Goethe University Frankfurt Am Main
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Travel Report Winter Semester 2015/2016 Goethe University Frankfurt am Main 460514 1. Preparing for the exchange When you are chosen by Aalto for the exchange, Goethe University will send you a link to an online application form. You are required to list general information about yourself, your education and planned studies at Goethe University (faculty and level). At this point you can also sign up for the pre-semester German intensive language course. The university lists B1 as the minimum requirement for the language course, but in reality students come there to study German with levels far below B1, so you can apply even if you feel your current level is not B1. Finally, send a signed and stamped form to Goethe University by physical mail. The application must arrive at the university before 15th of June for the winter semester and 15th of December for the summer semester. You also increase your chances of being offered student accommodation if you mail in the form earlier. Visa application German embassy in Helsinki recommends applying in the end of spring / beginning of summer due to an overwhelming number of applications in the end of summer. In order to apply for a visa, it is necessary to make an appointment in advance by phone or email (contact information is on the embassy’s website). All the instructions regarding the required documents, fees and the application procedure are listed here: http://www.helsinki.diplo.de/contentblob/4122858/Daten/5750006/pdf_Merkblatt_Visum_engl.pdf The embassy quotes the application processing time of approximately 1 month unless the application is made in the end of summer, which is the busiest period, and the processing times may vary. I applied around May, and received my visa in around 2 weeks. The embassy is really helpful if you have any questions about filling out the forms or required documents, and replies within 1 business day if contacted by email. Arriving in Germany When you come to Germany, you have to register as an attending student at the University on a specified date. However, if you miss this date (for instance, I was ill), it is possible to do this later as well, simply contact the international office and make an appointment. You also have to register in Bürgeramt within three weeks of your arrival and de-register when you leave Germany. Closer to the beginning of actual studies, you also have to pick up your student card from the university at a specified date. You will be assigned a buddy by the university who can help you if you have any problems, including going to Bürgeramt and picking up the student card. 2. Exchange studies 2.1. Semester dates Semester: 1st October – 31st March Lecture period: 12th October – 12th February Examination period: 15th February – 4th March There is an orientation session in the beginning of the semester, but it is not mandatory. You can also schedule your exams for earlier dates if you can get a confirmation from Aalto that there are conflicting semester dates, and you have to go back to Finland earlier. 2.2. Course and exam registration For most of the courses, you do not need to register in order to participate (registration is only required for the final exam), but there are exceptions to this rule. For some courses it is required to send your CV and a cover letter to the professor in advance. Application deadlines vary and are listed in QIS as part of course description. While I would encourage you to follow the deadlines, you can still apply for a short while after the deadline. I missed a deadline for a course named Banking Risk Management Frameworks, but sent my application later the same day and was accepted despite the fact that some people were rejected even before the deadline. Thus, I have a reason to believe exchange students receive some kind of preferential treatment. Goethe University also offer seminars each semester, and the registration procedure for the seminars is different from that for the general courses. Goethe requires registration through a separate application form, where you list your preferences for the seminars, and are allocated to only one based on your wishes and availability of places. I was able to get a place in a seminar of my first choice. The registration for the exams is somewhat inconvenient for exchange students. You have to fill out a paper form listing all of the exams you want to take and take or send the paper to the international office. Specific instructions will be sent to your email address in the middle of the semester. 2.3. Course overview I was an exchange student in the MSc Money and Finance programme, which is offered entirely in English. Courses offered can be viewed without login here: qis.server.uni-frankfurt.de. However, the courses only appear in QIS closer to the beginning of the semester (June/ July for the winter semester, January / February for the summer semester). Please note the grade scale is 1-5 with 1 being the best grade and 4 being the minimum passing grade. I was not able to take the courses I was most interested in, because many of them overlapped with the courses I had already taken at Aalto. However, there are quite interesting Master’s level courses in e.g. Banking and Securitization, Capital Markets and Asset Pricing, Corporate Finance and Valuation and Modern Portfolio Management, as well as some good seminars. You can also take courses from other programmes and faculties both in English and German (there is a special procedure for that, but it is not difficult). I personally ended up taking the following courses: 1. Banking Risk Management Frameworks (graduate level, 6 ETCS): Taught by Prof. Dr. Thomas Kaiser and Prof. Dr. Mark Wahrenburg. The final grade was based on the presentation and class activity (no exam). The course focuses on baking regulation (content is up to date and covered even the newest regulation like Basel III), risk strategy, risk management (covering market, credit, operational, reputational, business and liquidity risks), and risk reporting. Overall, the course was useful if one attended all the lectures and was able to remember the concepts without learning for the exam. The contents were relevant and explained in sufficient detail, and the lectures were complemented by real-life examples either from the banking world in general or from professors’ own experiences. It was also interesting to hear stories from students, most of whom have work experience from e.g. Deutsche Bank and Commerzbank. Student presentations were also based on real-life cases, such as the London whale and the agricultural derivatives scandal. Students were generally able to get the presentation topic they wanted, but there are only 4-5 places per topic. All in all, the course provided an overview of risk management and current regulations and had a nice practical touch to it, since the professors have years of work experience in the industry. But at the end of the day, if it is not required to learn for the exam, most people (including me) probably will not remember most of the things that have been covered during the course. 2. Topics on Financial Regulation / Systemic Risks (seminar, graduate level, 6 ETCS): Taught by Prof. Dr. Loriana Pelizzon. The final grade is based on the presentation you prepare in a group of max. 4 people. The course consists of 2 lectures and 1 presentation session. The lectures only give a brief overview of the topics that are assigned to students later. Overall, you get to study one of the current pieces of legislation, namely the Dodd-Frank Act, Solvency II, MiFID II or Basel III, in detail, but you do not get a good understanding of all other topics unless you can remember everything from the presentations of other students. I would say that the workload for this course definitely does not correspond to the 6 credits you get for it, considering that the presentations were fairly short (20 minutes per group). All in all, if you really want to get a grip of current regulations that target systemic risk, you are probably better off taking another course. 3. Economics of Housing (graduate level, 6 ETCS): Taught by Ph.D. Enzo Cerletti. The grade is based on the final exam. The course covers such topics as determinants of housing demand by households, implications of housing for different economic decisions and macroeconomic consequences of housing. The subjects are studied using both theory, e.g. adding housing to standard portfolio choice models, and empirical evidence from around the world. The aim of the course is very practical, e.g. what would happen if Denmark allowed home equity loans. Therefore, the course is quite useful, especially if you are interested in housing on a more macroeconomic level. However, the lectures themselves are quite uneventful, so this course is designed for rather patient students. 4. Hedge Funds and Alternative Investments (graduate, 6 ETCS): Taught by Prof. Dr. Loriana Pelizzon. The grade is based on a Matlab project and presentation (50%) and exam (50%). The contents of the course are said to cover the the first level of the CAIA exam, including statistical foundations, hedge fund strategies and performance, structured products, risk analysis and DD, portfolio optimization and management (you can get a more detailed picture by looking at chapters 1-6, 11-12, 18-19 and 23-30 of “CAIA Level I: An Introduction to Core Topics in Alternative Investments” written by Anson et al.) We also had guest lecturers: Dr.