Exchange semester: Spring 2016
Academic year: 2015-2016
Host University: Singapore Management University
Country: Singapore
E-mail: [email protected]
I GENERAL INFORMATION ABOUT THE SCHOOL
Campus Singapore Management University
I had an amazing time in Singapore! There are a few things that make this University special, and one of
them is its location: the university is located in the middle of the City. There are 5 buildings and a library,
and the campus is more in the basement than on street level. This is very convenient because in the
basement there is aircon, a foodcourt where you can have lunch or dinner, a bookstore, IT helpdesk etc.
Everything is clean and well-organized, just like Singapore itself. I had lunch and dinner in the basement
a lot because the food was pretty good and cheap, but you can also go to places nearby the university
for food. City Hall for example, in here is a very nice foodcourt with pretty decent food. There is also a
pasta place located on campus, where you can have pasta and ice-tea for 4 Singapore Dollars. Food
Republic, Delifrance, Subway and Starbucks are also located on or nearby campus. Because of the
excellent location I could walk to school (but this is of course depending on where you live), but also to
the Business District. In the basement there is also an MRT and you can also go to school by bus. Public
transportation is really good in Singapore.
There is also a sport center at the university and my roommates were very enthusiastic about this one,
it’s very big and free for SMU students. Since I had a gym in my apartment I didn’t go there myself.
What’s also pretty cool about the campus of the SMU is that people are dancing/making music/singing
or playing sports almost everywhere. This is something you won’t see in The Netherlands.
Courses
I was following 4 courses, and because I only had one law course left at Tilburg University I decided to
follow some Political Science courses. The courses I followed were Politics of Southeast Asia, Comparing
Political Systems, International and Comparative Criminal Justice and Ethics and Social Responsibility.
The level was pretty high and I think I had to study more than back home. But my courses were
interesting, the teachers were really intelligent and it’s good to actually learn while you’re on exchange.
You also had group projects and the students in Singapore are sooo motivated and competitive. They
often skip nights to study and they only want to get A+, less than an A is like their world’s falling apart.
As an exchange student, you only need to ‘pass’, which makes that the Singaporean students really
don’t like to work together with exchange students. Nevertheless, the students are nice once they now
that you’re motivated as well. In the beginning I had some troubles with understanding ‘Singlish’, the
English they speak with this weird Singaporean accent. You get used to it. Singaporean students are also
very proud of their city and all the guys are one year older because they had to go to National Service
when they were 18 years old. In one of my classes I was the only exchange student, but in the other
three many exchange students where there. But don’t expect that you have to do nothing to pass,
because the level is pretty high!
The classes are different than in Tilburg. Every course has one class a week, which is a three (!!) hours
workgroup. It’s very interactive and teachers expect you to participate during class. You get grades for
participation, an exam, sometimes a midterm, a group project and a paper. You’re not allowed to skip
classes, this will affect your participation grade. Some teachers are stricter than others of course. I was
able to plan all my courses in two days: Tuesday and Wednesday. Therefore I was able to travel to nice
places during the weekends! In total there were about 300 exchange students from all over the world.
Social life
Singapore is an amazing, multicultural city. You can find a church next to a musk next to a Buddhist
temple. You should definitely visit China Town, Little India and Kampung Glam, three really nice
neighborhoods in Singapore where you can see cultural differences. On the other side you have the
amazing and surreal business district, with all these business people and expats walking around in suits.
The MRT makes it so easy to travel around the city, but personally I also really liked to walk. The city
center is pretty small so almost everything was walkable (but you get really sweaty).
You also have very nice things to as a ‘day trip’, for example Sentosa Island, an island with fake beaches,
beach clubs, fun parks. You can visit this island by cable car. McRitchie is a park a bit outside of the
center with monkeys, big lizards and a tree-top-walk. There are also many interesting museums in the
city, often very cheap for students or even free.
For shopping Singapore is more than perfect. For example Orchard Road, which is the Kalverstraat from
Singapore. For cheaper clothes you can visit the Bugis Market. One of my favourite streets in Singapore
is Haji Lane, but unfortunately everything here is very expensive. Mustafa Center is the biggest store I
have ever seen, you can buy everything you can ever imagine. From food to clothes to phones. I often
went here to buy shampoo, toothpaste etc, because it’s cheaper than going to a ‘real’ supermarket. You
also have 7/11 everywhere, a small supermarket that is open 24 hours a day. What is very typical
Singapore are these huge Shopping Malls: they are everywhere. I loved walking around in these malls,
getting lost and finding new stores all the time. Honestly: Singapore has it all!
On Wednesday it’s Ladies Night in Singapore, so this will be the evening where you head to a club.
Women get free entrance and very often free drinks, which is a pretty good deal because clubbing in
Singapore is very, very expensive. Often you pay around 20 Singapore Dollar entrance fee, and just a
normal beer will be 16 dollars. This is also the part I didn’t really like about Singapore. I often bought
alcohol at the airport when I came back from a trip because that’s way cheaper, and before we headed
to a club we had these house parties with many exchange students. The best places to go partying are:
Attica, Refuge, Kyo and BangBang. These places are pretty ‘fancy’ so don’t go there on sneakers or
flipflops! Clarke Quay and Boat Quay are also very nice areas to visit during the evening/night.
My favourite place to go and have dinner was by far Lau Pa Sat, the oldest foodcourt in Singapore
located in the Business District. The food was really good and it was a nice evening walk. I think I cooked
4 times in Singapore, because grocery shopping was more expensive than going for food in a foodcourt. I
think a meal in a foodcourt is on average 5 Singapore Dollar. Also one of my favourite places to go for
food was ZamZam, an Indian restaurant nearby the Musk in Kampung Glam.
II PRACTICAL INFORMATION
Admission and arrival
I remember that the information from the host university arrived pretty late and that I was already
stressing out. It’s pretty difficult to fill in all the applications, but if you take your time and just follow the
instructions it will be fine. To choose courses you have this awful bidding system. You have 100 points
and you can bid on courses: people who bid the most get the course. In the beginning this sounds
terrible, but at the end it worked out pretty great for me.
Arranging the student visa was very easy, I believe you just had to fill in a form and you could enter
Singapore. After a few days you had to come to the university with these forms, a photograph of
yourself and they gave you your visa. The only difficulty I had was that I had a one way ticket, which
caused some problems at Schiphol. So it’s better to buy a return flight as well, but also a one way ticket
is allowed.
I signed up for the Buddy program, and my buddy was really nice. He even came to pick me up at the
airport! My flight was together with two girls from Tilburg University, so we booked a hostel together.
(you should book The Green Kiwi, this is where all exchange students are and where you can meet
everyone) My buddy showed me around Singapore and helped me with my questions. In the first week
there was an introduction activity, but after this I have to say that there wasn’t a lot organized for
exchange students by the university, which is a shame. Especially not for exchange students to meet
other exchange students, the activities organized where more focused on meeting the local students.
Housing
There was a place next to the university where you could stay as a student. This was a little bit cheaper
than arranging it yourself, and you had a private room. But you had no kitchen, share a bathroom with
many students and a very tiny little room. I decided, together with two Dutch girls, to search for a
condo. I think this is what most exchange students do. We spend the first week in a hostel, searching for
roommates and visiting apartments and landlords. It sounds scary to go to a city without a place to live,
but there are many apartments and everybody can find something. I was very lucky to find this amazing
condo next to Clarke Quay, in the center of Singapore, called Aspen Heights. I shared the apartment
with 7 people and shared my bedroom, but we had a nice bathroom, a big living room and kitchen, and
a pool and gym. My roommates became my best friends. The rent I had to pay was 880 Singapore
Dollar, without electricity and internet. Yes this is really expensive, especially compared to Tilburg, but
you have to realize that Singapore is one of the most expensive cities to live in.
Living Costs
This is the most painful topic haha, Singapore is so expensive! I financed my exchange period by lending
money from the government, working and I also saved money. My living expenses where more
compared to Tilburg, especially because the high rent you pay. Food, clothes and partying (if you buy
your booze at the airport) is pretty much the same as back home. What made it also more expensive is
the number of weekend trips. Singapore is located so central that tickets to nice places nearby are very
cheap. I went to Kuala Lumpur by bus, Phuket, Bali, Yogyakarta and I spend the recess week in the
Philippines. When you arrive in these places, you can stay in a student hostel, drink beer for 1 dollar and
have dinner for 3. These trips were also one of the reasons I went to Singapore: you can book a return
flight to Bali for 60 euros! After I finished my semester in Singapore I backpacked for 3,5 month around
Asia, but that’s not very relevant for this report.
Approximate monthly budget whilst on exchange:
- Housing: 900 SD
- Food: 350 SD
- Transport: 10 SD
- Books: 150 SD
- Miscellaneous: 200 SD
Academic Calendar
School starts really early, which was nice because now I could travel more afterwards. I left the day after
Christmas, and school started the second of January. The recess week was after the midterms, in the last
week of February. My last exam was April 15th (!!).
There was an International Office for questions and problems, but I didn’t really contact them so I don’t
really know how they function. I never heard anything negative about them and they were very active
with answering questions on Facebook, which is a good thing. There was a Facebook page with all
exchange students which was used a lot for questions, parties, funny travel stories etc.
Culture and Language
I didn’t have a culture shock at all, and I also think that it’s hard to get one in Singapore. The city is so
clean, western, well-organized. You feel so safe! While I was waiting in line for food I could leave my phone
on the table to safe myself a seat. Singaporean people are so scared of the government that they won’t
try to steal it. You can’t buy chewing gum in Singapore, or eat in public transportation. The city is surreal
and you feel like you’re living in some perfect world. People are very polite, but also afraid of making
mistakes or admitting they don’t know they answer (for example when a teacher asked them something
and they don’t know they answer, they will never admit and just make something up). What I learned
about my own culture? That I love the Dutch culture! I love the fact that everyone is very outspoken,
direct and open-minded. But I have respect for the Singaporean students, the way they study and the way
they work, that’s something we can learn from. Singapore is a very commercial city where many rich
people live. This is what I liked about the city, being part of this society for a while was amazing. But this
is also what I didn’t like, because everything is focused on buying stuff, looking fancy and working hard.
For me, there is more in life than that. Luckily you can go on weekend trips so easily where you can ‘escape
the madness’ for a few days. What is also not really nice about Singapore is the weather. You will be
sweating a lot and the humanity is insane. Sometimes you have this really intense tropical storms and five
minutes later the sun is shining again. But in Singapore, there is aircon and shelter everywhere, so you
don’t have to be bothered by the weather at all.
Everyone speaks English in Singapore, only with a weird Chinese accent. You’ll get used to it. I did the
TOEFL course at Tilburg University to prepare for my exchange. I have to say that in the beginning I had
some troubles with English, especially on an academic level. (I was studying Dutch Law so this is a big
difference) This is also fine after two weeks or so.
Personal Development
I think I really learned not to judge too fast. People I would never really hang out with back home
became my best friends. These people had the most interesting stories ever and this really changed me
from a cultural and social point of view. I made friends all over the world and I am pretty sure that I will
see them again, although they live in the US, Mexico, Australia and everywhere in Europe. It’s so
interesting to meet different cultures and exchange different ideas. Especially the friends I made and the
traveling I will never forgot. I also learned that I could feel at home really quick at many different places.
I really consider Singapore as my second home now and I can’t wait to go back in a while.
III ACADEMIC INFORMATION
Academic level at a host university
The courses are only offered in English. The courses I took are, as mentioned before, International and
Comparative Criminal Justice, Ethics and Social Responsibility, Politics of Southeast Asia and Comparing
Political Systems. I can recommend all of them, only ICCJ is really hard and Politics of Southeast Asia was
by far my favourite course. It was so interesting to learn about history and political situations of
countries I visited myself. The library was very convenient and this is where I studied most of the times.
Description of Courses
Please list all courses you have taken at the partner university in the form below:
Course title and code
- International and Comparative Criminal Justice: difficult
- Comparing Political Systems: medium
- Politics of Southeast Asia: medium
- Ethics and Social Responsibility: easy
All these courses were 7 ECTS. All courses I considered as relevant.
Tips for future students:
Definitely go on an exchange! It’s an amazing experience you can’t really describe unless you have
experienced it yourself. I would recommend going to Singapore for sure. It’s an amazing, vibrant city,
the university is really good and it’s so central that you can go on many amazing trips! But do make sure
you have enough money so you don’t have to worry about that.
Contact details:
You can always add me on Facebook to ask questions of send me an email to
[email protected]!