I have been studying in Saint Petersburg State University, School of Management since September 2005, as a foreign full time student. I have bachelor’s degree from Finland and I spend an Erasmus year in France.

According to my previous studying experiences abroad and in my native country Finland I would warmly recommend School of Management to other foreign students as well. School of Management offers a great learning environment and high-level teaching. Modern teaching methods are widely used in lessons and new technologies, e.g. modern and up-dated computers and software are available for students. Also, the library offers a good selection of new business books and the course reading material is comprehensive and good.

International office of SOM has had a great impact to the positive image of the whole school and studying in Russia. The personnel is really helpful, experienced and supportive. Their competence made my studying in Saint Petersburg easier, especially in the beginning of my studies. The office took care of the paperwork and bureaucracy on my behalf so that I could only concentrate to my studies.

With my experience I can only recommend School of Management for others and I hope and believe that in the future there would be even more full-time international students. Saint Petersburg State University, School of Management offers an unforgettable experience and teaching of high standard.

Fall 2004 – Spring 2006

Christian Delsman, USA

E-mail: Chrisdelz@fastmail.fm

Hi, I’m an American who just finished his Masters of International Business at School of Management, Saint Petersburg State University.

Two years here feel like they flew by. I’ve made great Russian and foreign friends in St. Pete as well as meeting my girlfriend here. Our School is the flagship faculty of the University. The building is brand new and about 10 minutes from the main dormitory. The teachers all speak English and we have a computer lab that is open till about 20.00 on weekdays.

We have our International Office (administration) directly in our faculty. These are the people who have been arranging everything for you before you’ve arrived, help get your new visa when you arrive, and arrange accommodations and classes for you.

But they go above and beyond their call of duty. Whenever you have a problem these folks know the answer, know someone who knows the answer, or can find out the answer. Armed with their information you can successfully navigate any situation. I’ve really appreciated all the work they have helped me with over the last two years and I’m happy to call them my friends as well as administration. Consider that your approach to a problem may not be the best one in Russia. If you have a problem that is important to you and you can’t solve, I’d suggest asking the advice of the folks in the International Office or your Russian friends.

Being here for two years gave me a chance to see 4 sets of exchange students adjust to life in Russia as well as my own adjustments. In general I’d say that people’s attitude is what makes the difference between a great time and a stressful time in Russia. At times you will be faced with difficulties that seem unreasonable; unreasonable based on logic, fairness, or effort required on your part (very long lines). If you don’t take these situations too seriously, bring a book or mp3 player for long waits in lines and pick your battles wisely you can consider these situations as part of the Russian experience. You’ll have some funny stories when you get home and a great time here.

On the other hand if you constantly try to fight every part of the system and try to “improve/teach Russia” you stay will not be fun. I’d recommend thinking about this before you come as in my experience this tends to be the largest factor in exchange students happiness in Russia.

All in all my time has been great. I’m currently in negations for a job in Russia. Hopefully they will be successful and I’ll have a chance to meet you when you arrive.

Spring 2006

Serge Stanek, University of St.Gallen

E-mail: serge.stanek@freesurf.ch

The courses I attended within the MIB-Program of the SOM were of good quality and normal workload. In comparison to my home-university in general, the level was lower in terms of class-material and professors. Also the exams were less challenging. On the other hand, due to the small groups, the classes were very personal and intense and discussions were enabled that I had not experienced in such form at my university. A negative point for me was the total amount of available courses taught in english to choose from. The choices are rather limited and there were short-term changes in the course-program, which made it difficult to plan the exchange-semester.

The staff from the international office was very supportive and helpful. Also the offer of russian-language courses was good for us foreigners to adapt in Russia's everyday-life. The international office was able to help on bureaucratic issue, for example in connection with Visa's and there was always an open ear for questions or problems.

I enjoyed a great exchange semester in Saint Petersburg and can recommend it to other european students, especially to get an insight into Russian culture!

Anders Ekman, Stockholm School of Economics, Sweden

E-mail: 19530@student.hhs.se

The School

Saint Petersburg School of Management (SOM) is situated on the Vasilij Island in the east of the city. The facilities are in good condition and the personnel at the international office are friendly and work hard to make your stay in St Petersburg as great as possible. I felt very welcome when I arrived, and the introduction week was a great way to start the semester. Throughout the semester the personnel at the office were easy to get in contact with and they were always very helpful.

Courses

During the spring semester nine courses were given. To get enough credits I took the following five courses:

Marketing communication – The best course if you ask me. Many useful examples were presented during the course. The teacher had a lot of experience and was always well prepared. The lectures were fun to participate in and the mix between theory and practice was well balanced. Since I am majoring in consumer marketing this was also the most relevant course for me.
International finance – It has been a few years since I took any finance courses so in the beginning of the course some of the lectures were quite challenging for me. Once I refreshed my old knowledge in the subject it was however the course became very interesting and enjoyable. Primarily since it is always useful to get a new perspective on things and this course introduced a Russian angle to international finance.
Relationship marketing and network approach in marketing – As a marketing student this class was very interesting. I was familiar with a lot of the theories used since many of the theories originate from Stockholm. The teachers were motivated and experienced and showed a lot of interest in passing on their knowledge to us students. It was also the most demanding course. The readings required to pass this course were quite extensive and the scope of the individual paper also meant a lot of work.
European Union Business – The course was really interesting since it touched subjects I have not encountered at my years at Stockholm School of Economics. It was useful to get a deeper understanding of the interconnections and links between political decisions and macro economical issues within the European Union.
It-management – This course was a very rewarding course. In particular the course paper in which the theoretical knowledge was put in to practical use. Some lectures were located to the computer class were we were taught how to use advanced software programs suitable for the course.
In addition, I also took the Russian course offered by the international office. This course is given by the head of the international office, Vadim Fedorov. He is a friendly, highly skilled and pedagogical teacher. The classes consisted of both everyday conversation practice as well as business Russian and helped me to improve my Russian a lot.

In all, I had a fabulous time in Russia. I can strongly recommend anyone to go there. The experiences and memories from Russia is something I always will carry with me.

Istvan Szabo, Corvinus University of Budapest

E-mail: istvan.szabo6@stud.uni-corvinus.hu

The 119 day siege

It all happened on a freezing cold day in February. As the airplane started the landing maneuver and the lights of the city became visible, sweet retro-style music played on board and the passengers felt their stomach lifting. Not only because of physical reasons though...

My days in Saint Petersburg form a clearly remarkable part in my life. A city that cannot be explored, a culture which has so much spice, so much life within, a language which sometimes produced difficulties which were almost impossible to untangle for foreigners, especially for someone who has such a lonesome mother tongue as a Hungarian.

I really don’t want to write clichés; therefore I skip the “in-the-beginning-it-was-really-hard-but-then-with-the-help-of-the-International-Office-we-could-overcome-the-difficulties”. Although in most cases, it was like that. Of course there were cases when the Office could not help (they are only humans, even though some of them have traits of Angels as wellJ), there were others, where it could have helped, or could have organized better, but they didn’t. The overall impression was excellent, but I would be lying if I didn’t tell things I did not like.

Maybe the communication between the different parts of administration is still something that could be improved. Two other examples for this is when concerning the Consulting Project we were told to be informed whether the project with Gillette will start, but we were not. It only turned out when we handed our learning agreement in, that some of us have to make a new one, because the project is cancelled. The other not quite pleasant experience was at our ??????? ???????? ?????? exam, when the teacher refused to give us the exam-sheet at first, because for some reason we were not included on the list of students who are taking that subject. But this is the point when I stop complaining, because these discrepancies were mainly exceptions, which are, as we all know, strengthening the rule. A rule that life in St. Pete was marvelous in all aspects.

I’ve never thought that it is possible to fall in love with a city that much, but it’s been not the first time when I was wrong about something. Nosce te ipsum – know yourself. And it’s not just the buildings, the canals, the fairytale-like gardens, or the opening bridges which make the party-people’s lives miserable. Saint Pete has an atmosphere rooted under the surface. No, it’s neither the metro, although traveling underground in the “Metropoliten” is also quite an experience.

Before I came to Petersburg, one of my friends gave me a candle. She said: “light this candle, when you feel homesick, but I hope you’ll bring it back untouched”. So it came, that 119 days passed and the candle wasn’t lit. Every day here was like a siege, but I could never took the city, some of the riches have always remained unfold.

On a rainy day in June, the airplane lift off the airstrip, the boarding passengers became soaking wet. Drops of water ran through the faces city-leavers. Not only because of physical reasons though...

Fall 2005

Mattias Eriksson, Stockholm School of Economics

E-mail: 20393@student.hhs.se

I went on exchange to Saint-Petersburg State University - School of Management (SOM) in the autumn of 2005. First I want to state that I really enjoyed my stay and I was carefully taken care of by the staff at the International Office at SOM. They showed a very professional and kind attitude in everything concerning my stay and studies in Saint-Petersburg.

The teaching staff at SOM were of different quality and the especially the English language skills were of varying level. Some courses that were offered during the semester were very well prepared but unfortunately some courses didn’t reach my expectations. The shortcomings were due to lack of planning, structure, information to students and teachers’ English skills. The most positive things at SOM are the great facilities and the very helpful staff. Finally I want to ad that my overall evaluation of SOM is a positive one, and I gladly recommend students to choose Saint-Petersburg and SOM for their exchange program.

Attila Czafit, Corvinus University of Budapest

E-mail: attila.czafit@evk.bke.hu

My name is Attila Czafit. I am a Hungarian student, who got the opportunity to study in St. Petersburg in 2005 from August till December.

I was asked by Vadim V. Fedorov to write my opinion and experience about the St. Petersburg State University (School of Management) and the International Office.

About the University:

The SoM was quite a new building (or renewed), and I think all of the circumstances were excellent. I had no problem also with the environment (classrooms, internet room, library for exchange students, copy opportunity…). In the second semester I went to Reims (France) to continue my studies there, and I can say that all of these things were almost the same.

I think that was a great idea that we (international students) could get to know the Russian culture via different classes (Doing Business in Russia) or visiting factories (OTIS, BALTIKA). The other thing is the language courses. When I had to write a feedback to Reims this was one of the negative things what I mentioned. In Russia we could visit 12-16 lessons a week, if we have so much time. In Reims we had just one hour a week (almost nothing). Unfortunately I had to improve my English language skill so I couldn’t invest so much energy to study the Russian language but the school gave all of the support.

I visited 5 different classes and actually 3 were really interesting for me. I had no problem also with the teachers. They were well-prepared for the classes.

About the International Office (IO)

In the first week we had an Introduction Week, what was a well-organized chain of events. I got to know not just the students but a bit the city also. That was great and amazing. Unfortunately I had no the same experience from Reims.

Thanks to the International staff, all of the administration processes - what we had to take - was easy and rapid. If we didn’t know anything they helped us. We got a lot of usable information (not just about the city, subjects, shops, museums but for instance where we can buy a ticket for an ice-hokey match or football match). And what I really appreciate is that, when my air-plane landed at Pulkovo 2, four Russian boys were looking forward me, and helped to ship my staff to the dormitory. Maybe these kinds of things are not as important but they just make your time abroad easier, better and perfect. As I felt the international students had a really good relationship with the IO and maybe I can say that we liked them, and they liked us.

Rune Haxboel, Stud. Master of Finance and Strategic Management, Copenhagen Business School

E-mail: ruha03ab@student.cbs.dk

Here a few words about my stay in Saint-Petersburg as an exchange student at SOM, Saint-Petersburg State University, School of Management, the autumn semester 2005.

I did not know what to expect before coming to Saint-Petersburg to study as an exchange student, neither academically nor socially. The only thing I was sure of was that I would learn a lot at the cultural level by living in Russia for six months.

When now I look back at my stay in Saint-Petersburg, as well as learning a great deal culturally, I learned a lot academically and had in all a great trip, where I got a lot of new friends and acquaintances, which I still today have close contact to.

Academically SOM offered some really skilled and interesting teachers, in particular teachers as Tatiana E.Andreeva, Yury E.Blagov and Vadim V.Fedorov are persons whom I still today feel I learned quite a bit from. At the same time the surroundings at SOM are of really high standard, which gives the students, teachers, and school administration great conditions to create a good student environment together.

As well I will give the SOM international office, or the two responsible, Vadim V. Fedorov and Yan V. Medvedev a special thanks for their openness, readiness to help and very friendly personalities. This was highly valued when staying in a country as Russia, where very few people speak anything else than Russian - a language which I still today only understand very few word of.

I hope the best for SOM, and that the school in the future will find even more international contacts and partners that will contribute to raise the academically level, as Russia becomes more engaged in the international society.

Tina Szalay, Vienna University of Economics and Business Administration

E-mail: h0151386@wu-wien.ac.at

I was studying at School of Management (SOM) in Saint Petersburg the last fall semester 2005. This semester was the best experience in my life. I had the possibility to study in a wonderful city in a very special country. Of course Russia is not a very easy country to live for someone from Western Europe, but all the exchange students got a lot of help from the International Office of School of Management. They were helping us with all the bureaucratic steps, and they were there for us everyday and for everything. I found it extraordinary but very important if you come to a new country. Without that help it would have been very hard at the beginning.

A very good thing at SOM is the buddy system. Your buddy, a student from SOM is picking you up at the airport and accompanying you during the first weeks. This was a great thing. Moreover the International Office offered an Introduction Week. A week where we could get to know each other, the city and we had a crash course in Russian. We were doing sightseeing in Saint Petersburg and the surroundings and we had excursions to companies.

I really enjoyed studying at SOM. As I'm a student of Vienna university of economics and business administration, that is very big, I'm used to have thousands of people around me. But at SOM we were only a small amount of people, which made studying being a personal and intimate thing. The courses at SOM are taught in english, which is very important nowadays. It's also a great possibility for people who don't speak Russian to study in Russia. SOM offers a range of very interesting courses. I especially appreciated the interactive atmosphere in class. We were doing a lot of team works, presentations and discussions. I think that it's very important to use methods like that in courses.

In the end I can say that I'm more than happy that I have been studying at SOM in Saint Petersburg. I would recommend School of Management to everybody who wants to make good experience in a great atmosphere.

Spring 2005

Christoph Heusler, Friedrich-Alexander University Erlangen-Nuremberg

E-mail: pg_cd@web.de

Russia was my first love and it will be my last…

…Russia of the future, Russia of the past!

The song from John Miles characterizes my feelings when I remember the time I had in St. Petersburg from 25^th of August until end of January 2006.

My Russian adventure started when a young lady, nowadays called body, picked me and my German fellow from airport Pulkova up. By the way, she even drove a very nice German car, that the warm acceptance we received was even more pleasant.

The dormitory she brought us was just perfect. Everything you need for daily life was there.

And even a cold shower from time to time didn’t bother me since it made my skin even softer.

After we got familiar to our new home our well organized introduction week started and was accompanied by sunshine almost every day. Besides all the sights we got to see, it was also the great time with the other exchange students in the evenings what made me not to think of Germany and the friends I left back home. Everybody was just great and had to tell another interesting story from the country he or she came from.

Furthermore our bodies had always time for us, when we were in need for them. Kindly two of them even invited us to join them at there country house to see what Russian outdoor life is like.

Having such a great week we had urgently to remember why we came to Russia – OUR STUDIES.

Thus, it was time to get to know the School of Management and our new teachers.

As the German University in Nuremberg doesn’t have a learning agreement with SOM I didn’t have had any problems by choosing my classes. As I remember, some of my colleagues had problems with the schedule of some courses but finally could manage the situation.

Overall I was satisfied with my classes and finished them in a way I wanted to.

Especially my Russian language course was the one I liked most. It was the way we got taught what made me to come back again and again, 4 times a week and even on Friday morning at 8 a.m.

In my point of view, it was not only the fact that I learned the language. In addition our teacher new many things about Russia and its history that he told us several times very interesting stories we could listen to. As I remember my friend Attila from Hungary and I used to make fun about our teacher by saying: “You don’t know?! Ask Vadim, Vadim knows everything”.

Besides my traveling to the Baltic’s and to Finland, besides the new friends I still keep in touch with and besides the nice memories I still have of Russians culture capital after 5 month in Russia it was time for me to go back to Germany. Russia is still different from western European countries and hopefully will be in the future to keep its own stile. But if you are for the first time in that country you may need a little break in between.

After I had my break for ½ a year I am now back again to do an internship at a lawyer and I am still fascinated by the city and its citizen.

…To live without my Russia would be impossible to do!

Margreet Goelema (E-mail: margreetgoelema@hotmail.com),

Barbara van Baaren (E-mail: blauwa79@hotmail.com),

Erasmus University

Two Dutch impressions and tips

Dear future exchange students.

Curious about where you going to study? Here we wrote about our impressions and we will give some tips you can use to make your stay more easy. Where shall we begin…

Arrival

The International Office of the School of Management has a buddy system. Our buddies picked us up from the airport and helped us with the first practical matters, like checking in to our room, buying a Russian phone sim-card and answering all our other questions.

This was especially helpful because we couldn’t speak the language. Of course the buddies are not there for you 24 hours a day, therefore we also had to manage a lot of things ourselves, which was very challenging.

International Office

The employees of the International Office are very opened and nice and they will help you with all the Russian bureaucracy and make your stay as pleasant as possible. They are crazy too and let you experience the Russian humour.

University

The School of Management is recently restored and is in perfect, modern condition. The groups of students are, in comparison with the Netherlands, very small and that gives you the opportunity to interact more with your teacher and also gives you a cosy feeling. The courses give you a first introduction into the Russian business culture and consist, amongst others, of cases and real life examples. A tip to have a good start with your courses is to find out immediately what literature, assignments and exams are set, because it is sometimes quite hard to get this information.

Food

At first we were very surprised about the shops, because they looked like they were closed from the outside and inside you had to buy your groceries at separate counters. This was just one of our first impressions, but when you search for it you can find a lot of ‘normal’ shops and supermarkets.

The great thing about St. Petersburg shops is that they are open 7 days a week from 9.00 till between 19.00 and 23.00 hour. Also the 24-hour shop concept is generally accepted here. It is possible to cook in the dorm, but not to prepare huge dinners. This is one of the reasons we eat out a lot. There are a lot of good and affordable restaurants, with all kinds of cuisines. A good tip for noon is to ask for the business lunch. It is often relatively cheap and very good.

Dormitory

The dorm where you will live is situated at the Vasilevsky Island. With a mini-bus (marschrutka) you are within about 15 minutes at the School of Management and you can take the metro one stop to visit the mainland where the main street of St. Petersburg is; ‘Nevski Prospekt’.

Our dorm is just renovated and everything looks (and is) new and clean. A room where you sleep is about 15 m² and there is a kitchen with a sink, 2 electric plates and a refrigerator. The bathroom has a sink, a toilet and a shower (see pictures).

Your sheets are changed regularly and they also clean your room (although we haven’t found the regularity in that yet). There are no supplies accepted for two glasses, so buying it from the previous students or a visit to IKEA might be a wise idea. Other facilities you can use in the dorm are: a café, laundry and an Internet room. It is also possible to get Internet in your room, which costs about 20 Euro per month.

There are always guards at the entrance of the dorm so you don’t have to be afraid of scary events. The only thing you might get scared of are your neighbours having a party again. This is one of the reasons living in the dorm is very nice. There is always something going on and you can meet a lot of Russian and international students. This will not prevent you from getting enough sleep, because usually the parties move at some time to one of the discotheques or bars somewhere in the city. Officially you are not allowed to come in between 1.00 and 6.00 ‘o clock, so you have to plan your evenings well. One of the three things that we always do the next day is either go to class, to the fitness club or visiting one of the plenty cultural activities. There are not a lot of possibilities to play sports here, especially not in winter. The really professional fitness clubs are scarce, but the chain of ‘Planet Fitness’ is a good, but somewhat expensive option. An advantage though, is that the membership includes free use of the Russian sauna, called Banja and they are also easily found all over the city.

Tips:

It is very useful to speak some words in the Russian language, because except of the students, not a lot of people speak English.
If you come in the winter, don’t forget to bring warm clothes, shoes and thermo-underwear.
The computers at the university are closed in the evening, so it is very convenient to bring your own laptop.

We hope our experiences made you even more excited and we wish you a very exciting, partyful and learnful stay in Saint Petersburg.

Fall 2004

Peter Toth, Budapest University of Economics and Political Sciences, Hungary

E-mail: peticske@freemail.hu

Experiences of a Hungarian student about Russia and Saint-Petersburg

First of all, almost all foreign people have a stereotype about Russia, which constists of mostly four words. These are: cold, bears, vodka and kommunismus.

I can truly tell you, that bears are quite rare now, even in the countryside; sometimes it is warm, even in the north; the kommunismus has been broken for more than 10 years now… - and the vodka… oh, yes, vodka is a nice staff to keep your body and soul together.

I have arrived in Saint-Petersburg at the end of August, 2004 and left for home in December the 20th. After 4 months being in Russia, I experienced a lot of good and some bad things as well, but since I returned home, I am longing for a journey to Russia again..

About the dormitory: I think, nobody of us had expected such good conditions for a Russian dormitory before… the building in Sevchenko street was renovated maybe just some 3-4 years ago, so it is wonderful now, you can have good living conditions there! Actually the rooms are little apartments for two persons with a little bathroom and a „kitchen” with fridge and hotplates. The rooms and the furniture are nice, so it is ideal to stay there for some months. There is a bigger laundry in the groundfloor, and you can find there a caf? too with cold drinks and warm food (the food is quite cheap and not bad!)

About school of management: The whole building is also in good condition, it is also completely renovated, and well – equipped, but the computers in the computer-lab are quite old ones, so sometimes it is hard to surf on the web or watch your daily mails… (even if the connection is perfect…)

The teachers are nice and sophisticated, and they are respect your plans to leave for home before the European Christmas starts. – You don’t have to study all the time, but sometimes it is necessary to survive!

About the city: the city centre is wonderful, the buildings and all the monuments are renovated, and with your Russian student card you can have the best prices wherever you go! The transport is a bit tricky, the buses don’t have the traditional, well-signed stops, so sometimes you just don’t know, if the bus you need to take will stop at you….

And there is another tipical Russian creature, the so called „marsrutka”. Marsrutka is mini-van for 10-12 persons. They have big numbers on the doors, so you can decide whether to take it… (each number has a way, which is usually a bigger circle between two subway-stations). For marsrutka you have to speak at least some words Russian, and to read in Russian is also preferable to read the street-names… You have to say STOP in advance the driver in order to stop at the place you want to get off! (Of course, just in Russian!)

Price-level: the price level is very low, though the restaurants are a bit expensive. You can survive from 400-500 USD per month (dormitory fee, pocket money for bigger trips and going out, food- it is enough for everything). – Of course, it depends on your lifestyle… if you want to go out every day and you eat at Grand Hotel each evening... in this case maybe you will have some difficulties to manage from 400-500 USD…

But I visited a lot of places in the city and some towns not far from Saint-P., + we travelled to Helsinki, Tallinn and Moscow for some days, and at the end of December this was the monthly average I spent. (of course, we lived like students, not as kings, but it was very good and we really enjoyed it!)

Adminismtration: It is terrible, so prepare your nerves to queue for a long time for a stupid stamp or a little sheet of paper… but it is worth, because after the first difficulties, you won’t have problems at all! + Do not forget any of the sheets you received, the best is to take all these staffs to a special folder! (if you lose some important receipts, you can have serious problems at the state-border, or you have to pay extra!)

Language skills: In my opinion to survive here you have to know at least some words in Russian, but the best is if you have a basic knowledge (minimum).

First, if you are here for 4-5 months, you have a great opportunity to learn this language; and second, you can have much more friends, people will be more opened towards you, and you have a bigger chance to understand Russian people at all!

At the end of this little essay about my experiences I wish you a pleasant journey and a valuable, useful staying in this wonderful, big and misterious country!!

Ps: If you have any questions, do not hesitate to ask them!