Student blogs

Before joining HEPM course, I only have a rough idea of what would be taught in topics: Economics, Policy & Management. Having studied Bachelor’s in medicine and having never done Economics/Policy before, I was a bit worried about this part of the course.

To my surprise, the course, however, taught us in a very nice way and made sure that every student regardless of their educational background can follow the course. Out of these, 3 topics that surprised me most were: Excel, Statistic Modelling & Research methodology.

1. Excel

As part of the course, we were taught by an expert on how to use Excel from a very basic level to an advanced level such as “visual basic” coding and macros. Very useful and many of my colleagues appreciate it. I never thought the university will teach us in great length about this powerful Microsoft tool for practical usage in study and research. I believe, understanding and being able to use Excel well can be a very good advantage in future career prospect. Especially in general management and economic study.

2. Statistic & Modelling

In our Economics lectures, training on statistical tools such as SPSS were also taught in depth. As well as the Markov model which I did not expect at all. University pays great attention to necessary skills requires to excel in research and general management. Many of the University I heard only asked you to do the master thesis and rarely they teach you about these programs. For someone like me who never used to with these before, it was to my surprise and I do appreciate it a lot.

3. Research methodology

Prior to studying at Karolinska, I am not very fond of research and the most I have done is a master thesis in London. Since KI is heavily research oriented University, students felt almost as if we were already in the research industry. Every coursework, group works and study were very alike discussion based and research based. Being taught by professors of active researchers, slowly I began to understand much more about academic research, its importance and eventually I starting to like it.

I felt this being alone is quite a unique feature of Karolinska Institutet. As a student at KI, you will be closer to the research field. The course also taught us in detail how to do academic research and use of search engines.

Do you agree or disagree with the importance of the above 3 learnings? Please do feel free to reach out for further discussion or questions.