# 11 The Indian Institute of Management, Calcutta (IIMC)

Kolkata, INDIA

India is an amazingly different country compared to any other. It’s immersed in culture, in traditions and costumes. And despite being all the same country, each state looks like a completely different country with their proper gastronomy and divergent ways of living.

Kolkata is located in the East and it is the capital of the state of West Bengal. Kolkata is super crowded and noisy, polluted and messy. I saw chickens being killed in the middle of the street, children showering in puddles left by the monsoons. It has around 5 million people. That’s a lot of people for such a small space! And during rush hours, there is a huge crowd everywhere.

IIMC Campus

Campus is 10 km away from the city center. To get to Park Street for instance (one of the best streets because of the “high” offer on bars and restaurants), it takes 1 hour which means around €3 by taxi or €0,50 by bus. If it is not rush hour though, it could take you half the time. To get to the airport it’s a longer distance and it may take around 2 hours. The most western area is South City because you can find some tall residential buildings and because the big shopping center is quite western. It is called South City Mall. It’s 45 min away from campus.

The IIMC Campus is supposed to be a place where you have everything you need to live the entire semester without having to go to the city. This is actually true, but you end up coming out of campus at least 2 times a week so you don’t feel claustrophobic.

The Campus has 5 or 6 residences, each one with their cantine. Then there are 2 or 3 cooperative stores where you can buy the basic stuff like shampoo, pens, toilet paper, chewing gum, water, cookies, charge your phone... Each one of the stores improvised in their own way. It’s nice and funny. You also have a “gym” (with 2 treadmills and several rusty machines), badminton and tennis courts. Undoubtedly, it’s a beautiful green campus, with many trees, seven huge lakes and a diverse bio ecosystem (all kinds of birds, many crows, squirrels, 1 monitor lizard, snakes, around 7 dogs, etc…). It is not a new campus though. Also, all the school facilities are within campus walls, so you can either buy a bike and take 2/3 minutes from your room to the classrooms or go by foot and take 7 minutes instead. :)

Indian students are incredibly warm people. Always willing to help you in whatever you need, to share whatever they have… And they are crazy fun! Either they study hard, and get extremely focused, or they party like animals. They don’t really value sleeping time. It is important to understand that Indian people studying at IIMC are extremely educated and ambitious. During the Fall term that I was at IIMC, we were 13 CEMS students and around 70 exchange students. We all felt welcome by them.

Of course, there are also some negative points. For example, for me, it was really hard to get used to not having a kitchen to cook and have to eat the cantine’s food everyday. Either that or you order pizza from Domino’s. In special dates, they do make an effort to give us better food, but still it is greasy and sometimes, too spicy.

CEMS students were all given rooms in the best residence (newest building on campus – Lake View Hostel, LVH). However, there were some people that stayed on the top floor (me) and were unlucky. Two of us had infiltration problems during the monsoon period (until late October). This led to humidity in the room, and a weird smell as well as mold in the walls. But you learn how to avoid it… Keep the window open, don’t turn your fan off! In the 2 corridors of girls at LVH (which corresponds to 24 rooms), only 2 rooms had these problems. In other residences, the proportion was bigger, which is good news for CEMS students because we usually accommodate them at LVH. Another huge challenge that arose: bed bugs. Never in my life I had this constant contact with bed bugs. And we could ask the “plague killer” to come and disinfect our rooms, but they would be back again a couple of days later. The way of overcoming this is to put at least 2 layers of bed sheets in our mattresses. We only discovered this after one month at LVH, so we managed to get many stings until then.

Restaurants

West Bengal Cuisine: Peter Cat (the first restaurant I went to, good service, good food), Teej (vegetarian), Mirch Masala (excellent food), 6 Ballygunge Place

Western Cuisine (after some time only having spicy and saucy food, you’ll feel like having a good steak or some nice pasta): Taj Hotel (try either the dinner buffet or the champagne brunch), The Oberoi Hotel, Fire and Ice (Italian)

Nightlife

Some place else (kind of Irish pub with live music)

Roxy (club)

Street Markets

New Market (the biggest market), Behala Market, Gariahat Market

What to wear?

Girls should cover their legs and do not walk around with cleavages. To be honest, I never felt afraid, but you should avoid danger at all cost. There is no need of facilitating. Guys should not have a problem though. Anyways, don’t walk around alone, try to be at least 2 or 3.

Weather

I arrived on the 27^th of August and the campus was flooded. The 7 lakes were 2 only and we had to be transported by car from building to building. This was not very efficient because we spent time with simple things such as waiting for a car to take us to the other side. And we could not put our feet in the water because it had harmful chemicals. Despite that, temperature was high, and until late October, independently of the time of the day, you are always sweating because humidity makes 35ºC feel like 40ºC. Weather in end of October and November was awesome. Like summer in Portugal. And probably in December you already needed a light jacket.

Courses

Besides the mandatory course of Global Strategic Management (worth 6 ECTS), we could choose between the following courses (all worth 4 ECTS):

Bank Management     

Marketing to Bottom of Pyramid Consumers

Business Transformation with Social Media 

Corporate Social Irresponsibility        

Country Risk Analysis

Economics of Corporate Sustainability          

Entrepreneurship in NGO       

Ethics and Values in International Business 

Financial Risk Management  

Human Resource Management in MNC        

Innovation in Marketing Theory and Practice

Leadership Excellence: Insights from the Indian Ethos         

Management Control System

Management Of Self in Organizations

I strongly recommend the course “Management of Self in Organizations”. You will have the chance to have one of the most awesome teachers in a super interesting course.

Travelling

There is so much richness to the Indian culture that it is almost mandatory to visit every state. Rajasthan is one of the most beautiful and interesting states. Naming some of the cities in Rajasthan, there is Agra (where Taj Mahal is), Udaipur, Jodhpur and Jaipur. Then you have the state of Kerala that you should definitely travel to and try the Backwaters experience. Also Mumbai and the amazing Goa are travel destinations.

The Himalayas trekking is an awesome experience. Don’t climb too fast though, and be careful with the altitude sickness!

In Thailand, you have Koh Phi Phi (islands) that are so much fun. I had such a good time there and it is sooo beautiful! Koh Phi Phi is the perfect scenario for diving, canoeing, thai massages for 3€, and those idealistic movie late hour beach parties. If you are looking for some paradisiac islands, some time to relax, a good alternative is the Andaman Islands.

-----

By Paula Costa, Class of 2013/2014

Term Abroad - Fall 2013

# 10 The London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE)

LSE experience - London, United Kingdom

University

LSE is located in Holborn, in the heart of London and can be easily accessed by public transport (Bus and Tube, Holborn and Temple tube stations). It is a campus composed of several buildings very close to each other and courses take place all over the campus. The buildings are not beautiful, but modern and offer all the conditions for a fruitful learning environment. The library is huge and you can find any resources you need for the courses. Also, most of the computers available (also for printing) are located in there. However, throughout the whole semester, it can be hard to find available learn space and computers. This is even more complicated with groups and towards the end of the term.

The main strength of LSE is certainly is the brand and the ability to attract both, interesting corporate partners (IB, consulting and some other) and highly renowned speakers to hold networking events, career fairs, presentations and speeches every day.

LSE Library

New Academic Building (Block Seminar and some classes take place here)

Block Seminar

The block seminar took place at LSE in Holborn and was titled “Leadership in organisations”. It was a great opportunity to meet fellow CEMS students (many of which are Germans). There were some readings to do but overall workload was rather soft and allowed enough time to discover London’s perks. It also hosted several guest speakers from, both, LSE and corporate partners, e.g. Google and P&G which seems to be LSE’s favourite partner ;-) Presentations took place on the last day of the seminar and due to the fact that all presentations were so good, all groups received an A. 

During that week, the CEMS Club and CEMS team also provided for social events such as a bowling evening and a networking event with alumni and corporate partners. During lunch breaks, food was provided, but quantity and quality are rather low and it turned out to be the same on several days.

At the CEMS Block Seminar

Courses

Course choice takes place during the first week of LSE and it can be really messy because it is not always clear which courses you will get in the end (of those that you applied for) and which you have to attend. For some classes, you need to write a cover letter or take an exam. In addition to courses, seminars (practical classes) have to be chosen for most of the courses.

Grades and the type of assessment can vary greatly dependent on the courses you choose. In general, contents are very theoretical (a lot of readings and essays) and there are mostly no group works. Workload is not especially high and tends to come up towards the end of the term. Usually, exams are in the summer term after the academic year. As Nova CEMS students won’t be able to attend, assessment was based on essays or, for some courses, exams during the term.

In the following, some courses that we have taken:

Business in the Global Environment (mandatory strategy course): Not a strategy course at all!!! It can be rather compared to a basic macroeconomic course, but with a focus on pragmatic cases instead of an analytical perspective. In the end of the semester, we had to write one exam (rather simple) and hand in an essay in January to moodle (3000 words on one topic of the course).

The Analysis of Strategy A: More strategy than the previous course, it is mainly founded in microeconomics and game theory concepts, so it should be easy if you have taken these courses at Nova. Towards the end of the term there are some case discussions. To be enrolled in this course, you have to do an exam in the first week (no studying is required or even possible), but many people were unable to get the required grade in this. Course assessment is 50% a game theory problem set and 50% an exam in the last week, both of which are very easy. Classes can be boring, though, and the pace is very slow.

Accounting, Strategy and Control: Not really an accounting course (there are almost no numbers there), it is more related to governance and how to design effective control systems/performance evaluation. The professor is very good and classes are interesting. There is a case study to discuss in each practical seminar. Assessment is based on 4 essays done throughout the semester, and depending on the effort you put in it, the workload can get considerable. Grades are not great in this course (as it is usually the case with essay assessments at LSE, where you never get full points for a “right” answer, so don’t be fooled by the translation of a 70% to A, because this is not easy to achieve).

Financial Reporting, Capital Markets and Business Combinations: Not an accounting course either. Focus is rather on general reporting issues such as accounting for value creation with special emphasis on cash flows and revenues, business combinations, corporate disclosure, capital markets efficiency, and corporate governance. The course was interesting and assessment was based on one assignment during the semester (some calculations and a small essay) and a presentation on one case study for CEMS students. Overall, the course is not very difficult.

Principles of Decision Science: This course focuses on human’s decision capability in a descriptive and normative way, both, in a practical and theoretical way. It covers the foundations of decision theory; models and theories describing how people form preferences, make judgments, deal with conflicting objectives, uncertainty, and risk. It is highly interesting, but some formative coursework (essays and problem sets) have to be handed in, although not graded. For CEMS students, assessment is based on an essay that has to be written after the semester (3000-4000 words).

Negotiation Analysis: Classes are very theoretical and reading-based, whereas practical seminars are very interesting and interactive, consisting of negotiations among students. Assessment was 100% exam and requires several readings.

Life in London

As you expect, London is a very expensive city to live in, and be prepared to spend enormous amounts on everything, especially accommodation! Supply of rooms for less than 6 months is very scarce and rents can be 30% higher than regular, long-term rents. Please pay attention to the fact that rents are presented on a weekly, not monthly basis.

The transportation network works very well, although it is very crowded during peak hours; and during weekends some tube stations were closed for maintenance and you have to take the bus, which can take longer due to traffic but also run frequently. If you miss a tube, don’t worry, the next one arrives in 2-4 minutes (sometimes 5-7 at night)! The tube is also connected to Heathrow airport, although you can take more comfortable ways (much more expensive) to the airport if you carry a lot of luggage! Tube services close shortly after midnight, but there are plenty of night buses (if you live in a nice location!) For 81£ (~100€) you can buy the monthly pass for tube & bus (already with student discount!). Taking a cab is very expensive!

Canary Wharf – London’s new financial centre

The city is huge and there is a lot to do and discover, and you never get bored. However, that also means that travel time is not negligible. Social life takes place all over the city. However, there is also an LSE pub which is relatively cheap and suits for an after-class pint of beer (or two or more). Covent Garden which is very close to LSE is also a nice area with restaurants and bars (can be pricy as everywhere!). 

Pubs usually close at 11 or midnight and if you want to go out afterwards, there are several areas to go out. Usually, places in the east and north (Shoreditch, Camden) are much cheaper while bars and clubs towards the west and the centre are more suited to wealthy individuals. Fabric (close to Barbican) and Ministry of Sound (Elephant & Castle, south of the Thames) are probably the most famous clubs and host well-known DJs, but are also expensive. It is rather seldom the case that all CEMS student are joining because accommodation is widespread over the city and there haven’t been many CEMS Club activities during the term (actually none at all). That might result from the fact that all LSE CEMS students are abroad during the first term.

Regarding football matches, it is not easy to get ticket although not impossible. From my personal perspective, teams in the east exhibit a better atmosphere in the stadium and are a worthwhile alternative (e.g. Tottenham at White Hart Lane).

If you have any questions, please feel free to contact Carlos Mirpuri or Trieu Pham.

--

By Carlos Mirpuri and Trieu Pham, Class of 2013/2014

Term abroad - Fall 2013