Cultural management studies at University of Applied Sciences

What is it like to study cultural management in uni? To be honest, I can't tell that much yet since I "just" started by myself as well. So yes, I'm a first year student.

I started to study at Turku University of Applied sciences on this September. This is the dream school for me and it took me couple of years to get in. I was afraid that I won't be able to make it this year either but I did it and now I don't need to stress what am I going to do for the next four years.

click the picture to go on the page of my school

For me it was "easy" to start uni because I didn't need to stress about moving and having apartment and all that kind of stuff since I was living here in Turku already. I was super exited but nervous about this. Like I said, it have been few years since I studied full time and this is my first university experience.

Beside the fact it's called university, we are not traditional university. We do more practical things and we don't have that much lectures. Of course we have those as well, but those are super laid back and educational at the same time. If you don't want to sit during the lecture, you don't have to. You can stand, walk around or lay in the ground if you want. We also have blankets and pillows so we can make ourselves comfortable during the day.Plus we don't have presence responsibility on our classes. It depends on us do we wanna attend or not. Of course if you want to pass all you courses, you need to attend but no one is going to call after you if you won't show up.

Another different thing is that we don't have professors or teacher, we have coaches. Our coaches (we generally still talk about teacher or then just call them for their first names) wants us to think them as "part of the team" or co-workers more than teachers. They want everyone to be equal. I think that's a great thing to have in classroom and I like the fact that they are treating us like adults, what we all are.

I dislike the fact that many people think this is not a "real" school or/and real hard work studying since they don't know anything about the degree program. But it is a real one and I'm doing my bachelor of Cultural management and I'm going to be a producer.  We have exams, we write essays and we do research just like other students do.

What can I don't after I graduate? That's a very good question since there's a lot of things I can do with this degree. I can work at TV and movie industry, in theatre world or organize festival or art shows. There is so much things I could do, I'm actually super confused about it by myself.

  

Every morning it takes me about 45 minutes to get to my school. For some reason our school is located in the middle of nothing in archipelago. So yes, my school is located on an island “outside” the city. It’s a really beautiful place during the summer and fall but at the moment it is just super cold and grey. When we still had snow, the road to my school was let’s say very interesting. The building where we are studying isn’t super modern and fancy, actually its not modern at all. Our department of the university of applied sciences have rented classrooms from another institute. So basically we don’t even have our own “school building”. But hey, at least we have a golf course, swimming pool and sauna. And we are close the sea as well!

First two years we are going to be at Harjattula, in the middle of nothing, and then last two years we are going to be at Logomo. Logomo is this event and conference centre here in Turku. Luckily it’s little bit closer the city, which I’m more than happy about.

All the studying material we have is on internet so we don’t have to buy books, which is good because books are expensive as hell. Of course there is some books our coaches recommend to us but we don’t have to buy them if we don’t want to. Even tho I like “the old style” writing on the paper and stuff, we are using a lot of computers and everyone on our class must have a computer or iPad so you can work and study. I’m basically carrying my MacBook with me every day because it’s so easy to check on things from it on any time.

When I started studying we had to write this essay about where we see us in 10 years. Then I wrote about how I see myself organizing big festivals and other events. I was super sure that was my thing. That's why I actually applied this uni.

Now I'm not sure at all what I want. It hit me right in the face after we got our first projects and both of them were (another one still is) event organizing. I never ever want to do that in my life again. It's definitely not my thing at all. There's too many moving pieces and too many people doing the same thing. At least in our projects. It gets into my nerves way too much and I don't have, at least yet, any way to control it and make it better.

I was aware when I applied that we are going to do group projects and that this line of business is all about group work and projects. I'm still a person who likes to work alone because then I know everything will be done on time. Don't wanna sound like a bitch, I'm not a perfect human being by myself either, not even close. I just don't trust people and that they would do their jobs. Because most of the times, they won't. I can work in groups and be a part of a group, but I need to get the feeling that I can trust everyone. If I won't get that feeling, I'd rather do things by myself.

I have to develop on that and I'm working on it. Sometimes you just have to stop in front of the mirror and think what you're doing and could you do things differently. It's difficult but it's also something you have to do so you can grow up as a person.

I think there was quite much information about how my studying is. Of course you have any questions or you want to know more about something, leave comment below and I will answer!

xx