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Overview
of VSE’s main campus and main hall
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University of Economics, Prague - Prague, Czech Republic
The faculty of VSE is somewhat a mix between academic courses and
more practical ones. Indeed, some teachers you will have are very much academic
oriented and the theory is crucial for the final exams. On the other side you might encounter some
teachers – mostly visiting teachers – who do not care for exams but instead
demand individual papers, throughout the course.
The semester starts in
February and officially ends in late June. I say officially because I was able
to finish in May, so this might be a problem for those of you who tend to come
here with an Erasmus grant, as you need to give the exact dates of your
official stay at VSE. Since the Exchange office here in Prague considers the
day of your last exam as the end of your official stay, I would advise you to
contact them when you are applying for the Erasmus grant and explain the
situation beforehand in order to avoid unnecessary red tape on your
return!
As for the courses offered here at VSE, they tend to be fairly
stable over the years so you might except to find the same:
Courses offered Spring Semester 2013:
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Course Name
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ECTS
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Accounting
Information for Financial Management
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6
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Business
Strategies
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3
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Corporate
Finance
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7
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Elementary
Czech for Foreigners
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6
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Entrepreneurship
and New Business Venturing
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7
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Financial
Derivatives I
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3
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International
Financial Markets - in English
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3
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International
Marketing CEMS - in English
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7
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International
Marketing Management System Online (GMMSO): Planning and Strategy
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3
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International
Strategy (in English)
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7
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Introduction
to Economic Analysis of Contract and Corporate Law
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4
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Joint
Ventures and Multinational Corporations
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6
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Management
and Business Communication Skills Seminar
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1
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Maritime
and Multimodal Transportation
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6
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Multicultural
Europe
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3
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New
Trends in Leadership and Management
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4
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People
Management in Multicultural Environment
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4
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Psychology
of Management
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7
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Purchasing
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4
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Strategic
Marketing in Simulations
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4
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System
of Intensive Development of Individual Abilities
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4
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The main difference with Nova can be found in the fact that there
are no short courses, since the semester is not divided in two parts, as such
all courses last for the duration of the whole semester. The only exception to
that are the intensive courses which are worth 3 ECTS, and normally last 3
days. Now this might seem as a nice trade-off, but they normally require a lot
of work after the course. In my case we had to come up with to come up with a
business strategy for a new company, with everything in mind – from HR policy,
to a financial analysis of the next 5 years – all of this in 15 to 20 pages,
during the BP final phase.
A final warning considering the grading system here at VSE, their
grade conversion for the CEMS is different:
So in order to get an A in your CEMS diploma you will need to finish
a course with 18,6! Also there is no rounding up your grades.
- ABB - Way from analysis of social media environment
through recommendations to story for infographic
- Google - Building strong brands online (Participate on
the brand strategy creation for one of the top Google client)
- "Komerční banka - Impact of a “Regulation (EU)
No. 260/2012 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 14 March 2012
establishing technical and business requirements for credit transfers and direct
debits in euro and amending Regulation (EC) No 924/2009” to non Euro countries
(focused on Czech republic)"
- L´Oréal - Analysis of e-commerce cosmetics business in
the Czech Republic and construction of a LOréal e-commerce business plan
- McKinsey - Opportunities for Private Equity at the
dawn of Healthcare reform
- Plzeňský Prazdroj - Communication of beer brands on
Facebook
- Plzeňský Prazdroj - How to get young people 18 – 30
from their online life to real consumption (pubs, bars, hypermarkets, etc.)?
- Procter&Gamble - Gamification strategy for
eCommerce
- Unibail-Rodamco - How to stay the leading edge
operator in the real estate industry?
- Unicredit Bank - Behavioural analysis on dynamics of
clients indebtedness
- Hilti – Management and profitability steering of technical campaigns
I have to say that in my case (McKinsey
project), our advisors both academic and from the company, were always present
for us and we had meetings with them twice a week, sometimes at 7h00 in the
morning. Although tough the whole experience was very positive and from what I
have heard from other teams the general feedback was pretty positive as well.
In terms of living in Prague, I have to say that
although I had already worked in the city previously being here as a student is
a totally different experience.
First of all the city is very cheap in terms of
restaurants and living expenses (my only advice avoid the city center, it’s a
tourist trap and prices tend to double or triple…). Public transportation are cheap
(around 30€ for 3 months all transports included) and excellent, as day trams
end their shift at midnight and night trams start at 23h30 and run every half
hour all night long. So whenever you’re out in a bar or club you shouldn’t
worry that much about transportation, just be sure to be appropriately dressed
in the winter.
There is always a huge community of Erasmus students and as such
there are a lot of activities for them, also the CEMS club is very active and
there are events organized almost every week (cocktails, parties, corporate
events…).
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| Communism
still present in the mind of Czech people :) |
The people in Prague are generally friendly and are able to speak
English as they are lots of tourists all year long, but sometimes you will fall
on some unfriendly staff, especially in the subway. If by any chance you find
somebody who does not speak English at all (VSE library personnel for example),
you should go for German as a lot of elderly Czech speak the language.
In terms of housing, it will be difficult for
you to find anything if you are not personally visiting the places and I would
advise against renting anything before you see the place, as there are lots of
scams (some CEMS students were victims of this). My advice would be to come to
Prague one month before the start of the semester and visit some places, also
avoid agencies as they tend to overcharge a lot, typical prices for a good flat
go around 300-400€.
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| Less
than 1€!
Czech
food can be a bit heavy! |
Food wise the faculty has 3 cantinas, and prices
are around 2€, but as I told you before, restaurants are cheap, you can have a
lunch in good restaurant for less than 5€, and in some excellent restaurants
for less than 10€ (no cheap fish though…). Also for smokers do not expect to
quit smoking in Prague as prices are very low: Marlboro red costs 3.45€ ;)!
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| Riegrovy
Sady and its beer garden – 2 minutes’ walk from the faculty |
Prague is also full of parks and beer gardens;
actually one is located behind the faculty and has an amazing view of all of
Prague, which is pretty nice when you want to go have a drink or just relax.
Overall I would have to say that the city is well prepared to
welcome foreign students and if you ever encounter any problem during your stay
you can always count on the friendliness of both the CEMS office and the CEMS
club.
P.S. study carefully VSE’s intranet (ISIS),
it can be complicated sometimes, but is really useful once you get used to it.
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