University of St. Gallen

Exchange Report by Hui Hang Yung, Tony

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1. Opening Remarks and Reflection Studying at the University of St. Gallen (HSG) was an unforgettable experience in my life and I am really grateful about having this opportunity. After my previous exchange to America, I was thinking of taking an exchange program in Europe to explore the differences in terms of learning style and to make new friends. Eventually, I chose Switzerland as my destination because it is well-known for the high quality of life that I would really want to experience. In addition, banking and financing are the key industries in Switzerland where I am able to learn in-depth knowledge from HSG. Regarding academic learning, European classes focus heavily on concepts and theories. For example, the lecturer of Financial Institutions discussed more than 10 models to explain the functions of a bank. It is significantly different from the case-based learning environment in America. I found the learning in Europe challenging when it comes to the final paper submission. I seldom write papers in HKUST and I am not familiar with brainstorming good research topics. Thus, I spent a lot of time discussing with my fellow classmates and lectures to frame a good topic and get feedback on my papers. In addition, I found learning an additional foreign language to be very useful. I chose to learn German as HSG is located in the German-speaking part of Switzerland. It was hard to learn at first, but I got to understand basic conversations after reciting all the article combinations and vocabulary in a week. It was extremely useful as I travelled frequently in Switzerland, to Austria, and to Germany. For instance, I am now able to introduce myself in German, ask for directions and order the food. All in all, I believe that an exchange study in Europe has definitely widened my horizon and forced me to step out of my comfort zone. 2. Log of Journey September 2018 I arrived at Switzerland 2 days before the start of semester. Before that, I travelled to Copenhagen for 5 days to visit my friend. The first month is about getting to know other exchange students and local students so I have joined several activities hosted by the BuddySystem (i.e. exchange buddy program in HSG). In late September, I went to Munich for the well-known beer festival, Oktoberfest, and visited the Neuschwanstein which is known as the prototype of Disney castle.

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Visiting Neuschwanstein in Schwangau, Germany

October 2018 I did not really attend the lesson (except German) as most of the examinations come at the end of semester, so I travelled to Spain and London. I also travelled a lot within Switzerland to visit several famous mountains. The alpine slide is really fun, and it closes before mid-October.

Playing alpine slide in Kandersteg, Switzerland

Hiking with exchange students from China and Singapore in Zermatt, Switzerland

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Taking mountain train to Jungfrau, Switzerland

November 2018 I attended the CSR class during the break and stayed in St, Gallen for the rest of study break as my Venice trip is cancelled due to the heavy rain. After that, I went to London for a few times for job interviews. I visited Finland in late November, but I am unable to observe the aurora due to the cloudy weather. December 2018 I stayed in St. Gallen before the end of semester as I have to catch up with all the courses and revise the materials for the lectures that I have skipped. However, right after the end of semester, I went to Prague and Paris for Christmas and London for new year eve.

The most beautiful Christmas market in Prague, Czech Republic

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January 2019 Time to say goodbye. I made a trip to Austria before I went back to Hong Kong. I learnt skiing in Sölden and it was fun. However, the weather is too bad as there was snow storm. I planned to visit Konigsee and Hallstatt, but I cancelled the plan at the end.

Learning skiing for the first time in Sölden, Austria

3. General Exchange Information i. Visa Procedures Do not apply the visa yourself from the Swiss Embassy. You will receive the visa grant from HSG two months before the start of exchange program (Ermächtigung zur Visumerteilung). Take the visa grant to Swiss Embassy and the visa will be issued within a week. The cost of visa is CHF 96.- and HSG will ask you to pay it online. ii. Orientation Activities The BuddySystem from HSG will organize activities two weeks before the start of semester such as clubbing, hiking and bowling. Feel free to join if you arrive early. There is a two-day compulsory orientation event that talks about the internet account and basic information about the exchange program. Just make sure you arrive the school before the start of compulsory orientation. iii. Career Days HSG will organize several career events such as the banking week and the consulting week. During the two weeks, firms will come to school and host dinners, presentations and workshops for students. All registrations are done online. However, exchange students are less preferred for such events as the target audience are Swiss students or European students. I tried to register for five events and got rejected for all of them. Banking Day: http://www.bankingdays.unisg.ch/ Consulting Day: http://www.consultingclub.ch/consulting_days/

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iv. Accommodation The housing office will get your preference three or four months before the start of semester. The monthly rent is ranging from CHF 550 to CHF 850 depending on the size of the room. You can choose between a room in an apartment or a private studio. You can have a lower rent if you find the flat yourself. v. Course Registration Course Registration is complicated in HSG as it is basically a bidding system. Each exchange student will have 1000 points to bid against the spots for the course. You will only be competing with other exchange students. For example, there are 5 spots for the course A and you decide to allocate 200 points for course A. You will get in to the course if you are one of the top 5 bidders and the points deduced will be the points bided by last admitted bidder. E.g. if the 5th bidder puts 120 points, your remaining point will be 880 instead of 800. There are several rounds of bidding and HSG will send you clear instruction about when to make bid and when the result will be announced. Bidding factsheets: https://www.unisg.ch/en/studium/austauschprogramme/incomingdetailsgastaufenthalt/kursinformationen/kurseherbstsemester Courses taken: 1. 3,663 – Cultures: Chinese Leaders, Elites, Masses and Citizens The course covers important topics regarding the Chinese cultures and history such as Confucianism, May Fourth Movement, Cultural Revolution and Umbrella Movement. Half of the grade goes to the final paper, 40% will be the presentation slides submitted and 10% participation. 2. 3,164 – Real Estate Finance and Investments The course covers concepts such as valuation, mortgage and economics. The professor used a lot of examples to illustrate different scenarios in real estate investments such as the differences on payment schedule, common areas payment and leverage. The course ends with an examination before the study break. The examination is accounting for 80% of grade and 2 problem sets account for the rest.

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3. 7,155 – Financial Institutions It is a comprehensive course about the functions of financial institution in the modern society. Topics include bank lending, bank funding and risk management. The course ends with an examination that accounts for 100% of grade. 4. 7,369 – Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) This is the most interactive course among all the courses that I have taken in the semester. The instructors used many case studies to explain concepts in CSR and emphasis that CSR is not just public relations. It is called the “block course” that there were only 3 lectures during the study break, but each lecture started at 8am and ended 6pm. 50% of grade is the group paper, 40% is the presentation and 10% is the participation. 5. 7,375 – Quantitative Text Analysis The course covers basic knowledge about R and text analysis. I have teamed up with two other exchange students from Taiwan for the final project. We have conducted opinion mining, time-period analysis and classification analysis on Yelp reviews to identify the emotions from customers and generate recommendations for restaurant owners to improve their businesses. The paper is accounting for 80% of grade. In addition, we have done a presentation to the class about our findings that accounts for 20% of grade. 6. 7,983 – German A1 It is the course that I spent most time on. German is definitely the hardest language that I have ever learnt. Although the grammar is similar to English, the articles is the toughest part as objects are categorized into Masculine, Feminine and Neutral in German. There will be intensive German course before the start of semester. If you are planning to take German, you need to attend the intensive German course as it covers Chapter 1 to 4 of the textbook and the normal lecture starts directly from Chapter 5. The written examination accounts for 50% of grade and the speaking examination accounts for the remaining 50%. vi. Workload Normally a course in HSG is 4 ECTS or 6 ECTS (Credit system for universities in EU region) depending on the lecture hours of the course. Generally speaking, 4 ECTS can be converted to 2 credits at HKUST. Each exchange student needs to take at least 16

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ECTS in order to be valid for the residency. The maximum credit limit is 40 ECTS and student will normally take 24 ECTS to 30 ECTS. vii. Sports & Recreation Facilities Gym is free of charge, but you need to attend the introduction session to gain the access. Information will be given during the compulsory orientation event. viii. Finance & Banking (including currency / expenses) It is not necessary to have a swiss banking account as you can use your credit card at any time. However, UnionPay is not widely accepted in Switzerland so please be reminded to bring your VISA or Master cards with you. ix. Health & Safety Health insurance is compulsory for exchange student and you need to show a proof to the government that you have subscribed to an insurance plan. I have subscribed to swisscare and I need to pay CHF 65 each month for the insurance. The payment is done through the POST (local post office). Online payment is possible if you have swiss banking account and they do not accept foreign credit cards. xi. Food The meat is expensive in Switzerland and I visit Konstanz, a border city in Germany, once a week to do grocery shopping. Konstanz is one hour away from St. Gallen by train and the ticket is almost 10 CHF for a single trip using the half fare card. The train crew checks the ticket frequently. Although each resident can only take 1kg of meat each time without paying extra tax, no one will actually check if you are travel via train. If you are travelling by car, the officer will pick a car randomly when you are crossing the border and check. The fine is expensive. xii. Transportation The main transportation in St. Gallen is the bus. Each trip costs CHF 2.6 and monthly ticket is CHF 56 for the bus only. The school is normally 20mins – 30mins walking distance from the housing provided by the school. The main transportation across the cities is the SBB train. You can download an Application named SBB to browse train schedule and buy online ticket. The train ticket is expensive, but they have some super-saving (discounted) ticket if you buy the ticket a

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few hours or days before the trips. A half-fare card is a must in Switzerland that have 50% discount on all SBB trains, most mountain trains and mountain cable cars! For more information, you can browse the SBB website or ask me directly. Half Fare Card: https://www.sbb.ch/en/travelcards-and-tickets/railpasses/half-fare-travelcard.html Gleis 7: https://www.sbb.ch/de/abos-billette/abonnemente/gleis-7-freie-fahrt-ab-19-uhr.html xiii. Climate The weather fluctuated a lot in St. Gallen as it is located 500m above the sea level. In general, it is around 10 to 20 degree Celsius between September and October. It dropped to around -5 to 10 degree Celsius between November and December. 4. Items Checklist This is the list of things that you might / must need to get for the semester. You can purchase most of the stuff in Konstanz (because the things are expensive in Switzerland).

a. Passport and Visa (Use the resident permit instead after you receive it) b. Jackets and Downs – must have if you are having spring exchange c. Gloves d. Formal wear – you might need it for career event or interview e. Clothes and shoes f. Blanket, bedding and pillows – you need to buy it after checking-in the hall g. Adaptor and extension board h. Laptop i. Credit Card j. CHF Cash k. Medicine and personal healthcare tools

5. Useful Links 1. Compass (student portal): https://compass.unisg.ch/ 2. StudyNet (similar to canvas): https://fronter.com/unisg/main.phtml