The international semester at the medical degree programme has now been completed three times and satisfaction among the students is only heading in one direction – which is up. Though getting the desired number of students to travel abroad for their eleventh semester has not met the target. This is shown in a new report that collates the first evaluations.

2018.05.17 | Lise Wendel Eriksen

It has taken several years to plan and implement the international semester, which is one of the major international initiatives undertaken by the medical degree programme. For this reason the report with the student evaluations from the first three completed semesters has also been eagerly awaited.

The quality of teaching is maintained

All in all, the students and in particular the international students are pleased with the international semester. The evaluation report shows that 96 per cent of international students think that their exchange period at AU was 'excellent' or 'good’. Both Danish and international students assess that they give and receive more feedback than otherwise, and that their English language skills have become a little better after completing a semester exclusively in English.

"We’ve restructured a whole semester of teaching from Danish to English. A central issue for us has been that this must not impact on the quality of teaching. We are therefore very satisfied to see that the students generally assess the teaching and their outcomes so positively," says professor and course director for the international semester Ulla Breth Knudsen.

The report shows that the level of satisfaction with the teaching has been high and increasing on all indicators from the first international semester to the third. In the evaluation of the autumn semester 2017, the teaching assessment for all included parameters lies above four on a five-point scale where five is best.

"The lecturers have listened to proposals and new ideas and they have been good at continually adjusting the teaching and introducing new teaching methods. This is undoubtedly the reason for the increasing level of satisfaction and the high quality of the teaching,” says Louise Binow Kjær, who has been responsible for the project management of the international semester together with Ulla Breth Knudsen.

Number of students is a problem

Despite the predominantly positive evaluation of the international semester, there are still a few problems. One of them is the number of exchange students. The goal is to reach sixty exchange students each semester. So far there have been around thirty exchange students. At the same time, more international students apply to AU than there are Danish students who want to take a semester abroad. Which is a problem. If the exchange of students is not 1:1 then Health faces financial penalties. The faculty cannot simply admit more international students if the number of Danish students who are applying to one of the partner universities outside Denmark does not increase at the same rate.

"The medical degree programme has not had the same tradition of studying abroad as we see with many other degree programmes. Changing a culture takes time and the international semester is still a relatively new initiative. I’m sure that in time it will become quite natural to take part of the medical degree abroad and we’re already seeing an increase in applications – both in and out," says Ulla Breth Knudsen.

Students who stay at AU do not become more international

One of the success criteria for the international semester has also been to ensure 'internationalisation at home' for students who spend their eleventh semester at AU. The goal has been to give the students a global perspective on the medical degree programme, among other things by increasing their knowledge of healthcare sectors elsewhere around the world.

"The evaluations have shown that students find that their English language skills have improved a little. That’s positive. Unfortunately, we cannot yet see that the Danish students actually also get a bigger global perspective when they take the international semester in Aarhus. We therefore need to incorporate some more themes and tasks that more directly give the students who remain at AU an international element," says Ulla Breth Knudsen.

More even pairing in the clinic

Dyad learning, where Danish and international students are paired is part of the clinical training during the international semester. The evaluation report shows that this 'buddy scheme' appears to need more feedback between the students and should give them more confidence in their own clinical abilities. However, some Danish students find it difficult to have an international buddy during the period of clinical training and especially when meeting the patients. Increased efforts must therefore be made to ensure there is a more equal division of labour in the dyad setup. However, a small study shows that patients do not find meeting an English-speaking student to be negative.

Inclusiveness has been a success

The evaluations have been carried out on an ongoing basis during the first three international semesters via various methods and with different metrics, but all with the quality of teaching and the students' satisfaction in mind. Louise Binow Kjær has no doubt that the generally positive evaluations are due to ongoing adjustments and an inclusive process:

"In such a large project as this, it’s crucial for the outcome that you listen to the involved parties along the way. During both the planning phase and the first three semesters, we’ve done a lot to involve stakeholders, students and lecturers and create collaboration across areas. This, I believe, has been instrumental in the first generally good evaluations, so we will continue to work in this way moving forward.”

Read the complete report with the overall evaluation of the international semester on the Centre for Health Sciences Education (CESU) website.

Read the article 'Here come the medical students' to find out more about the international semester.

Contact

Professor, Consultant and Course Director Ulla Breth Knudsen
Aarhus University, Department of Clinical Medicine and
the Regional Hospital in Horsens, Woman’s Department
Email: ubk@clin.au.dk
Mobile: (+45) 3072 0656