E-mail: i.c.oudhuis@tilburguniversity.edu
Study Program: Organizations Studies
Exchange semester: Spring semester
Academic year: 2014-2015
Host University: Esan Universidad
Country: Peru
I GENERAL INFORMATION ABOUT THE SCHOOL
Peru is an amazing country to study in with a completely different culture and many beautiful
places to visit. Lima is the capital with 10 million people living in it, one-third of the population.
There are several nice districts like Miraflores, San Isidro, Barranco and Surco. These are
basically the only districts you will spend time in because these are the more safe and
western districts. ESAN Universidad is located in Surco and most students opt to live in either
Surco, close to the university or in Miraflores, close to all the restaurants, bars, stores and
nice parks. The campus is very new and modern. It has a nice coffee bar and a rooftop
terrace with a cafeteria. The campus is gated and has security personnel which makes it
probably the safest place I’ve been in Peru. Furthermore there is a lot of cleaning personnel
which means the entire university is spotless. As an exchange student the personnel and
professors treat you as a bit special and its quite easy to arrange things with them. Even
skipping tests and exams is possible if you treat them nicely too. At ESAN there were about
40 exchange students in my semester. In the fall semester it are a bit more I believe. In Lima
there are several universities which means that there are easily 250 exchange students per
semester. Seeing as most exchange students all hang out and party at the same places, it’s
very easy to get into contact with everyone.
II PRACTICAL INFORMATION
Information before you left
Before I left there were several things to arrange like the learning agreement and which
courses were available in the semester. I had to email a few times to clarify things and they
were a bit slow with the response from a Dutch point of view but after my exchange that made
more sense because that’s part of their culture.
Visa procedure and arrival
ESAN says that you need a student visa but that’s not true. A student visa is only valid for 90
days after which you have to extend it, meaning you will lose your passport for three weeks.
This is usually in the period after the midterms which is the most convenient to travel without
missing anything important. There are two options to avoid this. If your visa expires just don’t
extend, then you have to pay 1 dollar for every day you stay longer, which you pay when you
finally do leave the country (this is what most people with a student visa end up doing). Or
when you come to Peru just get a tourist visa which is valid for 180 days. Usually these 180
days is enough for your exchange or you might end up paying a few dollars when you leave
the country. I would definitely recommend the latter option! If you do get the student visa
(which I did because I didn’t know any better) then call the Peruvian consulate in Amsterdam
at least 3 months before to arrange it. ESAN will say this is only possible the week before.
This is again not true and it will make you feel a lot better if you have it taken care of early.
Because I arrived to Lima six weeks prior to the start of the semester I choose to just get a
pick-up service from the hostel I was staying at and arranging everything on my own from
there. My buddy contacted me when I had everything arranged already. There were other
buddies who did pick people up from the airport.
Orientation/Introduction activities
About a week before classes start there were two welcome days. One to get to know the
campus and the fellow exchange students and one to organize the classes and finalize the
schedules. This second day was very frustrating as most English taught classes are either
very early in the morning or in the evening and most overlap. So when getting courses
approved by the examination board in Tilburg, get at least 10 approved because that way you
have the most change of getting enough courses.
Housing
ESAN offer a list of housing agencies to find a room but they do not have housing of their
own. What I did was just google on student housing Lima and that’s how I got in contact with
APU which arranges student housing for internationals. This is a bit of an expensive option for
Peruvian standards. Compared to Tilburg it is quite ok however. I had a 14 m2 room in a
house in the middle of one of the best districts (miraflores) near Parque Kennedy. Locationwise it almost doesn’t get better than that. We lived with 8 internationals going to 2 different
universities in Lima, which means we had a big group of friends fast. We had 8 bedrooms, 5
bathrooms, living room, kitchen, laundry room and an outside area. For all that I paid around
290 euro depending on the exchange rate.
Living Costs
Apart from the grant I received from Tilburg university I financed my exchange with my part
time job. Compared to Tilburg my living expenses were a bit lower than in Tilburg. I spend
most of my money on travelling because I took every opportunity I could to travel. I would
advise you to do the same! The classes are quite easy and how often are you in South
America? In a month, I spend roughly 280 euro’s on housing, 300 euro on food/drinks (we ate
out a lot plus a lot of party drinks), 25 euro on transportation (taxis and busses within lima)
and about 300 euro on two weekend trips per month.
Exchange promotion
During the semester there are several activities you have to attend/organize like the
international fair, and a photo day were they take new promotional photos. Again they say its
mandatory but a lot of people skip it.
Social Activities
The buddies of ESAN organize a party once and after midterms and exams there are
university wide parties. However the best way to party is via Erasmus Lima and What To Do
Peru. These two groups have access to all the good bars and parties. Usually they have lists
where you can put your name on to get free entry, free drinks or a special VIP area. These
are the places where all the internationals hang out. They also organize several weekend
trips to party or hike or both. Of course you can also easily organize this on your own with
friends. These kinds of weekends enabled me to see all the highlights of Peru during my
exchange.
Culture and Language
Everything in Peru is very different from Holland however I didn’t experience a culture shock
because I have travelled a lot before and I knew what I was getting into. Peruvian culture has
a few very big differences for example in general everything goes slower and inefficiently
(expect to stand in line for about 30 minutes in any store), they tend to not say what they
mean (directness isn’t one of their attributes). The concept is being on time is unknown to
them (students and professors are always late in class sometimes up to 45 minutes after the
class has started). This difference does however makes you learn to adapt and makes you
take a good look at what you thought are your strengths and weaknesses. On a personal
level you learn a lot if you really emerge yourself in a different culture for a longer period of
time. Speaking the language is a definite pro is you want really experience a country and
understand them better than what the lonely planet tells you. In general Peruvian Spanish is
easy to understand especially if they speak a bit slower. The most important lesson I learned
about myself during my time in Peru is that even if bad things happen (like a bus accident) I
know I will be able to handle anything and that people are always willing to help and that I am
always willing to help people who need help.
III ACADEMIC INFORMATION
Academic level at a host university
Courses are both offered in English and Spanish. In general the English courses are good.
They are mostly given early in the morning (starting at 7.00) or in the evening (18.00-22.00).
This makes a good schedule almost impossible and because all classes are mandatory this
might screw up the courses you were planning to take due to overlap. The level at the
university is definitely lower than in Tilburg. All classes are given in a workgroup setting and
attendance is mandatory with 25% that you can miss. Furthermore there are many weekly
assignments and tests, which are all quite easy. There is a lot of interaction between students
and professors. This gives the classes quite a high school-like feel. It is relatively easy to get
really good grades with almost no effort. That’s really nice if you want to travel & party during
weekends. If planned correctly you could easily have Friday free and start on Monday during
the evening. Courses I would definitely recommend are ‘politics and international relations’
and ‘international negotiation’. My exchange was academic-wise really easy and fun which
enabled me to see more off the country. All in all a success.
Course
Politics and
International relations
Prerequisites
None
Exam
Written
ECTS
6
Comments
Really good professor,
gained a lot general
knowledge
International
Negotiation
None
Practical
6
Good course, quite easy
but fun enough to be
interesting
Knowledge
management &
Intelligent
Organization
None
Written
8
Global Supply Chain
Management
None
Written
6
Professor spoke very
bad English besides
that quite basic if you
study Organization
Studies
Good course