Courses at LUISS

Ciao ragazzi,

the weeks are passing by. It is time to introduce you to the courses I am taking this semester. At LUISS we do not have periods; we have four courses in one semester. Unfortunately, we cannot choose them ourselves, because the strategic minor program is already fixed and so are the courses. However, I cannot complain. Last semester I did Financial Markets & Intermediaries, Accounting, Corporate Finance and Marketing.

The level of education is similar to Utrecht and most of my professors have completed their degrees at well-known universities such as Cambridge and Oxford. Last semester I really enjoyed the guest lecturers in Marketing. For a couple of weeks Professor Peter Leeflang from the Netherlands thought us the most important marketing concepts. He has already done a lot of marketing research all over the world and could answer almost all marketing related questions. Then there was the Chief Marketing Officer of Luxottica, Fabio d’Angelantonio who held a very enriching guest lecture about the marketing concepts of Ray Ban. He is a former LUISS student and now a successful business man. If you Google him, you will find pictures of him with Gisele Bündchen and various other stars. That was quite impressive and those are the real privileges of studying at a private university.

This semester I am visiting the following courses: Capital Markets with Professor Zadra, Management with Professor Boccardelli, Business Organization with Professor Andrea North and European Economic History and Policies with Professor Viviani.

So far, I enjoy Business Organization (BO) and Management the most. Andrea, our BO professor is from Australia and always very enthusiastic. I think her aim is to create a herd of managers by the end of the course. She motivates everyone in class and gives everybody the chance to participate (voluntarily or involuntarily).

In Management we learn to assess, scan, forecast and analyze relevant issues and challenges today’s managers have to face for the short-term survival and long-term development of their company. Instead of tutorials we have to write a paper which exists of three parts.

For Capital Markets we have four professors who are working in different companies and business areas besides teaching. Right now we are dealing with the financial crisis in 2007 and it is quite interesting, because all four can contribute to the topic by telling us about their own working experience and view about the crisis.

For European Economic History and Policies I will stick to the book, because the lectures are quite tiring and exhausting. Sorry…Professor Viviani.

I hope I could give you some insight of will expect you next semester.