Self-Directiveness

The Academic Culture in Finland from a student's point of view entails an abundance of freedom and independence. When foreign students arrive in Finland they are many times taken by surprise when told to keep the track of the courses they have taken, find out about the possible minor subjects and register in the classes they want to take, and to do all this by themselves. So self-directiveness (also self-directedness) is about knowing one's goals and pursuing them independently.

Practically when compiling ones' schedules, the students should take into account the possible changes in the courses and the amount of work they require outside the class. It is nearly impossible to make a schedule for a whole academic year at a time, even student's own schedule for one term is subject to changes. For example, the classes might be in different places and at different time than said to be at first and the amount of individual work outside the class might change. All these changes the students should be aware of. No one else will keep a track of those for them. What makes this a bit tricky is the fact that many lecturers don't take attendance at all or keep a track of their students but in the end of the course when it is time to give the credits for the work (ECTS).

A piece of advice

• Students should make sure that they reserve time in their schedule for completing individual work and assignments outside the class. Some former Finnish university students have estimated that the courses consist of the lectures and about the same amount of time put into individual work and assignments in addition to taking exams.
• The freedom and independence come together with responsibility. The students should know what they want to learn and find out about, as well as register in the courses (possibly also on individual lectures, seminars and exams in them each separately).
• Regarding your minor subjects you need to find out whether you need apply for them or not because of the limited rights to study different subjects. It is probably a good idea to go talk to the amanuenses of the departments.
• No monitoring: many are neither aware that there usually is no common guidance for the students (as groups, classes or even individuals). Instead, individual students themselves have to make sure that they have registered in the right courses, lectures and seminars, exams (book exams especially) and that they are taking the right classes/courses all in all considering their degree and goals.
• Information search: make sure that you have acquired and read all the material related to your course because again it is possible that no one checks that before the completion of the course when starting to do that is already too late. Finland is also full of libraries and the Finns love to read. The same happens in the campus. Loads of books are available in the university libraries for study purposes. In this way only those who really want to own their own study books need to buy them.

Take a test

Following the link below you can fill out a form to test your self-directiveness. This test is no in-depth survey of your skills but just a suggestive test for your further self-assessment.

| Test |