About studying and PBL (and what's new)

If my phone app is counting correctly I have 78 days left here. Almost halfway of my exchange (?!). And again I start to wonder where have the time gone. Spring is FINALLY here, no snowing anymore. Instead, last weekend seemed like a dream due (Finnish) summer temperatures. Not that many warm and sunny days in Finland last summer. My friend was also here for a short visit last weekend and we went to a nice place nearby called Valkenburg. Oh, we enjoyed the weekend. Except the bugs... Here are some pictures to make everyone jealous in Finland with those +5 temperatures.

Spring vibes oh yeah.

These gardens are like really taken care of.

Panorama from the castle ruins to Valkenburg.

We bicycled to Valkenburg and accidentally found some cool routes.

+23C

Shame on me.

Well, not that summer anymore, but still it is a nice spring here. Easter was a bit boring because I tried to read to the exam. On Easter Saturday we visited Aachen with my Finnish friends. The city has double amount of inhabitants compared to Maastricht. Aachen looks more like a Finnish city when looking the architecture but that is also due the WW2 and the hard fights they had there. Just look more from Wikipedia if you're interested. Anyway, there's a nice cathedral, some shopping streets and quite cheap food. You can travel to Aachen e.g. by bus (takes apprx. one hour), it costs 8,5€ to there and back soo not bad. Below some photos from there.

The cherry trees are blooming.

The cathedral.

Ein strasse im Aachen.

Some cheap and good libanonise food.

Park in Aachen.

All in this picture just 10 euros. Well ok not Maria's phone and wallet..

Radhaus.

So that's it about the local travelling. This post was supposed to be about studying in the university and the PBL method the uni is using here. So here goes in a "nutshell";

When applying here, exchange student, at least in Health Sciences, can choose one program and its courses offered by the university's international office. There's difference between autumn and spring so if one is interested to apply here make sure to have a look to the university and FHML (Faculty of Health, Medicine and Life Sciences) website. I chose the spring courses from European Public Health Programme. The programme sounded interesting, it was in English and we have nothing like that in Finland. Because I actually also wanted to learn something this spring (yes, I swear) it seemed a good choice to see what is going on in public health at European level, even though I didn't know precisely what I will study.
The first course or module as they say here was about European (Public Health) Institutions. It started in the beginning of February and the exam was last week on 5th April. Here studying is usually one module at a time and it actually feels really nice for a change because you can focus on that module things only (nb. in Finland the courses are usually mixed in the schedule and it can be sometimes problematic). In two months you were suppose to learn many things and now looking back I can say I did. The two months course was 9 ECTs (in Finland equal to 9 opintopisteeseen).

Compared to Finland the university is more strict. When one has chosen the programme one is not allowed to skip the courses from the beginning neither choose other courses freely. The module usually has lectures, tutorials and might also have some workshops that include group working. Only thing you can skip are lectures and if you miss even one tutorial you have to do some extra work. This module had compulsory attendance things usually from Monday to Thursday. So even though there are not so many lessons, you are given some learning material every tutorial for self-studying. Many exchange students say this university and the PBL (coming up) method is much harder than some other universities and you must study a lot. In my opinion it depends what you are used to. I think that the first month is the hardest because you get used to a bit of everything (new life, new country etc.) and also studying completely in English but after that studying is not that hard. It also depends about your prior knowledge about the subject studied. I must say I had no clue about the EU's public health related Directives and Regulations but in the end I think it was really interesting to understand EU's role in public health. Not still a fan reading those Directives and Regulations, law texts are not the easiest to understand. The exam reminded me about the matriculation exams in upper secondary school, a big hall full of tables, you are allowed to go to toilet only with a toilet card and you can bring some snack with you. Anyway I hope I will pass the exam, this program has no resits so it is then welcome back to Maastricht next spring if this doesn't work out haha.

Studying in our Faculty. The spaces here are quite new and really nice.

My usual lunch, costs something like 3-4€. We lucky Finnish people with our student lunch, I really miss it.

The PBL (Problem-Based Learning) is used in the whole university. In a short we have tutorials in small groups of apprx. 10 people with one tutor that is meant to guide our learning. In the beginning of every tutorial chair and scribe is chosen among students. The chair is leading the conversation and scribe is writing the main points down usually to Google Drive. Every tutorial has one case/problem that can be for example imaginary situation from real life where students must find a solution and apply the knowledge from literature of the studied subject. Tutorial can be pre-discussion or post-discussion or both depending on the module schedule. Usually the group is defining the problem statement a.k.a. the heading that is descriptive for the problem, then moving on to brainstorming that is supposed to help the brain to think the subject and what is important and then finally defining the learning goals one must answer and study before next tutorial. Learning goals are usually questions that are meant to help to learn and understand the things we are studying.

The PBL is basically quite efficient, at least I think so. You can always ask about unclear things in the tutorial and also learn from others in the group. The cons are maybe that because it is the same thing all over again I think I would get bored for that and the school assumes that you will study the things by yourself to every tutorial so no freedom to study whenever you want. PBL could be refreshing from time to time to the basic lectures-and-exam -system in Finland too.

A couple of pictures from Maastricht spring to the end. My goal for ice cream is definitely taste every flavour of Italian ice cream they have here. Still quite many to go. Hope you have a nice week!

-Tuija

Ice cream season.