Hi All,
Greetings from
Jonkoping (Pronounced as Jon-show-ping), Sweden! It is been about 10
days since we reached this place. It has been great so far. At
my school, Jonkoping International Business School (JIBS), we have
exchange students from IIMC and IIML as well, apart from students from
over 100 different Schools. Yes, you read that right. JIBS' uniqueness
is its diversity. There are people from over 50 countries here and more
than 250 exchange students. I think having students from so many
different countries is truly something unique.
Courses:
The school is really big on entrepreneurship. It’s known for its
entrepreneurship programs but isn’t very great for Finance. If you ask
me how the courses are, I’ll say – it depends. ;) It truly does depend
on what courses you take. We are free to take courses at bachelor level
(there are 4 categories of courses: A,B,C,D
in the ascending order of difficulty). So if you take an A level course
in finance and you are an Indian, who is naturally better at numbers,
then you got nothing to learn. Bottom-line, if you wanna make most of
the academic experience, take the courses that the university is known
for.
We
are supposed to take 2 courses per quarter (4 for the sem). For this
quarter I have taken Entrepreneurship and Business Planning (EBP) and
International Financial Management (IFM). EBP classes are amazing. The
course has an enrollment of 375 to 400 i think, which implies we have
to have lectures in the auditorium. Yet the lectures are interactive
and do not get boring one bit. It is an experience to sit in a class of
400! But of course, for seminars, sessions where there are group
activities and presentations to compliment the lectures, we are split
into classes of 40. We have been given a loan of 200 SEK (read Swedish
kroner or krown) to start our new venture and we got to be profitable
during the duration of the course. Besides, we get to make visits to a
company and analyze how that company started as an entrepreneurial
venture. Perfect combination of theory and practice. A very well
designed course. IFM isn’t very exciting and we as fin majors and
students of a master's program feel the pace is too slow and the
learning limited.
Lectures
here are scheduled for 2 hours, but as the profs say, an "academic
hour" is only 45 mins. So we get a 15 min break at the end of 45 mins
and lectures get over 15 mins early. Is that a piece of advice for
someone who talks of market fundas esp paaanetration with complete
disregard to the clock ;)
I work in a group of 10 for my new venture project, and we have 6 countries represented among the 10. Beat that for diversity.
Professors: Even
for a disinteresting course like IFM, the effort put in by the
professor is tremendous. There is no 'free-riding' by the professor.
Lecture slides, handouts, course outlines, etc are managed very
professionally. The EBP professor has like an entire team of faculty
members and PhD candidates working for him, nearly 8 of them handling
that one course. The prof is very charismatic and walks in with his
expensive business suit on, is a smooth talker and teaches very well.
Professors
here are pretty cool. Mobiles ring in class, people come in late, surf
during classes, eat, drink coffee and it’s all accepted. But most
students are serious and want to make most of the lectures. Also
attendance is not mandatory in most cases. Probably explains why professors are not paranoid about things like laptop, mobiles,etc.
Infrastructure: It’s
an unfair comparison but cant help it. A classroom here is at least 10
times better than the best facility we have. One of the most amazing
things in classrooms that grabbed my attention was movable marker
boards. There are multiple movable marker boards that slide across and
over. So the prof writes on a board, does not clear it, slides the
board up, pulls another one down and writes on the second. Amazing!!
The intranet is very well used resource. IIMK needs to put in serious
thought on using its intranet well. VC and moodle are the most
under-utilized and the professors need to be educated about the
effective use of an intranet. Squirrel mail is not intranet!
The country: We
have struggled with Swedish. Most people do speak English, but the
problem is that everything is written in Swedish. So when you go to a
super market, you read a pack and you cant make out whether its sugar,
salt or something else. We can’t read the newspapers, the brochures,
the notices and more. People pay a lot in taxes. A cleaning company
charges 300 SEK (conversion rate Rs 6) per hour. A doctor's appointment
costs 1600 SEK. It is a very expensive place to stay. Sweden seems to
be devoid of the Walmarts and the Tesco’s. Most chains seem to be
Swedish. That may explain the emphasis on entrepreneurship. Volvo and
Scania are Swedish icons, if I may say so. It is truly breathtaking to
see one of those huge Scania trucks.
Prasanna Bora can be contacted at his gmail id: bora.prasanna
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