Hester Notenboom
s2207524
Strasbourg, France
General report
1. Host institution and exact time of study abroad
My hosting institution was the Université de Strasbourg and within this university is a separate
faculty, the EM Strasbourg Business School. The study period for the first semester of the year
(September till December) is from the first Monday of September till the third Friday of
December. This period was for me from September First till December Nineteenth. In the last
week before departure, they have an exam week, but my exam were a spread out and a couple
of weeks before this week.
2. Contact with home faculty, preparation and journey.
I stayed in contact with my home faculty through email, and this was fine for the period abroad.
In June was the enrollment for the accommodations, and the pre-inscription for the course is
also before summer break, so do not miss these deadlines. The university will inform you a
couple of weeks before these deadlines. Therefore, the preparations begin before the summer
break. You can go to Strasbourg by car, train or plain, they have a pick-up arrangements for
students that arrive, they will pick you up and bring you to your residence, it doesn’t matter if it
is a private arranged residence or a student residence. By car it will take about 7 hours, train
almost the same and by plane an hour.
3. Residence abroad
a. Arrangements visa/residents permit
You do not need to arrange a visa or residents permit, because France is part of the EU.
You will get some paper work at home, which you have to fill in and sent back. Besides
this, you do not need to arrange something.
b. Arrival and departure dates
I recommend that you arrive at the latest at Monday, this is the day they expect you to
be there, but you can always go earlier to check out the city and France for example. The
university insists that you do not book a plane ticket or leave before the third Saturday of
December, because it depends on your courses when your exams are, because you can
have these till the third Friday of December.
c. Accommodation
I would recommend that you find a student residence, the university arranges this before
the summer break. The residences are flats that are located in the city, they are all
outside the city center, but most of them close to the school. I would recommend
Residence the la Somme, it is located just besides the faculty building, which is very
convenient if you have to start early. Otherwise Residence Paul Appell is also very nice.
There are a lot of international students in these university residence, but also French
people. If you do not get an university accommodation, you can get a private apartment
in the city center. Prices are, compared with Groningen, very high (600 euros is normal,
compared to 230 euros for an university room) It is difficult to find a place, so start way
ahead your arrival with this.
d. Reception and introduction
There is a reception in every student residence, keep in mind that they only speak
French, and a little bit of English or German, so it is very convenient if you can speak a bit
of French. The semester starts with an introduction week at the faculty, and they
organize a weekend trip to a destination unknown, which was really fun and you will get
to know a lot of people during this weekend. Do not expect to get a lot of sleep on the
way to your destination, they organize a whole act around this.
e. Student life, culture and leisure
To be honest, Strasbourg is not a student city, but the city and the faculty organize a lot
for the students, because there are a lot of them!
The faculty has 13 different student organizations, who all organize parties, trips, for
example a trip to Berlin and Amsterdam, and meetings. There are a couple of nice pubs
and clubs, which are really nice to go to. Pubs and clubs are open from Thursday till
Saturday, from 21.00 till 03.00 hour.
Besides this, you can visit the European Parliament, parks, shopping malls, swimming
pools, cinemas and many other things. The school has sporting facilities as well, also for
international students.
It is also very easy to travel around France and the rest of Europe, because Strasbourg is
located in the middle of Europe, so you can travel around easily.
f. Language
France is not known for the best English speaking country ever and you will notice this
within a week. Most people do not speak English or another foreign language, so try to
speak French, they will really appreciate this. Always bring a translating book with you I
would say!
4. Grant
a. Amount
For France, I got a grant of €250 per month, which was in total €1000 euros for the total
stay.
b. Information about the adequacy of the grant
The amount that I got was enough for day-to-day life and that was it.
c. Expenses abroad (living, food, travailing etc)
The amount I got from Erasmus was not enough if that is the only amount you can
spend. A university residence is around €230 a month, food is not more expensive than
in the Netherlands and I needed in total around €700 euros for travelling in Europe, so it
depends on want you want to do and if you want to travel around, because that will
make you stay more expensive, but the day-to-day expenses are not higher than in the
Netherlands.
5. Study (general)
a. Introduction, general advice
At the EM business school, you can choose a lot of different courses, so you can choose
whatever you are interested about, from French languages courses all the way to
European subjects, so that is really nice. The part that is difficult is the part where you
have to make your own schedule, you cannot overlap more than 4 hours per course per
semester, so making a schedule is quite hard. I would advise you to take a look at the
course list before you make you pre-selection at home and choose want you like. I would
recommend at least one course that take place in one week, because these courses are
very interesting and it takes you one whole week, and that’s it.
Besides that, do not miss the introduction week, because they explain a lot of important
things about the school, the system they work with etc. so do not miss that.
b. Dates of beginning and end of lecture series and examination period
The semester started for real the third week of September, because the first week was
an introduction week and the second week you are free again, so you can explore the
city etc. The lectures start at the earliest at eight in the morning and end the latest at
eight in the evening, so that is quit earlier and late, so make a schedule which hasn’t
these courses I would say. The examination period is in the end of December, but the
exams were way before that, they started in the first week of December already. Besides
this, some courses have mid-terms, which are before the Autumn break. They have a
Autumn break, which was the last week of October.
c. Remarks on the organization of the study program
The organization of the school is not like we know it here in the Netherlands, simply said,
it is sometime a chaos. There are a lot of people involved in the international
department, because there are a lot of international at the school ( you can do Erasmus,
a double degree bachelor and master and there are different programs for each), so you
are in contact with a lot of people, but their international office is very friendly and you
can always ask them if you have a problem with something, but you will need to arrange
a lot yourself, like you schedule etc.
d. Study facilities and International office abroad
Like I already said, the international office can always help you, they are very friendly and
most important, they speak English. There is a library in the faculty, they have a lot of
computers which you can use, a restaurant at the faculty and at the university, just a
couple of blocks away, so the study facilities are fine.
e. Summary of subjects taken
I took eight courses in order to obtain 30 points. A couple of them were about the
European Union, because I thought this would be very interesting, because the European
Parliament is located in Strasbourg. I also took some French language courses to obtain a
higher level of the French language again. Besides this, I would recommend the course
Business Negotiation, because this was very interesting and the teacher was amazing.
Unfortunately, not all the teachers are this good, so I wouldn’t advise you to take the
course Basics in Finance, because the teacher was really bad.
6. More relevant information you want to share with our future exchange students
First of all, sign up for the integration weekend that the faculty organizes in the beginning of
the semester, because you will get the know a lot of people. Secondly, try to get a university
residence, because they are cheap, most of them located close to the school, although the
rooms are very small, it is only for a couple of months, so I would recommend that.
Otherwise start searching for a private room as soon as possible, because there are not that
many in Strasbourg.
7. Summary impression on the study abroad period
I can only say that I had an amazing time, with a lot of nice people, so I would really
recommend to go to Strasbourg as well!
Specific report
1. Hosting institution and study period
My hosting institution was the Université de Strasbourg and within this university is a separate
faculty, the EM Strasbourg Business School. The study period for the first semester of the year
(September till December) is from the first Monday of September till the third Friday of December.
This period was for me from September first till December nineteenth.
2. Lectures and literature
a. Number of lectures and seminars per week, number of lecture weeks.
It is normal in Strasbourg that you get three or five EC per subject. This means that in general
you need between the six and ten subjects to get the 30 EC you need for you study abroad
period. It depends on the amount of subject you have and the type of subjects that you
choose how many lectures you will have, but in general you will have between 10 and 20
hours a week of lectures and tutorials.
b. Compulsory reading list, specifying number of pages (per section)
You do not get many compulsory readings from the different subjects you can choose. They
work with lecture slides and papers that you get in class, therefor you do not get a book that
you have to read and learn, the only material you have to study for is given in class.
3. Overview of lecture program
a. Timetable for the preparation and discuss on/treatment on the material for each
lecture week.
b.
4. Contents
a. Summary of the content of each subject, with reference to compulsory literature.
Débutants complets - Part 1- semestre A : This was the beginners group for a language course French. They start
with the basics, because a lot of students who haven’t had French before are following this subject as well. It is a
good subject if you want to start with the basics in French (again). You will get papers in class, which you have to
fill in and study, no extra reading material. The course consist of tutorials in small groups (20-30 persons) and I
had two hours of class per week. Besides this you have to do homework at home, but is doesn’t take that much
time, about a hour a week. The course has a mid-term in the end of October and a final exam in December. (3 EC)
Expression orale et écrite I (Niveau A1) : This was one of the other French course you can follow in the first
semester. This is not a beginners course! They expect a basic level of French before you start this course, so keep
that in mind. You will get papers in class, which you have to fill in and study, no extra reading material. The course
consist of tutorials in small groups (20-30 persons) and I had two hours of class per week. Besides this you have
to do homework at home, but is doesn’t take that much time, about a hour a week. The course has a mid-term in
the end of October and a final exam in December. (3 EC)
History of european integaration: This is a very nice course if you want to know more about the European Union
and how is developed in the past years. The course consists of a lecture of two hours a week, no additional
homework necessary. The course has a mid-term in the end of October and a final exam in December. (3 EC)
Intercultural Management. This course is about different cultures and how they relate and interact with each other
in organizations. Very interesting course, great teacher who knows a lot about different cultures. The grade for this
course consisted of one presentation, and well, that’s it! (3 EC)
Introduction to European economy: Another course about the European Union, but this course focusses on the
Economy of the European Union, the different institutions it has and a bit of history. We also visited the European
Parliament during this course, ,which was very interesting. You will have to give a presentation, write a paper and
make a final exam in December. (5 EC)
Business negotiation: Most interesting course I attended. The course is about how the negotiate in businesses and
between businesses. Teacher is an expert in negotiation, and she explains the material of the course crystal clear.
The course is given in one week, which makes in very intensive, but it is easy to pass. You will get a exam on the
second day and on the last day of the week, but they are easy to pass. I really recommend this course if it is
available! (5 EC)
Basics financial analysis: The worst course I ever attended. The course expects you to have a basic understanding
of finance, therefor I recommend this course only if you have this basic knowledge. The course consists of a two
hour lecture per week and you will have to do some homework. There is only a final exam in December. (5 EC)
Global wine business: If you want to know more about the wine business in de region of the Alsac in France, I
would really recommend this course. Be aware: this is not a wine tasting of wine course, this is a course about the
business around wine production in de Alsac. We did a winetasting with the class in the end, which was really nice.
The course consists of a two hour lecture per week and has a final exam in Decemeber (3 EC)
Débutants complets - Part 2 - semestre A: This is an additional component of the course deputants complets Part
1. You do not have to do anything to get these extra points, you will get them if you make the final exam. (3 EC)
5. Lecture related activities
a. Case analyses, papers and other written work, computer exercises, presentations
etc.
(see table above)
6. Relevance to Groningen study program
The program that the EM Strasbourg Business School offers is very large and diverse. You can
choose from a list of almost 100 different course and you are able to make you own schedule, so
you are free to choose the subjects you are interested in. You can focus on finance, marketing,
HR or supply chain, or the other subjects that are related to the Groningen Study program at the
FEB.
7. Study load
As I already said, there are a lot of course you have to attend in order to get the 30 EC points,
therefor you will have a lot of lectures per week (15-20 hours a week). Besides the lectures, you
do not have to do much at home, so you have a lot of free time besides the lectures.
8. Assessment in Groningen
a. Lectures and how many EC were obtained
I attended eight subjects, unfortunately I failed the finance course, so I obtained 25 EC
points.