UU Report form - Erasmus 2014-2015 faculty/college

Social Sciences

level

bachelor’s

master’s

name study programme

Educational Sciences

destination city & country

Joensuu, Finland

name university abroad

University of Eastern Finland

start date

01 / 09 / 2014 (dd/mm/yyyy)

end date

20 / 12 / 2014 (dd/mm/yyyy)

PhD

You are requested to write on the following topics. Text boxes will expand automatically while typing!

PREPARATION exchange application process Everything you need to know about this can be found on the website of the international office of the faculty and of the university in general. I found this quite clear. I would advice to start in time so you have enough time to make a good decision. Don't only look at destination, whether there are suitable courses is also important. After Utrecht has accepted you the university responds quite fast and provides you with all the needed information. This is really complete. It takes some time and some work but remember that it is really worth it!

counselling & support at Utrecht University Quick answers from the International Office, especially when you asked something through email. Not much support is needed when you have no problems with your application . Erasmus Grant application was extremely late which was very annoying. The international Office did try there best to help to fill in the form is time. During the exchange it was also possible to ask questions so no worries about that. academic preparation Not necessary (the level of education is a lot higher in Utrecht). I would however advise to maybe take an extra course in Utrecht so you only have to take 22.5 credits (the minimum requirement for Erasmusgrant) so you have more time for traveling and partying. language preparation Finnish is impossible. People who have studied for more than 2 years still don't understand Finnish. Don't waste your time trying to master the language. I did take a language course at the University in Finland however (Survival FInnish). The level is really low (the teacher only talks about other stuff than the language) but it is extremely easy to pass (I still regret dropping it). page 1 of 11

It is fun to do this course so I would advice to do so. finances Finland is more expensive than the Netherlands but there are some ways to cut down your costs. - First, use a bike instead of the bus (The bus is expensive and doesn't go after 8 p.m.). THis is really common in Joensuu en saves a lot of money. Rent a bike (this is possible at several places) so you don't have to pay for fixing the bike. - Second, eat at the cafeteria of the university. The price of a warm lunch is 2,35 euros including salad, bread and drinks. This is a lot cheaper than groceries and everyone eats here. Lots of vegetarian and diet food available. You do have to pay the Student Union membership, but this is really worth it. Prices of transportation, groceries and alcohol (especially alcohol, it is really expensive) are higher than in the Netherlands but on the other hand there are also things cheaper like rent (I paid 220 euros for a room of 22 m2 in a shared flat). If you want to travel (if you do, buy cheaper alcohol in Estonia or Russia) and do fun things at your Erasmus (and I think everyone wants that) I would advise you to save some money. I used about 1000 euros on top of the incomes like the student grant, Erasmusgrant and transportation grant.

STUDY ABROAD PERIOD study programme (content and organisational issues) I mostly took courses in the field of Teacher education, Educational Sciences and Psychology. The registration was quite easy (although WebOodi is the most horrible website ever). You do need to register in time because courses might get full. Pay attention to overlapp and attendance (however, you can usually arrange something with teachers if this occurs). The semester only lasts less than 4 months, and most of my courses were in the first 2 months. I didn't have to take any exams, just essays. This depends on your courses however. There are very little lectures (some courses don't have lectures at all) and you therefore need to study a lot on your own or in a group. Most deadlines are in November/December and therefore the beginning of the semester was very relaxed for everyone. You can usually miss some lectures if you want to travel, but you need to arrange this with your teacher. Make sure to do this in time. Finnish people are very practical, they help when you ask, but with nothing more than what you ask. Therefore make sure to ask everything you need to know. academic quality of education activities The quality was quite low compared to Utrecht. You didn't have to work very hard to get your credits (I easiliy got 30 credits in less than 4 months with traveling and partying all the time). Finland is not so strict on academic rules like APA and the quality of references. Your own opinion is quite important and it asked often in assignments. Take some master courses if you want a bit a challenge, these are a little better (but still very easy).

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When you take exams you can always retake them (unlimited amount of times) so most people go the first time just to check what the exam is like). A semester abroad is a good way to higher your average grade in this case. counselling & support at receiving university abroad LIke I said, Finnish are very practical. The neccesary information is given but for the rest you have to find out yourself. Your tutor ( a student that will help you with your arrival etc.) can help you. And also the student union is very helpful. In the survival guide (a guide you get send home before the semester) you will find pretty much all the information you need. Finnish are friendly and very willing to help you. Also the different Facebookgroups (Erasmus Joensuu, ESN Joensuu etc.) are often used to ask for information about things. transfer of credits I haven't done this yet, but you should ask for a Transcript of Records and than it should all be oke.

STUDENT LIFE welcome & orientation programme I arrived quite early, which gave me some chance to discover the city. I would however advice not to go too early, because not many people will be there. Some time before is usefull however. I got a lot of help from my tutor with arranging a lot of stuff for my room and with registrations at the university. The welcome programme was for the most part quite useless if you had read the international students guide. It was however a nice way to meet some people. I skipped some days and had the feeling that I missed nothing. The city oriëntation is quite nice however, so I would recommend you to go there. Also the introduction to your faculty and the introduction on the first day are quite usefull. accommodation There are big problems with accommondation in Joensuu (only in autumn sememster). There are too little flats and therefore there was a big group homeless in the first month (they lived in a hotel). Joensuu Elli (similar to the SSH) is the best and cheapest option. Most internationals live in the student flats of st st Elli. I would recommend renting from the 1 of August instead of 1 of September because that gives you a way bigger chance of getting a place. This way you should be able to find a place. Most flats of Elli are quite far away from the university/city centre (about 5-6 km) but since most students live there it would be the best place. Flats in the city centre are harder to get and a lot more expensive. Furnished rooms are easiest option. leisure & culture Joensuu is not a very big city so you have to organize some stuff yourself to enjoy. This is no problem however. There are a lot of clubs, like theatre, dancing (salsa), sports, boardgames etc. I sang at the choir of the university which was a lot of fun. People often organise dinners and parties at their place, which is also a way to spend your time. I would highly recommend to join ESN Joensuu, they organize a lot of parties, activies (dinners, music evenings etc.) and are responsible for organising trips. I was a board member and made some great friends in ESN. Furthermore, travel! There are a lot of great places to visit. ESN organises trips to St. Petersburg, Stockholm and Lapland and I can recommend to join them because it is a cheap option to travel with all your friends. Furthermore Tallinn is a great place to visit. Lapland is an absolute must (it was one of the most amazing places I have ever visited).

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In conclusion, lots of activities are organized. You can also party in the city centre but this is more expensive and are not very big clubs or something. The culture is a bit independent. Finnish people are mostly shy and don't talk a lot to others (they are a bit distant). Most people do speak English, but won't talk to you unless you talk to them. However, once you get to be friends with Finnish people they are really reliable and loyal. It can be worth your investment. The Finnish Friend programme is a nice way to get to know some people, but not everyone had a close relationship with their Finnish friend. I met a lot of Finnish people in the choir, which is also a good option. suggestions/tips Just enjoy, it is really easy to make a lot of friends on Erasmus, so just make the best out of your time. Bring warm clothes and you will be fine.

CONCLUSIONS would you recommend this university/destination abroad to others? please explain I would definitly recommend it. The quality of education is not very high, but the student life is very good and there are great oppertunities for travelling. I will never forget this experience and it was absolutely incredible. do you have any additional advice or comments? Don't be to scared by the cold. It is not so bad and by wearing some good clothes you will prevent yourself from getting cold. Take some vitamine D for the dark and just enjoy this unforgettable period of your life!

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UU Report form - Erasmus 2013-2014 faculty/college

Social Sciences

level

bachelor

master

PhD

Bachelor of Science, Psychology. I did a minor and took courses from Social

name degree programme

Sciences, Psychology, Criminology and Anthropology

destination city & country

Joensuu, Finland

name host institution and/or

University of Eastern Finland

company/organization purpose Erasmus grant departure date (dd/mm/yyyy) return date (dd/mm/yyyy)

courses

research

work placement

01 / 09 / 2013 31 / 12 / 2013

You are requested to write on the following topics. Text boxes will expand automatically while typing!

preparation exchange/placement application process When I at first applied for an exchange, I wanted to go to Canada. Unfortunately I did not get placed, so as soon as the residual places were announced I applied for another university. I chose Joensuu in Finland, because it seemed to me that within Europe it would be, at least a little bit, similar to Canada. So when I heard that I got placed I was very excited, especially because I knew nothing about Finland, except that it was cold and the university were good. In the beginning there are a lot of things you have to arrange, but if you get into it rightaway it's very doable. Just make sure that you have a checklist, so your application cannot fail because of forgetfulness. counselling/support at home university The exchange I did was from the faculty of Social Sciences. The international office was very helpful when I had to arrange everything for the Erasmus Grant, because that can be tricky. They also helped me to get in touch with the university in Joensuu, so I could ask which courses were taught in English. The website of the university there was not very clear, so this way I could choose my courses much more easily. academic preparation Before I went to Finland all I had to do was pack my suitcases, so as far as academic preparations go, it was a piece of cake. The only thing you had to do for the university was arrange the learning agreement and the regular forms for your application. language preparation I didn't speak a word of Finnish, so I got a book about Finland which also had some language preparation in it. I

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had fun trying to learn some basic sentences, but I just hoped they would be able to speak English. finances When it comes to finances the rumours are true: Finland is expensive. The groceries cost quite some more than in the Netherlands, so just make sure you save enough money before departure and adapt. You will also want to do every trip, because they are definitely the best part of the exchange. My sources of money were the Erasmus Grant, the money I received for not using my card for public transportation, I rented out my apartment in Utrecht and I worked a lot all summer so I had enough savings. It did cost more than I expected/hoped, but it was worth it. study/placement abroad period study programme/work plan (concerning content and organisational issues) Like I said before, I had contact with the university in Joensuu before departure concerning my courses. They told me which ones were taught in English and available for me in Autumn. I was very happy with the list I had made, but when I had to apply at the university with my new Finnish student account, it turned out they didn't inform me very well after all. Most of the courses were taught in Finnish, even though they ensured me before that they were available in English. There were also courses that hadn't been taught for three years and didn't exist in the system anymore. I emailed every professor of the courses I could not apply for in their system, asking what the problem was. It surprised me that only four out of the ten courses I wanted to enrol in was actually available for me. I had to find a lot of other courses in different subjects to get enough credits. Luckily some of the professors I emailed arranged a special plan for me so I could enrol in the course after all. But still six of my courses in my original learning agreement were cancelled. If you study Psychology I would not recommend going to Joensuu. The courses in Social Sciences are nice, but don't expect to be able to learn about clinical or health psychology. academic quality of education/placement activities The quality of the courses was good. The exams were different from the Dutch ones, so I did have to get used to it. You have to read a lot of books and the exams have very specific essay questions, so it's quite difficult. The level of education was similar to the Netherlands. counselling/support at host institution/organisation Finnish people are very helpful but also very practical, so I got the help that I needed but you really have to go after it yourself. transfer of credits I don't know in what way my credits will be transferred, because that will happen in a couple of weeks. The grading in Finland is the same as in the US, so from A to F. student life welcome/orientation programme

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The first week had an orientation programme. It was only useful concerning university stuff you had to arrange, further than that it was just a lot of information I never used. It's mostly nice to go because you meet all the other international students. accommodation Whoever goes to Joensuu next: do not arrange housing via Elli Housing! They are extremely unhelpful. They did not inform me about the fact that I did not get placed, and when I called them they had the excuse that they didn't have time to send every student that didn't get placed an email. They later offered me emergency housing, so I took it so I would at least have a place to live. It was already to late to arrange anything else. I was placed in a crappy building with 25 international students, but payed the same amount of money as the people who got placed in a regular Elli Housing building. The building was surrounded by an area of other flats that were under construction. It was fun to live with the other students but the building itself was terrible. After a month or so I discussed with one of my floormates that we were all sick way more than in our home countries. We blamed the weather, but found out in the last week that the building was filled with asbestos. Apparently the construction workers used to live in our building too, but refused to stay there any longer because of health problems. Elli Housing knows about this and still had us live there and pay well for it. Riverside is another housing company, that I would strongly recommend. You have to apply very early, but the apartments are nice and you also live with other students there if you want to. leisure/culture The Finnish culture is very interesting. They don't do small talk, so you really have to get used to that. The people are wonderful and friendly, just a bit more quiet. The nature is amazing, there are lakes and woods everywhere. I also went to Lapland and saw the Northern Lights, best experience of my life. suggestions/tips Join the student union and go on every available trip. It's worth the money and make your exchange the best. You can go to Stockholm, Sint Petersburg, Lapland, all places you have to see! conclusions would you recommend this host organisation/destination to others? please explain I would recommend it to people who don't study Psychology, because finding courses in English is very difficult. do you have any additional advice or comments? Just go and enjoy!

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UU Report form - Erasmus 2013-2014 faculty/college

Social Sciences

level

bachelor

master

PhD

name degree programme

Psychology (cognitive and Neurobiological Psychology and Neuropsychology)

destination city & country

Joensuu, Finland

name host institution and/or

University of Eastern Finland

company/organization purpose Erasmus grant departure date (dd/mm/yyyy) return date (dd/mm/yyyy)

courses

research

work placement

02 / 08 / 2013 23 / 12 / 2013

You are requested to write on the following topics. Text boxes will expand automatically while typing!

preparation exchange/placement application process The application was relatively simple, and looking back on it, less paper work than previously assumed. The most work was fixing all the documents for the application at the UU, but this has a big advantage: after this application the host needed almost all the same documents (if they needed any extra at all, most work of correspondation was done by the international office of the UU). After the deadline I got a relatively fast response and could start planning my stay there and booking tickets etc. counselling/support at home university The support at the UU of the international office is okay. The most questions that I had were answered, but for one or two the answer turned out to be slightly different. This was because some rules from the government had recently changed. Therefore it's always good to double-check. Furthermore, the study-advisor is also very helpful for the planning and also knows a great deal about current rules of the government (concerning finance). academic preparation I didn't had to do any specific preparation, since I had all my study points in the first year. I did however choose to already do the most of my compulsary subjects in the second year, so that I could finish in 3 years. language preparation None was needed, english was sufficient and as a student of the UU no other certificate needed to be provided to prove this.

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finances I had made a budget in advance (already made a rough estimation in my first year) and took on extra hours in the months before going abroad. I did not take on a loan, since I live at home, I had enough saved up plus the Erasmus grant plus the study finance and public transport re-imbursement. Even though I thought I had a large budget set aside, it turned out it could have been bigger, but more for the luxery. study/placement abroad period study programme/work plan (concerning content and organisational issues) I did 6 subjects: 2 of which were web-courses, 2 were lecture courses, 1 book-exam and 1 essay. I choose these for the topics and the points and was dissappointed in how much of these were taking place at home and not the uni. But since the winters are fierce in Finland, it might have been better. The topic of the web-courses was intercultural competence and communication. Both helped me experience my abroad period a bit differently, since it gave me insights in how the receiving organisation can view visitors. Also, these courses followed each other in time, which took the pressure of. The host had only one semester and courses in this time could pick there own weeks, so overlap was an easy problem. One lecture course I took was Finnish, since I wanted to learn a bit of the language. The other lecture course was Orient meets Occident, were the differences and meetings in the past were discussed. This last course was really educational for me, since I didn't take the social psychology direction, but did want to have a subject in it. This courses ended earlier than others (I tried to devide the work in two periods, just as at home). I took one book-exam in the end, because I wanted to see how educational this is, but it was rather disappointing, mostly because of the quality (so I will talk more about it at the next paragragh). Lastly, I wrote one essay. Althought the whole process of writing it was educational and an enrichment, I didn't get feedback, just a grade. Since you don't get to see the teacher, I figured I would get it written, but they hardly ever give feedback. academic quality of education/placement activities The quality of eduaction was low compared to the UU. I should have checked the list which stated the UEF to be on place 290, whereas the UU is on place 80. But since the UU is pretty high in the rankings and I know that the quality on the social sciences is really good, I think it would be could to expect a lower quality of education, unless it's a known university for it's quality of education. I will explain a bit why I think the quality was low. The previous mentioned book exam is a good example: I head to read three books. One was about individual differnces in parenthood, which was fairly scientifically written. The second "study" book was called "Cupid's arrow, The course of love through time", and this wasn't even the worse book. This book had some references, but almost all to the same writer and was written as an novell. But the last book "The seven principles for making marriage work" was written as an american self-help-book and had quizes and assigment and was about as educational as the Cosmo. Obviously, I was offended about how social sciences is given at this university and complained and even the student union of the university felt ashamed.

I could give many more examples but the main point is a difference in perspective and level of scientific

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approach. Also concerning this approach, feedback is considered important at the UU, but this is also a way of doing things and therefore you shouldn't be surprised if it differs. The host had more things as own initiative from the students, which is good, but means you have to search way more to find the same opportunities. Another good thing to do, is when picking courses, ask around how hard and good they are. counselling/support at host institution/organisation The international office equivalent was one person who knew pretty much everything and where you could always go to. Only downpoint was that she was really busy, so it was better to email if you were in a hurry, but otherwise you could just try go by a few times and you would eventually get to see her and she would do her best to help you. transfer of credits They have a nice system: you fill in a form stating which courses you still haven't got the grade back from. Once it's completed, they post the list and you neatly receive it back at home with all the needed stamps on it. It went smoothly. I just need to hand in the list to STIP myself and then it's done. student life welcome/orientation programme The Orientation programme was quite useless for me: all the info discussed was in the student guide (which was near perfect!). And I'd been there longer for the Erasmus Intensice Language Course, so already knew quite a lot. For students who are too lazy to read the guide (which are quite many, I can imagine) it's a good orientation week. accommodation The accommadation was good and also the service. When something needed fixing, it was easy to mail and they would fix it really fast. At Ellinet almost all things are handled with forms and this works well. For other questions I went by the office (or could also call) and they were always really friendly and gave correct answers.

The accomodation was fine for the price, but I wish I had paid more and was closer to the city. After a while the location is not so nice (cold weather etc) and with small hills, 6km from center is way more then it seems. The accommodation itself was in a sufficient condition, but for service you had to be lucky and persistance, when something breaks for example. The only real downpoint to the place was a central regulated heating, so it got kind of cold leisure/culture In the city there is not so much to do and the activities that are available are mostly from student unions. I soon joined ESN, and got selected as secretary and therefore became a board member, and joined all their activities. This way I got to know some Finnish and learn something about there culture. I also joined a Finnish Ultimate Frisbee team and got to know some Finnish there. It's hard to get to know Finnish, but it's a good way to learn

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their culture. suggestions/tips Join a student union. I think ESN is the most easy for international and become an active member. If you're really active it's possible to go on a trip as a groupleader and this will get you the trip for free. Also, in Joensuu there are numerous places to sport, which is good to get to know some people too.

Also, if you really want to be sure of the quality of education, check the rating of the university. If I would have done this, I would be better prepared. conclusions would you recommend this host organisation/destination to others? please explain I would recommend this place if you like a quiet place with a lot of nature. This area is great for the outdoorperson. I am not, but still liked the peace and quiet. It's also an easy place to travel from; in my stay there I went to Stockholm, Lapland and st.Petersburg. Some people even travelled more (easy connection to Talinn and Riga for example, or Iceland). The university is well organised, but the quality of study is low compared to the UU, but I think this will be the case in many different countries. do you have any additional advice or comments? Every location you pick is a good choice, because every location has something amazing. And even without looking at the location, I had a great time, because the people you meet during Erasmus are amazing. I have made friends all over Europe and got many invites, so I will definitely be travelling more to visit my new friends.

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