Dog sledding is now a university course

Dog sledding and the Finnmarksløpet sled dog race are now being offered as a part of their own university course for the first time ever in Norway and Europe. The course will be offered beginning in the winter of 2015.

Utsi, Inger Elin Kristina
Published: 15.01.14 00:00 Updated: 15.01.14 09:49

UNIQUE : Dog sledding will now be offered as a separate subject at UiT – The Arctic University of Norway. The discipline has previously been offered at the university as a part of other courses. The Finnmarksløpet, Europe’s most northerly dog sled race, offers students hands-on practical experience in the subject. Photo: Inger Elin Utsi /UiT – The Arctic University of Norway.

Dog sledding will be a mandatory 10-credit course as a part of UiT – The Arctic University of Norway’s three-year programme in arctic outdoor recreation.  Students in the university’s year-long outdoor recreation programme and students studying sports will also be able to take the class as an elective. The course will also developed in the future so that it can be taken as an elective in the university’s travel and tourism programme.

 

First in Europe

Rune Waaler, an associate professor at UiT – The Arctic University of Norway, says that dog sledding and the Finnmarksløpet have been a part of the outdoor recreation programme for many years, but that this is the first time that dog sledding will be offered as a separate course in the curriculum. In fact, this will be a first for both Norway and Europe.

“Our outdoor recreation students have run the Levajok checkpoint for the Finnmarksløpet dog sled race for many years now,” Waaler said. “We offer students who are in charge of the checkpoint some training in dog sledding before the race. We have had an academic evaluation of this arrangement, which led us to decide that we wanted to strengthen the dog sledding component of our programme. That’s why we developed this into a separate subject for our students.”

Waaler has been responsible for development of the course in association with his colleagues at the university. He recently presented the programme to other Norwegian professionals who work in outdoor education, and got a good response.

“We want to strengthen dog sledding as a part of our educational programme, because we want to reflect our regional and national character,” Waaler says. “And if you’re going to have dog sledding as a subject, it is clear that Alta is the place to do it. Alta is home to a substantial sled dog related community, and we have the Finnmarksløpet as well, which is an important engine for developing sled dog racing as a sport.”

The Finnmarksløpet as hands-on experience

UiT has had a good relationship with the Finnmarksløpet for many years, dating from the time when the university was a university college. The Finnmarksløpet has become a valuable opportunity for students to get practical, first-hand experience and participate in Europe’s longest sled dog race up close, a fact that many former students have appreciated. The 1000-km long Finnmarksløpet starts in Alta every March and is the most northerly sled dog race in the world. The executive manager of the race, Svanhild Pedersen, is very enthusiastic about the contribution that UiT makes.

“It’s awesome, it really supports this sport. It helps to raise the status of dog sledding as a sport, but also as a type of outdoor activity.  It is also a great development in the partnership we have with the university,” Pedersen says.

“Over the years, we have made the race accessible to students as a place to learn, and this is a new element of that cooperation. It is also a very innovative approach by UiT,” she added. “We think that it is great that it is being held in Finnmark county, where the Finnmarksløpet takes place. And it will also be good that the course will be open, so that more students can apply and there will be broader recruitment.”

 

Relevant programme for many

Outdoor recreation has been a very popular programme for many years, and builds on the Norwegian tradition of spending time outdoors and local hiking and outdoor traditions in Norway and in Finnmark. The programme is appropriate for anyone who wants to improve his or her outdoors sports expertise. The course emphasizes the guide aspect of dog sledding. Many teachers, educators, employees who work with rehabilitation and preventive health and wildlife managers have attended the course. It is also popular with students who want to become outdoor guides, which is the main focus of UiT’s bachelor’s degree in arctic outdoor recreation.

The dog sledding course includes two weeks of mandatory practical experience, of which one week is the Finnmarksløpet. But the subject also covers topics such as dogs and dog sledding as a way of experiencing nature and the outdoors, historical, sociological and psychological perspectives on dog racing, various mushing techniques and dog hitching systems, and dog sled racing as a sport, such as the Finnmarksløpet.

Students will also learn how to master and deal with a dog team, and to participate in an event. Students will have an oral exam related to a paper they write as a part of the course requirements. Both the paper and the oral exam will determine the student’s grade.

UiT will also promote the course as an independent subject, not only as a part of an established study programme. That means that anyone who meets the admission requirements may apply.

The course will be research-based, like other UiT programmes, and will rely in part on Waaler’s extensive knowledge of dog sledding. He will visit the Femundløpet dog sled race in central Norway this winter to collect data for a research project.

FAG: UiT’s dog sledding course will include both theoretical and practical instruction. The offering is the first time in Europe that dog sledding is a being offered as a university subject. Photo: Inger Elin Utsi / UiT – The Arctic University of Norway.

 

Translated by Nancy Bazilchuk

 

 

Utsi, Inger Elin Kristina
Published: 15.01.14 00:00 Updated: 15.01.14 09:49
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