Travel report Spring 2015 – Taipei, Taiwan National Taiwan University (NTU) College of Management

k84959

Forewords Taiwan is pretty much unknown to us in Finland and not that many Finnish people have visited the beautiful island. I had read some facts prior to traveling there but I was also looking forward to exploring the exotic destination and its culture by myself. Afterwards, I am very happy with my choice of going to Taiwan for exchange and could recommend it as a great destination for learning Chinese language and experiencing genuine Asian culture and tradition combined with modern market economy.

Preparing for the exchange 1. Application process After receiving information on March 3, 2014 from Aalto University that I was accepted to study in National Taiwan University for the spring of 2015, there was a long period of getting no information from the host university. Although in the exchange information package provided by Aalto, we were “warned” that it might take a while for us, who were going for exchange for the spring semester, to get any e-mail before fall from host universities, I got a little bit nervous when it was already September and I had not yet been contacted by anyone from NTU.

On September 5, 2014 I got a forwarded e-mail from the International Student Services of Aalto, saying that I was nominated by NTU for their incoming exchange program for the spring of 2015. The e-mail also contained the application materials for NTU that were: 1. NTU CoM Fact Sheet 2014-2015 2. Exchange Program Application Guidelines 2014-2015 3. Exchange Program Application Form 2014-2015 4. NTU Health Exam Form

5. Chinese Language Course Survey

The deadline of the application and its attachments was October 31, so I contacted YTHS (Finnish Student Health Service) right away, as I had learned that getting the health check with the required laboratory examinations and chest X-ray would take some time. Luckily the whole process went very smoothly and I was able to complete the whole health examination well in time before sending the application documents to NTU.

Finally on October 20, 2014 I got my first e-mail from NTU. Basically, they sent the same documents that I had already got from Aalto in September, but I was happy to read from the e-mail that they were now moving to a more environment-friendly application process which meant that the required documents could be sent to them as scanned copies by e-mail, not by regular mail.

The required documents to be sent by October 31, 2014 were as listed here: 1. Completed Application Form (signed by home school’s coordinator) 2. 2 x passport-sized color photos 3. Official transcript of grades 4. Curriculum Vitae (in English) 5. Copy of Non-Taiwanese passport page showing name and date of birth 6. NTU International Student Health Exam Form (or letting them know that you will submit it before orientation) 7. Chinese Language Course Survey 8. Copy of Accident/Health insurance documents

2. Applying for visa I was hesitative whether I should apply for a visa to Taiwan or not, since I knew that EU citizens are allowed to stay there for 90 days without a visa and the 90-day period would be renewed every time when exiting and then entering the country once again. I was planning to do some traveling also abroad during the semester, but because I finally decided not to book any flights in advance, I applied for a visa in January 2015. The process was very fast and easy: I applied and got my multiple entry visa of 180 days from Taiwan Representative Office in Helsinki in two days for 74 Euros. With the visa I knew that entering Taiwan would be easy, as I wouldn’t be expected to show any outbound flight ticket that the people coming without visa would need to have to prove that they will exit the country within 90 days. 3. Vaccinations The recommended vaccinations for Taiwan can be checked in the Internet, for example www.rokote.fi or www.terveyskirjasto.fi. Also YTHS has a very good service for out-going exchange students: You can discuss the issues with the doctor via phone, and then get the recipes for the needed vaccinations as a result of your discussion. Generally speaking, having your basic vaccinations up-to-date is pretty much enough when going to Taiwan. One vaccination that is left for travelers’ own consideration is Japanese Encephalitis. The doctor couldn’t tell if there is any real risk for it or not and since the vaccination is pretty costly, around 250 Euros for the needed two shots, I decided not to take it. 4. Money I had been advised already prior to my arrival in Taiwan that the Taiwanese mostly use cash for their daily purchases. Still, I was surprised how rarely credit cards were accepted as payment method, especially in local supermarkets and restaurants. Withdrawing money from your Finnish bank account might end up being quite costly, so I would recommend

either bringing Euros in cash with you (and exchanging them into NTD in Taiwan), or opening a local bank account. 5. Accommodation When filling in the application form for NTU you are asked if you want to apply for a room at NTU Student Residence ‘Prince House’. If yes, you can also indicate your preference for single or double room. I chose to apply for a single room at Prince House to avoid the trouble of finding accommodation from private rental markets, and as the location as well as monthly rent at Prince House seemed pretty ok.

The procedure of confirming the accommodation from NTU was a bit confusing. First, on November 13, I got e-mail asking my arrival time in order for them to reserve the room for me from that date. At that time I had not yet received official letter of acceptance for my exchange in NTU nor confirmation for my housing application. After replying to the e-mail and asking about the matter, I got to know that unofficially the accommodation was ok and reserved for me, but the official confirmation arrived only at the beginning of January 2015. To confirm the reservation from my side, they asked me to pay the rent of one month by the end of January by international wired transfer. Later on, when arriving to the dorm, you are also expected to pay a deposit (amount of two months rent) at the reception and it will then be returned to you three days prior to your return back home if your room is undamaged and clean. Otherwise the monthly rents are paid at some local bank by cash unless you have a local bank account. 6. Traveling / arrival in Taipei I arrived in Taipei on February 10, two days before the mandatory orientation day. From the airport, I took a bus to Taipei Main Station and continued from there by MRT. The closest MRT station from the Prince House dorm is Gongguan, from where you still need to walk

about 15 minutes to the dorm. If you have a lot of luggage with you, you might want to consider taking a taxi (or even skipping MRT and taking a taxi directly from Taipei Main Station), as it is pretty inexpensive in Taiwan.

Exchange studies The spring term begins in NTU in February and ends in June. There are some variations yearly due to Chinese Lunar New Year; for example this year it was pretty late and that is the reason why the courses actually started only in the last week of February and the final exams were then held during the weeks around Finnish midsummer.

Although I was registered for NTU College of Management, NTU does not limit exchange students from taking courses also from other faculties. To my mind, College of Management, and especially the Global MBA program, offered the most interesting courses, so I ended up taking all my courses from their offering except for the Chinese language course.

Pre-registration for courses is done online and the system opens for pre-registration about 3 weeks prior to the start of the lectures. The system is easy to use, but I have to admit that the registration procedure from that point on was a bit confusing. From the five courses that I registered for, I was accepted only to one in the pre-registration phase. In the exchange student orientation later on I learned that this is normal for the exchange students (and had happened to the majority of the other exchange students as well this semester), as the system prioritizes GMBA students for the GMBA courses that are also the most popular ones among exchange students. We got to hear in the orientation that we should then attend the first lectures of the courses that we are interested in and talk with the professor, as they have usually reserved some extra spots for exchange students in their courses.

Due to all of this, the first week of the semester was a bit confusing as all the exchange students were going to the first lectures of the semester hoping to get accepted to their preferred courses. Finally after some frustration, I only had to change my preliminary plan slightly and got my “ticket” for five courses that I will introduce next.

GMBA7063 / Social Entrepreneurship and Social Business (GMBA, 2 NTU credits = 4 ECTS) Professor: HSIEH, KUAN-HSIUNG Schedule: Thursdays 18.30-20.20, full semester

The course introduces the concept of social entrepreneurship and the toolkit for successful social entrepreneurs and methodology to establish successful business model for social business. In the introduction it is says that the course is aimed for “students, who want more than just make money in life, but make a difference in the society and in the world!”

For this course I had very high expectations but unfortunately I was a little bit disappointed since it was not very interactive after all, and we were mostly just listening to the professor who was very enthusiastic over his course topics, and exceeded the lecture time almost every time. The most interesting part of the course was the group project where we got to prepare and present our own social business plan to the class.

Grading: 10 %

Class participation

30 %

Homework and report

20 %

Individual business proposal

40 %

Group business presentation

GMBA7082 / Leadership Practice (GMBA, 2 NTU credits = 4 ECTS) Professor: SENG-CHO CHOU Schedule: Fridays 10.20-12.10, full semester

The course aims to develop students’ project management skills, execution capability and leadership quality through real-life practices. Students work together on a project during the whole course and the professor is present to guide the work.

Working with a real business case; developing a CSR plan for Taiwan Futures Exchange (Taifex), made the course very interesting and motivating. We were a small class, only 5 students, so everyone’s contribution was important. At the final class, we went to Taifex’ premises to present our proposal and had some very interesting feedback and discussion there with the managers who had assigned the project for us.

Grading: 70 %

Project

30 %

Class participation

GMBA7083 / The Complexities of Leadership and Followership (GMBA, 3 NTU credits = 6 ECTS) Professor: GARVI, MIRIAM Schedule: Thursdays 9.10-12.10, full semester

“The purpose of the course is to encourage a deeper understanding of leadership and leading/following dynamics by stimulating students' own reflections. It draws on the three perspectives of authentic, pioneering and legacy leadership to explore opportunities for leadership to have a constructive impact both on oneself and one’s own, and those beyond the boundaries of one’s own sphere.”

The teaching format was highly interactive, and students were expected to actively participate during the lectures. There were a considerable amount of classroom and small-group discussions, casework and workshops. The professor had prepared the lectures well and was expecting students to come well-prepared also; and having read the assigned pre-readings. Because of its high level of interaction, the course was interesting and offered various viewpoints to leading and following.

Grading: 30 %

Class participation, mid-term session and diary writing

30 %

Final group presentation

40 %

Personal Leadership Paper

GMBA7103 / Product Development Excellence (GMBA, 2 NTU credits = 4 ECTS) Professor: RUEY SHAN GUO (+ McKinsey consultants) Schedule: 4,5 full days altogether, on weekends

The course is a NTU and McKinsey joint course and has a special application procedure. Students are expected to apply for it by sending required documents (CV, credits of prior studies) directly to the named McKinsey consultant, and the students are chosen to the course according to the nomination by McKinsey & Co. The course is very popular among the local students as consulting business is highly appreciated in Taiwan. The students get notified by e-mail whether they were accepted to participate in the course or not.

The course consisted of four full workshop days and one half-day of final group presentations, all of which were scheduled for weekends. The days started usually by McKinsey consultants giving briefing/presentation of the day’s topic, and students were then divided into groups that tried to come up with innovative solutions to the provided tasks and challenges. The class was very competitive and the days demanded full concentration all the time, but were very informative and good learning experiences also. There were lots of presentations during the course and all of them were evaluated/graded by peer student groups, and the points collected also formed the final grade of the course.

PTCSL7909 / General Chinese Language Course (Elementary level, 3 NTU credits = 6 ECTS) Professor: QIU, PHARAOH

Schedule: Mondays and Wednesdays 18.30-21.15

The elementary level course focuses on the training of Mandarin oral ability, but also being able to read and recognize some common characters and sentences. The aim of the course is that at the end of the semester, students are supposed to do some basic conversation.

I really enjoyed the course and could recommend learning some basics of Chinese language also to deepen the cultural experience in Taiwan and being able to communicate on a basic level with local people on your everyday life. Being able to understand the numbers and some important words and phrases is helpful and also appreciated by the locals.

Free time and other information My goal for the exchange, in addition to doing my business studies in NTU, was to learn as much about the culture as possible. I was hoping to meet and get to know many local people, and not just to spend my time with the other exchange students. I think that NTU’s buddy program really helped me to achieve this goal and I consider myself lucky to get such a devoted and kind buddy as mine was, especially when I compare my experience with the stories of many other exchange students whose buddies basically did only what was required of them. I really became friends with my buddy and we spent a lot of time together during the spring. She taught me a lot about the local life, culture, food, and introduced me to other local people, too. Meeting and making friends with new people, locals as well as other exchange students, was one of the top experiences of my exchange life in Taiwan.

Studying in NTU differs quite a lot from what I’m used to in my home university. To my mind teaching and studying in NTU is more practical and not that academic and theory-based, probably at least partly because I was taking only GMBA courses there. For change, I enjoyed working with some practical and real business life projects during my courses in NTU. I feel that I learned a lot from them. Also, my classes in NTU were very scattered, meaning that I had some classes in the morning but most of them were in the evenings and in the weekends. Of course this is because of my choice of courses, but anyway it made me feel like I had a lot of free time to enjoy my life and do all kinds of other activities in Taipei. That said, I felt that studying wasn’t too demanding for me and I got to experience so much more than just studying during my exchange in Taiwan.

There is a lot to see and experience in Taipei and its surroundings but it is also easy to travel further in the island, as public transport is pretty convenient and inexpensive, and the distances are not that long. If you are interested in food adventures, I recommend exploring night markets where you can find all kinds of local specialties with a cheap price. In general, you can find very nice and cheap local eateries/restaurants everywhere, especially with the help of Taiwanese friends who can introduce to you the best places and translate the menus that in many of such small restaurants are typically only in Chinese. I consider the food experiments as one of the highlights of my stay in Taiwan.

Final comments All in all, I really enjoyed my exchange life in Taiwan and I could recommend it as an exchange destination for others also. There are several reasons why I feel this way. NTU campus is beautiful and living in the dorm close to it is very convenient. Taipei is a lively but still very safe city, and it offered new experiences and places to see for the whole period of my stay. In addition, it is very easy to go for weekend travels elsewhere in Taiwan as the public transport works so well. Last but

not least, I think that for a European person Taiwan is a good place to come to learn about Asian culture and way of life, since the people there are genuinely so kind and helpful, as well as interested in cultural exchange.