WUR & UoG
December 21, 2009
I am wrapping up my time here in Holland very quickly. Tomorrow I hope to leave Schiphol Airport in Amsterdam at 10:55 AM, grab a connection in Chicago’s O’Hare airport and arrive in Calgary hopefully at 18:29 Alberta time.
So, how was WUR?
WUR was great. I learned alot about the intricacies and complexities of setting up a sustainable food supply chain. Right now I am not going to go into much more details about what all I exactly learned, but rather would like to discuss the eduation system at Wageningen with my Canadian experiences.
In Canada, (or, at least in Kwantlen University College, University of British Columbia and University of Guelph), the school year is divided into four-month semesters. Each semester you take approximatly 4-5 courses at the bachelor level and 3-4 courses at the master’s level. One professor sometimes assisted by a teacher’s aid, lab technician, etc, delivers the entire course material.
In Wageningen the structure is somewhat different. First, the year is divided in two month periods. Also, rather then having only one professor the entire period, each week we had a different professor because each week we studied a different aspect of the chain (for example, risk, economics, environmental sustainability etc) and each week an expert in the particular subject matter delivered the lecture. Occasionally, a guest professor delivered the lecture. This resulted in a continuously dynamic and fresh classroom environment. One professor was responsible for, and facilitated the entire course. He also sat in every lecture, and if I’m not mistaken is the one who also will be grading the exams.
Which is better? Hard to say…there is of course less professor-student contact in the WUR style, but on the other hand the WUR style does result in high quality education.
Enough for now. I have a few things to do yet before tomorrow.
If I don’t post anything before Dec 25th, I wish you all a nice Christmas.
p.s. The weather in Holland has turned wintery. Pretty, but I’d rather have had it if it started snowing December 23rd. Tomorrow I hope to leave early for the airport. I do not want to be late!
