– Too complicated to go on student exchange

Have you ever been tossed back and forth by the different faculties, institutes and student advisors when you want to take a semester abroad? If so, you are not alone.

– From day one at the university, the students are recommended to go abroad, but in reality, no one wants to follow it up. The students need to know where to go and who to talk to. The way things are today, the people in charge of the student exchange programmes at the various faculties are practically invisible, says Heine Skipenes, Head of the Faculty of Social Sciences’ Student Council (SVSU). Now, several student politicians demand an improvement of the student exchange programmes at the University of Oslo (UiO). Robin Sande, executive for international affairs at the Student Parliament agrees that there are several weaknesses in the programmes.

– There is so much that needs to be taken care of, I don’t even know where to start, he says.

Had to arrange everything themselves

«You have to find that out by yourself» was the answer the two students at clinical psychology, Kjersti Aartun and Ingvild Breen, received from the Institute of Psychology (PSI) when they tried to go on student exchange to Costa Rica during the autumn semester last year.

– We received practically no help at all from the institute, and had to look up the e-mail address to the University of Costa Rica ourselves. There was a lot of going back and forwards before we even knew what to put in our applications, Aartun says.

The girls had to arrange everything themselves, from having the course catalogue sent from Costa Rica, to looking up the various course combinations that corresponded to the courses they would have attended in Oslo. They even had to translate all the course descriptions from Spanish to Norwegian in order to have them preapproved by the university.

– It wasn’t exactly a very motivating process, and we wonder if this is a deliberate strategy the institute uses in order to prevent students from going abroad, says Breen.

Both girls emphasise that the problems they experienced were at the institute only, while the International Education Office proved to be very helpful.

Håkon Skard is from the same institute as Aartun and Breen. He spent the autumn of 2006 in South Africa.

– I went to the University of Cape Town which even has an exchange agreement with UiO. Yet, I had exactly the same problems as the girls who went to Costa Rica, Skard says. He too is of the impression that the institute is reluctant to send students abroad on the exchange programmes.

Unfortunate

Head of Department at the Institute of Psychology, Fanny Duckert, responds that the institute considers the feedback from the students to be of great importance.

– I have no problem with admitting that this has been a very unfortunate experience and I sincerely apologise on behalf of the institute. We take this very seriously and will immediately look into our routines. I see no reason to wait, it is important that the students feel taken care of, she adds.

Still, Duckert points out that student exchange is a complicated and challenging experience and that it is quite all right to make demands to the students’ independence. The institute cannot lead the student’s by the hand either.

– Student exchange is a complex process for everyone involved, and it is important that the students who go abroad are prepared for the harsh reality. They must be able to take initiative, to improvise and to orientate themselves in the new surroundings.

– Unlucky

Supervisor at the International Education Office at UiO, Guri Vestad agrees that there is a lot that needs to be taken care of before the university has a streamlined exchange programme.

– Our final goal is to make the student exchange programme as accessible as possible. It’s a pity if a lot of students have negative experiences with the exchange programmes at UiO. It sounds like these students have been very unlucky.

- There are a lot of dissatisfied students. Do you really think that these cases are coincidences?.

– No, it is clear that there are many things that need to be done in order to improve the situation, Vestad admits.

Information boost

Vestad feels that the biggest potential for improvement lies in providing more information to the various institutes at the University.

– Improving the student exchange programme is a task that will take years, but we are currently working on a new strategy for the exchange programme where several new goals will be set, she says.

She points out that they are constantly working on making the programmes better, and that during the past six months they have established eight new exchange agreements in South America.

– I hope that this will tempt more students to go on student exchange.