Experience in École supérieure pour le développement économique et social, France by Sandra Stefania

Generally, what is École supérieure pour le développement économique et social like?

I arrived when the school was just reopening. So most of their facilities were not really available. However, the school is really modern and has a good location. Is close to everything. They also have a lot of events, and groups which you can join if you want. However, most of those groups are mostly for students that staying for a year. So I was not able to follow any of them. Since, the ones that I was interested in were not available for students that were staying for just one semester. I also did not like that the university closes at 9.30.

What are the facilities like?

I did not like that they privatized some of the elevators for the teachers. There were so few (4) and 2 of them were just for the teachers, so if you were in the hurry you had to go with the stairs. Which is not really a problem but when you have a class in the 4th floor you came to class really sweaty. I also did not like that they did not have really study rooms. If you wanted to study you had to go to the library, which is ok, but you can not eat there or talk. That was mostly a problem for when you had to stay the whole day working on a group project. In my university in Holland, we can rent normal rooms to study. In Lyon was not possible, and if yes nobody did explain that it was. The food from the cafeteria was a lot better than in my old university. However, the cafeteria was really small, and if you did not buy anything from there, you were not able to eat there. Which I found a little bit too much, since you have friends who were eating there and if you had your own food, you were obligated to eat alone. Moreover, sometimes my classes were 11 hours long with just a 30 min break. If you make students stay so long in a sitting position, you should buy better chairs. I have back problems so those 11 hours were hell for me, but I was not the only one complaining. The toilets where also another problem, they just had 1 or 2 toilets per floor. If the classes were full you were not able to go to the toilet. Also, the toilets lacked of maintenance, most of the time was impossible to find a garbage bin or even toilet paper. Every day I had to bring my own toilet paper.

What are the tutors like?

I really like the tutors. They made the impression to be knowledgeable about their subject. I enjoyed the classes, they made the 3 to 4 hours class per subject endurable. Hours of just sitting and trying to keep concentrated after being at school from 8.30 am till 7 pm

Are the lessons easy in École supérieure pour le développement économique et social?

The lessons at the University were not that difficult, except of Cooperate Finance and anything else that had that teacher. I mean she is an exceptional teacher but she goes just too fast. If you never has that subject, I will recommend you not to follow any of her classes. The rest of the classes are ok. They are not difficult, but really time consuming. You had 3 to 4 exams per Subject. Myself I had 8 subject so you can make the math. Also, the exams were not small exams, some of them were real huge exams. Such as the one in "French 21st century". You had 2 huge ppt presentations, plus a 15 pages paper about french companies and their strategies, plus a final exam. So you can think how much time you need to spent in order to provide the quality expected work from a student of the 3rd year.

Does the University organise activities? If so, what are they like?

yes, the university does organize activities. However, for most of them you have to pay 10-20 euros per party. Furthermore, the parties that were organized by the University were not really good. Normal activities (free), where not that casual. We had an introduction meeting and a goodbye ceremony.

Do you think there is a good quality of teaching?

Yes the quality of teaching is good. Sometimes, references of facts and figures were missing but for the rest I would say they are providing good information.

Are there any stories you can share?

The rivers in Lyon are beautiful. The best parties that I had, happened when I partied at the river. Furthermore, some alcohol shops were sometimes open till 4 - 5 am so you could keep drinking the whole night.