TRAVEL REPORT – Master’s Exchange
Rio de Janeiro, RJ, Brazil Fundação Getúlio Vargas Escola Brasileira de Administração Pública e de Empresas (FGV EBAPE)
Fall 2016 361325
Contents
1. Preparing for the exchange..........................................................................................................................3 2. Exchange studies...........................................................................................................................................5 2.1. Advanced Strategic Management...........................................................................................................6
2.2. Transparency, Accountability and Good Governance in Brazil..........................................................7
2.3. Micro Finance.............................................................................................................................................7 2.4. Banking and Financial Intermediation ....................................................................................................7 2.5. Strategy, Government and Society.........................................................................................................8 3. Living and free time in Rio and Brazil.........................................................................................................8 3.1. Free time.....................................................................................................................................................9 3.2. Accommodation ...................................................................................................................................... 10 3.3. Cost of living and money ....................................................................................................................... 10 3.4. Rio de Janeiro as a city.......................................................................................................................... 11 3.4.1. Safety.................................................................................................................................................... 12 3.5. Traveling................................................................................................................................................... 13 4. Final comments........................................................................................................................................... 14
1. Preparing for the exchange
Pre-arrival
After being nominated by Aalto, I was contacted from FGV EBAPE in the end of April 2016. The email gave good instructions what was needed to be accepted to FGV as an exchange student. I had to send a copy of my passport immediately to begin the process. The email also included a list of the documents needed to send there and when they needed to be sent. With the Requerimento document the International Office at FGV pre-enrolled me to the courses I wished to take. The courses could be modified later.
After receiving the acceptance letter from FGV (I received it 11.5.), it is possible to start the visa application process. The guidelines for the process can be found in
http://helsinque.itamaraty.gov.br/fi/-_opiskelijaviisumi.xml. The application must be done
online, but in the end, the required documents must be taken to the Brazilian Embassy in Kaivopuisto, Helsinki. If any problems with the process arise, it’s possible call the embassy. The process should be started preferably immediately after receiving the confirmation letter, because failing to send a copy of the student visa 15 days before the lectures start will result in rejection as an exchange student! The process starts the moment the documents are delivered to the embassy and the fee is paid as instructed. The processing time is approximately ten days. The embassy will inform when the visa is ready, so a phone call is recommended. I didn’t have any problems with the process. Note that flights must be bought before applying for the visa. Other preparing included getting the required vaccines (Hepatitis A and B, yellow fever, lavantauti). These should also be taken well in advance if one wishes to get them from YTHS or the public sector.
After all this, I was set to go to Rio. I reserved a hotel room for one day and I extended my stay there by one more day. Note that the required arrival date is set by FGV. The process to begin my studies went fluently and the International Office at FGV and the Brazilian Embassy proved to be very helpful.
Remember to take all your forms with you to Brazil!
Language
The exchange catalogue says “Basic Portuguese skills recommended”. This is probably
because English is not as widely spoken in Brazil than in Europe. You can go to exchange in Rio without Portuguese skills but many every day and official tasks are much easier in Portuguese. Also, most information available on the Internet is in Portuguese.
My recommendation is to take a basic course in Portuguese either before or in the beginning
of the exchange. FGV offers a survival Portuguese course which I didn’t take. The Brazilian Embassy in Helsinki also gives courses on Portuguese, which I’ve heard are quite useful. It’s also possible to pay for a private teacher in Rio (it’s not as expensive as in Finland). I had taken
four courses of Spanish at Aalto and I studied Portuguese words with Duolingo app before departure, and I felt that this was good enough to survive. However, I recommend studying as much Portuguese as possible beforehand to make your life much easier in Rio.
Post-arrival
It is necessary to keep the entry card provided in the airplane, which is stamped at passport control. Getting from Galeão airport to Zona Sul or other parts of the city should be done by a
taxi when entering the city first time. Don’t take a taxi from the people selling them at the arrivals
hall; my recommendation is to walk straight ahead from the doors to domestic arrivals and take a yellow taxi from there. Preparing to state your address etc. in Portuguese is recommended. The normal fare is around R$70-80
I began my stay with apartment hunting and I settled in the first apartment I visited (see section
3.2). It’s not smart to go wandering around alone but some good and safe things to do alone
are to see the beaches or to visit Pão de Acucar for example. My school started with a mandatory orientation day two days after my arrival on a Friday and the lectures started on next Monday.
Police registration
Foreigners have to register as in Brazil at latest 30 days from arrival. The process is uncomfortably complicated, but the International Office at FGV gives good instructions on the Welcome Pack. Unfortunately, this is not available at FGV EBAPE website anymore. Shortly, two receipts from the Policia Federal website www.pf.gov.br/servicos-pf/estrangeiro/ must first be printed out to pay for the process. After that, the receipts must be paid at a branch of Banco do Brasil, totaling some sum over R$300. After that, an appointment has to be made at the
Policia Federal at the Galeão international airport (that’s the only place to register) and then it’s
needed just to show up there at that date. Copies of all the pages of your passport, your passport, your visa application form and two passport photos are required at least. Going to the airport (terminal 1) as soon as possible is recommended, as the process will take usually 3-4 hours (waiting mostly). The process is confusing, but it will work out in the end.
Check the current requirements as they can be changed.
CPF
Getting a CPF, a sort of a personal tax number, should be considered because it is needed to do transactions online, to get a phone contract and to many other uses. I recommend getting this, as it is relatively simple to get and useful. First, go to a branch of Correios (post) or Banco do Brasil and ask to pay for a CPF. The fee was R$7. After that, the receipt and original passport must be brought to a branch of Ministerio da Fazenda. Note that they are not issuing CPFs during all working hours and some waiting time is expected.
Also, do not assume that in both of these processes the civil servants will speak English, as
they will most likely not. It is smart to prepare to present one’s business in Portuguese or to use the help of one’s buddy.
2. Exchange studies
The above picture includes all the preliminary contents for the International Program in Business (IPB) in the year 2017. In fall 2016, the European fall semester started at July 25th because of the Olympic Games, during which there were no classes. Usually, the fall semester starts a few weeks later and goes on until mid-December and the spring semester goes from February to July (the summer holidays are in January). Note that there are a lot of national holidays in Brazil, which reduces the regularity of lecturing.
The studies start with a mandatory orientation day right before the classes start. The students are assigned local buddies upon the students’ arrival to Rio (or even after) so if early assistance is needed, the “buddy coordinator” should be contacted in advance. One buddy has usually one or two exchange students so the buddy should have time for you to get to know Rio. The international office in FGV EBAPE is active and can take care of your concerns (I highly
recommend contacting Leonardo if there’s any problems).
Course enrollment was done by the international office for the first trimester and for the second one students had to enroll themselves. The enrollment opened one week before the start of the trimester and there was an add-and-drop period of two weeks after the start of the trimester (check current procedures). All of this was done at the Secretário Academico in the third floor of the building (no on-line enrollment), which has good working hours. The S.A. only serves in Portuguese, so take your buddy with you or prepare to speak Portuguese. In general, all the courses had space for students and changing courses during the add-and-drop period was relatively easy.
The level of courses varied a lot: some of the courses were not useful and were badly organized, while some courses were excellent. On average, the courses were average quality but easier than Aalto courses. Participation was a part of evaluation in all courses, which means actual showing up for lectures and classroom activity. Other bases of evaluation were many times presentations and group projects. Attendance is mandatory for 75% of lectures and a failure to meet this requirement leads to a failed course. The grading scale is 0.00 – 10.00, 6.00 being the grade to pass.
The lectures were three-hour lectures with one or two breaks. Lecturing times were 9-12, 14- 17 and 18.30-21.30, the last one being the least active. With a workload of 2-3 courses per trimester, I averaged three lectures per week, leaving some days off during the working week (or long weekends). The lectures were held mostly from Monday through Wednesday, while fillin lectures were held in Thursday and Friday (as there were not enough time to have only one weekly lecture per course). I want to stress that some courses are weighted towards the beginning or the end of the trimester, making it possible to plan a more balanced workload.
- 2.1.
- Advanced Strategic Management
Professor Ronaldo Parente, 1st trimester, 30 class hours = 5 ECTS
Evalutation: Participation 25 %, Final exam 25 %, Final group project 25 %, Case and article presentations 25 %
This was the first course I took and it started before the Olympics. The course was organized intensively in a way that it ended half-way through the 1st trimester. The workload was relatively low, except that there were 3-4 three-hour lectures per week (lasting three weeks). The course included a presentation, a final project and an open-book exam (computers were allowed without Internet). The topics were mostly basic topics in strategic management, which a normal bachelor’s student from Aalto is familiar with. The Brazilian professor was very entertaining but the overall quality of teaching was quite low on international standards. The group project was choosing an international large corporation and presenting a strategic problem it Is facing with different strategic frameworks. The course is quite easy and a good way to get inside the FGV system but I recommend choosing some other course if your goal is to learn new things.
- 2.2.
- Transparency, Accountability and Good Governance in Brazil
Professor Gregory Michener, 1st trimester, 30 class hours = 5 ECTS
Evaluation: Blog posts and comments 30+5 %, class participation and attendance 10 %, presentation 5 %, Final exam 25 %, Course essay 25 %
In my opinion, this was the best course I took at FGV EBAPE. The course included a heavy workload: weekly blog posts answering a question about given weekly readings, final exam and final essay. These were heavy because the Canadian professor demanded continuous good academic quality in all works. The course involved topics from the field of governance and social science, which most business students were not familiar with, such as corruption, democracy, public policy and legislation. The readings also included a book about Brazil’s history, which gave a good overlook about the roots of Brazil and the problems.
Taking this course turned out to be very fruitful (while most of students dropped the course in the fear of heavy workload). It included a lot of academic writing in English with high requirements, which was a good practice overall. Teaching was held in clear English and discussion turned out to be quite active many times. The teacher had very good knowledge on the subject and the teaching was easy to follow. I also gained a lot of knowledge outside the economics-business context and about the Brazilian society and culture. The final exam was arranged in a way that the teacher gave a long list of concepts from the readings and lectures one week before the exam and then in exam he asked to explain six of the eight concepts given. Every student that did the required coursework passed the course.
I highly recommend this course, but if you don’t have an appetite for a heavy workload and a course outside business studies, then reconsider. Also, you shouldn’t have too many
courses running at the same time as this.
- 2.3.
- Micro Finance
Professor Patrick Behr, 2nd trimester, 30 class hours = 5 ECTS
Evaluation: Final presentation, Participation This course was a very classic university course: the German professor lectured about topics in micro finance without much interaction and in the last two lectures student groups gave their presentations about micro finance in different countries chosen by the professor. The course had some confusion around schedules because a few lectures got postponed, but the rescheduling happened in co-operation with us students. The course was overall good and had a relatively low workload and I would recommend taking this course. Other reading materials were assigned also for students more interested in the topic.
- 2.4.
- Banking and Financial Intermediation
Professor Lars Norden, 2nd trimester, 30 class hours = 5 ECTS
Evaluation: Article presentations (group) 40 %, Final exam 60 % The same as above: a German professor gave lectures about financial intermediation. This was maybe the most well organized course I took at FGV: the lectures were divided into three equal parts, first two parts being lectures by teacher and the last being reserved for students’ article presentations. The topics were interesting and teaching was high quality,
however, if you have taken the course “Financial Intermediation and Markets” or “Raha - ja
pankkiteoria”, the course most probably cannot be included to your exchange studies (if you wish to receive credits).
The course book, lecture slides and articles presented were shared efficiently online, so studying was made easy. I suggest (as the professor does too) to read the course book according to the lectures because the final exam was quite difficult. The workload was quite low, but as I said above, you should put effort to independent studying. I recommend to take this course if you have not yet taken a banking course (as I think all business school students should take a banking course).
- 2.5.
- Strategy, Government and Society
Professor Alexande Faria, 2nd trimester, 30 class hours = 5 ECTS
Evaluation: Participation 25 %, Conduction of seminars 25 %, Final essay 50 % I feel sorry to say that I highly recommend not taking this course. The Brazilian professor had a heart-warming personality but there was no evidence of a rigid teaching plan as all lectures were just the teacher drawing and writing on the whiteboard what, as it seemed, happened to pop up to his mind: it felt like sitting through the same lecture everytime. The teacher assigned readings for students based on voluntarity, and these readings were presented on the next lecture. The topics were related to increased corporate power and the relationships between corporations and other society.
To conclude, this course should not be given at a university striving for high regional and international rankings.
3. Living and free time in Rio and Brazil
The carioca (a Rio de Janeiro native) life style and living in Rio is very different from the North European life style, but not as radically as one might think. Maybe the most radical differences are concepts of time, schedules and discipline. As one might guess, things happen much slower in Rio. Waiting in lines in supermarkets, post offices and other places in normal and the working people don’t seem to take extra effort in service quickness, and cariocas seem to be used to waiting. However, this more relaxed way of life was some advantages too. Punctuality is quite non-existent, mostly because of cultural reasons: people can be on time if they want to, but
being late isn’t considered as rude as in Finland. Things happen mostly in “Brazilian time”,
meaning that one- to two-hour delays are quite normal. The people in Rio are mostly extremely nice and polite and they are always happy to meet new
people. However, they don’t seem to have responsibility to other people around, meaning that last-minute cancelling of plans isn’t considered that rude. Cariocas also seem to have a lot of
friends but most friendships are quite short-lived. This can be seen when the locals want to do all kinds of stuff with you all the time but most of this stuff never happens.
Cariocas have also a very different perception of rules, orders and laws. It’s common the people
look for Jeitinho Brasileiro (Brazilian shortcut) regardless of rules and laws. This can be seen
that people don’t really follow traffic lights, drivers switch lanes frequently just to speed up their
own trip and laws for public drinking and public spaces are widely ignored. A solution for me to this, in my opinion, inorganization, was to decrease my planning horizon as people were usually reluctant to plan over 24 hours ahead. The best way to do this is to make plans with people without times or places (for example, to plan to go out with certain few
people, not when or where). Cariocas are fun to hang around with but one shouldn’t expect to
develop strong friendships with a lot of people. To conclude, things don’t always happen as planned, but that’s sometimes the fun of it.
- 3.1.
- Free time
There’s a reason why Rio de Janeiro is the center of tourism in Brazil and South America. There’s a lot to do and see especially when the weather is good.
Restaurants & Bars – Rio is famous for its churrascarias, which are all-you-can-eat
restaurants where waiters continuously bring high-quality meat to the table. These are a little expensive but I highly recommend visiting one or more of Churrascaria Palace, Fogo de Chao or more budget-friendly Carretão. There are similar pizza restaurants, which offer Rodizio, meaning the same setting with pizzas. In addition, the typical restaurants are scattered everywhere and the food is mostly very good. For bars, Lapa is the most popular choice for nightlife. People also enjoy sitting in smaller bars in Zona Sul as drinking at home is not that popular.
Beaches – The two largest beaches, Copacabana and Ipanema are worth visiting on a
regular basis and that seems to be the most popular activity among cariocas. The life mostly revolves around the beaches. Surfing is very present and Rio and you can constantly see surfers in these beaches and especially in Barra da Tijuca. For surfers, Rio is an excellent choice for exchange. For smaller beaches, it’s best to get out of town.