Information for LSE CEMS Students 2007/08

This information is aimed at helping you plan the forthcoming year as a CEMS student at the London School of Economics. I hope you will find it comprehensive and not too confusing. 

During your time at LSE you will be studying for 2 degrees, the MSc Management degree and  the CEMS MIM (Master in International Management). Inevitably there will be some difficulties in matching the two sets of rules, but my job is to help you understand and overcome the demands put upon you, therefore, if there is anything you don’t understand, please don’t suffer in silence and risk not fulfilling a requirement – ASK ME! You will be given a guide to MSc Management when you arrive at LSE and all the current regulations are available on our website.  You will also be given a CEMS Student Guide, which is  available on the CEMS website. You should make sure you familiarise yourself with both sets of regulations.

 An outline of the year ahead

 24^th – 28^th  September  Blocked Seminar at York University

More details on the subject matter will follow.  We will leave London on 24^th September at 09.30am and return on Friday 28^th  at around 5pm. We travel to York by train. Accommodation, meals and teaching will all be on the University campus. You will have a single bedroom with bathroom which comes fully equipped  so there is no need to bring bedding or towels. Unfortunately we have to ask for a contribution of £50 towards the cost of the week away but all your costs are covered.  You MAY get to the pub on the odd occasion so all you need is a bit of spending money! I will collect the money from you en route to York or once we get there.  

Please note that the visiting CEMS students pay more than you for their blocked seminar, this is because we subsidise the visit for all students but feel that the fees you pay are high enough so your subsidy is a little more.

 1^st October - Induction at LSE
The MSc induction will take place on Monday 1^st October  (details will come from Daniel Peppiatt).  At the induction I will explain the way in which  your MSc Management CEMS degree differs from the regular route of the MSc and the extra components which are required to fulfil both the MSc and the CEMS requirement.   

Monday 8th October - This is when teaching begins.   Timetables will be available on-line by around mid-August.  Term ends on Friday 14^th December.

30 November – 2  December - Annual CEMS events, this year being held at Bocconi University, Milan.    You will get the opportunity to attend the career forum and various other student events.   Further details will be  on the CEMS website in due course.

Monday 7^th January  2007
This is the most likely day for the MN403 exam. All other exams will take place in the Summer Term (May/June).  See section below on Courses and Assessment.

January, February, March - May, June, July 
CEMS schools differ in the times they start and end their Spring Term, but you will expect to go abroad for between 3 & 4 months (SSE is an exception, starts early finishes late).

May/June  -  LSE summer exam session
Any outstanding exams from your term at LSE will take place in this period.   If you are still abroad we send them to your exchange school.

June – September 
Dissertation time.  Also, if you have not yet completed your internship for CEMS this can be done as long as you can manage to get your dissertation done as well.   See later section on internships.

December  -   graduation from MSc Management will take place at LSE in the week  December.     If you have managed to fulfil all the CEMS requirements, i.e. CEMS courses, internship, language exams and skills seminars, you will graduate from CEMS in early December.   I believe the venue for the CEMS events in 2008 is Bocconi University, Milan.

Courses and Assessment

 This is where it starts to get complicated!! LSE regulations require you to take 4 half unit courses in your first term. CEMS  requires you to take  the equivalent of 60 ECTS credits over the whole CEMS study period (30 at LSE and 30 during your term abroad). We don’t use ECTS credits at LSE but for CEMS purposes we have given all of our courses a 7.5 credit value. Therefore the 4 courses you take at LSE count as 30 credits towards CEMS.  However, this is only the case if the 4 courses you take are ‘CEMS approved’.  

We offer several courses which fall into the CEMS core and electives category.

When you go abroad you must also gain another 30 ECTS credits for CEMS.  15 of these will be gained from your participation in a CEMS business project which will be allocated during your term abroad. You  then have to take courses to the equivalent of 15 ECTS credits in CEMS courses. One of the courses you take abroad must be a CEMS core course, usually these are valued at 7.5 credits. The other 7.5 may be another CEMS core course or you may find you have to do 2 more courses of lesser value, i.e. some are 4 credits each. In some cases it may be that CEMS electives are 5 credits, which unfortunately means that you have to take slightly more credits than you actually need.

It is very important to make sure that you manage to choose courses which cover both your MSc Management regulations and the CEMS regulations. Check the student guide and ask me if you are not sure.  I will go over this at the induction session in detail.

We have tried to provide CEMS courses at LSE which are assessed by coursework or a January exam where possible. This is to ease the situation in the summer term when most LSE exams take place.  It is possible to select 4 courses which allow you to get all of your assessment completed by around mid February. However, this does limit your choice somewhat. Here is a list of core and elective courses which cover both your MSc and CEMS regulations:

PLEASE NOTE:  Visiting CEMS students are assessed in a different way to LSE CEMS students for some courses.   They have all their assessment done by coursework, or in the case of MN403, an exam in January.    This is sometimes deemed unfair by home students but please remember you will be getting an LSE MSc for your efforts, the visiting students DO NOT get an award from LSE.

 If you select courses which are examined in the summer you may have them sent to your term abroad destination.   We send exams every year and have never had a problem.  

Corporate Input 
CEMS courses are supposed to be jointly designed and taught by corporate representatives.  This isn’t possible at LSE, therefore we put on several ‘Practitioner Seminars’, usually early evening on Wednesdays, whereby we invite companies to come along and participate.   Last year Siemens, VW and Wolseley were our guests. These sessions are compulsory.

 CEMS specific requirements:

In addition to the taught courses and the business project taken at home and abroad, CEMS students must fulfil the following requirements in order to get the CEMS MIM:

Internship
Minimum of 10 weeks duration.  If not completed by Sept. 07 the next opportunity will be summer/autumn 2008 after the dissertation.   The internship can be completed in any country and it must be evaluated on the CEMS Internship evaluation form.   This will be sent to the supervisor of the internship at the company by the LSE CEMS office.

Skills seminars 
You must participate in 4 days of skills seminars either at home or abroad. These can 2 x 2 day, 4 x 1 day, or a combination of full and half days. We offer a number of seminars here, one of which is compulsory for LSE CEMS students. The compulsory one is a presentation skills seminar which runs for 3 hours per week over 5 weeks.    There are usually 3 courses timetabled, 2 over the first 5 weeks or term and another in the second 5 weeks of term. You will be given the opportunity to sign up for a session at the start of term.

Other skills seminars for the 2007/08 session have yet to be finalised. Further details will be given at induction. If you don’t manage to both skills seminars at LSE you need to make sure you get the other 2 days during your term abroad.

Language exams 
CEMS requires students to demonstrate skills in 2 foreign languages. Most of you are not native English speakers, therefore English will be the first foreign language for most. You will not be examined in English as you are studying for your degree in it. Therefore you will have to be examined in only one foreign language. Please see the CEMS website for further information on language testing.  Exams take place twice per year in September and April. If you would like to be examined in September please let me know as soon as possible. You may take the exams at any CEMS school but you must pre-register. If you do not pass either the oral or the written (or both) first time, you may have 2 more attempts.

Accommodation:
One of the downsides of only being at LSE for one term is that you are excluded from renting LSE accommodation due to the shortage of rooms for students who are here for the whole academic year. Therefore you need to find your own room in the private sector. As you are not around for the minimum 6 month let which most landlords ask for this can be tricky. However,  we have never yet had a homeless student so please try not to worry.    There are some websites which have specific ‘short let’ sections, LOOT for example is one, www.loot.co.uk  and www.gumtree.co.uk  is also useful. You may also find it easier the nearer it gets to the start of term as landlords start to think having a student for 3 months is better than none. Last year several students got together during the blocked seminar to find flats sharing with each other. If you go to the University of London accommodation website there is a list of hostels which might be of interest to some of you.  www.housing.london.ac.uk and they also give lots of general information on the pitfalls of renting and on different areas etc.

Finally, I hope this information has not put you off CEMS! It will be a lot of work but also great fun and hopefully very rewarding. If you have any questions don’t hesitate to contact me. I will be here for most of the summer.

Please note:    I only work part time, usually on Monday, Wednesday and Friday and I am without an assistant at the moment, so there may be a slight delay in getting back to you.

Best wishes

Julie Fordham

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