Student Report
Name of the University: Stockholm University School of Business
Exchange semester: Fall 2013
I. PRACTICAL INFORMATION
Before leaving Norway
I received the first information from Stockholm University in May, regarding course
application on e-mail. In August we got informed about welcoming day, the buddy
programme and other basic information about coming to Stockholm. No difficulties, but I
would have liked to be informed about the difficult housing situation earlier than we did.
Applying for a visa (if applicable)
We did not need a visa.
Travel
I drove a car to Stockholm.
Housing
The housing situation in Stockholm is very difficult, and we did not get much help from the
university. Scandinavian students are not prioritized when it comes to student housing, so you
need to be prepared to find something private.
Costs
Rent
Books
Food
Transport
Other
NOK 6000
NOK 1000
NOK 500
NOK 580
NOK 500
Culture and language
I did not have any language problems during exchange period in Sweden. At school we spoke
English. In other daily life you can also use Norwegian if you want to, even though the
Swedish people find it harder to understand Norwegian than we do to Swedish.
Stockholm is a beautifull city, so there are good possibilities if you want a cultural experience.
You can also easily go other places in Sweden by train to experience more of the country.
II. ABOUT THE SCHOOL
Stockholm University´s main campus (Frescati) is located about 10 min from the city center
by Tunnelbanan. Our business campus is located in Kräftriket about 2 km from the main
campus right next to Brunnsviken and Haga park. The main campus is quite large, but the
business campus is much smaller. There are about 65 000 students all together at Stockholm
University.
The study structure is quite different from what we´re used to in Norway. Here, you take one
course at a time. One course lasts for about four weeks and then you take the exam before
starting a new one.
Course registration
I registered for courses in June by e-mail. As mentioned you get information about course
application in May, so you´ll have some weeks to read and decide about what courses you
want.
Academic calendar
Arrival date:
First day of the semester:
Last day of classes:
Examination period:
August 25th
August 28th
January 13th
During the whole
semester
Arrival
The introduction week started in the end of August and we got a lot of information about
student health care, study structure, courses and the buddy programme etc. The buddy
programme is to make you get to know other students, and we all got our own buddy to help
us with any questions we might have about school or anything else. A lot of parties and other
arrangements are in the programme, and it is a good way to get to know other students.
The International Office
The international office gave us sufficient and relevant information, but I think we could have
gotten even more information, and that the information was given a bit earlier. We had to
send a lot of questions by mail, but they normally answered pretty fast.
Promoting BI and Norway
We were never asked to promote exchange to Norway at our exchange university.
Social
The relationship with other exchange students were good. The buddy programme made us get
to know each other, and they were all very friendly. The buddy programme introduced us to
other exchange students, but not the native students. We did not have any courses with native
students, so it was hard to make Swedish friends at school.
III. ACADEMICS
In the classroom
The teaching style is a combination of lectures and seminars. The lectures are pretty much the
same as at BI, but the seminars are more practical, with discussions and student presentations.
To be able to have the exam, you normally need to pass the seminar. The seminars and
lectures are pretty informal.
The workload is mostly the same as at BI, even though it might feel a bit heavier because of
the mandatory seminars and presentations etc.
Course materials
The course materials consists of books, powerpoints and online articles. The books were not
more difficult than the ones used at BI.
Exams
The exam was based on both course materials and lectures, and the courses were evaluated by
final exam and the seminars. As mentioned, the seminars consist of presentations and
discussions, class attendance, group work and in-class quizzes.
Library and technology
The library was being renovated during our semester there, so we almost never used it. We
found other places to work, such as cafés and Kungl. Biblioteket.
The technology, such as printers, Internet and PC´s etc were pretty difficult to use. You´ll
need different pass-words for almost everything, even to get in to the PC-rooms. At BI we
have the @BI site, and Stockholm University use several different pages, so it is quite
difficult to get into the system, and the information could have been better.
Description of courses
Please list below all the courses you took while on exchange. Your comments are useful for
BI and for future exchange students, include information on the academic level, challenges,
relevance to your studies, if the course was practical/theoretical, any enrolment issues, etc.
Course code & name
Corporate Finance
FE3122
Master/
Bachelor
Bachelor
Exam form
Prerequisites
4-hour written
exam
None
Approved
as
Elective
Comments
Quite
similar to
bedriftsøko
nomi at BI,
only bit
more
difficult.
Finance 2 FE2102
Bachelor
4-hour written
exam
Finance 1 or
similar
Elective
An
interesting
but also
difficult
course.
To sum up the exchange experience, I would like to say that there is a lot of work to do before
going out on exchange. A lot of paper work, finding a place to live and find courses that don´t
crash and that BI approve. Even though the extra work-load is heavy I will definitely
recommend other students to go on exchange. You will meet a lot of new, interesting people,
and you will personally grow. It might also influence your future career positively.