STUDENT REPORT
Student Report
Name of the University: CASS Business School
Exchange semester: Spring, 2014
I. PRACTICAL INFORMATION
Applying for a visa (if applicable)
As a Norwegian exchange student you don’t need to apply for a visa while studying in
UK.
Travel
I travelled from Oslo Lufthavn Gardermoen using Norwegian. There’s a lot of cheap
flights with Norwegian and Ryaniar from Norway to London. If you fly with
Norwegian you will most lightly land on Gatwick Airport right outside London, and
from there you can take a train to London. The train raid is about 45 minutes from
Gatwick to London and it stops on all of the major train stations in the city. The first
time you come to London with a lot of luggage and don’t know where your housing
are, the easiest way is to take a taxi from the train station to your accommodation.
Housing
CASS Business School do not provide accommodation for the students, but they
recommend a lot of different housings on their web-page. I lived at Therese House,
which is a student accommodation. Here I have my own ensuited studio apartment.
Housing in London is expensive and I pay approximately 1000 pounds a month.
However in London you pay for location, and Therese House is located perfectly for a
student at Cass Business School. You have everything in the area, and you only have a
10 minute walk to the university. That’s gold, since public transport in London is both
time consuming and pretty expensive.
I also made a lot of friends who lives in Liberty Court, and Liberty House. These
accommodations cost approximately the same, but here you share a kitchen and
bathroom with four other students, but these are also good apartments and it’s a
very social place to live.
Costs
- Approximately how much per month did you spend on rent, books, food,
transportation, and other personal expenses?
Rent
10 000 NOK
Books
0 NOK
Food
4000 NOK
Transport 500 NOK
Other
1000 NOK
Culture and language
STUDENT REPORT
-
Did you have any language problems with the faculty or other students?
When I first came to London my English was a bit rusty, but after a few days speaking
English every day you don’t even think about it. Another thing is that everyone knows
that English is not your mother of tongue when you come from Norway, so they are
just impressed on how good you speak English.
-
How were the possibilities to experience the country and the culture?
Being an exchange student in London is just amazing. London is the most multicultural city in the world and it’s such an experience to live in a city like this. In
addition to that you’re offered to take one of the exchange courses called Historic
London or London Preforming arts. These two courses gives you a huge opportunity
to have guided tours around the whole London for free. I took Historic London since I
like history, and it was a great course.
II. ABOUT THE SCHOOL
Please describe:
- The school (location, size, study structure, special academic areas etc.)
As an undergraduate exchange student at Cass, you will have most of your classes on
the campus of City University. The campus there is called Northampton Square
Campus and is located between Barbican Tube station and Angel Tube station in
Islington.
Northampton Square campus is not as modern as BI in Oslo, but you has everything
you need. The library offers all of the books needed for class and you can easily
access databases such as Bloomberg and Thomson Reuters. You are also allowed to
use all of the facilities at Bunnhill Row which is the Cass campus. This campus is more
modern and reminds a lot of BI in Oslo.
Course registration
- When and how did you register for courses?
You first have to send an e-mail to the university when you get you acceptance letter
with the courses you wish to take, but this is only so that the administration gets to
see what courses that seems to be most popular.
On your first day at the university you’ll get a link and a password to login to the
registration. There you register courses and you have the first week to attend all the
courses you are interested in to see which one of them you want to take.
Then you can just add the courses you want to take and drop the courses you don’t
want to take. All of the registration, and add/drop is to be done at the registration
web page.
STUDENT REPORT
-
When did the add/drop period end?
The add/ drop period ended 31-1-2014
Academic calendar
Arrival date:
First day of the semester:
Last day of classes:
Examination period:
Any special
events/holidays:
06-01-2014
22-01-2014
11-04-2014
12-05-2014 –
06-06-2014
Spring break;
11-04-2014 –
12-05-2014
Arrival
Introduction week:
At the first day you meet up with all the other exchange students and get a lot of
information. You also get a tour around campus with one of the local students.
In the evening we had a wine and cheese event with all the exchange students and
this was a great opportunity to meet new people.
The rest of the week was just some administration work, for example you had to
come in and take a photo for your student id.
The first week is a great opportunity to meet up with other exchange students.
The International Office
The international office was providing me with all the information I needed. If I
wondered anything I could just send them an e-mail or visit them at their office.
Promoting BI and Norway
There were no promoting events while I was here at exchange.
Social activities
Since I was exchanging as a second year students, the native students was a bit hard
to connect with since they already knew each other and had formed sort of groups.
However, there were a lot of exchange students at City University, and they were very
easy to get in touch with. I strongly recommend attending the social events hosted by
the school the first day since this was a huge opportunity to meet the other exchange
students and make new friends.
We became a group of approximately 30 exchange students that had the best time
together here in London.
III. ACADEMICS
In the classroom
STUDENT REPORT
The teaching style is a lot like on BI, but often smaller classes. The teachers usually use
PowerPoints and also try to make discussions in class. They have a lot of theory of course,
but they also spice it up by discussing cases and stuff like that.
At BI we only have final exams, which often makes the workload to accumulate to the last
minute. At City University there are mid-terms and/or coursework which force you to work a
bit through the whole semester, but the amount of hours you have to study is almost the
same in the end.
Course materials
- Describe the course materials used (books/literature, online articles, PowerPoint,
level of course material etc).
In most courses you get handed out a booklet of all the PowerPoints and articles that
are relevant for the course too, and this is mostly all you need. There are some books
and literature that is recommended by the lecturers, but all of these books are to be
found at the library if needed.
Exams
- Was the exam based on the course materials or on the lectures?
The exams were based on both the course materials and the lectures.
- How was the course evaluated (include all that apply)?
Different courses were evaluated in different ways. In one of my courses I had a oral
presentation that counted for 50% of my grade, in two of my courses I had coursework that
counted for around 30% of my grade and in one of my courses I had a mid-term that
counted for 25% of my grade.
All of the courses had a final exam at the end of the term that counted for 50-75% of the
grade, depending on how much the coursework/presentation/mid-term was counting for.
Library and technology
The library is good, and you can access all the literature required for your studies and
much more there. They also offer access to Bloomberg terminals and Reuters
terminals, which comes in handy in a lot of the coursework.
Description of courses
Course code &
name
FR2209
Portfolio theory and
investment
valuation
IF2210
Asset management
Master/
Bachelor
Bachelor
Exam form
Prerequisites
Coursework +
2,25hr final
exam
Bachelor
Mid-term +
2,25hr final
exam
LA2018
Exchang
e
Oral
presentation +
2,25hr final
Finance 1 is
recommende
d, but not
mandatory
Finance 1is
recommende
d, but not
mandatory
None
Approved
as
Elective
Elective
Elective
Comment
s
Good if
you are
interesting
in finance
Good if
you like
finance
Perfect to
learn
about
STUDENT REPORT
exam
MS2103
Operations
management
Bachelor
Coursework +
2,25hr final
exam
Londons
history
None
Logistics
On a final note, how will you sum up the exchange experience?
The six months as an exchange student in London has been amazing. It’s been a great
way to improve my English skills, and to get new perspectives on my studies. The
experience of living in another country and adopting new cultures has been absolutely
phenomenal. Meeting all of the fantastic people I’ve met, and getting good friends
from all over the world is priceless.