Lund University 2016-2017 PREPARATION exchange application process There is a lot of information provided by Utrecht University in order to prepare for your application to study abroad. The deadline is clear, there is a list with the required documents you need to provide before the deadline. The orientation meeting as well as the pre-departure meeting were helpful in the proces of preparing for your choices and the final moment of departure. counselling & support at Utrecht University As a noted above the orientation meetings as well as the pre-departure meeting were helpful. Sometimes it is not very clear which body withing the University to contact about what subject matter. For example that you need your study plan to be signed by the studieadviseur, but they don’t know anything about whether or not your courses can be implemented in your Bachelor Program. Basically the studieadviseur, examencommissie and international office are all part of the process but they could definitely put more effort in working together and give more clearification about who to contact in which fase of the application and thereafter. academic preparation language preparation I only needed to do a language assessment in English sent by Erasmus. My English was already on a decent level, I was already able to follow academic courses in English language, so I didn't need much preparation on this point. finances As to the finances, I worked a lot before heading off to Sweden. I knew Sweden is quite an expensive country compared to the Netherlands so I made sure I had saved enough money to cover the expected and unexpected costs. Also with financial support from my parents I have been able to go to Sweden. STUDY ABROAD PERIOD study programme (content and organisational issues) I attended two courses during my semester at Lund University. Both on Master level and both worth 15 ECTS each. The first course called Introduction to Swedish Law was very general and mostly about Swedish and European law. It was a very nice course since only international students took part in it, so I was able to make a lot of friends during this course that were in Sweden for the same reasons as me. The structure was a bit different than I was used to in the Netherlands. The first part of the course existed of all the lectures, after that we had small-group sessions and individual meetings for our group and individual essay. The second course I followed is Law and Literature. Very interesting, reading loads of literature. Sometimes directly related to law and sometimes not that much, but it made me see how important language for law can be. We did a lot of close readings on texts which also made me improve my legal reading skills. There were as far as I'm concerned no organisational issues. academic quality of education activities All the education activities are of good academic quality. Lectures and small-group sessions are given by professors counselling & support at receiving university abroad page 1 of 2 A lot of information is given by Lund University for your stay abroad. Before and during your stay. There is always a student service you can contact if you need support or help. transfer of credits I have not received my transcript of records yet, so not applicable. STUDENT LIFE welcome & orientation programme The introduction weeks were well organised. There is a specific arrival day recommended for all the new exchange students. It was insanely busy during this day and I had to stand in line for more than two hours in order to receive my keys. This could have been organised/monitored better… By the time I arrived at the desk where they sell the tickets for several activities everything was sold out. And it was only 5 pm, the day was at least to last till 8 pm. Some activities lasted for a whole day, so I had many gaps in my introduction programme. Which is not such a nice thing if you don’t know anyone in Lund yet and wanted to use the introduction activities to get to know more people. accommodation I got my room through the Lund Accommodation service, I lived in a corridor room just out of the city centre which was fine. The application process was easy and transparent. The results of the room placements came rather late. I was placed on the waiting list and eventually in the end I was fortunate enough to get a room. But otherwise I would have been to late to use other housing services in Lund and I would have ended up staying at a hotel or something. At my student accommodation lived over a 1000 other students. It was nice that my corridor with 15 people living there was a mix of internationals and Swedes. leisure & culture There are a lot of things to do and see in Lund. But it is a small town. You can easily travel to other cities such as Copenhagen, which I did several times for either a day in the city or a night out. Lund has nice coffee places and a few great restaurants. There are furthermore 13 student nations that offer loads of student activities such as brunches, parties, sittnings and dinners. suggestions/tips I would recommend to join a nation. CONCLUSIONS would you recommend this university/destination abroad to others? please explain Defenitely! Everything is well organised and the level of English is really good in Sweden. Not only at the university but also the locals speak English very well. do you have any additional advice or comments? Just go for it! page 2 of 2 Lund University 2016-2017 preparation exchange/placement application process After having been to Sweden a couple of times before, I fell in love with this country and knew that I would love to do an exchange semester in a Swedish student city. At the general UU meeting for studying abroad, I talked to some people who had been to Lund and got convinced. I applied for Lund (Sweden), Uppsala (Sweden) and London (UK). I wrote a motivation letter, made a financial and a study plan and handed in my English CV. Two months after the deadline, I heard I was accepted by Lund University. I payed attention to the deadlines of filling in documents and tried to reply to emails from Lund/UU as quickly as possible. counselling/support at home university I frequently got support from the International Office of Utrecht University. The replied to e- mails very fast and signed all the documents that needed to be signed. academic preparation I have not had any extra academic preparation except for the two years of regular law studies at Utrecht University. language preparation There were no specific language requirements from Lund University, so an English assessment test was not needed. In Lund, I followed the introductory Swedish course, which was a fun way to meet people and get general knowledge of the Swedish language. If you are really interested in the Swedish language, it is also possible to take intermediate and advanced courses, but this will of course require extra time and enthusiasm. finances page 1 of 4 Living in Sweden is very expensive, also compared to The Netherlands. Therefore, making a financial plan for your semester abroad, is necessary. To be able to have enough money during my exchange, I applied for the Erasmus grant, got a refund for my Dutch transportation card, got a contribution from my parents and used my own savings. Furthermore, I had the general student fund from the Dutch government (studiefinanciering). study/placement abroad period study programme/work plan (concerning content and organisational issues) The first half of my exchange in Lund, I followed the course Introduction to Swedish law (15 ECTS), which introduced us to the basics of many topics of Swedish law, such as family law, criminal law, labour law, etc. For this course, we made a group essay and presented this in class, followed by an individual essay of 20 pages. After handing in the individual essay, there was a so- called ‘opposition’ where you had to give feedback on someone else’s essay and ‘defend’ your own one. The final examination was an oral exam about the most important parts of the course. In the second half, I participated in the course Legal History of Minorities (15 ECTS). This course discussed legal and historical questions about three different minorities: ethnic, religious and sexual minorities. As for the examination in this course, we had to give three group presentations, do one written examination and write a 20-page essay about our own interests concerning (the history of) minorities. In the examination of both courses, it was already sufficient if you got 50 points out of 100, which was not very hard to get, so I would say, also considering the fact that you have one course at a time, that the courses in Utrecht are harder and take more time to study. academic quality of education/placement activities Both the courses described above were very interesting and very different than the courses I have followed so far at Utrecht University. Instead of having to prepare questions weekly, we were just expected to gain information by going to the lectures and study for ourselves a bit, even though reading all the reading material was not obligatory. By writing the 20-page essays, I learned to ameliorate my English and to better my academic skills (such as researching and writing), which I can surely use for my future courses at Utrecht University.