Studying Social Sciences and Humanities

Good afternoon and welcome to webinar from Linköping University. We are going to talk specifically about the faculty of arts and sciences so this is webinar for those of you who have been admitted to program within social sciences or arts such as Ethnic and Migration, Business Studies, Gender, International and European relations and so on. I'm going to kind of start the introduction bit slowly to allow for participants to kind of drop-in. But to let you know that we are going to talk about the guest's experiences for about 20 to 30 minutes and then we'll open up for questions and please put your questions in the Q&A section. That's where we'll be looking so ignore the chat. It's the Q&A function where we'll be answering questions later on. This webinar is being recorded but only the first half, so our conversation will be published on our website later on. The Q&A section it's for you who are here with us live today. think I've done that intro slowly enough so that hope that enough people have joined us. Let's start with an introduction. My name is Therese Winder am communications officer and work centrally with student recruitment. And let's start with... think Daniel is the one who's in the main screen so let's start with you, Daniel. Hello everyone. My name is Daniel Garcia and I'm currently working as an assistant lecturer here at Linköping University and also as SMEAR coordinator in the program of Strategy and Management of International Organizations. Thank you. Hela. Yes, hello everyone. My name is Hela Galvis, am originally from Colombia and currently, I'm pursuing master's degree exactly in the same program that Daniel just mentioned Business Management and International Organizations. And finally Asia. Hi everyone. My name is Asia. come from Italy and I'm finishing now my master in Ethnic Immigration Studies. I'm writing my master's thesis now. Excellent, thank you. So two second-year students. We also have Hela and Daniel and myself despite the background I've chosen based in Linköping and Asia in Norrköping where we have few programs. But thought we should start with just doing kind of brief remembering back two years or even further, for you Daniel, if you want to chip in with your alumni perspective when you first started here what was it like? Describe your kind of your first... your first few weeks of starting classes here. Asia do you want to start? Daniel. this is my bad said... you can go. Okay, so yeah remember quite well when come here. The first impression that had was that was quite warm so don't know exactly why thought that in August in Sweden was very cold but mean in Norrköping or Linköping is not so cold actually so came with lot of winter clothes and was like okay it's summer here mean it's not so hot summer but still warm and regarding like my first experiences in the university remember that it was very beautiful to participate to some welcome activities in my program and think that is something that every program does actually. So probably professors and former students organize you know some kind of welcoming fikas together and... yeah, so remember that quite well also because we went in this beautiful room in the top of campus Norrköping and we had fika together with professors and some students from the second year. Yeah, so that was great experience. Thank you, thank you. Daniel? Yeah, and I'm originally from Spain so for me also felt the same think had bit of conception of when arrived to Sweden that it was maybe also more cold. You will get cold later in winter but it was very good in summer. For me, it's also kind of similar to what Asia was mentioning arrived here bit like alone had been in Linköping University before as an Erasmus student so could say fairly knew the university quite well but it's always bit... you always feel bit nervous when you join program first time in group of like 40 people and you don't know anyone. So really remember the feeling of like being bit alone and how actually, how fast that actually went away because it was basically the first day in class when everyone is in similar situation so you get to talk with lot of people, everyone talk with each other and you kind of bond with each other kind of fast and also thanks to, for example, in the program that did we had this senior students who are big brothers and sisters that's how they are called and their main goal is to actually create all these social activities and bonding activities between the first-year students so this adaptation process is actually easier for them. So remember all these activities especially in the beginning and it was really nice time; then it got bit complicated later when it started like you go more into the studies and reading articles and so on but the first weeks were like really, really, really nice. great, great. How about you Hela? Yes. You are from the same program so similar recollection? Very similar but also would like to add that, of course, the first weeks are the ones that you're trying to figure out everything by yourself, so just to let's say am currently staying in Norrköping and had to commute to Linköping at least three times week or four times week, so really had to learn quite fast how to use Campusbussen before Campusbussen was part of the regional transportation system. Now Campusbussen is like an only exclusive line from the university so yeah, you basically have to kind of get knowledge of where you are, which kind of stores are close to where you live... you know the basics so it's lot of... would say it's quite intense. At least the first two weeks like because you're meeting like all these people, you're trying to understand like your program and you're like wonder where you are and what's available and soon there's going to be lot of parties and lot of gatherings so you kind of want to do it all. So it's bit overwhelming but it's lot of fun so highly recommend that, to enjoy it the most. Yeah, and whilst, you know, you might as well continue what's it like to study here? So you came here and you all seem to have had great kind of, you know, bonding experience finding friends and so on in the first few weeks. But then you settle in and there's classes. What was it like? Well, the first class always going to remember it because it was completely different that what imagined. It was way more hands-on, it's more studying cases, study this certain literature and novels and understanding management from like literature perspective. So think like, at least what I've learned in this milieu or in business management program, is that you are really never sure about what's going to happen in classes. mean of course when you meet the seniors then they let you know but in the beginning, it's like okay you could be watching movies and reading novels to learn leadership and the next term you're doing like financial model and you have to become an expert in excel and the next term you have to become an expert in... don't know right... now I'm doing project in design thinking and I'm also like learning how to understand engineers mean you have to kind of be prepared for all. Regarding like your master thesis topic, mean sorry, your master programs topics. Asia, your perspective from your program? Yeah, was also quite surprised remember and have to say that needed some time to get used to this kind of system. That don't think that it's just about my program but can hear you Hela when you talk about you know the way in which you are now used to learn in the class because think it's very Swedish model of teaching probably. remember that the first-class our professor... was used to in Italy to attend classes seated you know like on desk in front of the teacher and the teacher since the first moment, he asked us to sit around us. You know like as in circle and was like: that's weird. We're gonna do like games or something like that and actually, this is how we do seminars here. You know we sit like in big circle and this facilitates the communication and then yeah, think that this was like the kind of the biggest difference that felt and then, of course, other more specific issues but we can talk later. Yeah. Daniel, from your perspective as teacher - how do you see... what's the key difference operating within the Swedish system? Good question. think it's fairly easy to see, also coming, for example in my case from the like Spanish system of education, that is probably is more theoretical and you can also see that more in the way company is organized and you see that also in university. The approach teacher-student, student-teacher is closer here. It's fairly easy to have communication with your teacher also outside of the class and in that sense, think especially for people who come from other nationalities and they are not used to the Swedish system that might be bit weird in the beginning in some way to see what is the boundaries. Because for some other nationalities to go to that point might be disrespectful in some sense because teachers are seen as like bit more higher authority that you need to take them with extreme respect and there's like these clear boundaries that you shouldn't move forward. That's not so clear in Sweden. It's actually more the opposite. It's more close relationship with the teacher in many cases. So think it's also part of like the learning process when you move here, to understand that is new, normal way to do it. Also, one of the really important things in the very beginning, especially when you have like international context class like you have people coming from all over the world... it's bit hectic in the way that you need to create common way of doing things, you need to create like pattern for everyone to come together in the same way and it's established from the very basic things about arriving on time, from what we expect when we mean deadline, from the Swedish quarter which is for example been in class 15 minutes before. So all these simple things are the ones who are used to already to the Swedish system is fairly easy for us. It's whole new world when you move in. So all these things is going to... you need to go from the really small changes to the big ones in the first weeks. And mean how did you find that... you know we got to Hela the chance of being in classroom with lots of nationalities. mean can imagine there are lots of positives and what are those? But also what are the challenges? Yeah, think for me it was quite unique experience. I've never been in the same room, like studying class with so many students from so many different nationalities and of course it is fascinating to get to know them - like I've never spoken with people from so many different countries and will never get together in the same table to discuss business case, so for me that was unique. mean really think like that's kind of how theoretical learning and the other half is actually practical learning because that's when the challenges over time start to appear. You need to learn to communicate with each other. Everyone has different ways of communicating, everyone has different cultural backgrounds so it is on the way when you're studying that you start realizing these differences. You don't notice in the beginning. Of course, you know like you have like classmate that comes from China, another that comes from Ghana, another that don't know make him come from Canada and another is Swedish. So you know basically we are different but the only way to fully understand those differences is like while you are in the way working together. So it is... this program, my program it is specifically tailored to learn and develop your soft skills. You definitely need to improve your communication skills, your teamwork skills. Like teamwork is keyword for this program so yeah you already learned to work in team and understand each other and respecting each other and moving forward to deliver whatever is needed on time. Thanks. Asia? Yeah, so well let's say firstly that I'm very fascinated about this topics so how to kind of relate inside global classrooms. I'm actually writing my master thesis on this now, so it's like my thing definitely and would say that in my specific case it's also very interesting because what we are actually studying is race gender in-class and how these three forms of oppression, but not on only this form of oppression, kind of intersect in our everyday lives. So happens often that what we are studying in the literature is also something we are experiencing personally and would say that one of the biggest challenges of like my program is to, you know, be able to put together the differences and make something positive out of them. Because sometimes we had some, you know, there are some normal dynamics inside the classrooms and it's very hard when everyone is coming from different country but you know it's not just about different nationality it's also about different background not just in university but also different class position, different historical experience, geographical experience so would say that... yeah, differences are important and this is what actually... also we try to do in my program to you know make differences something beautiful, something that we should talk about all the time, yeah. And assume the kind of... the heavy emphasis on group work is where you'd see most of these challenges but also where you overcome the challenges by really getting to know each other. So yeah this is really interesting to kind of hear that you know: you do end up with global classroom with so many different perspectives and so many different approaches to learning. But one other challenge that students sometimes find is the amount of self-study. So the time that you have to... you're not scheduled, you don't have seminars, you don't have lectures. How is that in your specific programs? Your experience of this? Asia? Yeah, you're kind of still on my screen so go ahead. Yeah, so well have to say that my program, the way in which we are examined is basically through course papers and this is also something very different from what was used before in Italy. So in Italy, they really value the kind of literature knowledge so you do exams that is the same for everyone and you basically have to present yourself and you know you have to... the better you know the book that you studied the highest will be your grade. In Sweden and in my program it's completely different so actually, you have lot of freedom in working on your individual exam. So would say that... lost myself, sorry. No, but think that's interesting. The kind of difference between... think that's part of the challenging... your teachers as well. Daniel, how do you advise students on managing this self-study part? First thing I'll say that it's big difference also depending on the type of assignment that you might be facing. It's really big difference of course from like group work to like just working by yourself and mean with this is that with group work you might not get really specific detailed things that your group needs to do. We might give you the final goal when you need to deliver at the end of the week. And now we give you the freedom as team to organize yourself and this is the challenge and sometimes where like friction may occur. How do we organize, who organized ourselves, who follow, who leads? So this is something that for me is really valuable learning not just for your studies also for later on when we go to to work in any other company. Because you need to understand also for different assignments: which role you're going to play, are you going to be the one leading here, you're going to be the one helping out someone. So will say it is bit of like self-consciousness understanding what can you bring to the team, how can you help the team and at the same time realizing that you have this goal at the end of the week and things need to get done. Some teams might find their own way of working but think it's really important that you, yourself and together with the team find out these ways of working and would say it's basically the same methodology for yourself - when you work by yourself. We might not go and check on you every day. How much have you done, how much have you written on your assignment. We will check on you on Friday when it's submission day so then you need to be structured enough to find your way through the work to deliver quality content at the end of the week and that's something... that has been done probably different in different contexts and different in different nationalities but we go from zero. We go from the base of like we understand that we might not start from the same point all of us so then we learn how to do it. So at the end, we all are on the same page when it comes to how to do it and how we organize ourselves. That's really, really useful. Useful perspective. Hela? How have you found it? Sorry. Yeah, would like to actually complement what Daniel was mentioning because think like that comes with teamwork but also that comes like with your own individual time management. And sometimes... well, at the beginning like teachers like really give you schedule and you have like certain tasks that you have to be done in certain moments so you feel like there is path, but as long as the program develops they give you way more freedom to manage your own time. And that's how they all are kind of... pushing you to set your own boundaries regarding like how much do you want to work, what level of performance do you want to achieve and at the end of the day they're just going to receive your submissions so the work is up to you. But this is progressive process. It's not like that from the beginning that they just give you an assignment and some instructions and literature lists and they let you go. No, that happens like in the last courses but believe that's also really relevant to know how to manage your own time and set yourself your own goals to achieve whatever you need on time because there's nobody behind you pushing you or reminding you: you have to do this. It's up to you. Did you find this difficult, Asia? When you first came to kind of get to grips with this that nobody pushing you and the fact that you have to get everybody in your team on the same page. Yeah, would say little bit. But it's also true that, so for example in my program we do lot of seminars and basically for the seminars you need to do the readings. mean that is like the basic thing so and we kind of learned during the program that if we have three, four, five readings has no sense to read all of them in superficial way but it's better to focus on some specific readings and then being able to you know like talk, because as Hela said before... also my program you really don't know what will happen the next lesson because the lesson is constructed depending on the discussion. So once you understand that - then you know that, you know, it happened to me that sometimes was not very prepared but then also during the seminar, realized that was not really contributing to the discussion, was not learning as could do. So this is also how think kind of you know find the energy to to read and read and read and spend lot of hours in this. Because then you know that at the end of the week, you will participate to the seminar and you will be able to be engaged in the conversation and the outcome will be of course learning, yeah. Thanks. Daniel, what's your expectation on the participation in seminars? Before that, would like to build on something that Asia was saying and think when she was referring about reading and even in like master level and when we say in the beginning that we're going to teach you how to read - might sound really stupid but mean it's completely right because we hand in, the first weeks of the program, tons of articles that you need to read and first weeks and that comes from me... mean this is happening this year, happened four years when did it and have been happening for long while and it's the same in other programs. You'll face yourself the first weekend just like you're almost spending the whole weekend reading the articles because you are reading them in wrong way. You are reading how you used to read before - you read everything single line, you read taking care of every single detail. Later on, you learn how to learn fast when you need to learn fast because it's not important and you learn to how to stop down... to slow down and read the parts that are really important. That way of learning allows you to cover way more material without skipping the parts that are really important so that's something that think is really important because even the way that we're working... you need to like you know find new way to do it. To be able to process all this content and then answering your question regarding the expectations. think what we look for is or if put it another way what we don't want is professor talking to crowd with no connection with no interaction between them. We want something live, we want something that changes. We don't want that the same lecture repeats year after year. We want that the people actually are part of the teaching content and that's something; that for me is really interesting having these like multicultural groups with not only nationalities also like backgrounds - as like before we were mentioned there's people who come to the program with like 10 years already of working experience. They probably know lot of like the retail industry, they know lot of things so they can bring all that experience, complement the cases that we might be talking about or the theories and then maybe say: this theory actually, was reading about already have done this in some context when was working in company. So these amount of like life experiences that brings to the lecture just make them unique and they also make them way more rich in terms of content and how useful they are. So you should basically when you come here you should expect to contribute. Yeah. And that's expected of you. Exactly and that also is one of the mechanics that we look for in many of the lectures. mean in the seminar, for example, we will divide it... there's something really often we will divide the class, creating groups where we have been talking as group now you're going to discuss it and it's expected of you to contribute with your opinion and mean it's not necessary that you always will have something valuable to say or it's not needed like you always have the right thing to say. It's enough something with this express what you think, what was your experience when you read the article, what is when you have felt when you were taking part of the class. That's enough but it's good that this is something that's done in collaborative way. Like we do it together. This tells me - what you're saying now how important the language skills are. lot of reading and think you know lot of people who probably you know apply think: my English is good but with the amount of reading that's necessary how did you feel about that when you first came here? Start with Asia. Yeah, remember that was quite concerned about the English and think that... so my understanding was definitely okay and of course, it is like process of learning itself to kind of get used to the English as you know the main language. So, of course, the first readings did needed more time and then the more you read the more you get used to the English. And regarding the speaking for example remember that was very, very stressed about that because like to talk lot but don't think that my English is perfect, it's not yet perfect, will never be perfect. And so remember that you know, to talk in front of 25, 30 colleagues it's always little bit like stressful if it's not your mother tongue but then realized after the first week that actually most of us were not English speakers. And this is kind of normal think, so you know one thing is to do master in the UK where maybe everyone is speaking English as mother tongue but here in Sweden, English is the language that is putting all of us together in my program but think also in other programs. So mean in the international programs of course... so you know at certain point you just stop to care about that, because of course there are some colleagues that are thinking and speaking in their native language but most of them are not. So you know we are all the same in this and regarding writing: since again the way in which we are examining my program is basically course papers. You have the time. You know it's not that you have to do an exam in one hour, you have one week to write your individual assignment and of course, at the beginning, you need to check lot of the grammar but then at some point you just start, you know, to do it and also professors usually takes this into account so of course they usually don't penalize... mean for sure, not in the first semester. They do not penalize you if you don't write perfect English. You know what mean? They accept some mistakes. But you do need to have you know quite high command think to be able to take in all this reading you have to do. How have you felt, Hela? What's your experience been? Yeah, think regarding English think I've improved lot because you have to read lot, all the articles in English, you have to speak lot and you know at some point you just need to catch up in your English level and every time that you make mistake you just need to like make the effort of correcting it. And mean personally for me it hasn't been problem but definitely, I've seen perhaps some... yeah like what we talked before communication challenges because the way we express ourselves, of the words that we use to say something and maybe the messages are not fully kind of delivered and received. So would say like most of the effort of course is to have like an adequate level of English with regarding grammar and speaking and make yourself understood. Sometimes it's quite hard when you don't really understand what the other person is saying. So yeah like that is like the perfect like personal effort. If you do that everything is going to be so much easier and if it takes more time to write paper in English and you need to take like the double amount of time that you will take writing in your own language. Like you have to do it. mean you have to put the effort there and if you have friend or somebody that can maybe like proofread for you that would be amazing but also the university has this service. There is an English and languages offices. It's an office that offers kind of this service so basically if you really want to check any paper or if even if you want to practice presentation you can do it with them and they will help you out. It takes some time - tried once but it takes so much time that didn't try it again but they were really helpful and really nice of course. can imagine all the amount of students sending them papers and asking them for help so fully understand. So it's more like in my side; like my patience. But at least there is support available and think... lastly before we move on to the questions from the viewers. What do you find, with thinking of the academic context of being here, what do you find and then quickly you kind of only get like one sentence each or so... two sentences. What has been your favourite thing about it and what has been the most challenging thing about it. Daniel has been quiet too long. Well, let's start with him and then you two can think bit longer. would say it's actually the same thing and will explain myself. One of the best things of this like what was saying is like international context, like multicultural context. For me, even with the risk that it might sound bit too poetic, but is that you actually get to know yourself better. Thanks to the difference of the other people. mean when you live in your home country the difference between the people you are surrounded are way smaller than the difference that you face with when you are in this kind of context. Being in this kind of context makes you aware of how you are, which is sometimes something that we don't really think so often and we probably should do more. Sometimes we don't want to think about it. Exactly, so yeah. So we don't want to acknowledge some of the things but think it's really powerful and useful exercise to do and think you kind of feel you are not forced to do it when you are here because you need to understand why. When you, for you normal it's not normal anymore and why you are generating different reaction the people around you when you do what is normal for you to do. So in that sense, think that's also really good in the same time think that's challenging because that adds up level of difficulty for doing everything else. When you work together as team there's new layer of things that you need to take into account. Your second account how you say things to don't be disrespectful and put myself as an example... In Spain, we tend to say things in really direct way and when we have discussion we might say "no you're wrong". In Sweden for example that will go bit more, "mhh, understand what you mean but" so when you don't follow this kind of like common rules, like with any among each other you might sound disrespectful to the other person even though it was never what you intend to. So being aware of these things also, mean that you need to use them and you need to exercise them. That's brilliant, brilliant. lived in England for while and they have lots of ways to say no don't agree with you such as hear what you're saying with night smile. Thank you. Over to you. Best thing and the most challenging thing. Well, the best thing would say really the program as whole. think like my level of understanding about so many topics that didn't fully understand... mean the main reason why applied to this program it's kind of being fulfilled. All when it comes to understanding more about business, more about companies, more about management and organizations and in an international setting. That is kind of "check". That box is checked so feel like really happy with lot take with me after these two years. So yeah and the most challenging think like getting to learn the Swedish education system because not everything... well wouldn't say that it's hard just said that there's like... let's say some sort of examination that... Like the style of examination, it's not the kind of thing that I've been used to do ever. I've never done anything like that before so yeah sometimes like you get like little surprises... it's like didn't know that this worked like this you know or didn't know that this was point of evaluation or point system and all of that, which like are not critical but of course are highly relevant. So yeah it's just more like learn and to understand where you are and how you've been measured and also like what Daniel said like how to work with your classmates and yeah, of course like teamwork. Teamwork it's blessing and curse at the same time so it is great when you have great team but perhaps if you don't... you learn. It's struggle, yeah. You learn patience, you learn, you learn. You know, so yeah. But think like if you learn how to manage it it's amazing. After you do that it's like you're like set free of how to... You're set for life really - it's skill for life. Exactly, so no matter what happens then, then you kind of learn that as well. Thanks. Asia? think that my rose and my thor and think this is kind of like an expression can use... It's the fact that my program is very critical and that means that was able to understand and learn so many things... definitely way, way too much things. mean was not expecting to have this kind of knowledge at the end of my master but at the same time, had to put in discussion what had known from before. And putting in discussion from before means also to put in discussion my position in the world so that was little bit challenge because you know in my field, come from political science field, you think that you know how the world works and actually, it's not like that and so this specific critical perspective that it's definitely part of my program but think that it's little bit way... this the way in which Swedish academia is organized. Also think that yeah... that was the nicest but also the most challenging thing that had to go through, yeah. That's actually it for today. Thank you so much for being with us - both to my guests and to the viewers. hope that you've gained greater understanding into what it's like to study here. Hard work but lots of fun and from what hear you're learning lot. So thank you and stay in touch via the Instagram or the blogs. Thank you, guys. Bye thanks. Bye.