Amelia – IESEG School of Management, France
Semester 2, 2018
Bachelor of Business
I went on Exchange at IESEG School of Management in Lille, France.
It was one of the best experiences of my life, so if you are thinking of going on exchange to France I would definitely recommend going to Lille.
About the university
IESEG School of Management is not a very big school but it is very spread out over Lille and the buildings can be quite tricky to find if you don’t have a map or a friend who has been there before. The classes themselves are very different from the usual QUT business unit set up. If you are just a regular exchange student like me and can select quite a large amount of units as electives, you’ll have the chance to do both intensive and extensive courses.
Classes
In total, I did 13 classes over the semester. Intensive courses are set up as a one-week class, four hours a day with a class spanning four days with normally a presentation on Thursday and an exam on Friday or an assignment due the following week. Extensive classes are just like classes at QUT, lasting 13 weeks with regular classes each week. I really enjoyed intensive classes as they were fast, interesting and over in a week, meaning it was hard to get bored of the class content. I didn’t do all intensives and I probably should have by doubling up intensive classes in the first two weeks.
The classes tend to be very interactive and the wide variety of classes actually helped me to narrow down what I wanted to do with my degree in marketing once I finish university. Also, if you have the chance to do Experiential Marketing with Trish Rubin, take this course because I had the most fun I think I’ve ever had in a class at university.
Transport
Now in Lille, unlike Brisbane, 1-2km is far and can even take you out of the city centre. I didn’t know this before coming here so my accommodation was further away than I would have originally liked and I needed to take the bus (which became a hassle when I had to organise my bus card). So I would recommend spending the extra money (if you can) and get accommodation as close to the university as you can so everything is in walking distance. Other than that, my roommates were incredible and I was able to meet 4 new people from all over the world.
Travelling around Europe
Lille is a hub for travel; it is not only close to so many countries including England, Belgium, Netherlands and Germany where you can get there by bus, but it is also really easy to get to places like Portugal, Spain and Italy by plane. While I was there I was able to visit all of these countries on the weekends and sometimes during the week if I did not have an intensive course.
The university also organises school trips to places like Oktoberfest, Strasbourg for the Christmas markets, Amsterdam and small day trips to places like Dunkirk. These trips are a little expensive but are definitely worth it because 1. You don’t have to organise anything 2. They take you to places that can be quite difficult to organise on your own and 3. You get to go with friends and you’ll end up making so many friends and memories during them. If you are organising the travel by yourself, FlixBus, Oui Bus and the GoEuro are great websites to find tickets and Skyscanner is a great place to find cheap tickets to all sorts of destinations.
Budgeting
In total for the exchange experience, I saved $13,000 (including the bursary and loans). This would have been enough if I’d just stayed in Lille and only gone travelling once. However, I did around 2 months of travelling so I did need to borrow some money and luckily my amazing parents were able to loan me the money I needed.
