VAASA POLYTECHNIC
Business Economics and Tourism
1/6
1. Personal Details
2. Course Details at Home Institution
I am studying in the department of Business Economics and Tourism in Raastuvankatu and my degree
programme is International Business.
I started my studies in the fall 2002, so this is my second year in Vaasa Polytechnic.
3. Exchange period
My host university was Fachhochschule Vorarlberg University of Applied Sciences in Austria and I
studied there Business Process and Project Management (Betriebliches Prozess- und Projektmanagement)
in the business unit.
My contact person was Karin Wüstner-Dobler who is the International Programs Coordinator.
My studies there lasted more or less 6 months and I arrived there 24.8.2003 and attended an orientation
week arranged by the Fachhochschule Vorarlberg. My departure date from Dornbirn was 20.2.2004.
The winter semester began 1.9.2003 and ended 20.2.2004
The only holiday we had was Christmas holiday from 22.12.2003 until 6.1.2004.
4. Details of the courses taken

Content Based English 3 ( 2.10.03-32.1.04, 2 ECTS )
Course Contents:
Critical thinking, reading, note taking and paragraph writing
Course Objectives:
Proficiency in reading, note taking and paragraph writing
Prerequisites:
Business Skills English 2
Teaching and Learning Methods:
Communicative
Assessment:
'Quick writes', revisions and running a discussion
Bibliography:
Articles from the Harvard Business Review
Keys for Writers by Ann Raimes
Personal Evaluation:
The course was quit difficult, and there was a lot of talking and presentations. The teacher was a native
speaker and the level he expected was high. I did a discussion with a partner and also we had to deliver
to 2 QW to the teacher in the end of the course. I would say the goal in this course was to get people more
“familiar” in using English fluency and easily everywhere.

Corporate Planning and Strategy Development (27.09-21.11, 3ECTS)
VAASA POLYTECHNIC
Business Economics and Tourism
2/6
Course Contents:
Due to the increasing complexity of the economic and social environment, strategy has become one of the
most important success factors. This lecture focuses on the basic concepts of corporate planning and
strategy development. Selected concepts will be presented through case studies.
Course Objectives:
Students are able to understand the most important concepts of corporate planning and strategy
generation; identify the pros and cons of each of these strategic concepts and the interrelation between
them in order to apply them in practice.
Teaching and Learning Methods:
Lectures
Case studies
Presentations
Assessment:
Written examination
Participation in group work
Bibliography:
Reader: "Corporate Planning and Strategy Development"
Personal Evaluation:
The course was done by two different lectures that were working full-time in a bank in Switzerland in this
area of business so there was a lot of on field knowledge in the lectures. Mostly the teaching was done
through PowerPoint presentations and some small group works. The level of the course and the exam in
the end was quit high. The goal was to get an overall picture on what things to consider when doing
planning for businesses and also give us some tools to use, like SWOT, McKinsey portfolio, checklists etc.

International Business Operations 1 ( 26.09-10.10.03, 3ECTS )
Course Contents:
This course provides students with a basic understanding of international business process and strategy as
well as of the basic theories of international trade and alliances (macro environment).
Course Objectives:
Students are able to: understand the scope of international business operations; consider the cultural
aspects as a part of internationalization; plan the internationalization process of a company; choose an
international operational mode for a company according to its situation and environment.
Prerequisites:
Basics of marketing
Teaching and Learning Methods:
Lectures
Group work
Exercises
Assessment:
Exercises and/or written assessment
Bibliography:
- Außenhandel, Jahrman, Kiehl Verlag
- Internationales Marketing, Stahr, Kiehl Verlag
- International Business, Czincota - Ronkainen - Moffet, Dryden
- International Dimensions of Organisational Behaviour, Adler, Wadsworth Publishing Company
Personal Evaluation:
VAASA POLYTECHNIC
Business Economics and Tourism
3/6
This course was not what I had expected; because the two teachers were consultants in this area they
approached the topic from a different angle (getting the big picture of the subject). The topic was mostly
presented through a PowerPoint slides done by the teachers and the level of the teaching was not so good
in the end. In my opinion the goal in this course was more to get people to think about international
companies, countries and what problems there might arise when starting a business abroad, instead of
giving any exact information.

Controlling (20.10-28.11.03, 4ECTS )
Course Contents:
This course covers the nature of control and the role of the controller, CVP-analysis, flexible budgeting
Course Objectives:
Students are able to increase their familiarization with the controlling environment and instruments. Also
cost control.
Prerequisites:
Finance and Accounting I
Finance and Accounting II
Teaching and Learning Methods:
Lecture
Exercises
Assessment:
Lecture
Written examination
Bibliography:
Anthony / Govindarjan: Management Control Systems, 9th edition, Boston 1998
Personal Evaluation:
The course was extremely difficult course done by two different teachers from Ireland. The level of
teaching was high and the learning was very intensive. During the course we were taught many important
things about controlling in a business (CVP-analyses, calculations etc.), and the information flow was
amazing (too much information, during such a short time period).The goal of this course was clearly to
teach the students what is controlling in a business and how it is done.

Elective Course in Business Management 3: American Organizational Culture
Course Contents:
A basic overview of the practices and patterns of meaning in American organizational life. The primary
emphasis will be on private organizations and business. The secondary emphasis will be on government
and public organizations. An anthropological approach is employed, making extensive use of real-world
examples and experiential accounts.
Course Objectives:
The students will become familiar with:
1) major forms of organization in American life and their stated purposes,
2) selected experiences of American organizational culture and expression of those experiences, and
3) Tensions between the stated purposes or organizations and the experience of life and work within
them.
Teaching and Learning Methods:
Discussions and presentations (individual and group);
Assessment:
class-participation, presentations, final written examination;
VAASA POLYTECHNIC
Business Economics and Tourism
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Bibliography:
Gareth Morgan: Images of Organization.
Course-notes
Personal Evaluation:
The teacher came this time from USA and of course it is always nice to hear a native speaker. The course
itself was OK and the professor clearly knew how to teach, just the course content wasn’t too amazing.
More or less we basically just talked about Americans and their culture, than anything specific about
their “business ways”.

Management of Opportunities and Threats 1 ( 27.10-6.11.03, 3ECTS )
Course Contents:
This course acknowledges that our experiences are based on the learning and knowledge processes of our
cultural system. The recognition of risk and how crises are dealt with is a matter of personal viewpoints,
perception, and behavior. The course covers such topics as world views, systems, complexity, leadership
in organizations, reports, and personal qualifications.
Course Objectives:
Students are able to increase their understanding of personal viewpoints and behavior and apply this
understanding in situations of opportunity and risk. lexity, leadership in organizations, reports, and
personal qualifications.
Teaching and Learning Methods:
Presentations
Exercises
Discussions
Assessment:
Group work
Bibliography:
Peter M. Senge, "The Fifth Discipline: The Art and Practice of the Learning Organization"
Gareth Morgan, "Images of Organizations"
Articles and literature as recommended
Remarks:
15 x 45 min. lectures plus 15 x 45 min. exercises (in three groups) plus 5 to 10 hours work (personal)
Personal Evaluation:
The level of the teaching was not very high, and you didn’t learn much during the lectures. The
important information about this topic was missing from the lectures and the teacher wanted us to find
the answers instead of giving/teaching them himself. Not a course I would choose again!

German: Culture and Communication - Level 2 ( 1.9-15-12-03, 2ECTS )
Course Contents:
In this course students increase their language and intercultural skills, in order to master complex
situations in everyday and business life.
Starting out from the students´ language level, the following topics will be discussed: profession and
studies, leisure time, culture and traditions, etc
Course Objectives:
Students are able to describe simple facts, give arguments and express both in the present, past and future
tense. Students have the competence to linguistically distinguish between real and unreal situations.
VAASA POLYTECHNIC
Business Economics and Tourism
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Prerequisites:
Students will be placed in a level according to proficiency (written entry-test).
Teaching and Learning Methods:
Lecture, exercises, group-work
Assessment:
written and oral examination
Bibliography:
Tangram 2A, Hueber, 2000.
Dialog Beruf 2, Hueber, 2001.
Themen Neu 2, Hueber, 2000.
Passwort Deutsch 2, Klett, 2001
Personal Evaluation:
Definitely not what I had expected from the course! The level was really low and the teacher in my
opinion wasn’t professional in this field. A big disappointment, because I didn’t learn much, because the
assignments were easy and there was no homework or exams. The lectures didn’t have any structure and
the teacher claimed not to speak any English, so it was quit difficult to communicate with her. The one
good thing about this course was that the group was very small.

Elective English 5 ( 8.10.03-7.1.04, 2ECTS )
Course Contents:
critical thinking, presentations, discussions
Course Objectives:
proficiency in professional oral communication
Prerequisites:
Content Based English 4
Teaching and Learning Methods:
Communicative
Assessment:
Presentations and running a discussion
Bibliography:
Critical Chain by Eliyahu M. Goldratt
Personal Evaluation:
The teacher was in this course the same as in the Content based English, and also in this course there
were a lot of presentations and talking and the level was even higher this time, because it was a 7
semester course. Small group and the lessons were very relaxed and easygoing.

Elective Course 5: Process- and Project Management ( 19.01-27.01.04, 2ECTS )
Course Contents:
This course introduces the fundamentals of project and program risk management. It covers the latest
advances in risk management, covering both the business (strategic) risks and the implementation
(delivery) risks and looks into case studies on actual projects where risk analysis has been applied;
Course Objectives:
In this course students develop a sound knowledge of the fundamentals of risk, opportunity and
uncertainty analysis and management; they study the frameworks for risk/uncertainty analysis and
management, learn the theory and application of techniques for quantitative risk analysis/management
and understand the latest view on holistic risk/uncertainty analysis and management.
VAASA POLYTECHNIC
Business Economics and Tourism
6/6
Prerequisites:
Management of Opportunities and Threats 1
Teaching and Learning Methods:
Lecture, teamwork, presentation;
Assessment:
written assignment, presentation;
Bibliography:
Vose D: Quantitative Risk Analysis: A Guide to Monte Carlo Simulation, Wiley, 1996.
Vose D: Risk Analysis: A Quantitative Guide, Wiley, 2001.
Personal Evaluation:
Definitely a lot of work and information was given during this course that was conducted in a short time
period. The teacher came from Sydney University and he expected quit a lot from his students and the
level of the lectures was high. The goal in this course was more to introduce us to risk analyses,
calculations, @Risk program etc.
7. Travel Arrangements
I had a flight Tampere -Helsinki- Zurich and the same route back. I took the flight through Kilroy Travels
in Finland. From Zurich I took a train to St. Margarethan and from there the school had arranged a pickup service. Overall the trip from Tampere to Dornbirn and back cost about 400 euros.
8. Accommodation
The International office in Fachhochschule Vorarlberg found me a place to live in. It was an apartment in
the city centre that I shared with 3 other girls. We shared a kitchen, toilet and a bathroom and the rent for
this flat was 225€/ month. The apartment was owned by a church.
Contact details:
Pfarramt St. Martin
Markplatz 1
6850 Dornbirn
Austria
9. Financing
The financing that I had was the Erasmus grant 750 € and the money I got from school for the travelling
expenses and for the studies 170e/month. Government/KELA also gave me the normal payment for the
apartment and the studies during these months.