Details

• Norway
• MAECO-22
• Graduate
• WS 2025
• Time spent at the partner university: 5 months

1. Preparation

The international office provides a list of documents and things you have to do in advance. Since Norway is part of EEA as EU citizen you don't have to do any additional preparation for your stay abroad in terms of migration. Make sure to register for housing as soon as possible to get your first choice.

2. Accommodation

BI provides a housing guarantee for exchange students and there are many student housings available across Oslo. I was in a SiO students house in Tøyen. The university is 5 subway stops away (approx. 20 min.) and very close to city centre. Although it is one of the poorer districts in Oslo I never felt unsafe, generally there are no unsafe areas in Oslo. At Tøyen station every subway line stops and the station is 5 min. away by foot. Make sure to register well in advance for housing, some students houses are far away from city centre. If you like to live closer to nature you can also choose them, public transport is very reliable and the net is pretty dense. I had a single room with shared kitchen and my own bathroom, the different housing providers offer a variation of different types of apartments, own/shared bathroom or own/shared kitchen and different room sizes.

3. Academic life at host university

BI Campus consists of one building, where all teaching rooms, the library, canteen, a little store, offices and study halls are. The building is pretty new, especially the library is freshly renovated and very nice. You are only allowed to choose from the catalogue of elective courses as exchange student and the workload was a little less than what you would expect from 6 ECTS courses at WU. The teachers are very engaged to provide the best learning experience and they are always available and happy to help. There is a large variety of exam styles. Pen and paper, digitally handwritten, term papers or group projects, the information on type of exam is available in advance in the course description.

5. Every day life in the host country

Public transport is very good and reliable, only the intervals are rather long, so you have to plan longer waiting times than in Vienna e.g. Norway is a very safe country and politically stable. Oslo provides a large variety of activities you can do and many of them are very affordable. E.g.: Sauna, opera, swimming pools, parks, football pitches, hiking, skiing, ice skating, sledding, cross country, ... The housing provider SiO also has cheap gyms all over the city, one is directly on BI campus and one of them has a swimming pool. BI offers a bunch of welcome events and the students organisation is very active in organising events throughout the semester and you can join a sports association.

6. Testimonial

The exchange was a very pleasant experience for me. I met a lot of new people, the university was super nice and Norway is simply an amazing country to live in. I also had a lot of time to travel the beautiful countryside and it is a paradise for sport enthusiasts.