Alma Liderud: University of Saskatchewan, Canada

Why did you want to do an exchange?

I wanted to go to an English-speaking country, so it was between Canada or UK. I found USask and thought that the university had a wide range of courses and the university looked quite big with around 25 000 students. They also have a lot of international students as well. For me it was a good size and I found five courses that I thought was interesting.

Which courses did you take?

One semester at USask you will receive 15 credits which is 30 ECTS. So, five courses were mandatory to get all 30 ECTS. I took courses in Farm Business Management (AREC 222), Indigenous History of Agriculture (AREC 220), Scientific Literacy and communication for Agriculture (AGRC 110), Anthropology (ANTH 111), and last Global Citizenship (POLS 201). Most of them was at the College of Agriculture and Bioresources but two were at College of Art and Science. This worked because the majority of the classes was at Agbio.

Why it must be a majority at Agbio is because the agreement between SLU and USask is like that. There is a lot of different courses both at undergraduate level and graduate level. Every week the schedule was the same, normally 50 minutes classes. The quality of the lectures was good, typically it was the same professor with some exception for guest lectures. For Mondays, Wednesday and Friday I had three classes before lunch. Tuesday, I had one and on Thursday I had two classes.

Before you can apply for the course one administrator at USask will have to accept so that you have the credentials to do the course. But to find right courses in you subject is up to yourself, they can help you with telling what the courses is about and if you have the right competence. They have a good search engine for different subjects that will show what kind of courses they offer.

What was the student life like outside of your courses?

In your spare time you will have access to the university recreation center. It includes a gym, swimming pool, table tennis, squash, climbing and so much more. USask also have sport teams that play games almost every week. It was always fun to be a supporter and watch different games like ice hockey, basketball, volleyball etc.

Saskatoon is a city with a lot of various things to offer. If you choose USask and Saskatoon, take time to visit some places around the city. For example, you can rent some kayaks and go on the South Saskatchewan River.

Not only did we explore Saskatoon, but we also did some trips around Canada. We went up to a national park, two hours north of Saskatoon called Prince Albert National Park. Took a road trip to Banff and did some skiing. In the November reading week, a trip to Toronto for some days.

Housing is recommended to apply early so that you can be sure to get a room on campus. The accommodation is either double or single room. With sharing bathrooms with other on your floor. This is a good option; you will live at campus and if you buy the meal plan you can receive three meals per day except for weekends when it only is two times. They have a different variation of food every day.

USask have an International Student and Study Abroad Center, ISSAC, and they will help with all questions. They also have digital meetings before arriving to help make the trip and the first days easier. During the semester, they arrange different activities to the international students to participate in.

What was your best experience during your exchange?

I enjoyed my time at USask very much. I got to know a lot of new people and got to explore Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, and Canada. This is four months that I will never forget. The best experiences I got was when me and my friends did the trips to explore Canada some more. We created some good memories on those trips.