Student Report
Name of University: University of Mannheim
Exchange semester: Fall 2012
I. Practical information:
After applying the university keeps you informed about things to do before your
departure. Login to the student portal and preparing your semester abroad
starts roughly in March.
When it came to the choice of courses offered, we later found out that the ones
presented on their webpage often is a bit delayed. This means that the courses
for the fall semester may not be published before July/August. We therefore had
to change the Learning Agreement when we found out.
We recommend starting looking for housing in the beginning of June. This is
because most of the students start looking in the beginning in August and it will
then be difficult to find a place to stay. Information about where to find
apartments will be given by the university by mail in the beginning of June. The
student apartments are located outside the quadrature (which is the town center
and where all restaurants, pub, clubs etc. lie). It takes about 15-30 minutes to
travel to the university by tram/bus, depending on where you live. We were
lucky to get an apartment inside the quadrature, and our apartment often served
as a hangout and place to sleep for other exchange students who lived outside
the city center. This is because the public transport stops at 1 am. Walking from
one side to the other of the quadrature takes about 15-20 minutes.
The costs compared to Norway are about half to a third. During the semester, we
mainly went out for dinner, which costs around 7 – 15 euros depending on
where you eat. Food in the Mensa at school can be bought for around 3 – 6 euros;
depending on in which Mensa you are eating (there are two at the university). A
quick summary of costs per month (this is a generous budget):
Rent
Books
Food
Transport
Other
Per month
€300 – €600
0
€300 - €500
€130 for semester ticket (valid for
train, trams, busses). Taxi home at
night: €10-€15. ICE-train to Frankfurt:
€20 - €30.
Additional costs for traveling and
sightseeing! Around €150 - €350 for
weekend trips (Paris, London, Berlin
etc.).
We have to say that we spent a lot of time traveling, going out and taking part of
the social events organized by the university and VISUM (committee for
exchange students). This is highly recommended, but also increases the costs.
Language and speaking to other students or professors etc. at the university was
no problem. They all speak and understand English well. However, it is
recommended that one at least knows or learns some basic German since not all
outside the university speaks English perfectly. We for example had to call
around to find a doctor who communicated well enough in English. We therefore
highly recommend that one attends the Summer Academy (costs ca. 6000NOK –
scholarships are given) and takes the language course since this helps a lot. We
also recommend attending the Summer Academy even if you know German,
because it is more like an introduction to the university and German culture with
travels, parties and excursions. The VISUM association sends out a weekly mail
about parties, exchange experiences and recommendations for things to do.
There are also at least 3 parties a week (Stammtisch Monday, VISUM party
Tuesday and Schneckenhof, which is a party held within the castle, on Thursday),
in addition to the ones in the weekends.
Most of us had lectures 3-4 days a week, and most students do not have lectures
on Fridays. There is therefore a fair amount of time for traveling around
Germany and Europe. Not one of us has once been in doubt about our choice of
going to Mannheim after arriving here. You meet people from all over the world
and everyone wants the same thing: to meet new people, new cultures and learn.
The exchange has even made us consider a professional career outside Norway,
which was not thinkable before.
II. About the school
The university lies at the bottom of the quadrature and is reachable by tram, bus
and by foot. The university has 4 major faculties: Business School, School of Law
and Economics, School of Social Sciences and School of Business Informatics and
Mathematics. It is regarded as one of the best in Germany within Business,
Marketing and Law and is called “The Harvard of Germany”. It is ranked 11 of
top50 MBA in the world (2012) and has been awarded the Triple Crown by
AACSB as the first university in Germany.
In fall 2012 we were around 600 exchange students (both graduate and under
graduate) and total number of students are around 9000.
The study structure is a bit different from Norway. Most subjects consist of a
lecture class and an exercise class. The lectures are 90 minutes without breaks.
Some subjects had cases from lecture to lecture, others have midterms and some
just had a final exam. The final exams are short. They are around 1 to 1.5 hours.
Grading is done according to numbers (1.0 – 4.5) where 1.0 is the best. Slides and
notes are posted electronically and are available at the student portal ILIAS. We
had no need to buy books, since we were able to take notes on the slides. Course
registration was sometime required, other times not. When required, you are
informed and this always happens after semester start (f.ex. registration
between Sept. 15 – Oct. 1.). If there is no registration required, then you just have
to register for the final exam (this is done by you, and emails with reminders are
sent out) and you come and go to the courses as you wish. Registering for the
exams is done during a period in October, but you can always register/deregister
after the period for a fee (€10) up till one week prior to the exam.
Academic Calendar
Arrival date
First day of semester
Last day of lecture
Examination period
Summer Academy
01.08.12
02.09.12
07.12.12
05.12.12
02.08.12 – 28.08.12
When it comes to arriving at Mannheim and the things to do when arriving, we
were all applied with the information needed before arrival. Arriving at
Mannheim is easy. One takes the train from Frankfurt Airport directly into the
middle of the city. The ride with the ICE takes about 30 minutes. The
international office provides any information needed.
The social life in Mannheim is amazing. The city feels more like a campus than a
city. There are held several parties a week (both by the university and by
VISUM), excursions, gatherings, thing to do with your buddy, tips of other things
to do, places to visit and “get to know each other” arrangements. We do highly
recommend to participate in the Summer Academy since this more or less
functions as introduction month and the people you get to know there will
become part of your life in Mannheim during your whole stay.
III. Academics
The lectures are split into 90 minutes blocks. The lecturers are spoken to as
Herr/Frau Professor or Herr/Frau Doctor followed by their surname. E-Mails do
also have to include etiquette, and they are really strict on this. Most classes on
the master’s level are taught in English, but some of the classes had the slides
presented in German. This was however not too problematic if you pay attention
in class. The students take their studying seriously, but the exams are not that
difficult. Exams are mostly around 1 hour. Students are encouraged to ask
questions and interact with the Professors. The quality of the lectures is high. In
addition, group works, cases and presentations are very popular in Mannheim
and often count for a percentage of your grade.
Course material, course outline and course planning is always available and
mostly completely accessible at the beginning of the semester.
There are two libraries, the BWL and VWL. Both have group rooms, quiet zones
and group zones. You will mostly be able to find space to study, except around
exam times. Then it will be full from around 08.30 in the morning till around
19.00 in the evening. Computers and printers are mainly in the library, but WiFi
is available all around campus. The use of technology and uploading electronic
notes in class is more used than at BI.
When it comes to selecting courses, we would recommend choosing those that
do not need too much studying (since you are on exchange and you would like to
experience as much of Germany in addition to studying). In addition, try to find
some courses that do not have regular lectures on Fridays. Most students do not
have that and do therefore go on trips from Thursday to Sunday/Monday. One of
us made the mistake of choosing a course he knew little about from before (but
which was really interesting) and therefore sometimes had to put more effort
into it than others had to. All in all, that decision was not regrettable, but just be
aware of it.
The courses we chose were:
Course code
and name
ACC625
Practical
Aspects of
M&A
Processes
CC501
Decision
analysis
IS554
Technologic
al
Foundations
of
Information
Systems
Master/Bachelo Exam form
r
Master
4 cases, 1
hour
presentatio
n and a 75
min.
written
exam
Master
60 min.
written
Prerequisites
None.
Elective
Master
None, but
recommend that you
know some basics
about algorithms
since its a lot of work
to understand if you
know nothing
Elective
None.
Elective
Microeconomics/ga
Elective
TAX530
Taxation of
Businesses
and
Individuals
Master
Game
Master
30 min. oral
exam/60
min
written,
depending
on number
of
attendees.
1 case, 1
hour
presentatio
n and a 90
min written
exam
Assignment
Applied valuation,
DCF, multiples, basic
accounting etc.
Approve
d as
Elective
Theory
IS 614
Master
Corporate
Knowledge
Management
s to each
lecture, a
midterm
and a 1.5
hour exam.
Case works
and a 1
hour exam
me theory
None.
Elective