Period 5 at Maastricht University – summary

Period 5 is the last period for master students who started in September. Last courses, tutorials, exams, finishing master thesis. I also had my last courses but I also managed to work at the University and to enjoy travelling a bit.

Spring in Maastricht, source: my picture

Tradition continues and I look back again at period 5 of my Infonomics study programme that just ended. It was actually last period when I had regular courses, I am only left with the Master thesis and skill course connected to that. Pretty good feeling I must say. Only the Master thesis stands between me and masters degree. Well, but for now I will focus on the two courses and just passed and my life in the previous period. Both of my courses were compulsory for Infonomics master programme – Internet Economics and Intellectual capital and knowledge systems. Actually this period was pretty busy. Next to my own courses I was also tutoring at FASOS and working on an internship website for the Maastricht University. I managed to go for a weekend and Queensday to Amsterdam and also for 4 days to Paris. I hosted my brother and 3 friends in the first week of May Maybe my time management is getting better Let's start with my university duties.

Period 3 at Maastricht University – summary

Period 3 lasts only 2 weeks and you have a skill course. This intensive training was the last part of my exchange semester in Maastricht.

Andrea Chegut – our Excel tutor, Source: www.fdewb.unimaas.nl

Most of the exchange students do not attend the skill course in Period 3, because coming back for 2 weeks does not make sense if you live far away. The exams for period 2 are scheduled before Christmas and period 3 begins in the mid January so only those who need the credits come back after 3 weeks holiday. The second factor is the course selection possibility. As most of the master programmes lasts only one year, the only skill courses provided at master level are thesis connected and as Erasmus exchange student, you are not allowed to enroll and of course it does not make any sense to do so. Your choice is then restricted to the offered skill courses at bachelor level.

Period 2 at Maastricht University – summary

As I always did on my blog when I wrote about my bachelor studies, I am now going to summarize the exams and my courses I took in period 2 during my studies at SBE at Maastricht University. But not only the courses are described in the article, we cannot forgot the overall experience.

Exams at MECC, source: my picture

After I got acquainted with the rules at Maastricht University during the Period 1 I was no longer worried about the local school system. As an Exchange student I enrolled myself for courses not from one master track and therefore in second period at SBE I also met completely new people in my tutorial groups (there were a few Infonomics exceptions obviously). I first thought about writing separate articles about each course but than I realized that it's not necessary and also it's more interesting to have a shorter summary. Also the exams were very similar this time – both written at MECC, which is also a quite interesting story for someone, who is not familiar with practices at Maastricht University. Well, as I recently got to know, there are different practices at different faculties and even study programmes, but let's generalize it for the case of written exams As I may have (or also not) mentioned, I attended Intellectual propety law and Information Society (EBC4027) and International competitiveness and Antitrust policy (EBC4026) courses.

SBE Introduction day for Exchange Students

There are a lot of exchange students at School of Business and Economics every year and in order to present the Faculty of the Maastricht University and to provide people with contact with other exchange students, SBE organizes Introduction Day.

My group, Source: www.facebook.com

As I mentioned in the last article about SBE Master's Introduction Day, I kind of took this introduction day at SBE twice. But I am really glad as each of those two days provided a bit different experience and as a result, I know more and I also had something interesting to do and I met a lot of people. Obviously I made the same mistake twice – I can't find any any pictures of the day, but I definitely took some and there are only a few provided by the University so the description has to be enough.

Introduction day for Exchange students is compulsory – you have to be there to get your Student card and let the UM know that you arrived and also to get all necessary instructions. And you also get a plenty of additional stuff including quite useful student handbook. You can also find it online, but printed version is more handy.

Master’s Introduction Day at SBE

Today is the last day of August and my first official day at School of Business and Economics at Maastricht University. Let's talk about how was my first impression of the Faculty, PBL system and the people I met today.

Slide from welcoming presentation, source: my picture

First I have to mention that I am an exchange student, but quite an active one. I took part at , which is more for regular students and also today – it's introduction prepared for regular master students, as will be tomorrow But I've already signed in and it's better to have more information and see the school from different points of view, don't you think?

The whole day was great, ideal introduction to the university and also to the city. Great thing is, that you are the whole day in a small group where are also your future fellow students – ideal for getting know each other a bit. You get the information about the most important things and also how to get along. If you still have any problems with the student card, missing documents or are you just not sure about something and do not know where to ask, than Introduction day will help you! Well, I had a great tutor so I can only give a very positive feedback and I hope that also other students had the same experience.

Period 1 at Maastricht University – summary

Going to school and passing exams is what full time student does. Period 1 including the exams is over and therefore it's ideal time for evaluation. How were my courses and how did I enjoy the first part of the autumn semester?

Lecture room at Maastricht University, source: my picture

For three years I started my winter semester at the beginning of October. It's normal in the Czech republic, but the system is different in Netherlands. After Master's Introduction day we had weekend to get prepared for the lectures and tutorials starting the week after that. The first period at SBE took place from 5th September till 21st October followed by the exam week from 24th till 28th October. Obviously everything happens pretty fast so you are expected to be prepared even for the first class. It's your responsibility to check the EleEUM, where the tutors post material and information about the course. Maastricht University has problem based learning (PBL) approach and therefore students are required to read a lot and be really prepared for each class. No excuses like "I'm Erasmus" works here. Team assignments are common practice and therefore for most of the students, one of the university library becomes a second home. Get ready for that.

Bachelor's Open Day

Another Open Day at Maastricht University and I also had chance to be part of the promo team. The biggest difference was definitely the amount of people who arrived today and after it, we had a free drink party.

SBE, source: my picture

Open day at SBE for prospective bachelor students was similar to the Master's Open Day that took place about a month ago. The main difference was about the amount of people, who came to see the university. About 1000 students were expected, but most of them also brought their parents. On a master open day, there was only one welcoming lecture in a big hall and not all the people were there, still the room was about half empty. Now? There were like 3 lectures and always the lecture hall was completely full. Information stands were moved from AdForum to the Mensa, and in AdForum were only refreshments and cakes provided. If I have a good information, no pies left which means about 1400 pieces!

To run out of the statistic a bit, I really understand, why Bachelor programmes at Maastricht University as so interesting. According to some evaluations based on students, Maastricht University is first in the Netherlands and Elsevier ranking 2011: First place in the Netherlands for BSc International Business and BSc Econometrics and Operations research. That's something. UM also fully adopted PBL learning system and has practised it for several years.

Master's Open Day at Maastricht University

Maastricht University organizes four times a year Open Days for prospective students. Twice for Master programmes and twice for Bachelor programmes. I had a chance to participate at the university side and help out on autumn Master's Open Day.

Master's Open Day – Maastricht University, Source: www.maastrichtuniversity.nl

I think I can skip now the part about how I get there as a member of Maastricht University promo team and came back to that later. I have a long experience with Open Days – I helped out at high school for several years and also at university. On the other hand I actually visited not that many open days, so I do not have much to compare it with. But never mind, my point is to introduce Master's Open day at School of Business and Economics at Maastricht University.

At first, I must say that I liked the way it was organized. We got clear instructions a few days before on about an hour long meeting and than also via e-mail. As there were not that many people expected, all tables with programme presentations were located at AdFundum, as well as some refreshments.

School of Business and Economics presents

There was programme for the whole day. Everything started by an introduction in the large lecture hall – common for everybody. Then people spread around the whole building – there were special presentations of each programme in tutorial rooms and also general information tables at AdFundum.

Visitors got a welcome package at the entrance – with some information about the school and also with the programme of the Open Day. We were nicely instructed, that we were not selling but presenting the University. SBE has definitely a lot to offer: Maastricht University is known of its PBL (Problem based learning) teaching method and internationality – everything is in English, because there are more that 60% of international students from about 40 countries. Especially bachelor programmes are rated among best in Europe.

It's actually quite good idea to provide special Open Day for Master and Bachelor students. The programmes are different and people have also different questions. In addition to that, school that big can expect a lot of visitors and separate days can help with organization. As it was expected that a lot of people will spent there several hours, there were free drinks and refreshments provided – in the morning cake and sandwich for lunch. The end was scheduled to be at 16 o'clock, but most of the visitors left before 5 o'clock.