Foreign students' experience (2)

Denisa, Business School,

Business Studies, 3^rd year

I’ve studied 3 years at the University of J.E. Purkyne Economy in Czech Republic, focussed on the regional development. I've choosen Scotland for my ERASMUS program because it was the only one English speaking country proposed by my University.

I’ve chosen the Bachelor Business Studies (major) with six courses I’ve selected before I come to Scotland. However arriving at the UWS I’ve changed almost all my modules.

1^st semester:

Tourism Operations Management; It’s a 2 hours lectures followed by one hour tutorial. Usually the tutor is different from the lecturer. My lecturer was Heather Anderson. She is really nice with a good English accent. The course is related to all management in tourism and hospitality operations and activities. During the tutorials we worked into small groups on some case studies. The tutor was Tonny Ozzel which is brilliant teacher. The course examination was composed of an exam and a personal assessment regarding operations management in some companies which provide hospitality or tourism services.

Conference and Business Tourism; The Lecturer was Jacqui Greener which is also very nice and with an “understandable” accent. During this module we’ve learned the business events such as meetings, incentives and conferences.  During the tutorial we did some practice oral presentations with or tutor Peter Anderson. There was no final exam so the module we had to write an individual essay which represent 50% of the mark  and a team report regarding a conference (the management, the choice of the place...) followed by an oral presentation. This wasn’t difficult module.

Contemporary Issues in Business;    The main tutor is Mairi Gudim but almost every lectures were made by different lecturers. We were mainly studying the fact and aspect of globalization (Corporate Social Responsibilities, Cross cultural differences, how to measure it and more). The final mark involves a written group report (20 % of the mark), a group presentation regarding the selected topic (20 % of mark) and a final exam (6 questions and you select 3 of them) counted for 60% of the mark.

Regarding the semester 2 I’ve 4 modules: Business Research Methods (compulsory module), Event and Tourism Marketing, Business Venturing and Business English 1.2.

The courses that I can recommend you are Event and Tourism Marketing; it involves the creation of project from your own cultural event and Business Venturing which teach you how to write efficient business plans. 

The accommodation

I should have lived at Thornly Park campus. However after “administrative mistakes” I finally got a student flat at George Street (3 minutes walk from the Univ). It’s a flat designed for two people (everyone has its own room), the kitchen and bathroom are common. However there is no internet connection inside the accommodation. 

Thornly Park's accommodations_updated

Here are 4 new pictures regarding the accommodations. Almost 80% of the accommodations have the same structure: One corridor with 6 rooms, 2 bathrooms, one common kitchen and living room.

The kitchen

The living room (on the other side the kitchen)

The corridor

The bathroom

Thanks to my friend André, you can see how the Thornly Park's accommodations look like. 

There are no pictures on the UWS official website. The pictures have been taken during a sunny day (it happens around one or two days a week) so enjoy !

Here is the second most common accommodation (B). Living room and separate kitchen on level 0. And 3 individuals rooms on the 1st level.

Single room accommodation B (the bed is on the other side)

1st level accommodation B

Living room accommodation B

Living-room accommodation B

This is the most frequent type of accommodations on the campus: 3 levels, on each one 6 single rooms, 1 common bathroom and a comman kitchen and living room.

The rugby and football pitches