Weiwei’s SEP Experience

Student Exchange Program in Aarhus University

Teaching and learning in Aarhus University

                 The University of Aarhus is the second oldest and second largest university in Denmark. It was founded in 1928 with 78 students and is still an institution with close ties to the founding local community. Most of the university's yellow-brick buildings are located on our picturesque campus which is situated in a hilly area, with a moraine valley full of large oak trees and a stream that flows into two small lakes.

 

Learning Environment

 

                 Although with 3 week’s training in Danish, my language level is not sufficient to take courses taught in Danish. Only year 3 and above have courses in English. The class size I attended was small, less than 20 students. Students and professors can have much more interactions with each other.

 

                 A feeling of equality is between the lecturers and the students. The lecturers are more like friends or kind seniors instead of authority. They would like to discuss with students and always ready for help.

 

                 I had a course mapped to a much higher level which I don’t have a pre-requisite. After comparing the synopsis and syllabus with NUS, the professor decided to teach me another module. However the teaching language is in Danish. He decided to teach me one by one.

 

                 Aarhus University allows exchange students doing final year projects in their laboratory. However, since it cannot be mapped to NUS as 8MC UROPS or final year project, I did a project as independent study in aging lab. It was an honor for me to get a chance to present my project done in 12^th congress of the international association of biomedical gerontology. The chance was given by my supervisor, Prof. Suresh Rattan, who is not only a senior scientist but also a philosopher. During the project, he didn’t teach me much about experiment techniques, instead he always gave me great ideas to continue my experiments. I was required to made my own protocol and find software myself to solve the problem I encountered.

 

Structure of the Modules

 

                 The structures of the modules are very clear. Usually the modules contained individual topics. One lecture is for one topic. In this kind of structure, if the students miss one class, it won’t affect the next class a lot. In the other hand, the exam tests for all topics taught in one semester. Therefore students have to study every topic and there is not much possible to skip one.

 

Examination Structure

 

                 My first time to have oral exam in my life is in the course Mathematical modeling in Aarhus University. The professor gave 10 questions cover all topics taught in the semester and we need to study all these questions. On the exam day, we randomly select one and present the question. Oral exams not only test how many laws and functions we could remember but also the ability to understand, use and express them.

 

                 Another module, Numerical methods, is totally a project based. There were 10 practical sections and each one can be seen as a small project. The final project is to identify a question, and use some of those methods we had learned during the semester to solve it. Students have to make a self-evaluation and submit to the lecturer. It seems the final results somehow relate to the self-evaluation of the student.

Noble Park: The University of Aarhus received the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1997

The famous symbol of the university

The university lake:

home for wild ducks and sea gulls

Bird view of the campus—from the top of the Stats and University library

Indi and me: enjoy the snow time in campus

12th IABG poster presentation section

With Prof. Suresh Rattan

In the lab: Hendrik and Ricardo

Small size class room