Accounts from International students (1)

Here starts the serie of accounts from several international students I've met at the UWS. I hope you'll learn more about the campuses, courses, environment...


Andrzej, Bachelor of honours, Business School; 
Event management, 4th year


I'm a Polish student graduated with management (BA) and economics (MA). 24 years old. I’ve spent three months on Crete, Greece, where I worked in a hotel as a cook assistant.    I have never studied abroad before. 

·         Why the UWS?

Honestly saying, it was only one possibility for me to study abroad. My Polish university has an agreement with UWS so it was very easy to get here. Moreover UWS offers 1,000 accommodation discount for polish students (who come from partner universities) so it plays a crucial role in my case.

·         Which Bachelor? 

Bachelor of honours, Business School;

Course: Event management, 4th year;

I like the subject of my course – it’s quite interesting and this topic is much more developed in the UK than in Poland. However, my classes are not led in an interesting way. During the first semester I haven’t learnt anything new to be honest. The lecturers try to be more focused on practical aspects than it is in Poland.

·        Where do you live in Scotland?

I live at the university’s accommodation – Thornly Park Camps. In my double floor villa there are 3 people (including me). We have three rooms upstairs and a kitchen, a living room and a bathroom at the ground floor. My room has approximately 13 meters square. I would assess dwelling conditions as: satisfactory. The main minus of them are thin walls and you can hear every single noise from your flatmate’s rooms (e.g. when he’s brushing his teeth ect.). You might get used to that. The problem appears when your flatmate is listening to the music loudly in the middle of the night.

A kitchen in our villa is very well equipped, but we are an exception here. Normally the university’s accommodation kitchens is lack of basic cutlery.

In the Thornly Park there are a lot of parties. You can have a party almost every day if you want to. The problem is when you want to sleep at night rather than drinking and dancing…

Scotland is not bad place for the studies: they are free, because fees are covered by SAAS, people are nice and optimistic. However, please be aware that Scottish language (especially in Glasgow agglomeration, where Paisley is) is slightly different than English which you met at school. I bet you will have problems with understanding Scottish people at the beginning. The language of classes at UWS depends on particular tutors.   

·         Can we really progress in English?

Actually, everything is up to you in this case. If you like to chat with other people, to attend to the parties, if you are outgoing person you will have many occasions to upgrade your language. If you are not, that will be more problematic. Of course, you can try to improve it on your own (by reading newspapers ect.) but it is a hard task.

It is really hard to communicate with native Scottish because sometimes they seem to speak completely odd language.

Personally, I am disappointed with progress of my English. Of course I can feel a difference after four months, but I expected that my enhancement will be much faster. 

Last year in Canada

The IUT of le Havre offers you the opportunity to follow a bilingual semester in Marketing at the Cégep André Laurendeau and the Vanier College in Montréal (during your second year in DUT TC). From mid-August to mid-December you've the opportunity to discover the North American "spirit" (however the semester takes place in Québec with another state of mind).

That's one added-value proposed by the IUT of le Havre (you're also able to join the bilingual class in 2nd year, do your second year work placement abroad...).

Have a look on the blog I've created regarding my last year experience in Montréal

http://semestre-montreal.blogspot.com/

However, I find that the IUT's website,  do not provide enough details. So i you want to learn more please ask the person in charge of the International Relations. I'm also here for specific info: scott.glasgow.1011@gmail.com

Work in progress...

I'm currently working with foreign students/friends to provide you different point of view and experiences from their studies at the UWS. Some are preparing a Bachelor in International Marketing, Business Studies or else. It'll be also related to their life in the campus.

Should be soon available.   

Available on Skype

I'm receiving several emails from current students of the IUT of Le Havre regarding specific questions: the campus, accommodation, courses, money.

For an efficient answer I'll be pleased to have a Skype conversation with you.

For those who haven't skype you can download it on : http://www.skype.com/intl/fr/get-skype/ (it's free and very useful when you study abroad).

Send me a message on scott.glasgow.1011@gmail.com so we can arrange a "virtual meeting".

Glasgow city

Happy New Year ! 

I'm back in Glasgow for the "exam diet". The semester 2 will start on the 31th January 2011. New courses, new students, new schedule... I can't wait ! 

Here is a brief overview of Glasgow. Enjoy.

Buchanan Street

George Square

City center

West end

The GoMA, Gallery of Modern Art

Central Station

Over the Clyde

City center

Poppy's day

Auchentashan distillery

Only 30 minutes by train from Glasgow, it's was the opportunity to visit a pure malt whiskey distillery with international students of the campus. 
I've enjoyed the malt-testing at the end. 

The campus is close... due to the snow

This is BlackBoard  (BB) The personnel account of each students.
You get the latest information regarding your courses (modification of room, topics to prepare...)
A efficient tool of communication but sometimes complicated to use.

Bachelor Enterprise presentation, semester one

I’m going to give you the key elements of the Bachelor I’m preparing at the UWS. 

For the first semester (September 2010 to January 2011), I have 3 courses.

Innovation and Entrepreneurship

We have started the 1^st lecture by giving the framework of the economic growth. And our main objective is to try to understand if there is a link between entrepreneurship and economic growth. For that we need to define the concept of entrepreneurship and the entrepreneur (that is in fact complex and wide subject), its role in the economy, the importance of innovation and R&D, why is there a re-emergence of the SMEs from the 1970’, the process of knowledge spill-over and much more.  

It could be seen as a very theoretical approach. Well at first glance it is. They are a lot of economic theories (neo-classical, Austrian, German school…) related to this course but we are not only focused on that (and we don’t need to learn them but just to pick up elements related to entrepreneurship and understand the different concepts). We are starting with the theories to a concrete approach.

The lecture (one hour) starts with the news related to the subject and we are then illustrating the theories studied previously. [For example today’s news were about the protest from England’s students concerned by the future rise of the university fees. We’ve raised the question about positive knowledge externalities that the graduated students’ benefic roles will play in the society. So why will they have to pay more? And also compare the UK and US regarding the university fees.] 

Then we followed by a power point presenting the day’s topic. It’s an interactive lecture where the students can ask questions to the teacher at any moment. (Pas de cours magistral)

And during the last part, we were split into 3 “cohorts” (groups of 15 students) and every week a team (3 to 4 students) is presenting an article selected by the teacher. It’s an Academic article and it’s not about summarizing the article (because every students of the group has already read it) but by giving main elements to make the connection between the course’s subject.  

So with the step back it’s in fact a very concrete and current subject we are studying with multiple everyday life examples linked such as the world financial crisis. 

The final assessment (=exam) is composed of: an oral team presentation / a individual essay / a final exam in January 2011.

Conference and Business Tourism

This is the second course I’ve selected for the 1^st semester. It’s about giving the framework of the Conference and business tourism that differs from the Tourism industry. It’s also related to marketing: how to promote an event? How to create a destination branding? A link is also made with the Scottish tourism industry. During the 2 hours’ lecture (and around 80 students) the senior lecturer presents the topic with a PP.

We’ve got after one hour tutorial to be divided in small groups of 15 students to prepare (in group or individually) a previous article or question that has been asked . And then discuss on it during the tutorial

The course’s notation:  At the beginning of the semester, we had to establish a group and then choose a conference that we will have to present in front of the senior lecturer. I’m in a group with 2 girls from Czech Republic (that’ll, I hope… spoke about the Bachelor they are preparing) and we have chosen the European Green Capital Conference, that took place this year in Stockholm. Then we need to write a report with our conclusions and recommendation (that what we are doing now…). And then an individual essay that you can choose between 3 subjects. I’ve chosen subject 3 “Within the next 5 to 10 years, video conferencing will replace a significant amount of business travel.” (And I’m working on it… almost done).

This is a very concrete course (few theories) and lots of practice.

Contemporary Issues in Business

This course is composed of a two-hour lecture (no tutorial) and its aim is to give a general approach of the “International Business”. This is a wide subject once again. We have started to discuss the issues related to the globalization, the role of government, the cultural aspect, the business ethics, the environmental issues… lots of subjects that can only briefly be presented in a power point, which is way the individual work stays important in this course. I’ve got the feeling that I’ve already studied this aspect of International Business during my previous studies, so it reminds me some elements I’ve formerly forgotten.

The concrete part of this course is our team work. I’m working with 3 Chinese girls from Beijing and one Taiwanese. We could choose between two subjects. We finally chose: “The importance or otherwise of understanding cultural issues for business firms operating internationally”. The oral presentation should take place this Thursday (if not snow storm) and one written report (due for last week’s semester). The final exam will take place in January.

Conclusion; the courses of the 1^st semester are all interesting. I just regret that we only got 3 courses each semester. I found that it’s not enough. However the personal work is quiet important especially at the end of the semester when you start to feel that lots of work has to be done. The courses with the tutorials have permitted me to meet and work with several foreign students (I do my best to stay away from the “French community”) in the objective to acquire knowledge in an English-speaking environment.