Exchange Report
University of British Columbia
Sauder School of Business
Fall 2013
330165
If you enjoy the outdoors, have a passion for yoga or hockey or just simply want to experience
one of the best MBA programs in the world – Vancouver is the city for you.
Sauder School of Business will guarantee a very demanding but a rewarding MBA experience!
Congratulations if you already got accepted!
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Table of Contents
1.
Preparations for Exchange .................................................................................................... 3
1.1
Housing .......................................................................................................................... 3
1.1.1 On-Campus Housing .................................................................................................... 3
1.1.2 Off-Campus Housing ................................................................................................... 4
1.2. Flights to Vancouver .......................................................................................................... 5
1.3
2
The Exchange Orientation ............................................................................................. 5
Beautiful Vancouver ............................................................................................................. 6
2.1
3.
Cost of Living ................................................................................................................ 6
The MBA .............................................................................................................................. 7
3.1
Studies in Sauder ........................................................................................................... 7
3.2
Free Time ....................................................................................................................... 8
3.3
Courses .......................................................................................................................... 8
4.
Travelling ........................................................................................................................ 12
5.
Final Words ..................................................................................................................... 12
English Bay
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1. Preparations for Exchange
Soon after hearing from the acceptance to Sauder School of Business, the university’s
exchange coordinator contacted via email and explained the next steps prior the arrival. This
was mid March. We were asked to send an exchange contract and MBA exchange application
form with supporting documents. All these documents were luckily possible to send via email,
so no hard copies were needed. The due date for the application was mid April although earlier
submission was kindly requested. After sending the application form the coordinator assigned
us a UBC student number and instructions to login to university’s own student base CWL,
similar to our Weboodi.
The only additional fees that need to be paid are public transportation pass and insurance which
were about 250 euros. Both of the payments were required to pay by the first week of school.
On top of that, some courses do have mandatory reading packages but these fees are reasonable
and we usually found a way to go around them.
1.1 Housing
The first email had also instructions for UBC housing on campus. The deadline for the housing
was in the beginning of May but it could be done as soon as you receive your UBC student
number. The application process costs $50 and unfortunately it doesn’t even guarantee a place
on campus.
The results about the housing came late, only in the beginning of June and unfortunately many
exchange students were left without a place on campus. Apparently for the past few years they
haven’t had enough places on campus and as they don’t prioritize exchange students, most fulltime students seem to get a place over us. During our exchange few students didn’t get a place
on campus and had to look for alternative housing options. As the UBC housing is completely
separate of Sauder School of Business, they could not affect on their decisions but they were
very helpful in giving tips in finding alternative housing options.
1.1.1 On-Campus Housing
The campus area of the university is huge and it’s like a whole little town with mostly
undergrads living in different housing options. The accommodations vary a lot but the different
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options can be checked from the website which gives an overall look of the different
possibilities. They allow you to rank your preferences on the housing, so it is good to check out
different options before filling in the application. Pricewise there is no big difference in the
options if you are willing to share the flat with roommates.
Generally, most of the students paid
about 2700$ for the fall term, which
then covers the whole exchange. The
housing starts from 1st of September
until late December and it was also
possible to apply later in the summer
for early arrival housing for the end
days of August. However, this had to
be applied separately.
View from Walter Gage Residence over campus area
1.1.2 Off-Campus Housing
Most of the exchange students stayed on campus due to the easiness but I personally enjoyed
and recommend living off-campus. I managed to rent a master bedroom with private bathroom
right downtown of Vancouver in the area of Yaletown with $900/month, which is quite the
standard or even at the lower point of
the rents in this area. Although I had to
take a bus every morning to UBC
(about 30 min) and pay slightly more,
downtown living makes sure you are
right at the center of everything,
restaurants, bars and other activities.
Another
nice
recommend
is
location
Kitsilano,
I
would
popular
among students and with a decent
distance to UBC.
Downtown Yaletown
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Even though finding off-campus housing during summer can be quite challenging, most of us
found housing prior arrival and few during first week of school. The best place to look for offcampus housing is from Craigslist which is convenient, yet time consuming as many contacts
may be needed before finding a place. Even though Vancouver has many basement apartments
and other options for rent, most of the landlords prefer at least a one year contract and
sometimes the price and location becomes an issue.
1.2. Flights to Vancouver
The flights to Vancouver cost around 800€ but it can be wise to look flights to Seattle,
Washington as well, as the tickets are usually cheaper and it’s only a 2-hour, handy bus ride
away from Vancouver. Finnish citizens don’t need a visa to Canada, but UBC’s letter of
acceptance is required at the border. When travelling through The U.S once the allowed 90
days in the U.S has passed it is possible to receive extension once you show the letter of
acceptance which states your student status in Canada. Also, as most of the exchange students
traveled before or after the exchange, it might be wise to consider a one-way ticket or at least a
flexible ticket.
1.3 The Exchange Orientation
The exchange orientation was held on the 28th and 29th August and the school started the
following week’s Monday 2nd September. Most of the exchange students had arrived to the
city in the previous week and it was nice get around the city before the school actually started.
The orientation included city sightseeing and campus tour and overall it was a nice way to get
to know the other exchange students, staff and some of the fellow MBA students as well.
Sauder highly appreciates the incoming exchange students each fall so we were warmly
welcomed to the school. The MBA office and especially its exchange student coordinator,
Edenia Lai was extremely helpful and everything was always well-planned and organized
which gave such a good impression of the University. They also had assigned “buddies” from
the fellow MBA students so this informal contact was useful even before arrival.
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2
Beautiful Vancouver
Vancouver is the capital of British Columbia in the West Coast of Canada and very close to the
U.S border in the South. The city has about 600 000 inhabitants so it’s about the same size as
Helsinki. The climate is the mildest of the whole Canada so even in the winter the temperature
rarely goes below zero, although it did snow in December during my exchange. Vancouver is
known for its rainy climate, but during my exchange we had more sunshine than rain and the
fall was overall just incredibly beautiful.
Vancouver
is
known
for
its
beautiful surroundings as the city
is surrounded by the mountains
and
a
scenic
coastline.
The
downtown Vancouver is filled
with newly built skyscrapers but it
also has large outdoor areas
around the city such as the Stanley
Park. In the outskirts of the city
there
are
numerous,
amazing
hiking and outdoor possibilities,
the famous ski resort Whistler less than 2-hour drive away and Vancouver Island reachable by
a short bus and ferry ride. On top of that, the lively city has numerous restaurants and places to
go out and what’s best is that everything works well.
2.1 Cost of Living
The cost of living in Vancouver is about the same as in Helsinki. Generally groceries cost about
the same, with the exception of more expensive dairy products. Eating out is affordable and
Vancouver offers wide range of different kitchens from all over the world. Asian kitchen and
especially Japanese is fairly cheap and well presented in the city, due to a large Asian
immigrant population. So for sushi lovers, the city is a haven as you can get quality sushi with
only a fraction of the price from Finland.
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3. The MBA
The MBA in Sauder School of Business is a 16-month intense business program with career
tracks in consulting and strategic management, product and service management, innovation
and entrepreneurship and finance. It has been ranked among the top 100 MBA programs in the
world. Instead of a scientific approach, the MBA is more practical and many courses use
business cases as the means of study, which also was a nice change for our M.Sc.. Also
students’ contribution to class discussions is highly valued and also expected so the nature of
the class is very different from ours.
About half of the MBA students were foreigners and due to the required work-life experience
prior the MBA, the average age of the students was around 28. The students came from various
different backgrounds so international and cross-disciplinary studying atmosphere was
guaranteed.
3.1 Studies in Sauder
The fall term is divided into 2
periods, P6 and P7 and the
exchange students are required
to take the full load with 4
modules
to
each
period
accounting for 1,5 credit each.
Both periods last for 6 weeks,
and the last week is always set
for exams. Due to such short
period of time, the courses tend
to have a very fast pace and the
assignments spread quite evenly throughout the period. The workload is not necessarily any
larger than in Aalto but due to the short time frame the last weeks of the period tend to be very
busy. However, the course work is mostly easier and not academic as in Aalto so also less
effort is needed to pass the courses.
The classes go through Monday to Thursday from 8 am to 9.30 pm, always having a 3-day
weekend. Each course is typically either twice a week for 1,5 hours or 3 hours once a week. By
arranging the courses I was able to have also Mondays off, meaning that I had more courses per
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day. However, despite the only few days of real classes, the days were still often filled with
team meetings or work on individual assignments.
In between the periods, there’s a 1-week midterm break that all the exchange students used for
travelling. Half of us made a trip to Hawaii and other half went to the Rocky Mountains. We
found cheap return tickets to Hawaii (about 250 €) and spent amazing 10 days catching the sun
while it was getting colder in Vancouver. School officially ended in the end of November so
we also rented a house in Whistler and went to ski for a week.
Last school event, a final MBA gala was held in December 7th which most of the exchange
students still attended as a final event in Vancouver. After that some of the exchange students
flew home and some staid either in Canada or went for further travels. I was able to stay in
Vancouver until mid-December and got to enjoy more of what the city had to offer. After that I
finished my exchange with few weeks travelling in California and in the states of the West
Coast.
3.2 Free Time
Although the full load of courses is demanding and does require studying, the long weekends
were always set for different activities. The fellow MBA’s were very active and often set
different activities for the weekend and UBC also provided many sports clubs for those who
were interested. Every Thursday evening the MBA’s and exchange students gathered in a
chilled pub night in different bars around the city, mingling and celebrating the weekend
together.
3.3 Courses
The initial course registrations were sent to the exchange coordinator over the summer who
then registered us to the courses. Some of the courses were cancelled so unfortunately we had
to do some re-scheduling later on. The first week of school is a drop off-week, where course
changes are still possible. Quite many of the exchange students did change their courses after
seeing what the first lessons were all about. However, some of the courses may be full so it’s
important to choose the ones that seem most interesting in the first place.
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BA563 Decision Making for Managers 1,5 cr (Dale Griffin)
15% Written assignment 1
30% Written assignment 2
25% Participation
30% Open-book case exam
This course intends to strengthen students’ decision making skills by looking more in detail
into the decision making process and its structure. The course links materials from different
fields like Economics, Statistics, Marketing and Psychology and was in the end very theoretical.
Despite an interesting topic and the compulsory nature of the course in the MBA program the
course was not one of my favorites. The course material is interesting and the teacher Dale
Griffin is a nice teacher but I wasn’t very convinced of his teaching skills. If I had to choose
again, I wouldn’t choose this. Overall, the amount of work for the course was reasonable and a
good grade was not difficult to get.
BAHR507 Two-Party Negotiations 1,5cr (Dan Skarlicki)
20% - Class Participation
40% - Negotiations Feedback
40% - Final Paper
This course was held over a weekend for three days and it was definitely one of the best
courses of the whole exchange and apparently the whole MBA program. Dan Skarlicki is one
of the best teachers in Sauder and his teaching skills make the course what it is. The course had
only some theory and most of it was hands-on negotiation practices that were held in pairs or
small groups. The practical assignments were fun and gave a lot of insight to your own
negotiation skills over the weekend. In addition to the three days of classes over the weekend,
the course had a final paper that was due few weeks after the course. The workload of the
course was quite low and sacrificing a weekend is worth considering. Being able to choose
only 3 courses for the whole period balances the workload. I highly recommend taking this
course because it’s practical and you will learn a lot. I would choose it again.
BAHR520 Managing the Employment Relationship 1,5cr (Perry Atwal)
30% - Group Project
50% - Final Exam
20% - Participation
This course focused on the basics of human resources management and also Canadian HR
legislation and unions. If you are interested in working in Canada, this course can be beneficial
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as you get to learn a lot about the human resource practices locally. As these practices are fairly
different from ours in Finland and Europe, the course context was not always very beneficial.
Perry isn’t very demanding but he does try to make the classes interesting to his students. The
workload of the course was lowest of all the courses and a good grade was easy to get. As I
didn’t learn much new, I wouldn’t choose the course again.
BAIT513 Managing e-Business 1,5cr (Ron Cenfetelli)
25% - Participation
45% - Three Case Memos
30% - Final Presentation
Even though the course was an IT course, it focused more on existing e-business strategies than
programming. Ron has his background in IT so he is very passionate about this field. The
course was mostly based on Harvard Business School cases and some theory. The final project
work was very flexible and we got to study e-businesses from many aspects. I think the course
is more interesting to students whose interest is on IT. The workload was manageable but I
wouldn’t choose the course again.
BAMA503-001-002-New Product Development 1,5cr (Tim Silk)
10% - Class Participation
45% - Take-Home Case Exam
45% - Team Project: New Product Proposal
This course was by far the best and but also most demanding course during my exchange. Tim Silk
is a very passionate teacher and a marketing professional who knows how to gets students attention
in class. His known for his temper and unexpected teaching methods as he has, for instance, had
Scotch tasting in class and last Halloween he dressed up as Austin Powers for the day. The course
had a good combination of both theory and practice of new product development and it’s definitely
an interesting course for anyone with even slight interest in new product development or marketing.
The team project has quite a heavy work load as teams are expected to carry a full market study and
finally propose a new product to the market. Despite the full work load that the course had I learnt
most in this course so I would choose it again.
BAMA513 Internet Marketing 1,5 cr (Paul Cubbon)
10% - Hootsuit Certificate or Article/Book Report
30% - Class Participation
30% - Project Work
20% - Reflective Learning Paper
20% - Blog
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This course focuses on the basics of internet marketing in a practical and interesting way. Paul
Cubbon is British marketing genius and known for his marketing background. He built the
course in a very practical manner which made the course differ from the ones I had had in
Aalto. We got to keep our own blog and also did a project to a real client where we for example
implemented and tested a social media campaign – and measured its success. In addition, we
practiced for social media tool Hootsuite and received its certification. The only negative for
the course was the busy schedule but overall the workload was manageable and a good grade
was easy to achieve. I would choose the course again.
BA564 Leadership Development 1,5cr (Dan Skarlicki)
20% - Leadership Analysis
20% - Personal Leadership Vision and Performance Plan
20% - Peer Feedback Report
20% - Leading Change Paper
20% - Participation
This other course from Dan Skarlicki was a mandatory and kind of wrap-up course for the
graduating MBA’s. It focused on realizing and building student’s own negotiation style and
skills and it followed similar structure than the Negotiations course. The course had again
practical leadership simulations which were fun to do and where we learnt a lot. As the
structure of the course was similar to the negotiations it sometimes felt like a repetition. Overall
the course was an interesting course where you got to reflect your own skills. Even though I
don’t think I learnt very much I would still choose the course again as Dan is one of the best
teachers and his courses are always interesting to be at. As the workload was reasonable, this
course was a nice addition to the other courses in the final period.
BAMA 580D Strategic Management of Customer Relationships 1,5cr (Murali
Chandrashekaran)
15% - Case Memos
20% - Class Participation
30% - Team Project
10% - Peer Evaluation
25% - Final Exam
This course was taught first time by Sauder’s Associate Dean Murali Chandrashekaran who is a
highly appreciated person in the school. The course had fairly little theory and consisted of
Harvard Business School cases as well as several company presentations. Murali is a very live
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teacher and he based most of the class with discussions and active learning. Even though
Murali was able to keep the lessons interesting I didn’t learn a lot. With the balanced workload,
interesting teacher and companies in mind I would still choose to course again.
4. Travelling
I would recommend staying in Vancouver for some time after school as well. The city has a lot
to offer and little over 3 months is not enough to see all the places while having a busy MBA
courses to do. Also the surroundings of Vancouver are great for travelling so it is ideal to take
some time off and explore California and other neighboring cities. In the first week of our
exchange we planned a trip to Tofino, a little surf town in Vancouver Island, which was a great
place for a visit during late summer. Also, Victoria, Seattle and Portland are great cities not far
away from Vancouver so there are definitely places to see also outside the city of Vancouver.
View from Whistler Mountain
5. Final Words
My exchange in Vancouver was definitely one of the best experiences of my life. The city,
university, all amazing people that I got to meet, and the whole experience went far beyond my
expectations. Our small exchange student group became really close and that was one of the
best sides of the exchange in Sauder.
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I haven’t still met anyone who hasn’t loved Vancouver and no wonder. The city and its
surroundings have so many things to offer and Vancouverites are one of the friendliest and
most welcoming people I have ever met. So, if you want to experience amazing exchange
experience and a challenging MBA program in one of the best cities in the world, then
Vancouver and Sauder should be your choice. You won’t be disappointed 
Should you have any questions, I’d be happy to answer. noora.pihlstrom@aalto.fi