Next, we are going to talk about studying in Kedge. How demanding are the studies? What do we think about the course offering? How Kedge differs from our home university?

First, it is good to know that in France, higher education is divided between public universities and grandes écoles. Grandes écoles are private schools that are specialised to subjects like business or engineering and are highly selective. Grandes écoles charge higher tuition fees compared to public universities. Therefore, tuition fees can be from 10 000€ to 15 000€ per year.

KEDGE Business School is grande école. It is the largest business school in France and with “Triple Crown” accreditation (AMBA, EQUIS, AACSB) Kedge counts itself among the top 1% of Business Schools worldwide. The school has campuses in  Marseille, Bordeaux, Toulon and Paris plus two campuses in China (Shanghai and Suzhou).

The program which students from the University of Vaasa participate in Kedge is called Master in Management Grande École. This program offers courses from many different fields such as management, supply chain management, marketing, international business, and finance. The course offering is extensive and you can freely choose elective courses depending on your personal interests.

Academic year 

The academic year in Kedge is from the beginning of September to the beginning of June. The year is divided into two semesters: Autumn and Spring semesters. In Autumn semester is three cycles and in Spring semester is five cycles. One cycle is about one month.

Mandatory courses and elective courses

The mandatory courses are online courses and last one semester. You can take a maximum of three mandatory courses per semester. Additionally, it is recommended that you take one to three elective courses per cycle. So, normally one elective course lasts one month. However, there are cycles, when Kedge offers intensive courses that only last one week.

Time schedule

There are three time-slots in every cycle: morning, afternoon and evening. You can choose only one course per time slot as the participation in lectures is mandatory in Kedge. The morning lecture starts at 8 am and the evening lecture ends at 7 pm. One time slot includes two 1,5 hour lectures with a break between. Our experience is that two elective courses per cycle is a perfect amount of work as three courses can be too much – especially if you are also taking mandatory online courses.

Workload

Workload varies a lot depending on the chosen courses. The mandatory online courses are more demanding as you are required to study the course material by yourselves. To get good points from the quizzes, you really have to go through the study material that the teachers provide. The study material can be quite extensive and it takes time to go it through. So, remember to reserve some time in your schedule for the online courses.

The workload in elective courses is normally less than in Vaasa, but there are also courses that are more demanding. The difference is that you really must start working immediately as the courses last only one month and the deadlines come quick. So, if you have many different projects and deadlines in one cycle, you might be quite busy with your time schedule. However, we felt that the standards are lower in Kedge, which makes the workload little lighter compared to Vaasa.

How the studies in Kedge differs from Vaasa?

First, Kedge and Vaasa differ from each other how the courses are organised. In Kedge, elective courses last maximum one month and you can also have intensive courses that last only one week. Compared to Vaasa, where the courses last longer and overlap more, studying in Kedge feels more intense as you are focusing only a couple of subjects at the same time. However, this also causes that the courses in Kedge are not as in-depth and extensive than in Vaasa. Therefore, in Kedge you can benefit from focusing your studies to the business area which you are interested to get a better understanding of that subject.

The biggest difference is that the studies in Vaasa are more academic compared to Kedge. In Vaasa, we learned the proper referencing and academic writing style during our first year of studies. In Kedge, only one teacher demanded us to use Harward-referencing. Also, the school works are different, so you are not really forced to read and reference any articles, instead you can rely on lecture materials and your own experience.

In Vaasa, we were used to reading many articles as it was common that we had to always read an article before a lecture and also search and read articles for our school projects and papers. In Kedge, only a couple of teachers demanded us to read articles and normally it meant that every group had to read one article and make a presentation about it. We also felt that the studies were more focused on cases than theory in Kedge compared to Vaasa.

In Vaasa, International Business students normally have only group projects and papers instead of having exams. Whereas, in Kedge there is also an exam in addition to group projects. To get a good grade from the exam, it is normally enough to attend the lectures and study the lecture material.

How it was to study in Kedge from Finnish students’ perspective?

Kedge’s course offering is very extensive, so we were able to choose courses that actually interested us. This gave us a chance to focus more on specific areas, that we are interested in working in the future. We were both extremely excited about this as the International Business studies in Vaasa are quite abroad and not so specific. We both had a chance to attend some interesting courses, that we wouldn’t have been able to take in Vaasa. Furthermore, as Kedge is the largest business school in France and is highly appreciated due to its triple crown, the school has wide resources and networks. Therefore, we believe that we will benefit in future from the fact that we had a chance to study in Kedge.

However, being Finnish students, who are used to organization and having clear standards and instructions, we were sometimes frustrated for the French style of handling things. In Vaasa, we have clear writing and referencing instructions for the papers: from how the front page should look like to how we should put references in the text. We are also taught to write Academic English. Compared to this, Kedge is Wild West. In Vaasa, we were also used to get all the deadlines and instructions for all the course works as well as the criteria for grading at the beginning of the course or even before the course. In Kedge, this is not always the case. The deadlines might change, new tasks might appear and you might not be even aware which works are being graded. Another challenge is that there might be some room for interpretations what comes to instructions regarding the school projects. Even the lack of organization sometimes frustrated us as Finnish, we think it was definitely good practice for the future as this also the case in the working life.

To end this blog post, we want to say that the most valuable course during our year abroad was actually being abroad and learning to cope in a new environment in a different culture. The double degree and studies in Kedge were a plus.

Sini & Mari

The city of Bordeaux

Bordeaux, a city of 250 000 habitats located in Southwestern France, is not called the “little Paris” for nothing. The city is located by the lake Garonne, with only one hour drive to the Atlantic Ocean. The beautiful city centre of Bordeaux is characterized by the 18th-century limestone buildings with black french balconies and the historic city centre is listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site.  In addition to its beautiful architecture and the narrow streets with charming boutiques, restaurants and cafés, Bordeaux is known as the city of wines. Needless to say, that is very easy to fall in love with this city. At least this is exactly what happened to me and Sini from the very beginning of our stay.

Life in Bordeaux

Despite Bordeaux being a rather small city, there is still a lot of things to do and places to see. What makes exploring the city convenient is the fact that the central area of Bordeaux is compact, and you can easily walk or bike everywhere. From student’s perspective, the short distances are very convenient especially when it comes to student parties that are mostly organized in the city centre as the public transportation does not circulate during every hour of the night.

One of the best places to go in Bordeaux to just spend nice time with friends is  ”les Quais de Bordeaux” which is the boulevard situated just next to the lake. It is definitely a place for students to meet each other and spend a good time under the sun with peaceful views of the lake and the city. The Jardin Public is another great place to spend time outdoors in the nature. Also, there are some nice rooftop terraces (i.e. Mama Shelter) and bars (i.e. in Place de la Victoire)  that are popular among young people and especially students. Regardless of the day of the week, whether it being Monday or Saturday, there are always people in the city and something to do.

Bordeaux is full of charming cafés and restaurants. You can find cafés from all around the city center, but there are also specific restaurant streets. Additionally, there are a couple of market halls with fresh and local food.  The variety of restaurants surprised me, as it could be seen that in addition to the traditional French and South-European food, the new food trends had arrived in Bordeaux, and there is also some options for vegetarians/vegans. One proof for that is that despite me and Sini were in Bordeaux almost for a year, there are still many interesting restaurants to explore when we have a chance to return to the city.

The food culture in France is very different from Finland. Eating is a social happening, and what we learnt from the very beginning of our stay in France is that the eating hours are fixed. The majority of restaurants are closed between the lunch and dinner times (from around 2.30pm to 7.30pm). This is important to remember! What is great about Bordeaux, is that you can find people sitting in the terrace almost all times of the year, and people are really enjoying their free time outside drinking wine and eating dinner. What makes Bordeaux different from bigger cities in France is the more relaxed rhythm of life.

There are a lot of possibilities when it comes to different kinds of cultural or sports activities not only in the city of Bordeaux but also in the Bordeaux area. Maybe needless to say that Bordeaux area is a paradise for wine lovers. We recommend a visit to charming old-town Saint-Emilion or the area of Médoc.

Furthermore, good news for those who love the sea, because the Atlantic Ocean is only one-hour drive from Bordeaux, which makes it very easy to go in Arcachon – the city besides the Atlantic – for a weekend surf trip. In addition, the tallest dune of Europe, ”dune of Pilat” is situated just next to Arcachon and is a must see place when visiting Arcachon.

Price range

What should be noticed before coming to Bordeaux for an exchange is that Bordeaux is not one of the cheapest cities in France. The price range for apartments are at the same range as for example in Helsinki (i.e. 600-800e/month for a studio from private markets). Therefore, for accommodation it is highly recommended to get an apartment with a roommate rather than alone, especially in private markets. However, there are some student apartments that are cheaper, but we will talk about the accommodation more in another post later on.

The prices in grocerie stores depend a lot on the store, the biggest ones (i.e. Auchan) could be a little cheaper than the others, for example Carrefour. In bars, the prices are not as expensive as in Finland. Some bars have student discounts for drinks, however that is not very common. What surprised me and Sini, was that the prices at nightclubs were quite high. The restaurant prices luckily support the student budget ; in a lot of good restaurants you can get a whole menu for a fair price, around 20 euros. Bordeaux is full of typical French restaurants, but at the center there is also quite many student friendly fast food places that are open at nights.

Public transportation

The main means of transportation in Bordeaux is the tram. There are three trams (A, B and C) that circulate in city center area but also a little bit further. For us, the tram B became very familiar during our exchange year, because Kedge Business School is situated a bit further from the center, and it is necessary to take the tram B to get to school. One downside with these trams is that they are very crowded during the rush hours. Also, you never know when the tram surprisingly stops working due to a technical issue, strike or incident. The trams start circulating at 05am and stop around 01am.

In addition to the trams, there are a lot of buses that circulate outside of the city center area. These are convenient whenever the trams do not circulate or when you need to go somewhere further. Overall, the public transportation works well in Bordeaux, and the monthly card is not more than 33euros per month for everyone under 26 years and students. And when it does not work, walking is always a possibility in Bordeaux ;). With the TBM (Transport Bordeaux Metropole) card, in addition to the buses and trams you can also use the ferry that goes through the south-north axe of Bordeaux. This is a good alternative for a tram in a sunny and hot day, when the tram does not feel the best option to take.

Mari & Sini