STUDENT REPORT, FALL 2012
IAE AIX-EN-ROVENCE GRADUATE SCHOOL OF MANAGEMENT
Name of the University:
IAE Aix-en-Provence Graduate School of Management
Exchange semester: Fall 2012
AIX-EN-PROVENCE
Aix-en-Provence is a small city in the southern part of France, situated 25 minutes north from
Marseille, and belongs to the PACA region (Provence-Alpes-Cotes-d’Azur). There are
approximately 140.000 inhabitants, and there are 70.000 students in the area. Aix is a
beautiful and charming old city, with roots back to the Romans. The city has a perfect position
for travelling, with very good connections both with bus and trains to all over France. There
are a lot of cozy restaurants and cafés that offer a good variation of food where you can enjoy
a meal to a nice price. The weather in Aix is warmer compared to Norway, with only around
90 rain days a year. We had days during November where the temperature was around 20
degrees in the sun, however the mornings/evenings was quite cold. Be aware of the cold wind
form the north – called the Mistral – that makes the weather and temperature very cold.
Furthermore, the temperature in December can drop to a few minus degrees, so it is
beneficial to bring some warm clothes to Aix as well, especially during the mornings and
evenings. However, the temperature during the days is usually quite good!
GENERAL INFORMATION ABOUT THE SCHOOL
IAE Aix-en-Provence Graduate School of Management is part of the Aix-Marseille University,
and is situated approximately 30- 40 minutes outside of the city centre, in Puyricard.
Puyricard is on the countryside, and the center is very small with almost no shops,
restaurants etc.
IAE offers a wide range of different programs; Strategy, International Business, International
Finance, Marketing, Information Systems, HRM, and Management are all possible programs
to follow. It is a quite small school, and thereby fostering a good social environment. There
are 48 permanent faculty members, who are all highly educated. There are also several
international professors, and the school often invites speakers from different countries to take
part of the lectures.
Academic calendar
The school started later compared to Norway. We were following the Master 2 level – and the
official start up day was Monday 10th of September. However, some of the courses did not
start until late November. Before the semester started we participated in a two weeks
intensive language seminar, which started from the 27th of August. The course was free and
they divided the students into different classes with respect to their French level. The teachers
were very good and made the lectures funny and interesting, and we felt that we learned a
lot,- both if we had never had French before or if we needed to develop our language. Hence,
we would recommend participating in such a course. There was an information meeting
before this language seminar on the 23rd of August – supplying us with some information
about the upcoming weeks. The official last day of the semester was the 21st of December
however it depends when the last class or exam is held. However, all exams/deadlines are
before Christmas.
The International Office
For both incoming and outgoing students there is a small international office in the school’s
second floor. As incoming exchange students, Robbe Bressot is the responsible person for
everything regarding your semester at IAE. Robbe is originally from The US, but she has lived
several years in Aix, and thereby speaks fluently English and French.
There were some meetings arranged by the International Office in the beginning of the
semester, with information for incoming students. However, it was often matter of luck if you
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got the information on where and when to meet, which resulted in several visits at the office
instead and tons of emails – and being confused and not understand what to do become a
quite common part of our first days. On a regular basis, stopping by Robbe’s office should be
done before lunch or after making an appointment. Robbe helped us with the enrolment to the
school, and selecting programs/courses that were available. However, having only one
person to contact for everything made us a little frustrated and everything took more time. On
the other hand, as we knew all the time whom to contact it was easy to stop by with
questions. NB! In regards to emails – do not send long and advanced emails with a lot of
questions, it is often better to send several short emails with little info, in order to get
appropriate answers (it is the southern part of France). Do not hesitate to send the same
email twice or three times in terms of no replies.
International Days – Le soir international
During the semester at IAE, there were held three international evenings/events. The first was
just to represent our school BI – and promote it to French students going abroad the next
semester. The second event was organized on the 19th of October, and we had to make
food/drinks from our native country. It was a good experience to see and taste food and
drinks from all over the world, and it was a nice way to gather all the students. We chose to
make waffles with brown cheese, and the school was very helpful in gathering what we
needed for the mixing. There are also some French students involved in organizing – who
contacted us in advance and offered their help. In the mid December the third event was held,
which mainly concerned entertainment from your home country.
ACADEMIC INFORMATION
As exchange students we were suggested and recommended to follow the General
Management program (full English track), since neither of us spoke French. As we only had to
take 24 credits, we did not have to take all the courses in the program. However, it is
recommended to follow as many courses from one program in order to avoid overlapping of
courses and exams. The courses offered at IAE are on a regular basis only 3 credits,
meaning that we had to choose 8 different courses (were one could choose three of them as
electives which are intensive courses done in one week) to have enough credits to complete
the semester.
Compared to a Master of Science on BI Norwegian Business School, the master level was
quite low. We were following the level of master 2 – but this is comparable to the 1st or 2nd
year of a bachelor at BI. The courses are very general (due to the low credit rate) and there
were not much expected from the students. Additionally, the General Management Program
was designed for people who had never taken any business courses at all. Hence, all
students that had taken i.e. a bachelor in economics knew a lot of the topics in the courses
already. However, it was mandatory to show up and attend the lectures. No books were
required, and for the exams the professors either supplied us with e-books material relevant
or expected us to read his/her power point slides. All over the workload is less compared to
BI. There are some of the other programs that require more work, and it could be good to
apply for some of those instead.
The classes often consist of 25-40 people, and the level of participation/interaction with
students varies from professor to professor. The courses tended to be based on group works,
and most of the time we were not able to choose our own groups. That could sometimes be a
challenge as many of the French people are not used to work in the same organized and
structured way as we usually do in Norway. Hence, things often take time, and patient can be
a good friend. Another challenge we faced was that some group members did not want to
contribute because they did not needed a good grade in the course; this was not easy solved,
and resulted in more work for us. However we experienced that the French students were
very friendly, open and willing to get to know us, which meant a lot and helped creating a
good environment.
We were able to choose three electives, and the electives are set during on a week in
October, November and three days in December. During these weeks we did not have any
other classes and we had lectures from 9-17 every day. It was hard to get the electives you
signed up for as there are many students participating in these courses, and most of the
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exchange students ended up with 2nd or 3rd choice for all periods. For the second elective
week (in November) it was few courses that were thought in English, and thereby made the
choice harder. The electives week are very intensive, and often, international professors give
the lectures. The professors are often very helpful, approachable and used to an international
environment. However, there are some professors that do not like to speak English, even
though the courses are supposed to be lectured in English. This caused some problems –
and made it difficult to follow the course. However, the French students were very helpful and
translated much of what was being said. For two of the electives, we were done with the
course the same week. Even if it is intensive, it was good to be done in a week.
All in all was the process of choosing program and electives very confusing, and there were
not much information regarding how to do it. Even though we could ask Robbe, we felt that it
was unorganized and unstructured. One has to be prepared for this, but it will eventually be
sorted out in the end.
Exams
Most of the professors are very nice and usually take into consideration that we were
exchange students. For instance we were able to reschedule the last exam (originally held on
the 21st of December) three days in advance, in order for us to be able to travel home earlier.
They are quite flexible when it comes to scheduling.
The evaluation type varies from course to course. We usually had 3-4 different evaluations in
every course: participation, presentations, case studies, and individual final exam. The
organizations of exams often differ a lot from BI, and are not taken as serious as we were
used to. In one course the students were able to choose the date for the exam, and it is selfsaying that when 30 students are taken their agenda into consideration there will be problems
finding a common day. Often the evaluation type for a course is not presented in the first
lecture and we had to wait for information.
Other
At the school there are a library and a computer room. At the semester start we got an
account (similar to the login at BI) and we could print up to 500 documents for free. We also
received a copy card with a value of 300 copies.
Our courses at IAE
Following are all the courses we took at our semester at IAE listed. We both had 8 courses,
some of them together and some with other exchange students. Additionally we attended a
French language course once a week throughout the semester. Our professor was really
good – and we can recommend these classes. His focus was more or less easy grammar and
oral presentations. We were divided into 4 groups at the beginning of the semester – in terms
of our level.
Courses from the General Management Program
Interpersonal Development
This course is part of the General Management, full English track (GMFET). It was a lot of
personal tests and some group work. The professor is a very energetic person who also was
responsible for the entire GMFET program. Examination: A group discussion which were
videotaped, and an individual report as well as a group report regarding this session.
Business Strategy
This course was also a part of the GMFET program. The professor was very structured and
organized and he required a lot from the student. He was very good and was able to explain
the theory in a good way. We had theory the first part of every lecture, and then we had case
studies the second part. We had to solve the cases during the last part of the session and the
groups had to hand in a report of the results. The reports were graded and counted as a part
of the final grade. Furthermore, we had one graded presentation of one of the cases as well,
in addition to one individual exam. The exam was divided in two parts, where the first part
was a multiple choice questionnaire and the second part was a case study. It was a very
intensive course, but we thought it was a very good course.
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Marketing
This course is one of the courses of the GMFET program. It was divided into two parts, were
the first part was taught by an American professor and the second part by an Austrian
professor and they focused on different basic aspects of Marketing.
David was flown from the US for one week, so the first part was quite intensive. However, he
was a very good teacher and the lessons were very interesting. The grading to his part
consisted of class participation, in addition to a relative big group project to be handed in and
that lasted for several weeks. During that week we were also together with a class from
another program, and the groups consisted of people from both classes. This gave us several
challenges as the two classes had different schedules and different workload, hence made it
difficult to find time to meet and work together.
The second part was shorter and was graded by class participation and a presentation of a
mini-project.
Human Resource Management
This course was also divided in two parts, taught by two different French professors. The
course gave us some basic insight in for instance employment development, change
management, recruitment, employee planning etc.
The grading was based on participation, a group work that had to be handed in and presented
and an individual report of a case study.
Financial Accounting
It is a basic accounting course, which had a focus on analysis and understanding. This course
had a professor that flew in from Slovakia. It is a very good course for those who would like a
basic introduction to analysis of cash flow, balance and income statement. The course was
intensive, and all the lectures were done within one week. The examination was 100%
individual exam – multiple choices.
Financial Analysis
This was also a basic financial course, and focused on how to analyze a company’s financial
statements. Both strategy and tools for analyzing were introduced. The professor was quite
structured and good in English, although it sometimes was hard to follow. Hence, the
professor provided us with all relevant materials, and additional suggested literature. The
examination was 50% case study with a written report in groups (a comparison of two
companies) and 50% individual exam (same procedure as the group report).
Strategic Choices; Team Building and Ariane Business Game
This is a mandatory introduction course, lectured the first week of the semester. The first two
days we had team building and leadership course, with several activities in order to make
awareness of different personal skills in addition to learning about group management. The
last two days we had a business game, where the purpose was to make strategic decisions
for a company manufacturing different products. Evaluation on this course was based on
pass/fail.
Electives
EU Integration Process
This elective was available for the first elective period, which was in October. It was a very
good course, which gave an overview of the European Union, both in terms of history and
relevant news from today. The professor was really structured and organized, but it was little
participation possibilities for the students,- except from some case studies we had in groups
during the lectures. Evaluation: 100% final paper/report in groups, which we had to write a
company analysis in regards to the Euro crisis. The deadline for the report was several weeks
after the course was done, so we had good time to finish the report.
Crowd Sourcing
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This elective course was available in the second elective period which was in November. We
learned about different aspects regarding crowdsourcing, crowd funding, network etc and how
the technology and possibilities of today creates a lot of opportunities in a business point of
view. We learned for instance about how it works, where we can find information, what we
can use it for etc. The professor had a lot of experience with these subjects and appreciated
interaction from the students. The grading consisted of participation, as well as a group
project where we had to make a video and which had to be presented. We were done with the
course and the assignments after this week.
Sustainable Strategy Development
This was a very good course, but parts of it were thought in French, making it quite hard to
follow, however the French classmates were very helpful and translated everything we
needed to know. The professor is head of the strategy department, and wrote a PhD thesis
based on a Swedish company. Before lunch we had lectures, and after we were able to work
with our case study in groups – making it possible to not take the assignment home.
Evaluation: a real case study of a French company that needed improvements on several
levels, 50% report in groups and 50% presentation in groups.
Transformational Leadership
This elective was available in the third elective period, which was in December. We learned
about different perspectives in leadership and how we can develop ourselves as a leader in a
Global and challenging environment. We took a lot of different personality tests in order to
make our own leadership profile, in addition to make a little study of different leadership
perspectives. The study was made in groups and we had to write a report of the result as well
as present the results to the class. The professor was very inspiring and explained the topics
in a good way, which made the course easy to follow and to understand. This elective was
taught over three days, which was very intensive. However, we were done with the course
after these days and we felt that the course was useful for our personal and professional
development. The evaluation was based on the group study, participation and an individual
report of our leadership profile.
PRACTICAL INFORMATION
Information before we left
We received an information package a long time before we left for exchange. This package
contained much of useful information both about the school and the city, as well as important
addresses and phone numbers. Our contact person at IAE, Robbe Bressot, also gave us
some information on beforehand, and we could just send her an e-mail if there were any
difficulties.
Travelling to Aix-en-Provence
We flew from Oslo to Marseille, with a stop in Munich. We booked a round trip right away,
because it was cheaper. We paid approximately NOK 2000 for a round trip with Lufthansa. It
might be a good idea to book changeable tickets, in order to be able to go home earlier if you
get the possibility. We ended up with booking new tickets from Paris to Oslo back home (NOK
400) with Norwegian since we were able to travel earlier. From MRS (Marseille Airport) there
are direct buses to Aix-en-Provence leaving every 30 minutes and costs around 8 Euros. A
taxi ride costs around 60 Euros. Remember to bring cash, preferable small bills. It is also
possible to fly to Nice, Paris or Lyon, and take the TGV or buses from those cities to Aix.
There are no direct flights from Norway to Marseille.
Close to semester-start CROUS (responsible for student housing) offer a pick-up service at
the airport in Marseille for the international students coming to different university campuses
in Aix. Be aware of that most of the emails are sent in French, so you might need to translate
them in order to understand the content.
Housing
During our semester in France we stayed at the student residence Les Gazelles, provided by
the student organization CROUS. Les Gazelles is situated in the city centre of Aix, with a 10
minutes walk from the main road Cour Mirabou. The area of Les Gazelles includes 7 pavilions
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and there are laundry possibilities, a restaurant (open from 12-14pm and 6.45-20.15pm, lunch
and dinner for 3,10 Euros) and a pizzeria (6,50 Euros for one pizza). However, one have to
be aware of the fact that almost no one at the information or in the administration spoke
English, so we had a hard time trying to move in. They are also very strict when it comes to
insurance, and a good tip if you have insurance from Norway and ask the insurance company
to put your address at Les Gazelles on your statement of insurance.
We applied for housing at Les Gazelles through CROUS, after Robbe provided us with links
and information. We were obligated to pay a fee of 240 Euros as a confirmation; however this
sum was subtracted from the 1300 Euros we needed to pay in total for our stay. We were
offered a single room of 9m 2 with a cabin function bathroom (very small – but with toilet, sink
and shower). At each floor there were kitchen facilities, which we shared with the rest of the
floor. The kitchen was often very dirty, but ok to cook in. We had a small fridge in our own
rooms which helped us a lot in regards to store food. The rooms had an ok standard, and was
definitive a social place to stay. It is very hard to find a proper apartment in Aix, and normally
you have to pay between 500-600 Euros a month for a shared apartment.
There are at least two different student residences where this semesters exchange students
were staying, provided by CROUS in Aix: Gazelles and Cuques. Most of the exchange
students stayed here.
Costs/Expenses
The total amount for housing during our stay was 1300 Euros, and we paid the whole amount
during the two first weeks, either with cash or credit cards. However, there is a possibility to
apply for Caf – housing support form the French Government. We did not do that since we did
not open a French bank account and since the house rent was relatively low in the first place.
The information provided for Caf application at school, and also the arranged a meeting for all
the bancs to visit – making it easier for the students who wanted to open an account.
As mentioned earlier, the school provided us our own copy card with enough credits for the
whole semester and exchange students print for free, so we did not spend anything on this.
The food in supermarkets is cheaper than in Norway, especially if you shop in Dia. Another
one, and a little more expensive store, is Monoprix. Having a meal in a restaurant is also
much cheaper, especially in the old part of Aix-en-Provence. If you are two persons, you can
have a two-course dinner and a bottle of wine for about EUR 20 per person.
A monthly bus ticket costs EUR 24, and you can buy it in the old city. This is recommended
as the bus tickets costs EUR 1 one way, and one have to take the bus to school almost every
day in addition to other trips as well.
If one plan to travel around in France, ie. to Paris, Nice, Lyon etc it could also be preferable to
buy a card called “Ma Carte de Rèduction Jeune 18-27” which costs EUR 50, but also gives a
lot of discounts on train tickets, one could save a lot of money on only one trip. This card is
only available for the trains in France, and you can get a reduction from 25% to 60% on the
tickets available.
Social life
During the intensive language seminar we got to know a lot of the exchange- and
international students, and the relationship among us become very good during the semester.
Because Aix is a student city, there are several activities and parties to participate in. The
student organization at IAE (BDE) is very good in arranging different trips to all over the
PACA region, which also are cheap to be part of. They often find students at the school with a
car, and the first- come- first principle rules. We could really recommend participating on
these trips.
There is also another organization arranging trips around the areas – George. Daytrips are
arranged almost every weekend, to different places, and the price offered is very good
(approximately 20-30 Euros). Often there is information about George’s trips outside Les
Gazelles on posters or at his website.
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The exchange students were also very good in arranging different activities together, like i.e.
go to wine bars, making dinner, going out etc. Because we did not have a lot of schoolwork,
we were able to be very social and we had a lot of fun during the semester. There are for
instance two cinemas in the center of Aix, but only one of them has the movies with original
language and French text. A cinema tickets costs approx. 7,50 Euros (with student discount).
The French culture and language
In the southern part of France few people speak English or any English at all. This made it
quite hard for us in the beginning, and we struggled a lot. However, if one knows a few
French words, one can manage to communicate quite well. Still, as previously mentioned we
really recommend taking the intensive language seminar as we found it very helpful and
boosted our confidence in French. Most of the faculty members and students at IAE spoke
relatively good English.
The culture in the southern France is very different from the northern parts, and the way of
living can be regarded as a little “com ci com ca”. Making appointment can be hard, and their
time frame’s is not as punctual as Norwegians. It is also a very strong value of the lunch, and
almost all the stores (except Zara, HM, Monoprix) closed between 12-14.30pm and
furthermore the restaurants often close after lunch and do not open before 7pm. Additionally,
several stores were closed on Sundays and Mondays. However, Aix is a beautiful place and
during this exchange, we were able to travel a lot and hence experience a lot of other
fantastic places in France. We also met a lot of incredible people both other exchange
students from different parts of the world and French people as well, and we had a really
good time here!
If you have some questions, do not hesitate to contact us through international office!
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