Academic Culture and Student Life in Bergen

By Charlotte Hussey, University of Bergen, Norway

Academic culture and student life can be very different in a country that is not your home country – there are many differences between Norway and the UK! As an exchange student, my days look very different to my daily life as a student in Manchester. I will talk about some key difference university life considering the differences in Norwegian and British academic culture. Overall I would say there is less work and more fun!

Obviously, there are differences between different universities in different countries, and these can mean an adjustment period is required to get used to a new style of learning. Studying at the University of Bergen is very different to the University of Manchester, at least for Law. I find there to be less contact hours in Bergen as there is no workshops or seminars – I only have lectures. This means I have to do a fair amount of independent learning, but I do this in Manchester anyway. Although this can mean it can be harder to grasp certain concepts because there is no workshop to go over the lecture, it also means my schedule is much more flexible than in Manchester. There is reading to do but I would say there is less than home. This means that as a student, I have a lot more free time in Bergen than I do in Manchester, which allows me to really enjoy my time in Norway.

Another difference is that most lectures require compulsory attendance – for most my units, I could only miss three lectures otherwise I would fail the course! This was a shock but it made sense because we had no workshops and helped ensure I would actually go to lectures. Another difference is that most lectures were not recorded like in Manchester, which again would make me go to the lectures and not miss them to do something else and just watch the recording. A nice change to studying in Manchester is that I could take a couple of modules outside outside my subject – something I would not be able to experience without doing a year abroad.

I think another difference is the general academic culture here – the Norwegian students are always up and studying very early, leaving the library early compared to home. All my law lectures were in the law building which was different to Manchester. I liked than in each of different faculty buildings, there is a Sammen café that served hot food, sandwiches, drinks, and with a salad bar – it was very nice to get a quick, hot and cheap lunch after a lecture!

Obviously, there are still a lot of similarities – the lecture style was very similar, as was the type of reading we would have to do and assessments – for law, we still had problem questions and essays, just like Manchester. It was not too difficult to adjust to learning here luckily. Overall, I find the work to be easier, both in content and workload, perhaps because we are exchange students – I have spoken to Norwegian students at the same university and their workload is much higher! I really enjoy this though because it gives me more free time to explore Bergen and Norway, and to really make the most of my time abroad.