International Exchange Lund
2014-2015
Author: Rob Nijmeijer (s2211289)
Date: 02-02-2015
General report
I started my international exchange to Lund on the 18st of August, even though the official semester
starts on the 1st of September and ends on the 19th of January, I will recommend every student to go
early and enjoy the introduction weeks. You will meet many different cultures and at the same time
meet friends you will probably spend your whole exchange with. In order to be allowed to study at
the university in Lund you don’t need any test results like a TOEFL test, which is weird because the
University of Lund is so high ranked. To prepare yourself for your journey to Lund you will be given
exact instruction by email, by both the University of Lund and the RUG. It is a well-organized team at
the universities and they are always there to help you out. The preparation includes the Learning
agreement, course registration; housing (depends on whether you got assigned a place to live, cancel
OV chip card (105 euro a month) and Erasmus scholarship (250 euro a month), register for the
introduction week in Lund. We did the journey to Sweden by car, and unless you have a lot of money
I would avoid this option, costs involve 50 euro for the boat, 55 euro for the bridge, another 60 for
road taxes, and petrol. Costs for the bridge, road taxes and the boat are one-way and you will pay the
same amount to leave Sweden. To travel to Lund you have two quite good options, the first one is
the expensive option and you will travel to Malmö airport by plane and from their travel by train to
Lund which will probably take you around 15 minutes. The other option is the Euro liner bus which
leaves from the bus station in Groningen and will bring you to Malmö in roughly 14 hours. This will
cost you around 50 euros for a one-way ticket and you can bring as many bags as you want.
If you are a citizen of the European Union you don’t need any Visa or residence permit to study in
Sweden for a full semester, this might change if you stay for longer than a year. When you apply to
Lund’s university it states that the University of Lund will provide you with housing. Lund has two big
institutions to provide housing for students: Lundaccomodation (Lundacc) and A F Bostäder.
However since Lund doesn’t have enough houses to provide every student in Lund with housing, you
might just end up looking for housing by yourself. I had to find my own housing and I used
www.bopoolen.nu. Based on my experience I think that approximately 10% of all international
students are homeless when they arrive in Lund, and will have to sleep over at friends for one month
before they find their own place. Sometimes the only solution is to live in Malmö and travel to Lund
by train. This will take you 15 minutes. When you are assigned to housing by one of the institutions
you will receive an email with a fixed location to get your keys. When you arrange your own housing
you make arrangements with the person that provides you with housing.
Lund is a small place in the South of Sweden and it’s known for its good universities throughout the
centuries. The student life in Sweden is all depending on the Nations (student societies), 95% of all
students are a member of the nations. Being a member of a nation doesn’t mean that you must be
active; it provides you with your ticket to all the good parties in Lund. Since Lund only has one good
club called Hercules and two small pubs, you are depending on the nations for most of the good
parties. At the nations you pay 2, 50 euros for a bear, where at the regular pub/club you pay 7 euros
for a beer. As Lund is really small you can cycle from the upper north to the south in 15 minutes,
therefore no party is beyond your reach. Since Lund is a small you be done with your sight-seeing
tour in an hour. Lund does have perfect train connection to every big city in Sweden and there is a
direct connection to Copenhagen. I would highly recommend organizing some trips with friends to
both Stockholm and Sweden. There is an Erasmus network that organizes trips to Lapland,
Stockholm, Copenhagen and many other hotspot locations. You will pay around 5 euros to become a
member, and you will be able to apply to any trip they organize. When we consider the language in
Sweden all citizens speak Swedish, and most Swedish are able to speak English on a reasonable level.
Even the lower skilled citizens working in supermarkets can communicate in English.
As a student of the European union you will receive the Erasmus grant which is around 250,- euros a
month. You will receive the first 70% in the first month of your abroad experience and you will
receive the last 30% after your study abroad. For housing in Lund you will pay between 350-450
euros a month for a reasonable apartment. Grocery shopping in Sweden is 20% more expensive than
in the Netherlands for regular products. Meat and Liquor is probably double to price you pay in the
Netherlands. In total I was able to live for around 1100 euros a month. But this also included some
traveling to Copenhagen, Stockholm etc. If you want to save yourself a lot of money I would
recommend buying liquor in your home country and take it with you when you travel to sweden.
You can import 110 liters of beer, 55 liters of whine and 20 liters of strong liquor without paying
taxes.
The University of Lund applies a student-centered learning approach which means that students are
asked and motivated to actively participate in class. Personally I prefer the student centered
approach over the more hierarchical learning style, where the teacher explains and students’ task is
to listen and make notes. I followed four different courses in Lund and my grades where based on
presentations, written articles and a final take home assignment where you apply everything you’ve
learned in a final written assignment, this means that I didn’t have examination periods but just
deadlines to deliver the written assignments. Many of my fellow students followed other courses and
they did have examination periods instead of a take home assignment. As mentioned before the
autumn semester starts on the 1st of September and officially ends on the 19th of January. Mentioned
that most classes are finished around the 21st of December, and most international students will
travel back home. All courses given in Lund for international students are in English, and as a student
you should be able to read difficult subject related articles in English. If you know that your English
skills aren’t the best I would recommend choosing a university with lower standards when it comes
to the English language. While I was studying in Lund I followed to following four courses: Rising
giants of China and India, which I would describe as a course discussing the historical factors of China
and India in succeeding to enter the global economy. Corporate culture, this course elaborates on
the internal culture of a company, and how culture can be used to control the employee, motivate
etc. The third course I follow was Entrepreneurship, in this course you will learn to think as an
entrepreneur and create entrepreneurial ideas to start your own business. My last course was Global
strategic marketing; in this course you apply marketing to the global economy, and you will learn
how big international companies implement a global marketing approach. If you have a decent level
of English and a background in economics you will be able to pass for most courses in Lund. The
courses aren’t really difficult but do demand a lot of hours of reading, writing and preparing of
presentations. All course related information is provided through www.liveatlund.lu.se.
As final remarks to any future exchange student in Lund, I would recommend to get your housing
before you travel to Lund, because you don’t want to be one of the 10% still looking for housing in
the first month of the study period. Furthermore I would recommend joining a nation that suits your
interests, because nations will form the basis of most of your activities. You can also get lunch at the
nations for a reduced price, if you are looking for a social, cheap, but quality lunch, going to a nation
around 12:00 would suit you perfect. To save yourself some money I would bring your liquor with
you instead of buying it in Sweden, and don’t forget to travel a lot while your studying in Lund.
Specific information
1. Host institution and study period
The autumn study period in Lund starts at the 1st of September and ends at the 19th of January, this
does not include the introduction week starting around the 20th of August. Mentioned that most
courses end at the 21st of December and you might be able to finish your assignment in your home
country.
2a. Lectures and literature
In total I had 20 weeks of lectures with 1 to 3 lectures a week. Mentioned that lectures are almost
never compulsory in Lund, thus it is your own choice whether you participate. The schedule added in
the appendix below also states seminars, seminars are mandatory classes which acquire attendance;
most often this involves a grade. (Presentation, group discussion, oral exam etc.)
All entrepreneurship classes in the schedule after week 4 are faulty.
2b Compulsory reading list
Global strategic marketing:
Keegan, W-J & Green, M.C. (2013) Global marketing. 7th edition. Prentice Hall – 30 pages a chapter,
1 or 2 chapters of reading for each lecture.
Five business cases – 10 pages each
Entrepreneurship:
Research articles & Business cases
Onyemah Pesquera Ali (2013) What entrepreneurs get wrong (8 pages)
Sahlman (1997) How to write a great business plan HBR (11 pages)
Mullins (2013) Use customer cash to finance your startup (3 pages)
Business Plan PowerPrawns (37 pages)
Business Plan MEDIAPLUS EM LYON 2010 (40 pages)
Case Study - Technosens The Decisions that Lead to Development (20 pages)
Case Study - Aysen Zamanpur founder of Silk Cashmere (17 pages)
Thorntorn (1999) The sociology of entrepreneurship (22 pages)
Blank (2013) Why lean startup changes everything (8 pages)
Elsbach (2003) How to pitch a brilliant idea HBR (7 pages)
Casadesus Masanell Ricart (2011) How to design a winning business model (8 pages)
Corporate culture:
Keyton, J. (2010/2011) Communication and Organizational Culture: A Key to Understanding Work
Experiences. Second Edition. London: Sage. Hofstede, G., G. J. (200 pages)
Hofstede & M. Minkov (2010) Cultures and Organizations: Software of the Mind. Third Edition.
McGraw-Hill. (30 pages)
Rising giants of China:
Bhagwati, J. The Design of development in India’s Economic Reforms, and development, in Essays for
Manmohan Sing, Ahluwalia and Little(ed.) (12 pages)
Dahiya, B. and Singer, H.W.The Roots of Industrialisation strategy in India:1949-56 in Asian Journal of
economics and social studies, vol 5, no. 2, 1986 (51 pages)
Maddison, A. The historical origins of Indian poverty (distributed on live at lund) (10 pages)
Approximately 200 pages in total out of the next books!
Allen, Robert C. (2011). Global Economic History – A very short introduction. Oxford University Press
Brandt, Loren and. Rawski T.G. (eds.) (2008). China’s Great Transformation. Cambridge University
Press
Moore, Barrington. Social origins of dictatorship and democracy, 1966
Maddison, Angus (1998). Chinese Economic Performance in the Long Run. OECD
Naughton, Barry, The Chinese Economy, Transitions and Growth, 2007
Winters, Allan. and Yusuf, S.(ed.) Dancing with Giants, China, India, and the Global Economy, World
Bank, 2007
3. Overview of lecture program
See appendix
4. Contents
Rising giants of China and India: This course elaborates on the history of China and India. It discusses
factors that influence the economic situation of countries like GDP, urbanization, poorness rate etc.
in the course we had to present on the historical factors influencing the economic growth of both
countries in two separate presentations. Afterwards in our final assignment we had to compare both
economies and assess which economy was more developed, and why one country was able to
develop faster than the other.
Corporate culture: This course discusses the importance of the internal culture of a company. The
course explains how culture be used to insert control mechanisms in the company to make sure that
employees work according to the rules, but on the other hand how the culture could promote
employees to work together and share their thoughts. The course addresses the culture in
companies from many different perspectives and explains how different cultures can be used to
maintain different settings in a company. For example a company driven by innovation like apple
needs a different culture than a factory.
Entrepreneurship: In this course you learn to think like an entrepreneur, and develop your business
plan. Since this is the beginners’ course for entrepreneurship the articles are related to identifying
problems in society and create profitable entrepreneurial ideas to start our own business. The course
discusses different theories and models that can be applied to create entrepreneurial ideas, rank
them and further develop your start-up business. Moreover you learn how to create your own
business plan in order to acquire financing from banks or other investments.
Global strategic marketing: In this course the basic marketing principles are discussed in the first few
chapters, than you learn to apply the marketing principles through a global perspective. By studying
the book together with business cases you learn to recognize global marketing strategies, moreover
you learn the principles for Global marketing, and how international companies can create a global
brand by promoting their product, with minor adaptations in many different countries.
5. Lecture-related activities
Rising Giants of China: In this course the lectures were a summary of the book, the information given
in the lecture provided the base for our final paper (100% of grade).
Entrepreneurship: Before you came to the lectures you always had to read two articles, and for
every last lecture of the week you had to deliver your own individual assignment which was a written
article based on the information of the discussed chapters and articles.
Corporate culture: Lectures were a recap of the book and articles we had to read, all lectures were
relevant to write the final take home assignment (100% of grade)
Global strategic marketing: The lectures explained all information you had to study for the oral
exams; furthermore it gave you all the information needed for the presentations and the written
assignment. To prepare for the lectures we had to read business cases, and evaluate the business
case.
6. Relevance to Groningen study program
I study International Business at the university in Groningen (RUG). The main difference between my
study and most other economic studies is that International business has its focus on the
international aspects of business, thus mostly multinationals. In my study we all discuss China as one
of the most important economies of this time, in the course: the rising giants of China and India I
learned which steps and factors were important in the rise of China. In Corporate Culture we
discussed the importance of cultures in big international companies, which directly relates to the
international aspect. Global strategic marketing, as the name tells us teaches us marketing for big
multinational companies like Mcdonalds, Coca cola, Marlboro etc. This again directly relates to the
international and business aspect of my study. Entrepreneurship isn’t directly related to my study,
but for every succesfull businessman it is of most importance to understand how companies are
created and developed.
7. Study load
Entrepreneurship: Lecture: 5 hours a week, Reading articles: 3 hours a week, writing
articles/presentation: 4 hours a week, group assignment: 3 hours a week.
Corporate culture: lecture: 4 hours a week, presentation preparation: 1 hour a week, final
assignment: 8 hours in total
Rising giants of China and india: Lecture: 3 hours a week, reading: 5 hours a week, presentation: 4
hours for two presentations, Final assignment: 7 hours.
Global strategic marketing: Lecture: 3 hours a week, reading: 2 hours a week, studying: 3 hours a
week, presentation: 2 hours total, individual assignment: 2 hours a week, final group assignment: 3
hours a week.
8. Assessment in Groningen
Entrepreneurship: Our lecturer was Frédéric Delmar. (5 EC)
Corporate culture: Our lecturers were Mats Benner, Anna Pfeiffer, Rachel Waldo. (5 EC)
Rising giants of China and india: Our lecturer was Tobias Axelsson. (5 EC)
Global strategic marketing: Our lecturer was Kayhan Tajeddini. (5 EC)