Paul is joined by Irina Lupu, both as author of this blog and future autodidact!
We all make an effort to learn new things, particularly stuff we are interested in, all the time. Sometimes we set ourselves goals and a timeframe. Less often, perhaps, do we formalize a chunk of learning into something parallel to the learning you might do at a university, with depth and breadth and focus for an established period of time.
That’s what Paul did for the 2025-2026 school year. He started experimenting with creating his own degree, from A to Z, for himself. It turns out there is lots to think about when you do such a thing!
Paul
In the summer before the 2025-2026 school year, to get a feel for the standard requirements, I googled three university programs that offer MAs in Scandinavian Studies. Combining what I read with what I was interested in learning, I created a fall and spring semester of classes, a January term, and a follow up summer abroad experience. In other words, I made myself the equivalent of a Masters program. A university of one!
Then I started to read for the literature course, I scheduled with language tutors for the Scandinavian languages for the language course, for Education 101 I began researching the history and current state of the Scandinavian folk high school, and I collected Scandinavian recipes from friends and family for my self-imposed cooking and baking requirement.
I shared the program on LinkedIn and asked others to join me, not specifically for Scandinavian Studies, but for some area of study that they have always wanted to learn in depth. I imagined I’d make a support group, a study-your-own-thing-but-check-in-with-each-other group. I didn’t get any takers at first, but I have one now, Irina.
Irina
When I saw Paul’s post on LinkedIn, I thought to myself: well, that’s a really interesting idea!
While informal learning often happens spontaneously, I personally need a structured approach when exploring topics I’m interested in. Structure helps me stay focused and make steady progress.
What particularly caught my eye was the fact that Paul took inspiration from several existing Master’s programs when designing his own. This strikes me as a great way to identify what is relevant in a particular field or topic, as well as how it is typically delivered. It also provides a useful indication of how, and at what pace, the learning might unfold.
While everyone seems to agree that lifelong learning is one of the most important competencies for an unpredictable future, my take on continuous learning is that it plays a crucial role in one’s cognitive and mental health, regardless of the impact it may have on a career path.
Paul
I described what I was doing to my friend and colleague, Gϋlendam Akgül, while spending a week together at her university in Ankara. She was interested and supportive, which encouraged me to spend one evening in my hotel designing a shield for the diploma. I used Old Norse for “And so we learn,” taken from a text about Old Norse, runes, and the sagas. I didn’t want to privilege any of the three Scandinavian languages I was learning, so Old Norse seemed logical. Plus it looks cool.
I also decided on a name for the degree, something akin to degree abbreviations you’d associate with a university. I settled on a variant of MPhil (Masters of Philosophy) and named the degree the MSelf. That seemed to convey the project I had started—a masters level collection of content created by myself. Now I just needed to keep discovering resources – and motivation—to keep moving through the fall semester. I still didn’t have any colleagues for support, but Irina was following my posts on LinkedIn, as I learned later.
Irina
I’ve long reflected on which topic would be interesting enough for me to dedicate to a self-designed program spanning several months—or even several years. I believe that this choice largely depends on the stage one is at in their professional life, and on whether the learning is meant to support career development or is driven by pure curiosity or more personal motivations.
While I haven’t settled on a specific topic yet, at this stage of my career I would be more inclined to invest time and effort in a self-designed program that benefits my professional development. One possible approach would be to start by browsing programs offered by various institutions in fields that are professionally relevant to me.
Paul
I was very motivated through the first semester and the January term. In all courses, save perhaps Danish and Norwegian, I accomplished more than I had initially planned. My family was inundated with lefse and rømmegrøt and cinnamon rolls and meatballs. Then in the last week of January I had a week off before the official start of the second semester, February 2, 2026. That first week I had one Norwegian lesson (I forgot everything, it seemed, that I had learned.) and I read Independent People by Hálldor Laxness, the Icelandic Nobel Laureate. Not a great showing, thank goodness I’ve got Irina now for motivation!
Irina
Staying motivated in the long run is one of the biggest challenges of informal learning. Even in formal education, it can be hard to stay focused from September to June; however, when enrolled in a mandatory program, one does what needs to be done to get through the year.
So what happens when there’s no obligation? What I think helps is having a program that is designed and carefully planned ahead of time. It’s far easier to complete a daily or weekly assignment when you know what’s expected in advance than to plan learning in an ad hoc way.
Additionally, the key to staying motivated may lie in being part of a community of learners who are also pursuing their own self-designed programs, even if they’re focused on entirely different topics. Regular check-ins with fellow learners help maintain momentum, while being part of a purpose-driven community provides additional motivation.
Where do we go from here?
Paul will graduate, so to speak, in Summer 2026 after fulfilling the abroad requirement of the program: a week-long writer’s retreat at a Swedish folkhögskola and a week in Roskilde, Denmark, home of Danish kings and open air museums with a chance to row a Viking ship with other tourists willing to pay for such a thing. The diploma is the shield Paul drew in Turkey, as a tattoo, finished by a tattoo artist in Roskilde. If Paul doesn’t chicken out.
And then what?
We hope to reflect on the experience and share some more thoughts via blogging. What is adult education? Who should direct it, and to what end? How do we keep ourselves motivated? What has changed in today’s world, if we don’t need the official recognition of a degree from the university? We certainly have all we need to study just about anything and to collaborate with just about anybody.
In Fall 2026 we will pick our topics and launch ourselves into an MSelf, this time together, supporting each other collaboratively with our independent programs. We hope to invite additional people to join us as well. Maybe you, if you’ve read this far, maybe you are interested in going in depth on something you love, whether to support your career, as Irina envisions, or to pursue a personal interest, as Paul did in this first iteration.
Perhaps we’ll have to expand our degree offerings, depending on the scope of projects any future colleagues imagine. Someone might join us who doesn’t want the full Masters equivalency. How about just a certification, for the length of time and depth of study that they deem appropriate? They might create the SelfCert, or some other new recognition of learning. When we are independent, creative, and fun, why the heck not!
Contact us at [email protected] and [email protected] if you’d like to join in. Seriously. But also in fun.