Since August, the class from the Inspiro programme has been on the Drammen campus once a week. Here they have attended lectures in a large auditorium together with first-year bachelor students in economics and management and visual communication.
Around 180 people in an auditorium is quite different from the class they are used to being in.
‘I realise that you have to be much more independent here. At school we get feedback all the time, but we don't get that here. So you just have to learn to work on your own, and find new study methods. But we're sitting together with our class, and people we trust. And that's a big advantage,’ says student Nikolay Hunsrød.
Fellow student Caroline Mo says that they have follow-up lessons when they return to school after lectures.
‘So if we didn't pick up everything the lecturer said, or didn't understand everything, we can always discuss it afterwards with our teacher.’
On the same level as the USN students
In December, the 27 upper secondary school students will also take a university exam in the subject, and this is quite different from the exams they are used to.
‘We will have a written exam without aids. So now I get to experience what a university exam is like,’ says Caroline.
‘Have you gained a different perspective on higher education during your time here?’
‘It's been a lot less scary. We now know a bit more about what we're getting into.’
The program Inspiro at Drammen upper secondary offers specialized subjects in entrepreneurship and business development, marketing and management, media production and drama. Inspiro provides general university admission certification, enabling candidates to qualify for admission to higher education.
The students were therefore well acquainted with the marketing subject before they attended the lectures at USN, as Associate Professor Birger Opstad, who is responsible for the subject, realises.
He uses a mentimeter as part of his teaching (two-way communication using mobile phones, with the possibility of voting, among other things). Opstad says that many of the questions don't have a definitive answer, and believes that the answers from the Inspiro students in many contexts have been on the same level as answers from USN's own third-year marketing students.
‘This is probably because they have had marketing at school.’
Oppstad is also vice-dean for education at the USN School of Business. He believes that these students will have a smoother transition to higher education.
‘There are many impressions and a lot of information for a 19-year-old who attended the first study day in August. It may also be the first time they sit in a lecture with 200 others. ‘These students get a gentle adjustment, and I think it will be easier for them to absorb the information they need if they choose to study. Plus they may have gained a little extra self-confidence after being here this autumn.’
Good, also for the teachers
Hege Medhus is one of the marketing teachers on the Inspiro programme. She enjoys being with the students at all the lectures, and believes that one of the most important things is that the students get to experience a sense of mastery in a university subject.
‘I've found this to be very positive, and I don't think any of the students are intimidated by having to study. In fact, I think many of the students in this class will go on to higher education, because they realise that they can do it. Many of them were anxious about being in a lecture with so many people, but then they realise that they have good subject knowledge themselves and that it's nothing scary.’
Medhus believes it is useful for students to be introduced to a different way of learning.
‘At school we have a much more practical approach to marketing, but when you go on to higher education you have to be prepared for lectures to be a common teaching method.’
One of the goals of the university school agreements is that employees at USN and the schools should also benefit from them. Hege Medhus says that the lectures at the Drammen campus often result in academic discussions among the teaching staff afterwards.
‘Sometimes we sit and discuss why Birger chooses an approach that is perhaps different from our own. I think we get to broaden our own perspective on the subject, and that we see things in a different way. That's one of the things that's fun about the marketing profession, that there's no set answer.’