scholarship,
then you must transfer money to the bank account of Maastricht university and send a
copy of the online receipt with your application package), personal information forms
(attached to the email) and a copy of online receipt confirming my payment of Visa
fee and sent all those documents by mail to the address of the Visa office. After 3
weeks, the result of my successful visa application was announced.
Travel
I had no difficulty travelling to Maastricht. I departed from Oslo Gardermoen Airport
to Amsterdam Schiphol Airport. After that I took the train to Maastricht which took
me 3 hours with one transit in between. Because I had signed up for the Exchange
pick-up service by ISN Maastricht, they picked me up at the central station and drove
me to the central guesthouse to pick up the key to my place outside the central
guesthouse. After finalizing my accommodation procedures, I got a free shuttle bus
which was a service provided by the guesthouse to bring me to my formal place.
Housing
The university does not provide housing, so you have to find a place to stay by
yourself, but they recommend different housing opportunities, which is perfect for
exchange students. Maastrichthousing.com is the easiest and best way for housing
with own guesthouses around the city centre. I will encourage exchange students to
get their housing through Maastrichthousing.com which is very easy and I will also
encourage to stay at a guesthouse, not a private apartment, because you will get all the
good experiences you want from an exchange semester by living with other students.
I stayed at a guesthouse that was quite far from the University, taking about 20
minutes to travel to SBE and 25 minutes to the city centre, which was sometimes
inconvenient and boring because all the parties and festivals concentrated in the city
centre. However, this was a very good place where you share kitchen, toilet and
laundry room with only 1 exchange student, but you have your private bedroom. The
only thing making me not really happy with my housing was that the Internet
connection was quite slow, much slower than in Oslo.
Costs
An approximation of the monthly cost of my exchange semester
Rent
Books and
prints
Food
Transport
Other
Total
NOK 3900
NOK 200
NOK 1700
NOK 0
NOK 500
NOK 6800
The cheapest rent I could find on Maastrict Housing was 13 EUR/day, which amounts
to 390 EUR a month. When it comes to books this depends very much on the courses
you are taking. You buy the books at the start of each period that is 2 times each
semester. Some courses don’t require books, just articles found online, while some
courses require several books that might cost up to 1500 NOK per course. Books can
usually be bought at the Study Store next to the university. However, most students
search for second hand books on the Facebook group called “SBE second hand
books”. Printing cost is much cheaper than in BI, with a Black and White page
costing you 0.03 EUR. Food is also generally cheaper in the Netherlands and a
normal budget for food including some days off to restaurants comes at 1700 NOK
per month.
When you come to Maastricht, be sure to get a bike. You can either rent from the
Guesthouse or buy privately. Bike is essential in getting yourself around in
Maastricht, and the flat terrain makes it perfect for biking around. This also minimizes
your transportation cost. The price for a second hand bike ranges from 50 to 70 EUR.
But be sure to give your bike a strong lock. Bike thefts are very common in
Maastricht.
If you want to travel to other countries or nearby European cities, such as Amsterdam,
Paris, Brussels, Cologne, this is not more than a 2-4 hour train ride away and doesn’t
cost that much.
Culture and language
I didn’t experience any problems with language on the faculty or with other students.
As long as you can practice an advanced level of English, it is usually no problem
with communication. The culture in the Netherlands is not that different from the
Norwegian culture so it is not a big change from what you are used to. The tutorials
and lectures are held in English. I must say that all tutors and students are very
proficient in English, especially German and Dutch ones.
Cultural and social effects from the exchange experience
I think that this exchange semester has helped me very much. I find my English
improving a lot thanks to meeting many other foreign exchange students. Also, the
experience broadened my horizon regarding cultures because I could make friends
with Taiwanese, Chinese, German and Dutch. They offered me lots of insights into
their traditions.
II. ABOUT THE SCHOOL
The school, at least the Faculty of Business and Economics, is of good standard and
situated close to the city center. It is also close to a nice park and there is only a 5
minute walk to the library. Maastricht University has about 15 000 students, and is the
most international university in the Netherlands. However, the school is Germandominated. You can find that most of your classmates and tutors come from
Germany, but Maastricht University has many exchange students.
Course registration
You can register for courses before your arrival in Maastricht and you should also do
this. The deadline for course registration for the first period in the fall semester is
around 15th of July. This changes every year. I registered without any problems. All
information about the courses is available in the Course Database at the Maastricht
University Page. This works very well, you just sign up and if you sign up before the
deadline, participation is promised. If you want further information about the course,
you should check evaluation from previous courses. The link to this is provided when
click each course name. You should check for the study hours for each course, overall
evaluation grade for the tutors and open-ended questions so that you can arrive at the
optimal choices for your courses during exchange. Some courses at SBE are very
difficult and overloading such as those in Economics and Finance. Marketing and
supply chain courses were quite practical, interesting and not so hard.
Academic calendar
Just as at BI, the year is divided into two semesters. But at Maastricht University, the
semesters are again divided into 3 periods each, in total 6 periods each year. In the
two first periods in each semester you can have one or two courses where the learning
consists of the PBL system. Each period consists of 7 weeks with tutorials and
lectures and week number 8 is the exam week. The last periods of each semester is
called the skills period and consists of only one skills course which is very practical,
but give you less credit, but only lasts for two weeks.
Arrival date:
First day of the semester:
Last day of classes:
Examination period:
Any special events/holidays:
26. August 2015
31. August 2015
16. December 2015
19-23 October, 14 - 18
December
NO
Arrival
I arrived on the 26th of August, which was 5 days before the school started and one
day before the introduction day for exchange students hosted by International
Relations Office. The introduction day was mandatory but very informative and I
could get to know the city, and get to know other exchange students.
The International Office
At the SBE, there is an international office, which is very helpful, and only nice
people work there. Every time I went there, they gladly helped me with everything
that I wondered. They speak perfect English.
Social activities
There is a student organization for exchange students called ISN that hosts weekly
parties and other events such as city tours, birthday parties, trips etc. Native students
can also join these activities. ISN helps you to get to know the other students and the
parties are very fun. The best party is something they call Cantus. It is sort of a beer
festival with singing and drinking. Be aware of that there are not many tickets and
they tend so sell out very quickly.
For exchange students, you can register for “My Buddy” program, hosted by Scope
Exchange organization of the University. You will get a buddy who will provide you
with a lot of helpful information before arrival and show you around the city when
you have free time. There are many activities exclusively for exchange students held
during “My Buddy” program.
III. ACADEMICS
In the classroom
The study structure is very different from BI. Maastricht University uses a problem
based learning (PBL) system, which has a more practical and active approach to the
problems. PBL is the pride of Maastricht University. They have tutorials, which are
mandatory, containing 10-15 students in addition to lectures as we are used to from
BI. The Lectures are usually not mandatory and not as important as the tutorials. You
should prepare for huge workload in SBE. Prior to each tutorial session, you need to
read for at least 40 pages of article and must participate in the class discussion
because participation counts for 10 to 15% in your overall grade. For most of the
time, students get at least 6.5 for participation grades. Besides reading, you have to
work in groups for assignments, which are quite hard and require you to work on it
seriously. Compared to BI the workload is a lot more at Maastricht University and
much of the content is at a higher level of study than at BI as well.
It was quite unfamiliar with me at first since I could not be so responsive as other
students. They were very aggressive during class. However, you will improve after 3
weeks, then you know when and how to interfere if you have read and prepared all the
articles. Besides all the heavy tutorials, the professors and tutors used a lot of group
work in form of presentations and group papers, which could make the workload
extremely heavy sometimes. But all the hard work is rewarding after all. I could
improve my English a lot, especially my speaking and presenting skills
Lectures were also used, but were not mandatory and didn’t explain anything more
than what was discussed in the tutorials and also what was the required literature for
the tutorials.
Course materials
Books where mostly used as course material, but each course had its own Internet
page with other required articles and presentations to prepare before the tutorials. The
books were the primary material used in most of the courses, with the online articles
and papers as smaller parts of the subject. For most of the time, the tutors will not
lecture you but that’s your classmates who guide you through group presentation and
the tutors only interfere when something needs their clarification and explanation.
Exams
The exams were based on the course material discussed in the tutorials. Normally, in
many courses, the exam was around 50-60% of the final grade, participation was
around 10-15% and a project/paper and/or presentation constitute 25-30% of the final
grade. In order to pass the course to obtain 6.5 credits, all of these evaluations needed
to be more than a grade of 5.5 to pass. When it comes to class attendance, you can
only be absent two times or you fail the class.
The grading system is different at Maastricht University from BI. The scale goes from
1-10 with a final grade of more than 5.5 to pass the course. The participation, group
work and final exam also have to be more then 5.5 individually to pass the course. To
get a 9 or a 10 it has to be completely perfect, and a lot of teachers have never given a
10 before. I would say that it takes a lot more work at Maastricht University to get the
same grade as at BI.
Library and technology
I did not spend a lot of time at the library during my exchange semester because I
prefer studying alone. The library provides many copy machines, computers, group
rooms, computer labs and a very helpful staff with a good cafeteria. The level of
technology used in teaching or distributing information was at the same level as BI.
Description of courses
Course code & name
EBC4013 Purchasing
Management
Master/
Bachelor
Master
Exam form
Prerequisites
Comments
3-hour written
exam
Writing and
debating skills
Not very hard
but the
workload is
extremely
high. Heavy
project.
EBC4079 Customer
analysis
Master
3-hour written
exam
Basic
statistical
knowledge
EBC4014 Retailing
and Distribution
Master
3-hour Multiple
choice exam
EBC4081
Return on Marketing
Master
3-hour written
exam
Basic
statistical
knowledge in
SPSS and
Excel
Basic
statistical
knowledge in
linear and nonlinear
regression
Not very
difficult, but
a lot of
reading
Very
interesting.
Medium level
of difficulty.
Very
interesting
and useful.
Other experiences
Even though the school was more difficult than I was aware of and sometimes the
workload could be more than I could handle, I am very happy and satisfied with my
exchange semester in Maastricht. All the new friends you meet and experiences you
get have made this a very good semester in a beautiful city. Most importantly, I can
see great improvements in my speaking and presenting skills. It helps me a lot for my
future career.