I. PRACTICAL INFORMATION
Before leaving Norway we got all information needed from HEC. First we got a letter of
acceptance, which was sent to the international office at BI. After that, information was provided
through e-mail and the school's learning platform; “Zonecours” and “Hec en ligne”. We also got
a contact person from the international office at HEC who provided us with information, as well
as answering questions.
Becoming an exchange student for one semester in Canada requires no visa.
Quebec has a social security reciprocal agreement with Norway. At HEC it’s mandatory for all
students to have a health insurance connected to the Government of Quebec, but because of our
agreement, Norwegian students don’t have to pay anything. Just be sure to bring your approval
from HELFO, stating that you are covered under the Norwegian National Health Insurance
Scheme.
Travel
We flew from Gardermoen to Montréal with a stopover in New York City. It took us about 12
hours in total to get from Oslo to Montréal, and the price was approximately 6000 NOK for a
return ticket.
Housing
It’s not difficult to get an apartment in Montréal, but if you want to live in the “best” area in
town, you have to be aware that prices are a bit higher, as well as the competition for the
apartment is tighter. You should be a member of the Facebook group Housing exchange student
HEC Montréal. Current exchange students and regular students post on this site, and you are able
to get a great deal and also the possibility to get some roommates. But, if you want to get a great
apartment to a fairly good price, we will suggest you to be early.
We got our apartments through the Facebook group and getyourplace.ca. The apartments at
getyourplace.ca are OK, and you know it is safe to make a deal with them. They have apartments
for 3 people up to 8 people, and this makes it easier to get to know other exchange students. The
prices are somewhat good and everything is included.
If you like going out or would enjoy a good coffee, concert and other cultural activities, as well
as great bars and nightlife, La Plateau and Mile-End are the best areas to live. The apartments in
this area can be a bit more expensive than other places, but the area is great!
Costs
When it comes to costs, we found Canadian living costs quite similar to the Norwegian, maybe a
little cheaper overall. You could expect prices approximately 10-20% under Norwegian prices on
most items, but this should not be considered cheap. In addition, in the last half of our stay in
Montréal the exchange rate with the weak Crown, made our stay more expensive.
Our foreign friends from such as Germany, France and especially Asia in general were in for
quite a shock when it came to prices for various items, and almost everything were considered
expensive. Do not expect to live large unless you bring some savings other than Laanekassen!
Culture
While preparing for Montréal, we were aware that the city was considered bilingual, and heard
rumours of the waiters greeting you with “Bonjour-Hello” to see what language you preferred.
This turned out to be spot on. They actually do it, and the menus are (mostly) in both French and
English. However, that was about it. We found the city to be more French than expected, with
almost every official document and writing in French, verbal information over the calling system
in the metro were French and even the official information from the school were in French with
occasional English translation. This rarely turned out to be a problem, but we do think we would
appreciate the experience more if we were able to speak French in an adequate manner.
Other than that, the Canadians turned out to be exactly how they are pictured on television. Easygoing, polite and genuinely interested in everything you have to tell. If you mention that you are
from Europe they get really carried away, and Norway seems to be extremely exotic – if they
know what you are talking about.
European’s could almost consider their politeness absurd – they stand in line while waiting for
the buss! If you sneeze on the street downtown – expect to get several shouts of “God bless
you!” by complete strangers!
Overall, we really enjoyed Canada, Canadians and the city of Montréal, even though it turned out
to be more French than we thought.
Arrival
We all arrived at different dates y different companies – LuftHansa, KLM, Iceland air are all
good choices, not to forget British airways and SAS.
We had in advance registered for the welcoming week, and were quite pleased with what the
committee pulled of – partying, trips, games, adventures. A really good offer, and would
absolutely recommend to sign up for this in advance.
Promoting BI
While we were there, HEC had one international fair, where all the exchange student were
expected to participate and promote their home university. Not much work, but we think we
might have lured some Canadians into coming to BI.
Courses
As a general notice, schoolbooks are extremely expensive in Canada. There is a used-book page
on Facebook, so with a little luck you might find one there for half the price compared to the oncampus bookstore.
When the International Office at BI accepted the learning agreement, the race for the preferred
courses started. You register for courses through the school’s internet-portal all through the
summer, with the final deadline at end-august. Did not experience any problems with this, and
we all got the courses we desired, even after some time in queue.
International Financial Management
This course was about the global financial markets, how to calculate foreign risk and take
advantage of arbitrage opportunities in the different currency markets. The teacher in this class
was horrible, he had a really strong French accent, which made it unnecessary hard to pay
attention to his lessons. However, the class was interesting but the teacher made it harder than it
had to. In this class, you do not need to participate or attend classes, however, I will strongly
recommended it, because here is your only chance to get exam relevant exercises etc. Moreover,
this course is mandatory for BI students.
Midterm: 40%
Final: 60%
International Economic Environment
First of all, this class contains a broad aspect of the world economy. This includes theory about
the importance of international institutions for both developing countries and developed
countries. The course distinguishes between trade organizations like WTO and monetary
organizations like IMF and WB. You will also have the chance to cooperate with other
international students in a team project, where you have to decide a research question, then
analyze the causes and the aftermaths and then find a conclusion. Choose your group members
wisely! The final exam was pretty easy, it was divided in three parts, which the first on is
multiple choices, the second is true/false and last one is a short essay.
Team project: 30 %
Participation: 10 %
Final exam: 60 %
Strategic Management in Organizations
This is our second mandatory class. This class distinguishes between easy management theories
from Michael Porter and how you can achieve the results you want trough different strategies. A
major part of this class is a simulation game, where you team up with other students and
compete. You and your group are running a sales business and everyone gets their own title in
company like President, Production President, Sales President etc. The teacher in this class was
really kind and tended to be really easy on the grades to.
Simulation: 35%
Self-assessment Report: 25%
Final exam: 40 %
Management Skills
This course is about how to handle your subordinates, how to use your authority in an
organization, how to communicate and control political games within an organization. The class
was really practical and the teacher encourages the student to participate. I would say that this
class is really easy. Thus, it can be a great workload with several assignments. You will also
have to expect to get videotaped while you are having presentations. However, this class was
probably the one we enjoyed the most and the teacher is really thoughtful and kind.
4 Written case analyses: 20%
Oral exercises: 10%
2 Written exercises: 20%
Final Exam: 40%
Participation: 20%
Ethics and management
This course is basically ethics 101. In other words, an introduction to theorists and their view on
ethics, and how to be ethical in today’s society. The subject is not to challenging, but the
workload required to keep track with the lectures are quite high. My professor were quite alright,
but had a thick French accent that made it a tad more challenging to pay attention to what was
being said. Group work and presentations regarding this subject turned out to be fairly simple,
but required some preparation, and turned out to be very time-consuming. Overall an OK course.
Individual participation: 10%
Quiz on readings: 5% x 2 (10%)
Group written assignments: 10% x 2 (20%)
Group oral presentation: 20%
Final take-home exam: 40%
Human Resources Management
You would believe that HRM would be a relatively international course with few national
variations. Turns out this is not the case when it comes to Canada. As a result of the country
consists of several (somewhat) independent states, their law-system are divided into federal and
provincial jurisdiction. Furthermore, in this course we got briefed in Canadian working law,
union law, and so on. Possibly interesting if you are to work with HR in Canada. If not it will
feel like a wasted semester.
However, the professor are quite good, but overall it does not make up for the irrelevant subjects.
The presentation is a randomly selected presentation by a group of 4-6 persons, and the report
are to be written by the same group regarding a predisposed task.
Midterm: 30%
Classroom presentation: 10%
Consultation report: 20%
Final exam: 40%
Relationship selling I: the sales process
In this course, you are to learn how to be a successful b2b salesperson. Quite interesting subject,
but I could not help feeling like a participant on a motivational seminar that should have lasted
48 hours. The progress in this course was unbelievably slow, and we ran out of new subjects
half-way through the semester.
However, I enjoyed the lectures and the professor. What I did not enjoy as much was the way of
grading. To show that you understood the theory, you were to participate in role plays with other
student, and perform a hypothetical sale to the other person. You were expected to prepare and
analyze the results. An extremely time-consuming course. Summed up as:
Most awkward thing I have ever done! Did I mention that the role plays are filmed and, if you
are lucky, it could be showed and analyzed in class?
Role play 2: 20%
Role play 3: 20%
Final exam: 50%
Participation: 10%
Operations Management
The course focuses mainly on calculations and how to forecast production. A highly demanding
course that requires a lot of effort throughout the semester. The professor were quite good, but
very strict – you did not want to ask the wrong question, or catch her in a bad mood. Three
assignments solved as a group counts for a total of 25%. For both the assignments and the course
lectures, it is highly recommended to have some excel skills, as well as basic understanding of
math and formulas.
This course caused a lot of grief, would not recommend!
Assignment 1: 7,5%
Assignment 2: 7,5%
Mid-term: 35%
Assignment3: 10%
Final exam: 40%
International Management
This course is about understanding the management strategies used in big corporations locally
and globally. It is somewhat demanding, which requires you to prepare a lot for each class.
Every week we got a new case we had to analyze, and this was the basis for each class. You have
to be prepared to have a group presentation, as well as a mid-term and final exam. All of these
are case analyzes.
The teacher is great and engaged in the subject, but she is strict. Even though the workload could
be demanding at some point, the course was interesting. Would recommend.
Individual Class Participation (10%)
Individual Mid-term Case Analysis (25%)
Team Case Presentation (30%)
Individual Final Exam (35%)
Business Communication
Depending on which level you’re at, the workload is OK. They have 6 different levels, and you
have to take an online placement test. You have to prepare for class every week where you have
to write small assignments and prepare for presentations. I took level 4, which wasn’t that hard.
We had a glossary or grammar test every week, as well as a small hand-in and presentations.
If you are interested in becoming better at Business English, I would recommend this course. I
got the opportunity to be better at presentations, writing business related messages, as well as
refresh my grammar. Would recommend.
Active participation and input in class (5%)
Two business article presentations in front of small groups (2 x 2.5%) (5%)
Individual PowerPoint-assisted presentation (15%)
Business correspondence (20%)
Business terminology quizzes (10%)
Grammar quizzes (10%)
Midterm Exam (10%)
Final Exam (25%)
Trips
Considering Montréal is very close to the US border, we had a trip to Boston and also Vermont
during the semester. We arranged the trips ourselves by renting a car and driving, but the
HEChange team does also arrange a trip (but this was not until October/November which was a
bit late).
Some of us went to Toronto and the Niagara falls. If you’re going, try to go as early as possible
to make sure the weather and temperature is nice (even though the rumours has it that Niagara
Falls are spectacular even in the winter). Two of us went to Cuba in the fall break. We organized
everything on our own and do not regret that.
We all went to Quebec City with HEChange, we recommend this trip, as it is a really beautiful
city.
We strongly recommend Montréal! A beautiful city where you never get bored! Just do it.
PS! As a friendly reminder - remember to bring both a Norwegian/English and a
Norwegian/French dictionary.