Tag: Finland

During August 2012 Lionie attended the Helsinki Summer School, here is her story.

Pre-departure:

I was extremely excited to have been accepted for a summer school course at the University of Helsinki.  To apply I had to hand in my CV, a motivational letter, a permission letter from my supervisor and a 5 minute video clip.  I will advise students to start with this as soon as possible to ensure that it is completed before the closing date of the application.

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During August 2012 Esmarie attended the Helsinki Summer School, here is her story.

Pre-departure:

You are an Industrial Engineering student. You just got accepted for a summer school on the Finnish education system – a system rumoured to be the best in the world. Having spent the best part of the first semester on “the other side” of University education – drawing up assignments, marking projects and handling students’ queries – you are convinced that the system can be improved. Somehow. You have some ideas and they’re not half bad, but you just have this feeling that the Finns might have a few amazing things up their sleeves.

I have raised two important issues already:

• I am an engineer by training. Most of my friends are engineers. A lot of what we talk about would not interest most other people I know… You catch my drift. A month or so before leaving, it hit me – I would be spending three weeks with people who, instead of agreeing to his good sense, would probably laugh at the engineer who, given the choice between a woman, the clothes she had just been wearing and her bicycle, chose the bicycle reasoning that “the clothes obviously wouldn’t fit”.  Nerves started kicking in right about then.
• On top of my fear that my classmates and I would have incompatible senses of humour, the pre-course assignment (and the many terms I had never come across before) was another reminder that I might be in over my head.  The assignment was not very difficult, but the terminology and structure of the articles differed significantly from the articles I had gotten used to on this side of Merriman. When people asked if I was excited, my eyes got really big, my voice really small, I did one of those “smiling would make this less awkward”-grimaces and said “I’m a bit nervous.”

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During August 2011 Desiree Daniels attended the Helsinki Summer School; here is her report:

Leading up to the school:    

I am completing my MPhil in Management Coaching, and while a student at SU I was eligible to apply for the exchange programme.  I thought this would be a great opportunity to extend my experience as a student as this may be my last chance to qualify.  After considering various exchange programmes offered by SU, I opted to do the course on Inter-organisational Relations offered at the Helsinki Summer School (HSS) as this was a keen interest of mine.  The partnership arrangement is that fees and accommodation costs are covered.  In addition to this, I was very fortunate to qualify for a travel bursary.  So the only expenses I had was my food and entertainment.  This sounded too good to be true as without this scholarship I would not have been able to pursue this route.

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