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Student Reviews – survey results

Tourism Destination Development Master’s Program

This year the master’s program in tourism destination development is represented by adventurous people mostly in their mid and late 20s coming from all over the world. The countries of origin include Germany, France, Holland, UK, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Belarus, Moldova, Indonesia, and even Jamaica, which is really cool! Two thirds of the Tourism program students are female. In the survey most people expressed satisfaction with the program, rating it around 7 out of 10 on average. The strongest points of the program turned out to be competence of professors, resources and their availability, and interaction during class. The academic level of other students was also rated quite high, while relevance to the future career was average. It probably depends on the career paths that the students are planning on taking after graduation. The students spend 5-15 hours per week at the university during classes, and 10-20 hours per week doing homework on their own.

Solar Energy Engineering Master’s Program

Solar Energy Engineering is considered one of the best master’s programs at Dalarna University. There are primarily male students taking it and their age range is quite wide, including people both in their 20s and 30s. I find it beneficial, because this gives a chance to learn from people who already have work experience in the area. Some countries that students come from are France, Germany, India, Spain, Lebanon, Greece, etc. The average rating of the program among the survey participants is 7.5 out of 10. The highest rated characteristics are educational materials and their availability, interaction during class, and competence of the professors, the same as in the tourism program. The other characteristics (relevance to future career, academic level of other students, and classes are interesting and captivating) all scored above 7 out of 10, which is quite high. The Solar Energy program is rigorous and requires more time and effort than the one in tourism. The students spend 15-25 hours per week at the university during classes, and approximately the same amount of time doing homework on their own. So, the time requirements can be compared to a full-time job.

Borlange campus also has master’s programs in Business Intelligence and Business Studies, but the number of people who responded to the survey was insufficient to make objective conclusions about the programs. Still, I’ve taken their answers into account discussing the other aspects of students’ experience below.

Housing

Most students rent accommodation from the external organization Tunabyggen. In most cases the housing is within a 10-minute walk away from the university, which is also reflected in the survey results. The housing characteristic close to the university ranked highest. Other parameters, such as quiet, spacious, clean, and cozy were rated average.

Life in Borlange

The best thing that students mentioned about living in Borlange is the beautiful nature. The town is not very big, but according to the students’ reviews, it has a good infrastructure and shopping facilities, including the variety of food in supermarkets. While prices are rated below average, it is important to mention that in Borlange they are still lower that in bigger cities in Sweden. As for the weather, it is rated 6.3 out of 10. Probably not all are used to the cold, welcome to the north 🙂

Some students mentioned that there are few things to do in Borlange. However, there’s quite a lot to do, in my opinion, and I will make a post about it soon. There was a question in the survey about what people do in their free time and where they go. But this topic is worth more attention and I am planning to develop it further. “Things to do in Borlange” post will be coming soon!

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