Semester abroad at University of Agder

Semester abroad at University of Agder

Contact: Aniek Ebbinge – a.ebbinge@student.rug.nl

In the autumn semester, I studied abroad in Norway. At the University of Agder (UiA) in Kristiansand, a city in the Southern Norway. I followed some courses at the faculty of humanities and education. I had an amazing time here and I am going to share my experiences in this paper.

Courses

During my semester abroad, I have followed three courses at the faculty of humanities and education. All three were 10 ECTS, which I have earned successfully, and lasted for the whole semester. I chose a course package in humanities as these were recommended by the university for international students. They also looked very interesting to me and they related nicely to my study programme in Groningen. The three courses that I took were:

Norwegian for International Students, Uses and Abuses of History and Norway: Society and Culture. As you can tell from the course titles, they are quite different from courses that I can follow in Groningen, except for the history course perhaps.

The history course was also the most difficult course of the three. There was quite a lot of reading and there some small assignment to be done. The exam assignment was to write three 1,000-word essays about three research questions that you received beforehand. The teachers provided good and clear instructions on how to write a proper essay, which was helpful, but mostly nothing new.

The Norwegian language course was quite easy in my opinion. I kept up with the assignments, which was not a lot of work, and then the course was good to follow. The level we were tested in on the exam was A1, which I think was easily doable, and we were not assessed on speaking and listening. However, it was really nice to learn some of the language that is spoken around you all the time.

The last course, Norway: Society and Culture, was nice even though I did expect a little bit more from it. In this course we learned about multiple aspects of Norway: education, history, literature, outdoor life and so on. The different facets were taught by different Norwegian teachers who were all specialized in one the topics. We even went out into the woods to learn about Norway’s outdoor life and education. Some of the topics took some weeks to cover, while others were done in one lecture. I think some subjects could have taken longer and others could have been done in a shorter period. Especially, because the exam was just about two of the topics. Besides the lectures there were not a lot of readings and hardly any assignments. The course was not really on an academic level, in my opinion. But I did learn a lot about the Norwegian culture and its society in four months’ time, which is a unique opportunity.

The host institution

The quality of education was honestly good, it is similar to the education at the University

Groningen. Although, sometimes two of the courses lacked depth a little bit. Everyone is very

fluent in English, which makes communication easy. The teachers had a lot of knowledge

about the subjects and they were always open to help you. The facilities were great, there

was a big cantina and also a library and many places for studying. During the exam periods,

there were plenty of places to study in the library. Before the semester, I received all of the

information I needed to prepare. The university has a global lounge, where, among others,

two international students work, and it was really helpful to come for information. They were

always willing to sign papers or help out with problems.

As for my home institution (the UG), I did not have so much contact with them because I did not need it necessarily and the other students were all following a minor, so there was not so much to exchange. It would have been nice from the department to check in maybe once, but this is not something that I have missed.

Reception

When I arrived, ESN (Erasmus Student Network) was waiting in the city centre to pick us up and bring us to our accommodations. The semesters in Norway start a bit earlier compared to the Netherlands, I already had my first lecture on the 13

of August. On the other hand, they also finish earlier, in December. The first week was an introduction week, organised by the global lounge and ESN. We had an information day with presentations about the procedures at the university and such. We had to download some programs, for printing for example, and they explained how Canvas (their version of Nestor) works. We were divided into buddy groups to get us familiar with the city, campus and the other international students. We also were introduced to the city by the major of Kristiansand, so we had quite a warm welcome! There was also an introduction week for all first-year students (similar to the Keiweek in Groningen), which was also open for international students. Although, it later turned out that they did not have enough spots anymore. However, during this period there are quite some activities or entrances for students for free, for example a museum, the zoo or a boat trip.

Campus

The University of Agder is placed at the edge of the city, and it is surrounded by woods, hills and lakes, which was really amazing. I’m not used to this at all in Groningen, and I found myself exploring the nature more often than I expected. The university has a few different buildings with lecture rooms and such all at one campus. At the campus, there is also the possibility to live. There are quite a lot of different types of dorms, which is convenient for international students like me, because it can be hard to find housing in an unknown country or city. A few months before you leave, you can choose a dorm room that you would like to live in. There are quite a lot of different types of rooms, the cheapest ones are around 2,700 NOK (which is a little bit less than €300) per month and the most expensive ones can be 6,000 NOK (which is a little bit more than €600) per month. Some are located in the city, but most are at the campus. The campus is 30 minutes walking from the city centre. Mine was located at campus. I had to share my flat with three other students, but I had my own room, shower and toilet. So, the only thing we really shared was a huge kitchen and dining room.

The building was new, so everything was clean and in good shape. There were already a bed, closet, desk, chair and so on in the room, so I didn’t have to buy everything new. I had to pay almost €500 per month for my room, which I think was quite a lot, but I had a really nice flat so I guess it was worth. But for almost half the amount you can rent a room that you share with another student and you share the kitchen with eight at most. These flats are also quite big and in hindsight this would have maybe been a better option. There are laundry rooms in some of the buildings that you can reserve when you need them. The campus also had a gym. I followed some group courses here every week, but you can also work out by yourself in the gym or go swimming.

Expenses

Norway is known for being a relatively expensive country and I found this to be very true. As I

already mentioned, I had to pay quite a lot of rent every month, but this didn’t necessarily

have to be the case. Besides studying, I made quite a lot of trips. Norway is really big, so

travelling by airplane is not unusual. And we rented a car a couple of times. This made my

semester abroad quite expensive, but also really worth it. I think you quickly pay €500 for a

trip, of course this depends on how far you travel, how you travel and how long you travel.

On top of that, come groceries which are on average a bit more expensive than in the Netherlands. There are different supermarket chains and some are cheaper than others. I find it hard to make an estimation of how much I spent on this, but I would say around €300-

€400 per month. This also includes alcohol, which is honestly expensive, but when you buy it in a club or at the bar, it’s even more. Normally, a beer costs around €10. Furthermore, there were also some costs that are just once. For example, it’s easy and common to get around by bike, so I rented one for €100 for the whole semester. I also bought a membership at the gym for three months, which cost me €100 also. In the beginning of the semester I had to buy some books for the courses, which I think were over €100 in total.

Personal observations and recommendations

I actually haven’t encountered any problems that I can think of. However, one observation that I made is that it is quite hard to socialize with the Norwegians as they are quite closed in general and that is why I was always the internationals. It didn’t ruin my experience abroad at all, but I think it would have been nice to meet more Norwegians than I did. With some other internationals, we also tried to join the student volleyball association. At first they were very welcoming towards us, but after some trainings they said that we could only train with the beginners, which was not so nice because most of us had already quite a few years of experience, so we quit then. This is something to keep in the back of your mind maybe when going to Norway.

As for recommendations, I would advise you to study (hard) during the week and take the

weekends off. There are so many things to see and do in Norway. I think it’s really worth it to

go on trips and visit other Norwegian cities or towns. Also, hiking is really popular here and

it’s really cool! Norway has unlimited places for hiking, so I would recommend to bring good

hiking boots if you have them and make the best hikes. And also, bring warm and waterproof

clothes, Norway can become cold in the wintertime and snowy. Unfortunately, in the south it

does not snow so often and rain is much more common. Combined with cold, that is not a

pleasant situation when you do not have the appropriate clothing. You can, of course, also

buy them in Norway.