EXCHANGE REPORT THE UNIVERSITY OF WARWICK WARWICK BUSINESS SCHOOL LEUNG, KAI FUNG (KELVIN) BBA IN GLOBAL BUSINESS & INFORMATION SYSTEMS Fall 2017
PART 1: MONTHLY ACTIVITY LOG September 2017 I arrived at London via Heathrow Airport on 15 Sep. Immediately I began my first trip to Austria and Germany, where I visited Vienna, Salzburg, Hallstatt and Berchtesgaden. Since my accommodation at Warwick was not officially available until 2 Oct, I stored my luggage at my friend s place who study at London. On 30 Sep to 1 Oct, Warwick organized a Welcome to Warwick program for the new comers. I participated in it and they provided us with an early check-in of the accommodation October 2017 School started on 2 Oct. It took me a week or two to get used navigating myself through Warwick because it is unlike HKUST, a campus university. Instead, the campus is more of village-like that the buildings are spread over a large area without being high-rise at all. Also, it took time for me to understand how the online systems works at Warwick. (In this regard, HKUST has a comparatively very well-planned system) During October, I had been trying to finalize on the courses registration and re-arranging my timetable that I did not travel too much. I went to Amsterdam and Rotterdam in the Netherlands and Edinburgh in Scotland only. November 2017 By the end of October, I finally got my timetable fully settled. I enrolled in 3 courses in total and managed to arrange all the attendance-taking seminars on Wednesday (attendance is generally not recorded at lectures but only at seminars). As such, I have a more flexible schedule to travel 2
around. Moreover, early to mid-november was kind of a honeymoon period of Warwick where workload is not heavy at all. During the month, I went to Iceland, Malta, Oslo in Norway, Stockholm in Sweden, Dublin in Ireland and Belfast in Northern Ireland. December 2017 The semester ended on 9 Dec. Therefore, the workload over early December was rather heavy as a lot of deadlines were approaching. The accommodation provision ended on 9 Dec as well. I had to move out and bring my belongings back at my friend s place at London. Then I begin my longest trip during the exchange where I visited Madrid and Barcelona in Spain, Moscow in Russia, Istanbul in Turkey, Budapest in Hungary, Rome and Venice in Italy, Berlin and Frankfurt in Germany, Vilnius in Lithuania, and Warsaw in Poland. January 2018 The trip I started in Mid-December ended on 12 Jan. I spent two more days in London until I was flying back to Hong Kong on 14 Jan. 3
PART 2: GENERAL EXCAHNGE INFORMATION 1) Visa Procedures If you hold HKSAR passport (please consult other exchange report if you are not an HKSAR passport holder), you need to have a short-term study visa to enter the UK border. However, I do not recommend you to apply for the short-term study visa in Hong Kong as you need to pay around HKD 800. Instead, I recommend you to get the single-entry short-term study visa at the border every time you go through the UK border. It doesn t really take long and is free of charge. All you need to do is to apply for the Letter of support for a Short-term study visa from Warwick, and bring along the support letter together with any relevant documents for example financial support proof and the offer letter. 2) Orientation Activities I do not recommend you to join the Welcome to Warwick program unless you do not feel comfortable to meet friends on your own effort, as you need to pay for the extra nights for accommodation. 3) International Services & Activities I did not join any activities or societies as you need to pay an upfrontmembership fee, which was quite expensive if you are staying just for a few months as their membership lasts usually for years. 4) Accommodations If you plan to travel a lot, I recommend you enrolling yourself at halls with lower hall fee. For my case, I enrolled in Lakeside which is en-suite and it costed me around 131 Pounds per week. However, for over half of the days during the term, I was travelling around that I left my room unoccupied. If I were to go again, I would definitely go for cheaper options like Rootes as it is much cheaper, at around 80 Pounds per week. 4
5) Courses Registration As mentioned before, your schedule would be much more flexible if you manage to arrange the attendance-taking seminars in one day or two. For example, all my seminars are dated on Wednesday and I could travel with less concerns during Thursday to Tuesday. You can go to the office of the respective courses to change the seminars time. But remember to go as early as possible as its first-come-firstserved. 6) Teaching & Assessment Methods There are different assessment methods for different courses. For the courses I registered, there were no exam but only presentation and essays. 7) Sports & Recreation Facilities For the sports facilities like badminton courts and gym, you need to purchase a monthly sports membership at the sports center costing you at around 25 Pounds. Otherwise, you can use the outdoor gym and the track & field for free if you don t find the weather too cold for you. 8) Finance & Banking (including currency / expenses) I am a user of HSBC HK. You can use the bank card from Hong Kong to get cash at HSBC s ATMs. However, I recommend you to apply for a PLUS card from your bank if you wish to be able to get cash anywhere, because UNION-PAY card is not accepted in a lot of ATMs in Europe. Try your best to avoid Euro-nets ATMs as it is quite expensive to get money from there. 5
9) Food There are plenty of restaurants around the campus and Coventry. If you prefer to cook, there is a small grocery store at central campus and a TESCO superstore 15 mins away from the campus by foot, located in Cannon Park. 10) Transportation If you plan to travel a lot within UK, apply for the 16-25 railcard. It is discount card for people aged 16-25 and can save you 33% for every train ride. With the card, going to London is as cheap as 3.95 Pounds if you buy a few days before your ride. Also, the nearest airport to Warwick is Birmingham International Airport. It is just essentially 15 minutes away from Coventry. If you plan to have Warwick as your first destination upon your arrival to UK, you might want to consider Birmingham Airport instead of those in London. 11) Climate Bring more clothes. Superwarm underwears make your life much better. 6
PART 3: ITEMS TO BRING Essentials: Passport, Identification documents, Bank card, Personal medication, Warm clothes. You can buy most items in the UK, so save up your luggage space. There is an IKEA and Primark (a very economic clothes store) at Coventry, which is just nearby. Also make use of the 6-month Amazon Prime free trial (free one-day delivery) and pickup your packages at the Amazon lockers instead of having to take a 30-min shuttle bus to the post office. PART 4: USEFUL LINKS AND CONTACTS University of Warwick Orientation: Orientation@warwick.ac.uk University of Warwick Accommodation: accommodation@warwick.ac.uk Warwick Business School (WBS): undergraduate@wbs.ac.uk 16-25 Railcard: https://www.16-25railcard.co.uk/ Skyscanner: https://www.skyscanner.com.hk 7