.jpg)
This past summer, we are happy to report a high degree of student satisfaction – in fact, 94 percent of the students would recommend the ISS to others. This number bears witness of a major declaration of confidence in the Summer School for which we are both proud and grateful!
Looking Back, Preparing Forward
Students have evaluated the ISS as a whole, including the social and communicative aspects before, during, and after the summer, the various campus services and so on. Additionally, students have been invited to evaluate every single course which they attended. In 2019 we had 20 different courses, and 30 classes in total. Our course leaders and administrative staff have also provided their feedback, on everything from academic content, pedagogy and numerous services. All these evaluations provide the basis on which we look back at the summer and decide how to improve for the future.
Some things we will be unable to change, such as the long hours of the summer sun! Other aspects of the ISS are, however, more open to creative suggestions. In 2019 we introduced new academic activities, such as lectures in grammar and phonetics for all Norwegian language students, the Sustainable Development Goals day for all the Master level students, and the Norwegian Language Café where Norwegian language students from all levels were able to come together with volunteers fluent in Norwegian, to speak and practice together. Some of the new initiatives this year have been a result of student inputs from earlier years, others have been initiated by the ISS. They have proved to be successful, as confirmed by the evaluations, and will be continued next year.
We are honoured to see that the ISS Opening Ceremony and the International Cultural Evening continue to be our most popular activities.
Maintaining Values
As the ISS approaches its 75th year in 2021-22, we reflect on how to maintain and develop the initial values that have been foundational since the very beginning.
As we said to the students at the start of the summer, what you take with you from the summer school is not confined to the summer. As the students reflect on their experience at the ISS, they will discover new and valuable lessons that will last a long time.
One our students wrote in their evaluation, “It is a simply life changing experience. You get to meet people from across the globe and with different walks of life. You expand your knowledge through the courses, interactions with new friends as well as building a network of great people.” Another student wrote, “We learn a lot from each other’s experiences, cultures and perspectives. You could not learn these things in the classroom.”
It remains clear that in order to encourage and embolden our students to be ambassadors of peace and good-will, we need not only to teach the right theories, but also continue to emphasize different cultural perspectives through discussions, create safe spaces for bridging divides and stimulate the collective exchange of meaningful experiences. It is our students who themselves fill these spaces during the ISS, and then carry these along with them for years to come.
Introducing New Courses: “How Democracies Emerge and Survive”
Looking forward, we are pleased to announce that the ISS is also working to offer new courses at the ISS 2020 and the years to come. One of these will be a Master’s level course called “How Democracies Emerge and Survive”. This will be yet another course that will encourage academic achievement based on a diverse student body and the possibility to integrate a variety of geographic and cultural perspectives into the classroom.
As the future summer of 2020 gradually emerges, we stand prepared to bring with us an increasingly long tradition of promoting peace and international good-will to and through our zealous students.