As a member of the International Undergraduate Study Program (IUSP) in Marburg, Germany, I am taking part, for eight weeks, in two classes open to all students at the university. The courses I chose to participate in are called “Little Boxes in American Suburbia” and “The Age of Illusion: Visiting the Harry Potter Universe”.
IUSP Students in Marburg
As an IUSP student, we are in Germany only until December, so are unable to finish the courses we are taking, which all run until March. As a result, we are provided with weekly tutorials where we meet with grad students (in groups of one to six undergraduates) to discuss the themes covered in class, as well as to cover the topics that we will be missing later in the year. This is especially useful for students who are taking classes held in German, as these can be very difficult to follow, especially for relative beginners. There are both English and German course options to make study easier for those of us with no previous German background. Courses available to IUSP students include a small selection from each of the following subject areas: American Studies, Business Administration and Economics, Education, English Studies, German Studies, History, Linguistics and Language Technologies, Peace and Conflict Studies, Political Science, Psychology, Social and Cultural Anthropology, and Sociology.
Class Organization in Germany
The German education system is divided into various modules which students must complete to finish their degrees. These modules transfer as credit points, and can be fulfilled by any of a variety of different course offerings. Because of this system, different people in the same class are often taking different modules, and actually require different numbers of credit points from the same class. As a result, requirements for completion of each class vary by student, and in my course “Little Boxes in American Suburbia”, each student is given a different type of project to complete for their grade. This might be a presentation, an oral report, a research paper, or a written response. Such a complex system has resulted in significant confusion in class, and we spent the first hour and a half of class time attempting to account for everyone’s credit points. It didn’t help that because caps in class sizes aren’t required, almost half the class was sitting on windowsills around the too-small classroom.
Visiting the Harry Potter Universe
In my course on Harry Potter, we were required to pass a test just to remain in the class. Since Harry Potter is such a popular series, the professor wanted to ensure that the entire cohort had a strong understanding of the books, and hadn’t only seen the movies, thus allowing for assumptions about the base level of knowledge in the group. The test was something similar to a Facebook quiz on Harry Potter minutiae, except that it wasn’t multiple choice and so was very difficult to complete. Our professor even had to lower the pass threshold to 15/35 questions in order to have enough students left in the class! And class discussion is definitely very interesting. We’re currently covering how the series fits within the fantasy genre, and will move on to discuss narrative techniques, the role of magic, and the series’ cultural legacy. In our tutorials, we cover such additional topics as animal symbolism in the series and the differences between Harry Potter and the fan-made parody A Very Potter Musical.