Study period: Fall 2013/2014
Academic level: Master
Alexander B.

"[…] Jyväskylä has a large university (the university I visited) as well as a university of applied science. The town features a neat center with dozens of bars and pubs, and it is home to various technology and industry companies as well as diverse cultural events and places. Jyväskylä today is regarded as a cultural and economic core of middle Finland.

[…] Living and Studying in Jyväskylä:
Studying in Jyväskylä was a surprisingly international experience. For one thing, there is a large number of international exchange students from all countries around the world; for another thing, even a great rate of regular students in Jyväskylä (especially in Information Technology) have an international background. Often, there will be an equally large amount of Finnish and international students in most courses. The majority of courses offered by the faculty of Information Technology are taught in English language. In general, it is perfectly possible to navigate and study in Jyväskylä using English exclusively, as most Finns speak excellent English. Nevertheless, I advise learning some Finnish. It is an interesting language, since it has little in common with most other European languages and attending a Finnish language course or some other language program (I attended a language partner program) is a great opportunity to get additional insights into Finnish culture. University courses in Finland place emphasis on group work, presentations, and mini projects. […] I enjoyed Finnish university life; due to its focus on interaction and its international context I got to know many people from all around the world in university already. For your spare time, Jyväskylä also offers an active student life. Since both the university and the university of applied science are rather large, and since there are few towns close to Jyväskylä, there is a high rate of students in town and most students stay in Jyväskylä for the entire semester. There are diverse parties, events, and concerts all the time, and the student organizations and the faculties arrange many opportunities for connecting Finnish and international students. The town is not too large, and you can go everywhere by bike (in fact, students almost exclusively use bicycles in Jyväskylä). Although Jyväskylä may not be huge compared to other cities, it offers many opportunities for spending your free time with fellow students (pubs, concert clubs, sports, skiing, local and cultural events...) and I never felt bored throughout my stay

[…] Final Thoughts:
Spending my term abroad in Finland was a great experience and I will definitely visit Finland again. I got to know many new people, found new friends, and had an awesome time experiencing a new culture. If you are unsure, whether you should go to Finland, it might be easier to think about why you would not like to go to Finland: (1) You only enjoy hot weather (although the summer in Finland can be quite hot, it is unlikely that there are many hot days throughout semester time), and (2) you are primarily interested in metropolitan city life. Apart from that, I absolutely recommend spending a term abroad in Jyväskylä to any IS:link student."

A Semester Abroad at the University of Jyväskylä (Finland)

The application process

As the University of Jyväskylä(JYU)is part of the IS-Link network, the application process for anErasmus semester is quite easy. After sending the usual application forms, the university responded very fast.All my further questions concerning the courses and administrative issues were answered quickly from both IS-Link and the university.

Living in the student village

If you apply for a semester abroad at JYU, you can also apply for a student flat. The JYU offers two different locations, which have more or less the same distance to the University(approx. 3km). KOAS is a bit more expensive but provides more space and facilities. I decided to live in Kortepohja, thestudent village.Do not expect too much from the apartments. They provide enough space but do not expect to live in luxury.But nomatter which location you choose, you will meet many other Erasmus students there. Parties included! 

Within the student village there are also interesting things to discover. In the pub “Sebastian” which is directly next to the apartments, you can have a drink, play pool or card games. I have spent lots of nights there. Also, very close to the village is a beautiful lake. When you are lucky you can discover some northern lights during the night! You can check the aurora forecastonline. There are several websites and mobile applications which keep you on track.

Be prepared for the sauna

Sauna is one of the most favorite activities in Finland during the whole year. Both locations, Kortepohja and KOAS provide a sauna for students for free, which is quite nice. Be prepared when you are going together with finish people. They like to sauna very hot. The first time I went withthem, I felt like a lobster in a hot pod of water.

Experience the real cold

Winters in Finland can be very cold. During my stay the temperature sometimes went down to -20 degrees. Apart from the cold be also prepared for the finish darkness. In winter you only have a couple of hours of light, so better use them wisely!

Trips, adventures and events

At the JYU there are lots of interesting things to do. The Erasmus Student Club(ESN)is organizing very cool activities for exchange students. For example,I participated in a Jyväskylä City Tour, lots of party nights in the clubs of Jyväskylä, pub crawls,orienteering in the forests and so on. In case you have the money, there are also lots of opportunities for traveling. ESN provides some exclusive tours,for example the Lapland trip. Lapland is in the very north of Finland. There you can meet the real Santa Clause, you can go on a ride with huskies, you can ski, go to sauna, discover real reindeers and 1000 othercoolthings. There is also the biggest chance to discover the northern lights, as Lapland islocatedin the very north. This is a trip I warmly recommend to you!

Besides the big Lapland trip, you can also take a tour to Russia or Stockholm. As I did not take these tours, I cannot say if it is worth it, buta couple of friends saidit was also amazing. ESN has a huge timetable of activities and tours. Just check it out.If you do not want to go with ESN, you can also just do your own trip. Many students just rented a cottage close to Jyväskylä, which was quite nice. I also did a trip to Tallinn and Stockholm with some friends. Really beautiful cities, but flightsand hotelscan be expensive.

So, what about studying?

Okay, now it is time to become serious! Besides doing nice activities you also need to do some university work. I really liked the coursed offered by JYU. The profs were very nice and friendly. In case of questions, they really tried to solve your problem as fast as possible.Depending on your choice of courses, you also need to do some “homework”, which was quite different to me compared to my home university. In some courses you were asked to submit a new piece of homework every week. Also, group work is quite common. The courses were more or less “on the same level” as the University of Duisburg-Essen. If you put some effort in the courses, it is definitely possible to get very good marks! The grading was very fair in every course I have participated.I took five courses at JYU, which was quite much compared to others. But due to the semester structureat JYU,I had enough free time. The semester at JYU is structured in two periods. So, I had three courses in the beginning and two courses in the end of the semester.In case you fail an exam or assignment, don’t worry! There was almost always a make-up opportunity.

Bottom line

It is hard to put my memories and experiences into words, and two pages are simply not enough to describe everything in detail. But I can only warmly recommend doing your semester abroad at the JYU in Finland. I really liked the life in the student village in Jyväskylä, the courses at JYU and the endless activities you can do there.I was lucky to meet some great people there which made my stay unforgettable.