Experience report Uppsala University

Transcription

1 Experience report Uppsala University Study Program: Law Exchange semester: spring 2016 Academic year: Host University: Uppsala University Country: Sweden General information During my exchange I lived in Uppsala. This is a city with inhabitants and fromthis are students, so it is a vibrant student city. It is the 4 th biggest city of Sweden and about 45 minutes from the capital Stockholm. It is a really old city and all the university buildings are located in the city center. There is not like in Tilburg a real campus all the building are separate and in really old buildings. Uppsala University consist of a lot of different faculties and they have over 400 exchange agreements, so you get to know a lot of people from different cultures. If you want to enjoy the student life in Uppsala you need to join the nations. Nations are like student unions. If you join on of the nations you can always enter the other nations, but sometimes you have to pay entrance fee then. The nations are all located in the city center and all have their specialties. I joined Snerikes (full name: Södermanlands-Nerikes nation) this nation organized a lot of thinks for exchange students, so a lot of the activities were in English. They have a club night on Tuesday. If you think you will go to one of the club nights more than 5 nights a semester then it is beneficial to become a member (instead of going to a club/bar in the Netherlands you will go in Sweden to the club nights at the nations). In the nations you can have dinner, lunch, breakfast, pubs, orchestras, choirs, sport teams etc. The main difference between Uppsala and Tilburg was first of all the nation life and the way of teaching. In Uppsala they use problem-based teaching. This means that the students have a leading role in class. Preparations for all the classes need to be done in groups and you have to give presentations very often. Uppsala is a really pretty city. When you are there you definitely need to visit the old cathedral and the lakes close to Uppsala. Especially ice-skating during the winter is something you need to do! Information before I left

2 the University sent de information we needed for our exchange a long time before we went there. There were no problems with that. Arrival The University of Uppsala organizes every semester a specific arrival day/ welcome event this year the arrival date was the 16 th of January. I would definitely recommend you to arrive at this specific date. We were picked up at Arlanda airport and they brought us to a nation where all the registrations were. You could get your keys there, register for the university network and some activities especially for exchange students. After this they even brought you to your room. Everything was taken care of. Orientation There was not a specific orientation week like the TOP-week. All the different nation organized something to show their nation. I went to almost all the activities so I could get to know as many people as possible. There is also a reception where all the different nations and other associations you can join. You can apply for the buddy program, however I didn t think this was necessary because they didn t organize anything, but only if you think you will have difficulties finding everything applying can be beneficial. Housing The Housing office of the university sent us a list with housing we could choose from, so we didn t have to organize anything ourselves. Finding a place to live in Uppsala is really hard; so take the housing you get as an exchange student. We had to sent our top 3 and a month later we received our housing. I would recommend you to apply for Flogsta. In these buildings (12 in total) you live with 12 people in each corridor. You share the kitchen with 12, but everyone has their own bathroom. Flogsta is where all the parties are and all the exchange students live ( almost all of them). On this website you can see all the different options; If you want a really quiet environment then it is better to choose one of the other options. Ekeby is also very nice, because it is close to Flogsta, but a little bit calmer and more modern than Flogsta. Flogsta is situated approximately 10/15 min by bike from the city centre and all the university building for Law. Living costs

3 I financed my exchange from money from my parents, my Erasmus scholarship and savings. Sweden is definitely more expensive. My room was already around 450 euros. I spent most of my money on food, travel and housing. While you re in Sweden it is a good opportunity to travel in Scandinavia and the Baltic countries. This is a ones in a lifetime experience, so try to do and discover as much as possible. Budget: housing 450 food 300 transport 50 travel/party 200 Academic calendar The semester in Uppsala started half January until the beginning of June. The semester almost started right after the welcome event and the classes already started during the orientation week. Swedes love to celebrate. Valborg, beginning of spring, is one of the big events in Uppsala. Students make boats to peddle trough the main river, nations have festivals with artists, everyone is drinking in the park and there are some traditional habits. There was not a real break, but most of the students had some time off between the two subjects. Did you travel to other places/countries during your exchange? Social activities Uppsala has a specific committee that organizes activities for exchange students. One of the main activities is a gasque, this is a formal dinner party with music. You have to wear a suit as a man and a cocktail/ prom dress. Tip for future students to Uppsala: bring your dress/suit from back home, buying or renting one there is really expensive and most of us have something back home that will be suitable. The also organized some parties and pub-crawls. There is a specific facebook page where they publish all their events. Next to that all the different nations have international secretaries as well. It depends on the nation how much they organize. I had a friend group of 15 students from different countries for example; Dutch, Belgian, Australian, American and English students. I hung around the most with exchange students. Swedes are friendly, however not very social and open. I traveled in Sweden, Finland, Denmark and took a cruise to Estonia and Latvia. These cruises are called booz-cruise, alcohol is so much cheaper on the boat compare to the systembologat in Sweden. Alcohol is really expensive in Sweden. You can only buy it in specific shops. In bars a beer is 6/7 euros and in the nations Drinking in the nations is so much better. Culture and language

4 I didn t experience a cultural shock. Sweden is not that different from the Netherlands. I learned from our own culture that we are so impatient in Sweden they queue for everything and wait patiently for their turn. We rush things too much. I would describe Sweden as a well-organized country. All the people in Sweden speak really good English, however they are a little bit insecure about their English, but they shouldn t be. I followed two language courses. Basic Swedish 1 ( 7.5 ECTS) and Practical English (7.5 ECTS). I would recommend following the Basic Swedish course. It is really nice if you can understand the language a little bit better, and for Dutch speaking students it is not that hard. Academic information All the courses for Exchange students are in English. Before your arrival you will get a link with potential courses and you have to order them from first choice, second etc. I followed Law and Economics ( 15ECTS) and Security and constitutional law( 15 ECTS). The law and economics course wasn t my cup of tea, because it was way to vague, although it was a totally new way of approaching law. The security course was really nice. It is a recent development using data to investigate for example terrorism, however there need to be some control. There was also a negotiation in this course where we had to make a European security service. I think the courses where a little bit easier than our courses back home, because you don t have to study for an actual exam, everything was openbook or writing an essay. There are some lectures and the rest are seminars where you really have to participate. There is a specific law library and a big main library where you can study and discuss with your seminar group. From my second course all the literature was provided digital trough the data base from the law library. Course Exam ECTS Course level Comment Law and economics Security and constitutional law Basic Take-home, in class and essay in class and essay Listening and grammar 15 MA Difficult, vague and the English of the teacher wasn t that good. 15 MA Very interesting, a lot of work. 7,5 BA Nice to learn another

5 Swedish exam language Practical English 2 presentations, 2 writing exams and in class 7,5 BA To easy for me. Tips for exchange students I would definitely recommend an exchange period, you get to know yourself, another country and make friends from all over the world. Uppsala is a really nice city with a lot of activities, close to Stockholm and a lot of exchange students. Final tips: - buy a bike - travel a lot - make fun!