By Astrid Hellerup Madsen
ahm@adm.au.dk
When the finishing touches have been added to the final exam assignment of the term, and the body of external examiners has eaten the last poppy seed roll, between two and three months of summer holidays are lying in wait. In any case, for most people. However, an increasing number of students now choose to postpone their holidays slightly.
“Three months is a long time. For students with a bit of ambition, it’s great spending time on something that’s both academic and fun. They can do this by attending the Summer University,” says Christian Suhr, who organises the Summer School at the Section for Anthropology and Ethnography.
Summer holidays?
Summer School or Summer University. Both names cover the same principle – education for students during the summer holidays. The name changes from one main academic area to another, just as the number of available subjects and courses varies.
“We offer a one-week intensive course, where the students get to work around the clock,” says Christian Suhr. He adds that ordinary classes are replaced by specific hands-on assignments. The theme this year is visual anthropology, so the students take a course in using a video camera to study some of the things that do not normally appear in an academic assignment – body language, facial expression and people’s emotional life, for example.
Students attending the Summer School at the Aarhus School of Business (ASB) also have to work hard. The classes here are held from 9.00 to 13.00, while the afternoons are spent on group work and preparation. In this way, the Summer University enables students to take a wide range of subjects that are not offered during the term. Characteristic for both Anthropology and ASB is that the Summer School is by no means a summer holiday.
International environment at a premium
Another factor common to both Summer Schools is that they include an international perspective.
“We got applications from Uganda, the USA, Canada, Brazil and the whole of Europe, of course. And naturally, some of our own Danish students,” says Christian Suhr.
He adds that the plan has been to establish an environment where the students can make connections and meet lecturers and other students from all over the world.
At ASB’s Summer University, 80-100 of the participants come from other universities than AU.
However, it is not just students who want to attend the Summer University. 150 lecturers from Japan, China, Australia, North America and Europe applied for permission to teach the 31 subjects.
“This year, 100% of the lecturers come from abroad. Because of the great interest shown in coming here to teach, we’ve been able to select the top lecturers from the best places,” says Frank Pedersen, Programme Director for the Summer University at ASB.
Is the Summer University something for you?
Several main academic areas at Aarhus University offer different types of Summer Universities.
The courses take from one to four weeks and are equal to subjects of 5, 10 or 15 ECTS credits.
Because the courses provide ECTS credits, they are often taken instead of elective subjects during the ordinary terms.
Many Danish companies are closed to some extent during the students’ summer holidays. The Summer Universities can therefore provide a way of earning ECTS credits so the following term can be spent on a longer period of practical training.
