EXCHANGE REPORT

IVEY AT UNIVERSITY OF WESTERN

IO, Ryan

Fall Semester (2015 - 2016, Accounting and Finance)

Part I – Monthly Activity Log

September

School usually starts pretty late for Ivey, it started at 11 th Sep this semester. As the first month of school and life at , my first few weeks of life was overwhelmed by plenty of onboarding issues and orientation events. Aside from the orientation, I had also spent time to adapt the case method and the weather of Canada.

October

School work and residence issues were mostly settled. In terms of school work, I had taken 4 courses, mostly financial courses. Yet, the demand of work was much more than that of UST, since the classes are in discussion format and the case study method requires many upfront preparation. Since the courses that I took has no mid-term exam component, so I had spent a week time to travel , Montreal and Quebec City. I had also been to Niagara Falls and crossed the border to Buffalo City to do some winter gear shopping at their outlet mall.

There is also an annual highlight of UWO called the Homecoming event, where Alumni would come back to watch football game. Students would also literally start drinking and get drunk in the morning as early as 8 am. Remember to dress in purple color and got some mustang features on your body!

November

It was much colder during this time with temperature around 0-8c and where the first snow took place. School work had become much busier since there were group projects and individual assignments due. Since most of the local HBA2 students had a week off to work on their FYP group assignment, exchange students also had a week off. I took that week off to travel to the Chicago.

December

It was the last month of school and I had only 1 course that required exam as final assessment. My semester officially ended at 12-Dec, it was considered fairly late already since some exchange students ended as early as 5-Dec. I spent the rest of the month to the East Coast of the States, which included Washington D.C, Boston, New York. It was fascinating to celebrate Christmas at New York. In terms of travel expense, tickets were generally more expensive during this season since it was Christmas time, but it was totally worth the price.

Part II – General Exchange Information

1) Visa Procedures

Hong Kong citizens can stay and study in Canada for at most 6 months without visa. But if you want to travel in the USA, you better apply for a tourist visa in before leaving to Canada.

2) Orientation Activities

Just right before the start of the semester, the school had arranged a whole-day orientation event for all the incoming exchange students. The event involved 3 components: first, a welcoming message and some useful tips of living at Canada; Second, a guided school tour together with case book pick up and bus card issuance; Third, a simulation of a Ivey HBA2 lecture to give us a taste of the unique case-study method. The day was wrapped up by a welcoming night party at an off-campus bar with all the exchange students.

3) International Services & Activities

There is an international student center in the main campus at UWO. It provides all sorts of counselling services to incoming exchange students for their academic issues, residence arrangement or even psychological or mental health issues. There are also some cross cultural events available weekly for international students to deepen their understanding on Canadian culture.

4) Accommodations

Ivey exchange students are not encouraged to apply for residence halls, since there are limited spots and are fairly expensive too. I rented an off campus residence offered by MARQ (http://www.themarq.ca). The residence is situated at 1 Belfort Street (5 mins away by car and within walking distance) for 500 CAD per month and paying utility ourselves. The residences are designed for exchange students and are fully furnished. Shuttle bus service is also available during morning. The condition was really nice with 1 fully furnished kitchen and 2 restrooms shared by 5 person. It was clean and spacious. The location is also in close proximity to campus and downtown, which is good for students to go for dining, clubbing or simply grocery shopping. It is highly recommended for incoming exchange students.

5) Courses Registration

Course Registration issues were done on the eZone ( https://apps.ivey.ca/eZone ). Each course in general carries 0.5 credit which equivalents to 3 credits in HKUST. The registration was available in late August when UWO send over the student handbook. Students could browse through the schedule and course syllabus to choose their desired courses, introduction videos are also available for some courses. Student would then be allocated with some bidding points and could allocate accordingly to your desired courses when registration process begins. Recommend to allocate to those could surely be transferred back to UST.

By the time at Ivey, add drop period is 1 week time. The course registration process is also slightly different as there was no swapping in the system (ie only add and drop) so it would be better to register the sessions with available seats to pay safe.

Some personal feedback on the courses taken as below:

Course Equivalent HKUST Course Workload Workload -wise is within normal BUS 4417 ACCT 3020 standard. 1 group project and 1 final Corporate Financial Financial Accounting II exam. Very practical for accounting Reporting application and statement analysis. Workload -wise is slightly heavy. 2 group BUS 4433 FINA 3000 Level research projects and 2 individual Portfolio Management (3 Credits) assignments. The scope of coverage is rather too broad and too theoretical. Very heavy work load. Taught by MBA professor, 2 individual assignments, 1 BUS 4554 FINA 3000 Level final assessment. Material are very Private Equity (3 Credits) practical and on the job with many financial modelling involved. But also very practical and useful. Taught by MBA professor, 2 individual assignments, 1 final assessment. BUS 4559 FINA 3000 Level Material are very practical and on the Raising Capital (3 Credits) job with many financial modelling involved. But also very practical and useful.

6) Teaching & Assessment Methods

The Ivey Business School adopts case-based teaching. Professors often correlates lecture materials with social issues and the economy. Students are encouraged to actively participate in classes. Students self-learning and adequate preparation is crucial to the case study method since each class would have their own case for discussion, so exchange students should expect to have completed more than 40 cases throughout their semester exchange study. Reactiveness to speak is also paramount as class contribution equates for more than 30% of the total grade.

7) Sports & Recreation Facilities

UWO has a really great recreation center. There are indoor swimming pools, basketball courts, volleyball courts, a hockey rink (Hockey is huge in Canada), etc. We could just use the student card to enter the center. And students can register for some free sports classes such as different types of dance and yoga. (http://www.westernmustangs.ca/index.aspx?path=wsrc& )

8) Cost/Expenses

Items HKD CAD Air Ticket 11,000 Case Book 500 School Fees 500 Rent 2000 Phone Plan 300 Living Expenses 2000 Travelling 10,000 Total 21,000 5,300

9) Social Clubs & Networking Opportunities

There are many clubs available for students and exchange students. Just check out the hallway in the community centre (UCC) at the first few weeks of school. For music lover, the symphony orchestra and choir are some of the top choices to join. The bonding of Chinese student community is also fairly strong there. There is a Chinese student society which organizes gathering, information sharing and peer helping services to students.

In terms of nightlife, some bars such as Frog, Ceeps and hideaway offer social night every Thursday and sometimes Friday. Students interested meeting new local students or clubbing should check that out.

10) Health & Safety

HKUST has purchased insurance for every exchange-out student and we were required to purchase another insurance in Canada called UHIP (University health insurance plan) which was included in the school fee. It is quite safe in London and it was ok to walk in the street at night.

11) Food

Not so many choice within campus, so packing your own lunch would be a good option. For Chinese food lover, there are a Chinese supermarkets called Food Island which offers most the items you see in Hong Kong. Doing grocery shopping with flat mates or friends would also be a good option too, since many departmental-grocery shop such as Costco offers family size quantity of food and grocery, and it is always cheaper. Other Asian cuisines are available in downtown. Don’t forget to try out Congee Chan if you miss Guang Dong food anytime!

12) Transportation The bus pass was included in the school fee above and was given in the orientation activity in early January. We could take the bus unlimitedly in London by presenting our bus pass and student card to the bus driver. Moreover, there is a bus app for both android and iOS phone users to download and we could check when the bus would come.

But make sure you have 3-5 minutes buffer for the tracking error. Buses did not come frequently at night and you might need to wait for half an hour if you missed the bus. Greyhound (long journey bus) and VIA Canada (railway) are available in London for going to downtown areas of some Canadian and American cities nearby like Toronto and New York. If you landed at Toronto Pearson International Airport and would like to go London, Robert Q would be a better choice.

13) Climate Weather cold in Canada and especially in London. For incoming Fall exchange students, make sure you have a thick down jacket (Uniqlo standard would be good enough). Make sure you have scarf, gloves and winter hat ready. The weather in September was not cold (around 15- 20c), but do beware of sudden drop of temperature. The second week since my arrival had dropped from 15c to 8c, so make sure you have appropriate outfit for it. But it would get colder in Oct and especially after Mid Nov. It usually starts snowing in Nov.

14) Communication

English is the primary language in most part of Canada, including Toronto and London. People in Montreal and Quebec speak in French but they also know English. Language won’t be an issue.

15) Cautionary measures Emergency Call places were available on campus and you may contact the Campus Police whenever necessary.

Part III – Items to Bring

1. Clothes (Thick Coat, Winter Clothes and summer clothes) 2. Chargers and adaptors 3. Passport and Acceptance Letter 4. Down jacket 5. Notebook for notes taking since no PC is allowed during class 6. Laptop Computer 7. Formal suit / dress for different events or presentation or interview 8. Dress shoes