Hello everyone, and welcome to this new post! Today, I’d like to provide you with more insight into what it’s like to study Engineering at KTH. What does a typical course structure look like? Is it more theory-oriented or project-focused? Who might benefit from this approach, and, most importantly, is it the right fit for you?
Project-based learning
At KTH, everything revolves around practical project-based learning. This means that, in general, you will have plenty of lecture-free time where you will be working on projects or assignments from your programme. Typically, courses offer a range of assignments throughout the semester, spanning from short computational exercises to more intricate projects or lab reports.
I appreciate this approach because it avoids overwhelming you with numerous lecture hours and provides plenty of time to absorb and apply the theories covered in classes. Also, this gives you plenty of practical expertise with software specific to your field, as well as providing you with useful insights on teamworking and report writing!
Collaborative work
Collaboration is another essential component of KTH’s curriculum and evaluation method. Most assignments here involve some degree of teamwork. Some assignments and projects are explicitly designed around group work, culminating in a collective report. In other cases, the project and report submission are individual, but teamwork is always encouraged. Groupwork is essential in an industry environment and it makes no sense not to train this skill in your university years! Finally, this also helps you connect and get to know many students from your programme and beyond, and this will make your life at KTH much more fun – as well as help you build your professional network once you graduate.
Laboratory work
Are you drawn to state-of-the-art labs with extensive research and study opportunities for you and your peers? If so, KTH won’t disappoint you! Laboratory work – be it computational or experimental – is a central part in KTH Engineering curricula. There are even courses which entirely revolve around lab work with industry collaborations (some examples are the Aeroelasticity or the Applied Vehicle Dynamics Control courses, but there are many more)! You are usually required to attend at least a couple of hands-on sessions per course, which usually end with some data post-processing and a report-writing part.
Lastly, I just wanted to remind you that KTH works on a trimester basis. This means that the academic year is composed of two semesters, each divided into two periods. Although there are some courses which last an entire semester, most courses only last one period. This means you will concentrate only on a couple of courses per time, which will make you able to dive into the subject much more! I have talked more about Swedish programmes structure in this past blog post – you are welcome to check it out!
That is all for today. Thank you very much for reading and, as always, feel free to leave a comment and contact us if you have any questions! Also, don’t forget that many KTH Webinars are scheduled for the next weeks, since the application period is about to open. The next one will be on October 17 – register here!
I wish you a very nice week – and don’t forget to check out Sam’s and Sai’s last posts!
// Lorenzo
Very clear as usual. Have a nice week. See you soon!
Thank you!