Conquering Norway

The international department of USTU gives students and teachers the opportunity to participate in academic exchange programs almost anywhere in the world. Of the options, the most popular chosen destinations are in the northern parts of Europe. This semester, an international student who is in her second year in oil and gas department, Olga Akulova took the opportunity. Until January, 2018 Olga will be studying in Norway as part of the “Barents Plus” exchange program. This is what Olga had to say about her first impressions from her participation in the exchange program.

“I have already been living in Tromso, Norway for two months. This time has flown by so quickly! During the first two weeks, we had orientation events and the level of university preparation that went into meeting the new students was impressive. A number of events were organized for us such as parties, mountain climbing, fishing, horse riding and a pizza party. The most memorable event was a three-day trip to one of the most beautiful places in Norway, the Lofoten islands, and also the event, when international students had to do presentations about their countries.

The semester started on the 15th August, but my lessons started in September in an intensive regime. Here, students get the opportunity to choose the subjects they would like to study, but one has to pay attention to the timetable when choosing, because sometimes different lectures of different subjects are held at the same time.

I think that the education here is similar to ours at USTU – lectures, seminars and laboratory classes. I would especially like to note the high level of the university's equipment, where each student has his/her own personal student card with a barcode. For example, if you go to the library, nobody fills your data in the library forms, the code is simply scanned from your personal card.

Here I study three subjects - management of oil and gas resources, geology and environment and phonetics (English language phonetics) and in the evening, I attend Norwegian language classes. I feel very comfortable among international students. They are always ready to explain something you don't know or just to talk".

Anyone wishing to study abroad can be acquainted with the list of offered programs on the site: http://www.barentsplus.no/