Faculty

Song-ee Ahn, Director of Studies, +46 13 284468, song.ee.ahn@liu.se

Meet Song-ee Ahn, Director of Studies

The Master’s programme Adult Learning and Global Change is an international programme covering several dimensions. The teaching and literature is in English and you study together with students from around the world at four universities across four continents.

The programme is a partnership between Linköping University; the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, Canada; the University of Western Cape in Cape Town, South Africa and the Monash University in Melbourne, Australia. It started 10 years ago and has become increasingly popular, says Song-ee Ahn who is in charge of the programme at LiU.

- The four universities are jointly responsible for the programme. Each of the universities recruit students to the programme, and all students study the same programme.

This means that you as a student on the programme study at four different universities together with students from Canada, Africa and Australia.

- It is an incredible opportunity to be able to study together with people of different nationalities without having to go anywhere. You can see and experience different ways of teaching, and that there are different learning cultures. Students talk about this in their evaluations, and it is often something that they haven’t thought of before.

Knowledge required when society becomes more global

Today, society is becoming more global and people are moving around more often. And with all of the technical aids available, the world is becoming more accessible without the need to move anywhere. What was previously local, is no longer. This is one of the reasons why a Master’s programme such as Adult Learning and Global Change is needed, says Song-ee.
- Most of the people on the programme are not Swedes, they are from Europe and outside Europe. For example, people on the programme may be working as a teacher but lack formal teacher training. But there are also teachers who have the educational background, but feel that they need to further develop themselves. Others may be working with people and learning processes, such as in human resources. We also have many students who are working in healthcare.

Group work important in education

The programme is provided via the Internet. There is a common misconception among prospective students that it means a lot of work on your own, according to Song-ee.

- There is team work on all the courses, and the work is graded. Each sub-course also emphasises participation in the discussions. The groups are mixed so there are not only LiU students in a group.

It has also been demonstrated that the students develop a strong affinity, even if they have never met.

- When the studies are over, many of the students continue to keep in touch. They have also met; they went on a trip to South Africa. It says a lot about the programme, that it works when even after the studies, you still want to keep in touch.

From Korea to Sweden

Song-ee, who is the programme director, does research on Korean exchange students in Swedish higher education. She comes from Korea, but the question is, how did she end up in Sweden?
- I studied Swedish at the university in Korea. It was the most foreign of languages and as far as you could get from Korea. Not very many of us studied the language. I was also given the opportunity to study Swedish at a Swedish folk high school. As soon as I got here, I thoroughly enjoyed it, and knew it was here I wanted to live! The folk high school was in Norrköping, so it was quite natural to continue my studies at LiU.

(11 November, 2011)

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Last updated: Fri Nov 11 11:21:22 CET 2011