Since you have to register yourself for the tutorials and the most popular ones are those with the name A directly after the lecture, you should register for them at the beginning via the Students Office. During the first week, you can get your own account on the JCU website to manage your lectures and tutorials.
- BU2005 Entrepreneurship (as a replacement for Wipo and Topsim):
This subject teaches the principles of entrepreneurship, ie how to set up a company, finance it and make it successful. The course lasts 10 weeks and in addition to the final exam you write a group work (in our case a business plan) as well as an individual work that consists of questions related to the lectures that you have to answer. - BX3031 Multinational Business Finance:
This subject lasts 12 weeks and was my favorite, although the other students avoided it when possible. As a prerequisite, I was credited with corporate finance from the 3rd semester. All topics related to corporate finance as well as financial speculation and hedging are covered, which is very interesting but also very complicated. Two midterm exams are written, each making up 10% of the final grade, as well as an individual work on a case study and the final exam. - BX3061 International Business:
Similar to International Management from the 1st semester, International Business covers all topics and theories of the globalization of companies. We already had some topics in previous lectures, but a lot is being dealt with anew. As a group work you are assigned a case study that you have to work on and present the result and as an individual work we had to export a product for which Singapore has a competitive advantage to a target country and create a complete business plan for it. The final exam consisted of 10 multiple choice questions and 3 essay topics, 2 of which had to be worked on. - BX3042 Service Quality Management:
I chose this subject because I have already gained experience in the field of service quality management through my previous work in the hotel industry and I am very interested in this topic. What I found very good was that we had 3 industry visits or guest lectures where we visited companies (in our case Eurocopter headquarters South East Asia) or managers from the service industry gave a presentation. We then had to write reports about these 3 events as part of our individual work. As a group work we had to import an innovative company from the hotel or catering industry, which does not yet exist in Singapore, to Singapore and create a business plan for it.
Statement of costs and financing options
I was aware beforehand that life in Singapore is very expensive. The most expensive aspect is the apartment, as a room in a shared apartment usually costs from SGD900 upwards. Since I get a student grant that is not dependent on parents in Germany, it wasn’t a problem to apply for a foreign student grant. However, you should do this at least 6 months in advance (Bafögamt Tübingen is responsible for Singapore) so that you receive the money on time.
Monthly expenses:
- Apartment SGD 700
- Other SGD 900
- (Bus ticket, food, free time)
- SGD 1600 (approx. 1000 euros)
One-time expenses:
- Flight 700 euros
- Tuition fees 5,000 euros
Since if you are lucky you have the weekends off, you can use the opportunity to visit neighboring countries such as Malaysia or Indonesia. I have partly included these costs in the monthly costs. At first, when shopping in the supermarket, you pay attention to the prices, as Western goods such as milk, orange juice and yoghurt are relatively expensive (3 euros per pack). But over time you pay less and less attention to prices and so it can happen that at the end of the month you have spent more than expected. The 1000 euros are only a rough guideline.
- Learn more information about the country of Singapore and continent of Asia on petwithsupplies.
Financing
Per month:
- Bafög 794 euros
- NRW scholarship 300 euros
- 1,094 euros
Unique:
- Promos 700 euros
- (Travel allowance)
- Tuition fees Bafög 4,600 euros
Professional and personal experience
Overall, I can say in the end that the semester abroad was a very good decision. I not only like the city itself very much, but also life here, studying and the numerous opportunities to travel to the surrounding countries.
Studying at JCU is very time-consuming compared to studying at HBRS, as attendance is compulsory for the lectures on the one hand and a lot of time must be planned for the upcoming homework on the other. In terms of level, my subjects were comparable to that of my first major in Economics.
Satisfaction with the care
The support from JCU is very good here, the two young women who are responsible for the foreign students, Kim Ha and Shelly Wang, are also looking for friendly contact and are always there for you. Formal matters such as obtaining the student pass are organized by the JCU.
Since the final course selection can only be determined here on site, you still have to keep an email contact with HBRS in order to have the courses confirmed. This, as well as questions about my internship semester, worked without any problems with Ms. Drügg and answers came back promptly.
Photos
During my last week at JCU, the annual promotional material for the university was produced. A male student from Germany and I were asked if we wanted to take part. After a full Saturday full of video and photo recordings, a JCU commercial came out, which will be shown on TV in Singapore and China, as well as numerous photos that are used for posters and banners on buses and for flyers. Since the photos were taken for advertising purposes, I am allowed to use them in my report.
Useful tips
The orientation week starts one week before the start of the lectures. As I heard later, some German students canceled their exams at their university in order to be in Singapore for the orientation week. For personal reasons, I was only able to arrive at the end of the orientation week, but that wasn’t a problem. During the orientation week you visit the zoo with the other foreign students and get to know the city and fellow students. So if you don’t manage to take part, you just have to let them know and it doesn’t matter.
The JCU now has various groups on Facebook where foreign students can ask questions and establish contact with other students before they arrive. Apartments may also be offered there for takeover.
The JCU offers various clubs that you can join in the first two weeks of the semester. These are language clubs (German, Japanese, Mandarin, etc…), sports clubs (soccer, basketball, yoga, archery, etc…) and social clubs (volunteers club, toastmasters / giving speeches). The clubs are mostly held by other students and come into being when enough students register. I only take the Mandarin course because archery was not possible and yoga overlaps with my lectures. All courses are free.
