Student Report
Name of the University: Maastricht University
Exchange semester: Fall, 2012
I. PRACTICAL INFORMATION
Before leaving Norway
After I was accepted as an exchange student I got the information I needed very quickly. I had
no difficulties regarding the preparations before I left Norway. It all went fast and easy. The
school responded with a day or two on my e-mails and so did the housing services.
Applying for a visa (if applicable)
You don’t need visa for studying for this short period.
Travel
The traveling to Maastricht went very well. First we took the airplane from Gardemoen to
Schiphol and we stayed in Amsterdam one weekend before we took the Train from
Amsterdam to Utrecht where we changed to another train. From there it went a train directly
to Maastricht. Since we arrived with a lot of luggage and didn’t know the place, we took a
taxi to the guesthouse to pick up our keys. From there they drove us to the apartments for free.
Housing
The housing was provided by the “UM Guesthouse”, even though we lived a student
apartments 5 minutes from theirs. We just had to apply for apartment from their website. It is
a good idea to be early in the application process so you can select according to your
preference.
Costs
Rent
Books
Food
Transport
Other
120 NOK per night – much cheaper if rent privately
Approximately 1500 NOK each block
1300 – 1800 NOK per month
15 NOK for one hour by bus
Approximately 20-40 % cheaper than Norway
Culture and language
The English level here is high at the school and by other students. It was never a problem.
Maastricht is a good starting point for traveling to Amsterdam, Brussels, Germany and
France. You could reach those destinations within 2-4 hours by train.
Cultural and social effects from the exchange experience
It was not a cultural shock for us, but it was more minor differences. One of them is that tit is
1.1-bike cycle per citizen in Netherland so you get a lot respect in the traffic. It is also more
normal to go to a pub after school/work and grab a beer.
The exchange period introduced us to many new students from all over the world and you
would get a clearer picture of the cultural differences that you would benefit from when you
start your working career.
II. ABOUT THE SCHOOL
Please describe:
Maastricht is an old city with a lot old buildings and houses. The city has a long history,
something you would feel when you walking around the town. The population of Maastricht
it’s just above 120.000 inhabitants. When it comes to shopping, Maastricht has a lot to offer.
They are a lot of shops around the city centre and also outside of the centre.
Current faculty divisions
BI has relations to the business and economic faculty at the University; however, there are
many other faculties at the University. The University has the following faculties:
- Business and Economics (SBE)
- Arts and Social Sciences
- Health, Medicine and Life Sciences
- Humanities and Sciences
- Law
- Psychology and Neuroscience
In the Business and economic faculty (SBE), they have the following departments where
the exchange students from BI can choose courses:
- Accounting and Information Management
- Educational Research and Educational Development
- Economics
- Finance
- Quantitative Economics
- Marketing and Supply Chain Management
- Organization and Strategy
In 2012 the university had almost 50 % foreign students and it’s more typically to meet
German students rather than Dutch students. The total amount of student is approximately
6000 students. The ratio between bachelors and masters student are almost 50/50.
The big difference regarding the school system is that the semester is divided into two blocks
or periods. Block 1 starts 1st of September to the end of October and block 2 from 1 of
November to a couple days before Christmas. You can only choose 2 courses each block and
you are divided into tutorial groups on 8-15 people where the students leading the discussion
throughout the classes. In the meeting you discuss the topics and give presentations. The
students are heavily graded on their participation, feedbacks and presentations.
Course registration
The course registration was easy to do and I received all the information I needed to register
in good time in advance.
Academic calendar
Arrival date:
First day of the semester:
August 15th
September 1st
Last day of classes:
Examination period:
December 15
October 20th-25th
December 17th – 21th
Any special events/holidays:
Other:
Arrival
The reception was good. We had been invited to an “exchange opening” where we got a lot of
information about the PBL- problem based learning – system and what an exchange student in
Maastricht would expect. In this opening lecture we also got an envelope with our student
card and other relevant information regarding the coming semester.
The International Office
International office is located in the main entrance, which opens a couple of hours each day
with helpful and kind personnel
Promoting BI and Norway
It was no specific activity to promoting BI, only warm talking of the country and the school.
Social activities
It was a lot of different activities from exchange students and native student, mostly parties. It
was easy to get to know a lot of different people during the tutorials, parties and through other
students.
III. ACADEMICS
In the classroom
The teaching style is totally different from BI. At BI you have the more common learning
environment with lectures where a highly educated professor gives you an introduction to the
different topics. At Maastricht University you have to learn it by yourself in advance to be
able to discuss it in class. In that manner it felt like 4-5 times more workload than BI even
though the curriculum was about the equal amount. Similar to BI, every course has 1-2
presentation and a term paper in the end.
At Maastricht University students don’t have the same classes throughout the program;
instead you have different classes in all the courses so you don’t have time to get to know
each other on the same level as BI.
Here the semester is divided into to blocks with 2 courses each block (4 meetings in a week).
The classes consist of 8-15 people and there are students that lead the whole meeting so you
don’t know what to expect from time to time and it is hard to know if it is relevant for the
exam. Each class have a tutor in the meeting that gives feedback after the meeting.
If you don’t participate you most certainly will fail the tutorial as they keep a close eye on you
and you can usually fail on maximum two meeting before you get “no graded” in the course. I
personally felt that I didn’t get too much out of the meetings because you had to learn all on
your own in advance. Because of the teaching style you have to work much harder to achieve
the same grade.
Even though I didn’t like the teaching style I learned a lot from the books and article that were
provided. The English level of the fellow student was high so it was easy to discuss with them
and understand what they were trying to say.
The exams were pretty much of the same as at BI and you needed to get 5.5 out of 10 to pass
every assignment and exam.
Library and technology
The library was located about two hundred meters from the school and it had computers,
group rooms, silence areas and printers
Description of courses
EBC 4041 Entrepreneurship and Innovation
- Two Project Presentations
- Term Paper
- Exam
- Facilitating
- Case Presentation
This course was the best course I had during my exchange. It focused mainly on other theories
than we had at BI and was a good supplement for me. We had a great book and a lot of
articles that give us broad and good understanding of the topic. One student had to give a case
presentation each tutorial to link up the theory to a real company.
EBC 4044 International Competitive Analysis and Strategy
- Project presentation
- Term Paper
- Exam
- Facilitation
It was a good strategy course, which we did a porter analysis of an industry in two different
countries and provided a strategy plan for one company within that industry. The course
required some microeconomics skills in advance.
EBC 4057 Corporate and Venture Finance
- Presentations
- Exam
- Facilitation
Be aware that this is a master course in a finance program and requires a lot of knowledge
about finance in advance. They also have similar course that are called Entrepreneurial
Finance, which are more relevant and suitable for innovation students but is not available for
exchange students.
Any other experiences/comments about your exchange experience?
Rent a bike at the guesthouse for an OK price and enjoy the stay.
They also have an excellent golf course just a couple minutes from the guesthouse by bike,
which are highly recommended if that fits your interests.