Uppsala Universitet
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In this travel report I tell about my experiences from Uppsala, Sweden where I studied for one term in Spring 2016 in the department of business in Uppsala University. I hope this report is useful for anyone considering lovely Uppsala as their exchange destination! UPPSALA UNIVERSITET Exchange studies in Spring 2016 379540 Content Why Uppsala? ......................................................................................................................................................................... 2 Preparations ............................................................................................................................................................................ 3 Studies ..................................................................................................................................................................................... 5 Free time and other information ............................................................................................................................................ 7 Final comments ..................................................................................................................................................................... 11 1 Why Uppsala? Uppsala slottet. I chose Uppsala as my exchange destination because I desired to live in Sweden as I wanted to improve my Swedish skills. First I considered Stockholm, but as I heard that Uppsala is a much more convenient city to students, the atmosphere is cozier and getting housing is easier, I decided to go there. Also the good location of the city had an impact as Uppsala is located 70km from Stockholm and only 30km from Arlanda airport. This was important to me because I love Stockholm and I thought I could visit there often and I also wanted to do some traveling, so the closeness of the airport was an asset. I am very happy with my choice and Uppsala is one of the most beautiful cities I have visited, especially in spring and summer time. I improved my Swedish, but in this you really have to be self-imposed and just speak the language even though it feels so easy to switch to English. Uppsala is the fourth biggest city in Sweden with 140 000 inhabitants (approximately as much as Jyväskylä). The city is well known for the river called Fyrisån that divides the city, Domkyrka which is the largest church in Scandinavia and the botanical museums inspired by Carl Linnaeus, maybe the most famous student of Uppsala Universitet. Uppsala Universitet is the oldest university in Scandinavia, founded in 1477. As a student it feels like the whole city operates for students and I wouldn’t be surprised if Uppsala really is the best student city in Scandinavia as they say. 2 Preparations Domkyrka och solnedgång. Moving to Sweden as a Finn in extremely easy. No special documents like Visas are needed and the school didn’t require too much paperwork. A bit tricky was the course selection, which is done well in advance before departure. The selection of courses to choose from was quite narrow, and it was hard to choose outside the list which was a pity as I would have liked to choose courses in Swedish and the list had courses only in English. Arriving to Uppsala is easy both by boat and plane, as both the harbor and airport are nearby. I arrived by boat and car, as that made it possible to take with more luggage than in a plane. Uppsala ekonomerna, which is a local economics student association, operates a “Buddy system” which aims to welcome and help the exchange students. Your Buddy will contact you well before departure and helps with how to get to Uppsala and how to get started. The housing office of the university offered housing to all the exchange students (at least I didn’t hear about anyone not getting an offer). To try the free housing markets in Uppsala is not recommended, as it can get very expensive and there are not many apartments available. I got the housing I wished for, and I think it helped that I filled the housing application at the very time it opened. I would recommend to apply to either Klostergatan 3 (my choice) or Flogsta, depending on what you wish from your exchange period. Klostergatan has an excellent location in the city center and a reasonable 20-minute walk from Ekonomikum, where business courses are held. The rent was about 4200 kr. Klostergatan is a former hotel and nowadays it offers single apartments with a private kitchenette and bathroom to exchange students. During my stay they were renovating the place and building a common room and kitchen, which makes the place even more attractive. The rooftop of the house offered a beautiful view over Uppsala. Slottet och domkyrkan från Klostergatans tak. Flogsta is a legendary housing place and most of the exchange students as well as new Swedish students live there. Flogsta is located about 3 km from the city center (a bike or using busses is needed) and offers shared corridors with varying condition. The housing area is known for its corridor parties, and parties can be found every single day from some of the 10 houses. The nature surrounding Flogsta is incredibly beautiful and offers very good jogging grounds. 4 Promenad nära Flogsta. Studies Pelle Svanslös (Pekka Töpöhäntä) kommer från Uppsala. The dates for the Spring term were officially January 18th – June 05th, but some students left earlier which was ok. In this section I will review the courses I studied, which were Management and Control (15c), Marketing, Consumers and Companies (7.5c) and Organisational Behaviour (7.5c). The workload of all the courses were much lower than in Aalto and the lecturing style is very different, as all courses are built around seminars where 5 all groups are expected to perform. There was also a lot of group work, which I found nice as it was a good way to get to know people. My courses were all undergraduate level, but I heard that the courses in graduate level required a lot more work. Management and Control, 15c Undergraduate course, course code 2FE412. Many lecturers. Content: This course covers issues concerned with the management and control of an organization. The course aims to address possible problems and challenges that effectiveness of management and control can cause to members and participants in an organization. The topic is covered from the viewpoint of both external and internal customers and learning is done by case studies, which introduce typical managerial problems. Besides the case studies the course is based on a series of lectures held by senior lecturers. Evaluation: Students are divided in groups of four people, who perform a solution to a case study every week (altogether five assignments). In addition there is one individual assignment and one consultancy project. There is also an exam. Comments: This course was quite interesting with a reasonable work load. The course content works for everyone interested in management, and I found the case studies intriguing and instructive. Approximately half of the students were Swedish and the course also aimed to provide ideas for the Bachelor’s thesis, but I didn’t find it harmful that I had already written my thesis. Exchange students were placed in a group with local students, which I thought was very nice as I got to speak Swedish with my group. Marketing, Consumers and Companies, 7.5c Undergraduate course, course code 2FE221. Lecturer Nazeem Seyed-Mohamed. Content: The course is offered only to exchange students and it aims to extend the understanding of marketing with a focus on consumer behavior. The course also considers the structure and process of business-to-business marketing. Consumer behavior is covered from both the perspectives of individuals and how companies should address behavior patterns in various marketing activities. This course is part of a joint selection and must be combined with the course Organisational Behaviour. Evaluation: Two seminar works and final thesis, all made in groups of four and an exam. Comments: Honestly this course was probably the worst I have experienced during my university career. If you desire an easy course and don’t mind that the structure of the course is very confusing and the learning outcome is minimal, I recommend this course. The communication with the course lecturer was difficult and students were quite confused of what was expected of them. The course had no lecturers and learning was organized so 6 that every group made a presentation of one book chapter. This made it hard to learn as the presentations were only 10 minutes long and the quality varied. Finally a final thesis with some research was done. The exam was quite unnecessary as the course was passed with only the final thesis. Organisational Behaviour, 7.5c Undergraduate course, course code 2FE223. Lecturer Mohammad Latifi. Content: The course is structured by weekly seminars. The seminar series started with a discussion about the individual’s role in organisations and then moved to questions about groups and teams, decision-making, power and politics. Also topics like culture, change and leadership are covered. The course is offered only to exchange studies and must be selected with the course Marketing, Consumers and Companies. Evaluation: Weekly seminar assignments made in groups and an exam. Comments: The most important learning outcome this course gave to me was better self-confidence in presentations as we had to give a presentation every week. The lecturer was really competent and funny which made the course enjoyable. The actual content of the course was quite general knowledge and didn’t offer too much for me. Free time and other information Fyrisån i februari. The cost of living in Sweden is somewhat the same as in Finland, depending a bit on the currency rates. Purchasing school books is recommended but I survived without buying any books. There are usually one or 7 two copies of each course book in the library, so you have to be lucky to get those. Groceries and other necessities are about the same price as in Finland, but it is notable that prices vary a lot between different stores. For example the ICA (biggest retailing corporate group in Sweden) in Flogsta is a lot cheaper than the ones in the center.