k93520, Aalto BIZ
Travel Report for MSc Exchange, Fall 2013
University of Lausanne, Switzerland
k93520 / travel report / UNIL / fall ’13
I spent my MSc (Economics) exchange semester in fall 2013 at the University of Lausanne
(UNIL), more specifically its business school, HEC Lausanne (UNIL-HEC)1, in
Switzerland. I chose UNIL mainly because of the French language and the institution’s
academic reputation especially within the fields of economics and finance. I also found
Switzerland an interesting country – it being conveniently in the middle of Europe was
certainly not a bad thing – worth even a little longer visit. It was indeed.
1. Preparing for the Fall
UNIL was confirmed as my final destination in March as per the standard schedule. About
a month later, the helpful UNIL exchange coordinator, Mrs. Velasco, sent a confirmation
email and started sending general information to me. Pretty much the only inconvenience
with preparations was that the first application period for the local student housing
foundation, FMEL2, had ended already before my exchange was confirmed. (My fault, as I
could have applied for a room already before confirmation.) However, FMEL opened a
second application period in July, which was when I was able to get a room at
Bourdonnette, quite nicely located only one kilometer or so from the campus and a few
kilometers from city center. It’s important to note that housing applications were accepted
only for one day in July, so if you’re going to Lausanne and want a (relatively) cheap room,
you should check frequently for updates on the FMEL website.
Swiss authorities required quite a bit of paperwork for staying in the country, but nothing as
convoluted as I had feared. Since I stayed in the country for five months, I needed to apply
for an L-type permit (short-term residence permit). I did mail an application before entering
the country, but I somehow ended up having to fill another (blue) form at the local office.
(Useful hint: bring a lot of passport photos with you.) The permit costs something like €303.
First they give you a slip of paper that does the job for a while. The official permit was
ready to be picked up about a month later. You need the permit to get a phone contract and
a Swiss bank account if you want one, probably not for much else. I did not open a bank
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www.hec.unil.ch
www.fmel.ch
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1 CHF = approx. 0.8 EUR
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account, as Visa Electron worked well enough with ATMs and most stores and restaurants.
The downside was the extra costs associated with cash withdrawals and rent payments from
the Finnish account.
I believe foreign nationals may be required to show proof of sufficient funding and health
insurance to the cantonal office. In my case, the European health insurance card seemed to
do the job, however.
For registering for UNIL, first there’s a ‘pré-inscription’ online form to be filled, and then a
couple of documents to mail. You can apply for a student card before leaving for Lausanne,
so you can get it immediately after arriving.
I booked the flights from Finnair (HEL-GVA) a few months in advance, and they cost
around €150 one way. Trains go between Geneva and Lausanne very frequently (multiple
times an hour), and a one-way ticket costs a little over €20 (without the half-fare card).
UNIL also has a tutor system for incoming exchange students, and my tutor actually gave
me a ride to Lausanne from the Geneva airport. Incoming students will get an email asking
if they want a tutor. At UNIL, most practicalities went quite smoothly, and I remember only
having some problem with depositing money on my student card (mainly for paying for
food and coffee at the campus), which was soon fixed at the IT help point.
2. School Stuff
The fall semester officially started on September 17, but there was an orientation day for
exchange students on the 12th. I arrived in Lausanne on September 6, which gave me more
than enough time to settle in, get the practicalities out of the way, visit a couple of places
and get to know some people before school began. Plenty of activities were arranged for
new students during the beginning of the semester. Getting to know other students was
made easy.
Exchange students are allowed to take courses not only from all HEC departments but also
from other UNIL departments, and even some courses from EPFL (École polytechnique
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fédérale de Lausanne). Thus, the course selection is vast, and I’d suppose every student
should be able to find suitable and interesting courses. Almost all MSc-level courses at
HEC are taught in English. Some French language courses are offered to exchange
students, as well. As an MSc exchange student, I was only allowed to take MSc-level
courses. All my courses were held in English.
There is no course registration, and exam registration does not happen until October, so it’s
a good idea to check out any interesting courses by attending lectures during the first
weeks, and decide which ones to continue on in October. It’s worth noting that while
courses of the fall semester end before Christmas (and in May for the spring semester),
final exams are held in January (June-July for the spring semester).
In general, the academic standard seemed quite high, and at least for a good grade at the
courses I selected, one should expect to work perhaps more than at Aalto. I’d suspect that
several other courses available would have been somewhat easier, though. All in all, the
courses were interesting and challenging. Below you can find short descriptions of each of
the courses I completed.
Experiments with People: Design and Analysis, 6 ECTS
A management department course on experimental methodology mainly within the field of
psychology, but also sociology and economics, taught by Dr. White. While this course
comprised 6 credits’ worth of lectures, exercise sessions, a project work and a final exam, it
was the easiest one among my courses. The subject matter was divided about 50-50 into
qualitative analysis of different types of experiments and quantitative statistical techniques.
The methods on the course were quite simple, some of them familiar from basic BSc math
and statistics courses at Aalto BIZ. Still, the course remained sufficiently interesting, and I
found it nice that students were given free hands in choosing both the project work’s
research subject and its methodology (it could be a questionnaire, a controlled experiment
etc.).
Inefficient Markets, 6 ECTS
If the ‘Experiments’ course was easy, this course was the trickiest of them all; saying I had
some hard time would be an understatement. Formally, this was a finance course, but I
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should have been alarmed by the fact that the teacher, Dr. Challet, was a physicist. In fact,
I’m still not totally clear on how all the models related to financial markets. That said, the
subject matter was interesting in its own right, so the level of difficulty wasn’t the only
thing to keep you awake during lectures. The general idea was to scrap the efficient market
hypothesis straightaway, and model and forecast different markets (price predictability and
fluctuations) by applying ideas from physics, biology and computer science, among other
fields. Course grade was based on exercises and a final exam. We also opened virtual
trading accounts. Professor Challet had original and ‘out-of-the-box’ observations about
financial markets. A dangerously difficult course, but genuinely fascinating. That’s the
tradeoff, I suppose. Keywords: classical mechanics, stochastic processes, fractals, network
theory, chaos theory, game theory, MATLAB.
Innovation Law, 3 ECTS
A law department course on intellectual property and antitrust law, taught by Mrs. Junod.
This course was a positive surprise at the end, certainly some interesting and relevant
material. We covered patents, copyrights, trademarks, industrial designs and competition
policy, for example. I learned about a bunch of EU directives, the TRIPS agreement and
other developments. A number of interesting and recent cases were presented in detail by
the professor, many from the pharmaceutical industry – perhaps the most complicated of
them all, in legal terms – due to her background. As a detail, I don’t think there was a single
question during the course she could not answer in depth. Another nice thing about the
course was the fact that there were about six participants in total, so lectures were actually
interactive discussions around a table. Definitely recommended. Course grade was based on
an oral exam.
Cellular Biology and Biochemistry for Engineers, 4 ECTS, EPFL course
I wanted to study something still a bit more different from traditional business topics during
the fall. Biology seems to connect to economics and finance in surprising ways, be it
through behavioral- and neuroeconomics, genetic algorithms or evolutionary psychology.
Of course, these things could not be dealt with in that much depth on a single course, but I
found the course challenging and rewarding anyway. The course was lectured very well by
Dr. Hirling. Despite it being an MSc-level biology course primarily intended for engineers,
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it was possible to attend the course with only a high-school level knowledge on biology and
chemistry. I was not the only one to join the course from an ‘outside’ field. We covered
mainly human biology, from the basic chemical compounds and structure of cells all the
way up to high-level organization and biological functions. A big part of the time was
dedicated to examining how the brain works. Technological research methods and other
applications were discussed. A written exam determined 100% of the course grade.
3. Living, Free Time and Other Things to Know
In case you didn’t know it already, Switzerland is one of the most expensive countries there
is – certainly not a student’s dream place to live in money-wise. First of all, there’s the cost
of living, which is generally still substantially higher than in downtown Helsinki. However,
if you have a bit of luck, you may get a room or a studio from an FMEL house (or some
other student residence), which may translate to at least €200 savings per month. Note that
you are significantly more likely to get a room than a studio. I paid about €500/month for
my 15m2 room in a five-person flat at FMEL Bourdonnette. The security deposit was about
€1000, which I got back in its entirety when leaving (transferring the money to back my
Finnish account was a bit of a hassle, though). FMEL is pretty strict with cleaning checks
and house rules, but if you get a room from any FMEL house, I would warmly recommend
accepting it – living at FMEL is also a good way to get to know other UNIL and EPFL
students.
Food is also expensive, especially meat. Unfortunately, eating at school is not going to save
you money the way it does in Finland: you can get the cheapest lunch at UNIL for about
€7; other options cost more. I found the meals too small, but maybe it’s just me. The
selection and quality were usually fine. (Note: not everything is more expensive than in
Finland: alcohol, just as an example, is significantly cheaper in Switzerland.) And tap water
is totally drinkable.
Getting around is easy with two metro lines connecting most essential places in the city,
although I think the metro is actually closer to a tram when it comes to speed. The local
commuter card costs about €40/month. If you use a bicycle, walk or take a cab or do
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something else instead, you may just want to buy individual metro/bus tickets for about €3
apiece when you need to. Cabs cost about the same as in Finland. A ‘demi-tarif’ (-50%)
card for railway transportation within Switzerland is available for purchase at
approximately €150 for 12 months. If you’re planning on traveling by train say, every other
week, it might already be smart to buy the card.
UNIL and EPFL are located next to each other, and together form a large campus by Lake
Geneva. The campus is about 5 kilometers from city center. The HEC building, Internef, is
where most of the lectures will be and is at the east end of the campus. Even though there
are three metro stops in the campus area, I often found moving from building to another by
walking more convenient due to relatively small distances and the somewhat slow and
infrequent metro. A bike would probably have been the ideal way to move around. EPFL
maintains a pretty useful and inexpensive campus/city bike system. And if you happen to
do cycling as a hobby, there are sure to be hills steep enough nearby for even the most
seasoned riders.
If cycling is not your thing, you can try dozens of other sports at the UNIL/EPFL sports
center right by the lake. For those who like running, walking, the paths along the shore are
idyllic. The sports facilities are very nice, and it’s quite cheap for students to engage in the
activities offered. Getting the gym card (approximately €20) requires attending a one-hour
instruction session. At present, the possibilities seem to range literally from ‘agrès’
(gymnastics) to Zumba.4 As a Finn, however, I was disappointed to find out that the only
sauna within a reasonable distance cost €30 / five times.
The atmosphere in Lausanne is very international (even amongst degree students), and
somewhat ironically only a few of the people I got to know were actually Swiss. Many
were from France, Italy or Germany. Many more were from some other country. The
French language can be heard a lot, not least because that’s the official language of the
canton. Many exchange students speak or try to speak French, which makes it comfortable
to practice your skills without feeling embarrassed. I think I spend about 2/3 of my time
speaking English and 1/3 French. I don’t think it would be a problem flipping this time
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sport.unil.ch
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allocation around if you just systematically want to put effort into developing your French.
Taking some of the French language courses offered is also not a bad idea.
What about the weather? My experience is from fall and wintertime, but it’s pretty close to
that in Finland plus about five degrees. Warm days (close to +20) kept on coming in
October. By the end of the month, it started getting colder pretty quickly. There wasn’t
really snow this winter, although I heard that the year before there was, a lot! The scenery,
with the Alps rising behind Lake Geneva or ‘Lac Léman’ (do not ever refer to it as ‘Lac de
Genève’ with a local present!), is quite phenomenal at times.
While Lausanne is not that big a city, it’s quite lively due to the many students living there.
Finding a party should not be a problem on any given day. The student associations are
very active; the local Erasmus Student Network, ESN, is the first and foremost. I
recommend buying their card for about €10 (possible during the orientation day at the
campus, for example), as it’s very likely worth it for the discounts you get with it. There is
also Comité HEC, which arranges events especially for HEC students. There should be
enough things to see in the city besides partying and student events, as well. There are
many museums – at least the Olympic museum is worth visiting – and it’s nice to wander
around the old town. Shopping opportunities are pretty good, although I did most of my
shopping online. If you order things from abroad, take into account possible VAT and
import tariffs.
Of course, you don’t need to and you probably won’t stay put in Lausanne and Switzerland
the whole semester. Trains come and go (they are not that cheap but they are convenient),
and at least EasyJet can take you from Geneva to a lot of places for a reasonable price.
France, Italy, Germany and Austria are all just around the corner, including the Alps.
Regardless of whether you come to Lausanne for the fall or the spring semester, going
skiing will be an option for several weekends. The ESN student association organizes trips
on almost a weekly basis around Switzerland and neighboring countries at very affordable
prices, and tagging along is surely not a bad way to see surrounding places. Also, renting a
car together can be a not-too-expensive and flexible possibility worth considering.
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4. Comments and Conclusions
I really enjoyed my stay in Lausanne, and would highly recommend the place if you’re
interested in visiting Switzerland or just want to have a base at the heart of Europe and
travel around… or if you just want to ski. Further, I think UNIL is a good school with an
extensive course offering for exchange students. I don’t think Lausanne is a very popular
exchange destination among Aalto business students, but I can’t really see too many
reasons for that – it’s a good school full of international students in a nice city in a central
location in Europe. Perhaps the general price level and non-tropical weather form a
sufficient deterrent.
In retrospect, I think I could have used my free time more efficiently and traveled even
more than I did. If you decide to go for Lausanne, it need not be just Lausanne: I encourage
you to travel around the country and Europe while you can do so easily. Also, while I
improved my French considerably, I always could have done so more and perhaps come
back to Finland fluent in French. (Now I’m still not quite, but I’m getting there…)
During the exchange period, I met a lot of people from different cultures and made many
friends. Not only did I learn things at school; I learned a lot outside of it, about the cultures
these people represent. What I found perhaps a bit (positively) surprising was how easy it
was to interact with people from very different backgrounds. I had not been this long away
from Finland before, and I think that going ‘alone’ somewhere far away for a good period
of time is a learning experience in itself. But I guess staring at the streets of Helsinki for 23
years did its job: living somewhere else for 5 months was easier than I had expected – I
actually found myself wishing at times that it lasted for a full year.
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