Exchange Report

To prepare for the exchange, you'll be fine if you follow all the instructions WU and SMU give you. SMU's instructions were quite clear and came well in advance, so you won't forget anything. SMU charges a student fee that includes insurance for Singapore, but if you want to travel, you should also get travel insurance. I also visited the Tropeninstitut to get all the recommended vaccinations. Otherwise, no special preparation is necessary.

My main tip regarding accommodation is probably to reach out early to the other WU students going to SMU. We ended up booking through Cove, which worked out really well. The process was smooth and quick. We stayed at "The Bayron", which is very central and within walking distance of both SMU (20 minutes) and Orchard Road (5 minutes). The building consists mainly of shared apartments in a range of different sizes, and it also has a pool and a gym, which was nice. We booked in October/November, which worked out fine, though quite a lot had already been taken by then, so I'd recommend sorting it out earlier if you can. Both The Bayron specifically and Singapore in general felt very safe throughout.

SMU's campus sits right in the heart of Singapore, close to the financial district and next to Fort Canning Park. The campus is quite new, and the facilities include a gym and a swimming pool. The university also has a lot of student clubs - I joined the tennis team, which was a great way to get to know some local students.There are also a few really good cafés on campus, as well as a nice food court where you can get some good food. Classes are quite small, with up to 45 people, and very interactive. Almost every course includes class participation and group projects, which tend to be competitive and intense because of the curve grading system. Getting a B doesn't take much, but an A is genuinely hard, since only 20–30% of the course is awarded one and everyone is motivated to be get an A. I took Marketing 101, Economic Development in Asia, and Capital Markets in China. I wouldn't recommend Economic Development in Asia — it was fairly boring, mostly analysing statistics and research data and coming up with explanations for it. Marketing, on the other hand, was interesting and not too demanding; the professor tried to keep everything as practical as possible, and the quizzes and exam were manageable. Capital Markets in China was solid. If you're interested in how the Shanghai Stock Exchange works and how Chinese companies can be traded internationally, it's a genuinely interesting course, with a strong focus on governance and how different the system is from the European or American one. That said, the finance classes felt even more competitive than the others, and the final exam was pretty tough.

Public transport runs very smoothly, and you rarely have to wait long for the next bus. On our orientation day we were given a metro card that you can top up as you go. I spent around €80–90 a month on the bus. I also took out a subscription for Anywheel, a bike-sharing app, which came to about €15 a month, very convenient and well worth it. When it comes to food, Singapore has plenty of really nice cafés worth trying. It's also very common to eat at one of the hawker centres, where you get excellent local food for a fair price. The city is very supportive of sport, too. You can book sports facilities easily and cheaply through ActiveSG, and for tennis I'd particularly recommend the Kallang Tennis Centre, a brand-new facility with very nice courts. Beyond that, you can do all kinds of sports at SMU through the student clubs. For events, get the Aentry app, everything gets promoted there. Sightseeing-wise, though, the city doesn't offer a huge amount.

My exchange semester was one of the best times of my life. I met great friends from WU and from all over the world, and together we travelled through East Asia — something I’ll never forget. Going in, I thought Singapore would be strict and a bit impersonal, but it turned out to be the opposite. The city has everything you could think of and is the perfect base for getting around Asia. If SMU is on your mind, don’t overthink it, you won’t regret it.