Posts under "education"

Student nations at Uppsala University

Posted by Steve No Comments
Dec 28 2011

One of the most unique things about Uppsala University (as well as, as it so happens, Lund University) is the student nation system. Traditionally, students from a given part of Sweden would join that region’s respective ‘nation’, as a way to split up the student body in order to promote various aspects of student life in a more organized manner. The idea comes originally from the medieval University of Paris. Nowadays, however, any student can join any nation and it is no longer a requirement to join any at all. All of the current 13 student nations in Uppsala have their roots in the early to mid 1600′s.

But what really is a student nation? Quoted directly from the Uppsala Student Union’s homepage: “A nation is a bit like a pub, a bit like a café, a bit like a student club, a bit like a college, even something like a fraternity or sorority… but not really!” Well, that’s a great way to sum it up – not even! It’s basically a place for students to meet, take a drink or coffee, party all night or even just sit and study. Some nations even have theatre groups and choirs. And if you’re a member of one nation, you have access to all of them – that one pink card is universal! Some features are, however, exclusive to the nation you’re registered with: for example, you can’t apply for a student room/apartment through any nation other than the one you are enrolled in. This is both a measure to make it easier for students of any particular nation to take advantage of his/her nation’s benefits as well as to distribute students among the many nations more equally.

Oh, I could write on forever, but there are no words to describe the actual feeling of pure student life in Uppsala. If you’re studying at an institution of higher education and are considering a semester abroad, I can recommend without hesitation Uppsala University!

Uppsala University, Part 1

Posted by Steve 2 Comments
Dec 20 2011

Taken from Wikipedia.org

Uppsala University, located in the city of Uppsala, just 67 km (42 mi) north of Stockholm, is one of the most famous and well-accredited universities in Europe. It is the oldest university in Scandinavia, founded in 1477. During the 1600′s, the university grew immensely when King Gustavus Adolphus (Gustav Adolf) made a large donation to the institution. Since then, the university has continued to grow and it has the most international students in all of Sweden. Now it stands as not only a place of study but an artifact of the Middle Ages in Sweden.

The university is divided into nine faculties, which all have their homes at various campuses throughout the city.  The main university building, and the original one, was built right by the Domkyrkan (cathedral). The area around both buildings house many different rune stones from the Viking Age. If you study Swedish history at the university, you might receive an opportunity to learn the runic alphabet and translate these stones yourself.

Uppsala University has approximately 6000 employees, of which 4000 are professors or other teachers. Why so many employees? The answer is that there are approximately 40,000 students studying in Uppsala today – so many employees are needed!

There are also several other types of institutions connected to the university: for example, the Uppsala University Hospital and the University Library, Karolina Rediviva.

(Part two of this post will be added at a later date.)

[Information from an Uppsala University brochure and Wikipedia.]

School vacation in Sweden

Posted by Steve 1 Comment
Oct 31 2011

Different countries have different standards for when their students get time off from their studies to take a drive to the beach, go hiking in the mountains, or simply take it easy and veg out for a week. Sweden’s school vacation schedule looks like this:

First, you go to school for about two months, and it’s all hard work until the week-long höstlovet (autumn vacation) that begins around Halloween time (which, by the way, is not an important holiday in Sweden), or 31 October for those of you who don’t know. This year’s autumn vacation in Uppsala, for example, began today.

After that, you go to school for about a month and a half, and then it’s jullovet (Christmas vacation). Most schools get out several days before Christmas Eve and start again around 10-12 January. (Keep in mind that Christmas Eve is the big day in most of Europe, not Christmas Day.)

After that long, relaxing (if you can call it that) Christmas vacation, school starts again and you have to keep your thinking cap on until the end of February, when you’re expected to tire yourself even more (except this time physically) during sportlovet (sport vacation). Actually you’re not expected to do anything in particular, but many Swedes head to the mountains at this time for a full week of skiing (and much less commonly snowboarding).

As if you’re not already tired enough after skiing the whole week, school starts up again for another two months, all the way until Easter. This vacation is called påsklovet, or Easter vacation. It traditionally falls on whatever week Easter happens to be on.

And finally, the home stretch! School gets out for the summer about two months later, usually after the first full week in June. Now you have about a month and a half to spend doing summery things until school starts again around 20 August. Everyone loves sommarlovet (summer vacation)!

And there you have it, all of the time off your favorite Swede has ever had every year in primary and secondary school. When you get to university level, though, you generally don’t get any vacations other than Christmas and summer vacation, which separate semesters. But being a student is definitely worth the while! ;)

Collective over individual

Posted by Katja 1 Comment
Oct 10 2011

Let us take the case of how we look at progress in school in Sweden as an example of this. The whole gets focused more on than the individual’s progress and level in today’s school system. Instead of dividing up an age group into A, B and C classes for math, English and Swedish for example, the general procedure is to have all students study together regardless of the difference in levels. It is seen as more important to value team work and social competence instead of tangible achievements and memorizing.

In another area of Swedish life you will find a similar occurrence, that is to say, in the workforce. At work there are what is called ‘collective labour unions agreements’ so that the whole workforce in general has decent working conditions. It is seen as negative to try to exclusively advance yourself because it may be a threat to the collective. If everyone is average then noone is of lesser standard.

Staying in Sweden longer than three months

Posted by Steve 4 Comments
Oct 6 2011

If you’re planning to visit Sweden for any given period of time, depending on which country you’re from, you may need a visum, or visa, to get into the country. EU citizens/residents don’t need any form of visa, regardless of how long they stay, because they have what is known as uppehållsrätt, or right of residence, in Sweden (as well as every other EU country). The EU is made up of the following countries (from Wikipedia):

Belgium, Bulgaria, Cyprus, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, the Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Great Britain, Sweden, the Czech Republic, Germany, Hungary and Austria.

People with citizenship/residence outside of the EU have a genuine disadvantage in that we are only allowed to stay within the Schengen Area (almost the entire EU plus Iceland, Norway, and Switzerland) for a maximum of 90 days per 6 months without what is known as ett uppehållstillstånd, or a residence permit. (People from most countries are also required to have a visa, which is applied for before applying for studies.) Unfortunately, applications for residence permits take several months to process, a length of time which can vary from season to season and purpose to purpose.

According to utlänningslagen, or the immigration law, ett uppehållstillstånd must be applied for from outside of Sweden, and the applicant must remain outside of Sweden while they wait for a decision from Migrationsverket, or the Swedish Migration Board.

For those of you who plan to work in Sweden, this should be no problem because your employer will be aware that it takes time. If you are planning to pursue studies taught in English, you’re probably also fine because your acceptance letter will arrive in time for you to apply and receive your permit before you take off. Students who will pursue studies taught in Swedish, though, have a much more complicated process to go through:

1) First, you’ll need to prove that your Swedish skills are at a high enough level to understand course material and lectures, so you will have to take a Tisus (Test i svenska för utländska studerande) test, which is only given twice a year at scattered locations around the world (mostly universities);
2) You will receive notice of acceptance to your university of choice in July, which clearly doesn’t offer enough time to get you a residence permit, so you will have to apply for your residence permit without submitting an acceptance letter and then send it in later (which may or may not work, depending on how cooperative your Swedish embassy/consulate is);
3) You will have to pay a tuition fee in order to be granted your residence permit. (Non-EU students who have started a program or course before the current Autumn 2011 semester do not have to pay, but students starting this semester do.)

As you can see, it can get very twisty. You can cheat and enter Sweden without your residence permit (as long as you have your visa documentation with you, if citizens of your country need it) and pick it up (it comes as a card) after you’ve arrived, but this is not actually allowed and if the Migration Board notices this, you might be denied your residence permit. Since I’m from the US, I didn’t need a visa to come here so they would not have noticed if I came before I received my residence permit, but it may be different for those who require a visa. But in general, it is of course best to follow the rules in order to avoid complicating things, even if it is seemingly impossible considering the disorganization of the immigration system!

Sweden also gives residence permits for familial connections (your father’s brother in-law’s cousin unforunately doesn’t count; I’ve tried), performing as a musician or other artist (if you’re staying longer than 90 days or getting paid in any way), sportsmanship, berry picking (weird, I know), au pair, entrepreneurship, marriage/civil union, and political asylum. Check the Migration Board’s website (http://www.migrationsverket.se/) for more information!

Back to the Top