Hi. I know its been a while, here’s a little update to what I’ve been doing lately.
Firstly i want to talk about the differences of the Austrian and Finnish universities. I’ve noticed how lucky we are in Finland to have a free education, it’s not that awful here either, a student tuition ( They have 2 semesters here, winter and summer semester ) is about 700-800 euros per year if you are Austrian or EU/EAA citizen, but as an Erasmus student we don’t have to pay that, we only need to pay about 20 euros.
This has really made me appreciate the Finnish school system. Our university ( Kunstuniversität Linz ) is a bit different compared to my home university ( University of Lapland ). I would say here in Austria the art universities really are ART universities, you can notice it by taking a look at the facilities, there is a lot of things going on everywhere, it’s sometimes like a big playground, but i guess that’s somehow also eye opening. I’m used to very clean and controlled environment in my home university. In here they don’t have a student lunch places like in Finland, you have to sort out your own lunch, of course there is this cafe run by students and there is sometimes some lunch, but you really can’t depend on it. That is one thing i really miss from my home university, a real good lunch that you can buy for 2,60 € starting from 10:30 am to 10 pm. We have here kitchens for students so it’s not that bad if everything works there.
Attending and signing in the classes
This is important. When you first come to the University, you’ll probably be handed a list of first meetings etc. But, then you’ll have start searching for courses, they can all be found in the online system, but the descriptions are almost without exception in German. If you are interested in the course, you can sign in, but there’s only limited places for the courses. If you are lucky, you’ll get in ( fixplatz ), but keep in mind that the regular students might be preferred over you. If you don’t get in instantly, you’ll have to wait in line ( warteliste ). In many cases, you’ll have to contact the professor and ask if you can join the course. I currently have about 6 courses, 1-2 per day from Monday to Thursday, but the meetings are brief, maybe only from 1 hour to 4 hours.
Projects
That is one thing that differs a lot from my home university. In here, we have a lot of projects, free artistic project for example, and many more. We also have a lot more excursions here, which I find fantastic! I will make posts about the projects when the time comes.
I have a lot more to discuss, but that’s all from now, if you think some facts are outdated or just not right, please let me know, i also answer happily to any questions about the university.
– Jani
KAAMOSMAASTA 