Student Report
Name of University: Strathclyde Business School
Exchange semester: Spring 2013
Undergraduate
Information
Strathclyde Business School is a department at the University of Strathclyde. The
business school is one of five faculties forming the University of Strathclyde. The
other departments are Engineering, Science, Humanities & Social Sciences, and
Professional Services.
The location is perfect for students. Glasgow is a big city, but the city centre is
not that big. Strathclyde is located five minutes walking away from George
Square, the heart of Glasgow.
Current faculty divisions within the business school:
- Accounting and Finance
- Corporate Connections
- Economics
- Human Resource Management
- Hunter Center for Entrepreneurship
- Management
- Management and science
- Marketing
- MBA and International Division
Practical Information
When and how did you receive information from the exchange university?
Any difficulties in preparing (application, housing, contact, courses, etc)?
-I was in touch through e-mail from the beginning with the advisor at the
International Office at the university. I got all the information needed to register
online in the school system.
Visa
As a Norwegian student you do not need a visa to study in the UK.
Travel
I had a few problems to find a flight straight to Glasgow, so instead I had a flight
to Edinburgh, just an hour with train east for Glasgow.
Housing
The university offers housing at Campus. The buildings/rooms are quite old. I
had my accommodation at a private student accommodation company called
Collegelands. Just a few years old and you get your own bathroom. Collegelands
is located just two-three minutes walking from campius, so I don’t see that as a
problem. But I would recommend to stay at campus, since in my opinion this is
more social. At Collegelands you can be flatmates with students from all the
three universities or colleges from the whole Glasgow.
Costs
I paid 120 pounds a week for my accommodation, that is a little bit more
expensive than the housing at campus.. My experience was that the lectures here
was more based on powerpoint slides, so I just bought one book(50 pounds). I
just had to read 30 pages.
Compared to Norway, Scotland is cheaper . Alcohol is way much cheaper and
social things like concerts, football matches and that stuff is also much cheaper.
The cheapest grocery store is called Morrissons.
I stayed at Collegelands, and both Collegelands and Campus is located in
walking-distance to almost everything in the city center. I never used the
subway, except when we went on a sub-crawl. Sometimes we took a cab, and
cabs here are very cheap. I never used the bus, since it almost too short to take a
bus.
Culture and language
The Scottish accent, especially the Glasgow accent, can be a little bit difficult in
the beginning. After some weeks you get used to it, and you going to like it. The
lecturers are all speaking very easy to understand, and just one of my teachers
was Scottish, but he spoke slowly and clear so they are all wear of the
international students.
The Scottish people are very, very friendly and polite. The thing you will notice is
how they all the time keep holding the door open for you. It’s amazing. I was
never offered any kind of drugs in Glasgow, so it seems to be a different town in
that way compared to Oslo. I never saw violence either.
Culture and social effect from the exchange experience
It´s really nice to get to know people with totally different student lives from
different countries for so long time. You all go to trips to different places around
in Scotland together and we all got to hang out a few days before the school
started. We got in touch through a facebook page I was told about from the
International Office at Strathclyde.
This semester really made me think about doing my master degree abroad. It´s
so nice to compare travelling, studies and the opportunity to meet so many new
people and friends.
ABOUT THE SCHOOL
The school are is huge. It´s almost 20 buildings, so take care of the map you get at
the welcome meeting. Still, all the buildings are all based in a circle. So you get
used to walk around and know the area.
The faculties at Strathclyde University is Engineering, Humanities & Social
Sciences, Science, Strathclyde Business School and Professional Services.
Wikipedia says the University have 3.200 admin. Staff and 26.000 students,
where 16.185 is undergraduate and 9.815 is postgraduate.
The studies here are very different from what course you take. I was in classes
with 200+ people and another class with just 15. So the study structure depends
on what kind of course you are doing.
Course registration
I was able to register for my courses before arrival. I received an e-mail with all
the information needed to do this progress. You also have the opportunity to
change the courses within the first 14-days.
Academic calendar
Semester 1: 21 September 2013- 18 January 2014
Semester 2: 21 January - 31 May 2014
I arrived Glasgow a few days before the semester started, just to get to know
some of the people that was going to be my friends and get to know the city. The
exam period is from the beginning of May to the end of May. I also had a break
for almost two weeks during the Easter. Usually you need to hand in assignment
in almost every course before Easter.
Arrival
My experience is that you get all the information you need in the e-mail from the
International Office and there they also give you the date for something called
The big welcome meeting. They also tell you to become a member of the
facebook page for all the exchange students.
The introduction week is very fun, mostly based on a lot of alcohol. But that´s
just fun, because you get to know all the people so fast. I would recommend to
join everything that going on, because its so many people in the same situation as
you are, and all of them want to know everyone. It is so fun.
The International Office
Strathclyde got an international office with very friendly and helpful staff. I got
all relevant information through email and did never really notice the
international office.
Promoting BI and Norway
Some of the closest friends I made during my exchange was from Canada and
New Zealand, so I ended up with a week-end trip back to Oslo with two
Canadians and one guy from New Zealand. They really liked it and they are
talking about coming to Oslo next 17th of May.
Social activities
I was doing a group project with a Scottish student. He was really nice and
helped me a lot with grammar during the project. We went for a beer when
handed in the assignment. I became really good friend with a lot of people.
Mostly from France, Sweden, Finland, Canada, USA and New Zealand. We were a
bunch of people in a big group, and we always did social things together. It is a
huge building called the Union, that is the student organization. It´s five floors
and there is a pub, restaurant, pool tables and all that kind of stuff there. Really
cheap food and drinks there too. There is also a lot of student trips with
Collegelands.
ACADEMICS
In the classroom
Lectures are mostly based on powerpoint slides. All of the slides should be
available online as well. Teachers are friendly and very helpful.
All of the teachers know about all the international students and they speak very
slow and clearly.
In the middle of the semester, usually right before the Easter, it is common to
have a deadline for an assignment. Teaching is mostly theoretical. I had project in
all of my three courses. Two group-project and one individual. The online
student site is very easy to understand and not very different from @bi.
It is very easy to get in touch with the teachers and they are very friendly when
you ask all kind of question. Scottish students seems to be very interested in
exchange students. They seem to be fascinated about other cultures.
Course materials
As mentioned, the only book I was required to buy was a finance book. Lectures
are based on powerpoint slides and presentations. My courses was a 10 ECTS
each. This involved one 2-hours lecture a week for all of my courses. I would say
that the level of course materials was at the same level as BI. You also have
access to all of the powerpoint slides online at something called Myplace ( the
same as @bi).
Exams
The exams was based on the powerpoint slides, and the lectures was also based
on these. My courses was evaluated through the whole semester. This includes
mid-term tests, group project with class presentation and one individual project.
The exam itself was a two hours exam. So compared to BI the exam just counts
all from 50-75% of my grades. In my opinion, the exam period at Strathclyde is
not that intense as the exam period could be at BI.
Library and technology
You have easy access to the library and at the library you got pc-areas, quietrooms and group project rooms. Computers are available here.
Description of courses
Course code &
name
AG 211 Portfolio
Analysis
AG 212 Financial
Analysis
Master/
Bachelor
Bachelor
Exam form
Bachelor
2-hours written
MS 205 Information
Systems In The
Knowledge Economy
Bachelor
2-hours written
2-hours written
Prerequisite
s
Some finance
Approved
as
Elective
Some
economics/fin
ance
None
Elective
Elective
Comment
s