MARKETING AND MANAGEMENT, YEAR 3

Transcription

1 WARWICK BUSINESS SCHOOL UNIVERSITY OF WARWICK, UK SAM WONG MARKETING AND MANAGEMENT, YEAR 3 FALL 2017

2 PART 1 MONTHLY ACTIVITY LOG September I arrived UK in mid-september, a week before the welcoming program. I did some traveling in London and arrived Warwick on the 26 th September, taking the rail from London Euston to Coventry and the 12X bus to the university. I joined some welcoming activities, including an afternoon exploring the city centre, and went grocery shopping at Tesco. At the last weekend of the month, I explored the nearby city Birmingham with some friends. October The fall term commenced on the 2 nd October and I spent quite a bit of time dealing with the registration issues of external modules and most of my leisure time hitting the gym, playing badminton and cooking with friends. The lectures and seminars are somewhat similar to those in UST. The literature module I took as an external module, however, had a pretty huge workload, requiring immense preparations before every seminar. Nevertheless, it has to be the most satisfying and rewarding module I took at Warwick. During weekends, we visited Oxford, Kenilworth, the Warwick Castle and Edinburgh. November We continued exploring around UK as we visited Bath, Stonehenge, Dublin, Belfast and Manchester in November. I also went to Denmark to visit a friend studying at CBS. Life in November was largely similar to the previous month s, as I continued to lead a rather relaxed and simple life. We occasionally visited the music room in the Westwood campus. As the term was nearly the end, I started working on my essays as two of their deadlines were right in the beginning of December.

3 December As I had no exams or tests, I focused on finishing my essays and a group presentation for one of my modules in the beginning of December. I met with my groupmate several times for discussion and practice. The term ended on the 9th December, I left Warwick and went traveling in Iceland and several countries in Europe with my friends.

4 Part 2 - General Exchange Information 1. Visa Procedures If you are a holder of HKSAR passport, you do not need to apply for any visas before arriving the UK. Instead, you can simply get your short-term study visa, essentially just a stamp, at the airport, with a maximum 6 months period of stay. You are, however, required to bring the supporting letter issued by the university every time you are traveling out of the UK. 2. Orientation Activities There is a 3-day optional welcoming program held before the term commenced. You can choose between a selection of events, including mingling sections, campus tours and sports tryouts. It is a good chance to meet new friends and get acquainted with the campus. The welcoming program is free of charge, but you have to pay for the campus accommodation during that period. 3. International Services & Activities There were orientation talks for exchange students before the term started, one for all exchange students and one for business students only. You are welcomed to contact the Study Abroad team or wbs staffs for any questions. There are also activities and low-cost tours for international students. 4. Accommodations I lived at the Lakeside Residents, 5 minutes away from the wbs building. It provides great en-suite rooms and a quiet neighborhood. You can choose from a range of different halls depending on your preferences. En-suite rooms are usually more

5 expensive, with spacious room and launderettes in the block, while cheaper accommodations usually equipped with shared toilet and bathroom. 5. Courses Registration You can start applying for modules by the end of September, using the wbs module application system. Warwick recommends exchange students to take 4 modules for the fall term (a maximum of 5 modules). The modules you applied might be full, so it is better to find alternative courses in advance. Please be aware that if you are taking modules outside wbs, you have to ask relevant departments for approval. Similar to UST, there is an add-drop period, during which you can freely apply and drop any modules. If you wish to swap the timeslots for your seminars, you will need to visit the wbs office in person and they will swap it for you. 6. Teaching & Assessment Methods Modules at Warwick typically consist of a lecture and a seminar per week. In case you have missed any lectures, there are recordings for every lecture. I took the following 5 modules: - IB3620 Managing Human Resources The module consists of a 2-hour lecture and a 1-hour seminar per week. Assessment Method: 2000-word essay (100%) - IB3870 Marketing Strategy The module consists of a 2-hour lecture per week. Assessment Method: 2000-word essay (100%)

6 - IB3D80 Corporate Strategy Part A The module consists of a 3-hour lecture per week. Assessment Method: 2000-word essay (100%) - IB3F70 Understanding the Entrepreneur The module consists of a 1-hour lecture and a 1-hour seminar per week. Assessment Method: 2000-word essay (70%) and Group presentation (30%) - EN1230 Literature in the Modern World The module consists of a 1-hour lecture and a 1-hour seminar per week. Assessment Method: 3000-word essay (100%) 7. Sports & Recreation Facilities Joining sports teams could be pretty costly, as they do require students to pay the SU membership fee on top of the club fees. For facilities, you could use the gym for free during the first two weeks. After that, you can buy a 30-day gym-and-pool pass for 25. As for other facilities, you can book the facilities using the online booking system. 8. Finance & Banking (including currency / expenses) As the term was only two months long, I did not set up a bank account. You can use credit cards for most transactions and there are ATM machines on campus for cash

7 withdrawal, provided that you have enabled foreign withdrawal. Some of them do support Union Pay ATM cards. For online transactions, some banks would require one-time passwords for verification. You can disable this function before leaving Hong Kong as you may face difficulties receiving the password when you are using a UK phone number. For other currencies, I usually withdraw local cash upon arrival when I am traveling. 9. Social Clubs & Networking Opportunities Similar to sporting teams, participating social clubs requires the payment of SU membership fee. As a great portion of time was used for traveling, I did not participate in social clubs. 10. Health & Safety In case of any sickness, students can visit the health center on campus. You can also buy medications from pharmaceutical shops like Boots. 11. Food There are several restaurants, cafes and bars around campus, where you can enjoy 10% discount if you use the credits in your Eating at Warwick account. There are also delivery services like Dominos if you have a hanker for Chinese food or pizza. For us, we always cook by ourselves. You can buy food from the Rootes grocery store in the center of campus. Cheaper options including Tesco and the Seoul market at the Cannon Park shopping center near campus.

8 12. Transportation Traveling in Coventry You can take the 11/11U/12X bus for transportation between the city center and university. You can buy cheaper mobile ticket using the NXBusmTicket app and it is cheaper to travel in a group as you can buy a group ticket. Traveling in UK If you are going to travel quite frequently like I did, you can buy a Railcard, allowing you to have one third discount on every train ride. The train tickets are much cheaper if you buy them in advance. Taking a train from London to Coventry could cost as low as 3.95 for an advance single ticket. International travel I took the Cathay Pacific direct flight from Hong Kong to London Heathrow. For traveling during the term, the nearest airport to the university is the Birmingham International Airport (BHX), which unfortunately has relatively less appealing flight destinations. London Gatwick, Stansted and Luton would therefore be more popular options for traveling to other countries. 13. Climate The weather is quite cool in the UK, with temperature ranging from 0 C to 15 C. They are occasion rain and in winter, snow and strong wind. Be sure to be well-prepared and pack enough clothing for different weather, especially when traveling. 14. Communication I used a 3UK sim card bought at Heathrow. It is a 30-day add-on plan and you can buy top up vouchers at the university grocery store or Tesco. The price of the plan

9 depends on the amount of data you want to use. These sim cards can also be used in other countries. Part 3 - Items to Bring þ Passport þ Cash þ Credit Card / ATM card þ Clothing þ Laptop þ Travel Adaptor þ Medication Part 4 - Contacts If more information is needed, please feel free to get my contact from SBM Exchange Team by ing at bmugexch@ust.hk.