This article is a little introduction of Erasmus’ schedule. Next week I will present my courses more precisely!
I arrived in Bergen on the 11th of August. From 15th to 21th the international committee, a student association, organized an amazing welcome week with many activities.
Courses began the week after, on Monday 22th. Furthermore, at the end of the semester, there is an exam period which depend on your courses. For me, my first written exam will be on the 11th of November. My last exam will be the 6th of December with organizational theory. Some students can finish the semester at the end of November.
So personally I have 4 different courses, each courses give 7,5 ECTS credits and 30 ECTS is needed to pass. I have 15hours of lectures per week. If you plan to go abroad and make an exchange semester or year, it’s a valuable point to take into account. Each school can choose how much ECTS a course will give you. A course can give you roughly from 3 ECTS to 10 ECTS. We basically can think, less courses you have, less work you need to make. But it’s not true.
Some Erasmus’ student need to work hard and some other less 🙂 In my case, I have classes every day except on Tuesday. One of my roommates, Nassim, finish his class week on Wednesday and the other, Savvas doesn’t have free week days. Nassim’s French business school ask for 20 ECTS for the semester, compared to 30 ECTS for most of the people. Last June I has been in Croatia to visit a friend of mine whom is in Erasmus too. He has courses 3 days per week and no homework at all. In the UK a friend has 3 different courses and another in Spain has 6. So, it depend a lot. According to several testimonies, is more simple to have your degree in eastern Europe than in the United Kingdom or Scandinavia. I think it is depending of school reputation and requirement.
In my opinion, next point can make a big difference regarding how much you need to be involved in your courses to pass. In some schools you are mix with local students. It is the case at NHH, we have an important proportion of Norwegians in our class. It’s perfect to discover new people and talk with them. I have a teamwork with two Norwegians in Organizational theory. In this situation you are just “regular” student. But in some other schools, courses are made only for exchange students and teachers can be less demanding. It was the case for Florian, a friend of mine whom went to Riga, Latvia.
At NHH, there are not tutorial sessions, “Travaux dirigés” in French. All my courses occur in amphitheater. We are 200 students maximum, in Organizational theory, in this auditorium.
Above, you can see a picture of Aud MAX the biggest auditorium in NHH. There are 7 screens and many speakers, it’s impressive. Nevertheless, in each courses we have assignments during the semester plus a final exam at the end. 2 or 3 assistants (PhD students or master students) help our teachers.
Bye ! 🙂
