Person 26 Basic Information 1. Name Patrik Hermansson 2. E-mail address: p@patrikhermansson.com 3. Exchange university UCL 4. City London 5. Country United Kingdom 6. First semester of your exchange Swedish autumn semester (HT 2015) 7. Academic year 2015/16 8. What subject area/s did you study during your exchange? Political Science, some history 9. Level of studies at the exchange university Undergraduate 10. What are you studying at Uppsala University? Pol.kand. 11. How many years of study had you completed before going on exchange? 2 Studies 12. Tell us about your studies on your exchange. If you are stuck for ideas you can for exemple write about: The differences between Uppsala University and the exchange. What were the teachers like? What courses would you recommend (or not) for future exchange students? The relationship between teachers and students. The academic level and quality of your courses. Access to computers. Examinations... The system at UCL is quite different from Uppsala in that you take all courses at the same time. So instead of taking one after the other you usually have classes four different (7.5 hp) courses each week. This requires a bit more planning since examinations happen at about the same time as well. Each class usually has one seminar and one lecture per week so it s also a bit more intense. A seminar per week of one (or sometimes two hours) really allows for getting to know the teacher a bit better than in Uppsala, there is simply more student-teacher contact. Around exams and essays you are also encouraged to meet the professor to talk about your essay and ask questions. I think this made me feel closer connected to teachers and the school. It allowed me to learn a lot more than at Uppsala as there are probably just 2-4 seminars per course here in political science. Each term is however just 10 weeks long but with all seminars (10 per course) it becomes quite busy. Most courses in political science is examined by two essays. One in the middle of the term and one at the end. Some other classes apply a mix of essays and exams. You re usually expected to come up with a subject of your own and do research, but as I said. You usually meet with the professor at least once to talk it trough. Grading wise they make the impression to be harder than they actually are, to get an A or B is not very difficult. The quality of the seminars of course varied from course to course but they were generally good and most people are prepared well. This allows for quite good discussions but there are exceptions. Since you meet the group and the teacher so many times it s rather informal. There are lots of laughs and the teacher knows who to ask about what and what opinions etc Vetenskapsområdet för medicin och farmaci, Uppsala universitet Sida 82 av 440
they expect. What happens in seminars are never graded, but you are required to attend and sometimes there are mandatory presentations or readings. I can really recommend all courses in the department of political science. The teachers are very competent. They have a bit higher expectations on preparation for seminars than in the other departments I were in. I also took a course called Science meets Religion at BASC (dept) which was extremely good. One of the best courses I ve taken at uni so far because the teachers were so good and the talks in the seminars were fun and challenging. But mostly the atmosphere were really nice because the teacher know about our predispositions towards religion and science and knew who to ask what etc. My experience of the courses at SELCS (the receiving department) is varied. The courses I took are mostly good. I took Writing the revolution / Political Cinema / The holocaust remembered. They all have very passionate teachers and are at a rather advanced level except for Political cinema which is quite basic. But the issue there is that the department takes so many exchange students that most courses have a majority of exchange students. It s not a problem per say but the level of english is lower and people are much less prepared and more quiet than in the politics department. There are less discussions and often people don t understand things which makes everything slower. I did not take language courses so I can t say how those are. Exams are just like tentor, you sit in a room and answer questions on a paper/write an essay. In summary: the most impressive thing with UCL and the difference from Uppsala is the amount of contact with the teachers. It s motivating and learning and just simply more fun when you get to learn each other. Orientation and reception 13. Tell us about how it was to arrive and settle in. I had been in London before and decided to move with my boyfriend o we didn t live in the housing provided by UCL. So that added some stress on finding a place to stay (which is not easy). But if you lived in UCL corridors it seemed easy. At UCL it was about as complicated as all universities i ve been to before (Uppsala and Stockholm). The welcome they is about a week after the actual first they you have to be there and stuff like that which can be confusing.. After you register you are guided clearly. However you probably have to change many of the courses you ve applied for as the course selection I did before I came just weren t inputed in their system and there were many scheduling clashes. They help you out with this however. There are some erasmus welcoming events but they are not right after arrival so it s a bit confusing in the beginning. They don t have things like Nations or other obvious places to connect with other students so it takes some work. Accommodation 14. Describe your accommodation. What type of accommodation did you have, where you satisfied? Do you have any tips for future students? Private room in apartment. It was good and allowed me to live in a part of town where I wanted to live. Easier to take UCL corridors. The quality is not very high and the price is huge but that s what it is. Difficult to get around. But you ll live closer to school so good because you ll spend a lot of time there. It s very central in London which is nice, but not that much fun things to do after you re done with turist stuff. Vetenskapsområdet för medicin och farmaci, Uppsala universitet Sida 83 av 440
Your finances 15. Describe the cost of living. Did you find CSN adequate? How was the rent in comparison to your rent in Uppsala? Did you undertake part-time work in addition to your studies? 520 pounds/month. So expensive. UCL housing a bit cheaper but not much. CSN + Erasmus is not adequate. Transport is expensive, food is expensive. I had part time work for most of the period, it s either work or savings I d say. Free time 16. What did you do in your free time? Did the university arrange any special activities? Where there any activities specifically for exchange students? Were you happy with what was on offer? Some uni activities but not extremely much, i wen t in the beginning but found people outside of uni that I spent more time with. There are some activities for erasmus students, like walks and trips and some parties. Think it could have been more social activities that didn t require you to go somewhere far away. Not that many parties either. Most things happen with the people in your corridor and are not arranged by the school. Your exchange on the whole 17. Please sum up your exchange experience. If you have any other tips for future exchange students, or any other comments feel free to include them here. Try to find people outside of university as well. At UCL people are very stressed about school (since the term is so short and intense). It s worth to really make an effort in the beginning because from the second half of the semester there are little social events and people are not calm enough to make new friends generally. London has so much to offer and there are groups of people active in all sorts of activities that you can probably get into with a little bit of effort. I joined a LGBT activist group and did bar shows in hackney for example, that was probably the best part of my exchange outside of UCL. It was a good way to meet brits and likeminded people that were politically engaged and taught me more about London and the UK than UCL ever can. There are also lot s of things happening around town that you can find online, everything from sports to art nights and book clubs. Approval 18. Your report will be available for future exchange students in printed form at the International Office and will be sent by email to individual students requesting it. Do you also approve the publishing of your exchange report on Uppsala University s website? Yes 19. Do you have any photos you would like to upload and include in your exchange report? - 20. Please tell us a little bit about the picture/s. - 21. Publishing of pictures - Thank you for submitting your exchange report! Vetenskapsområdet för medicin och farmaci, Uppsala universitet Sida 84 av 440
Person 73 Basic Information 1. Name Tove Henriksson 2. E-mail address: t.henriksson@hotmail.com 3. Exchange university University College London 4. City London 5. Country Storbritannien 6. First semester of your exchange Swedish spring semester (VT 2016) 7. Academic year 2015/16 8. What subject area/s did you study during your exchange? Geografi och humaniora 9. Level of studies at the exchange university Undergraduate 10. What are you studying at Uppsala University? Samhällsplanering och konstvetenskap 11. How many years of study had you completed before going on exchange? 3 Studies 12. Tell us about your studies on your exchange. If you are stuck for ideas you can for exemple write about: The differences between Uppsala University and the exchange. What were the teachers like? What courses would you recommend (or not) for future exchange students? The relationship between teachers and students. The academic level and quality of your courses. Access to computers. Examinations... Man måste läsa hälften av kurserna på School of European Languages and Cultures (SELCS) och kurserna där var intressanta och jag upplevde att de var på lite lättare än humaniorakurser i Uppsala. Då man har så mycket annat att göra i London skulle jag rekommendera att ta fler kurser från den institutionen. Geografikurserna höll hög kvalité och hade en ganska stor arbetsbörda med mycket läsning. Från början hade jag sökt helt andra kurser än de jag i slutändan fick, så man är inte garanterad de kurser man söker och det var rätt krångligt att få tillgång till andra kurser att läsa. En stor skillnad mellan Uppsala och UCL är att man har ganska lite föreläsningar. Man läser (oftast) fyra kurser parallellt med en föreläsning per kurs och vecka, vilket jag upplevde som rätt lite. Man tenterar av hela läsåret under en tentaperiod i slutet av läsåret. Orientation and reception 13. Tell us about how it was to arrive and settle in. Det var enkelt att checka in på studentboendet och det fanns en del aktiviteter anordnade för utbytesstudenter i början av terminen. Inte lika mycket som det finns i Uppsala och om man vill ha mer studentliv kanske man borde söka sig till en stad som är mer av en studentstad. Vetenskapsområdet för medicin och farmaci, Uppsala universitet Sida 224 av 237
Accommodation 14. Describe your accommodation. What type of accommodation did you have, where you satisfied? Do you have any tips for future students? Jag bodde i UCL accomodation, vilket jag starkt kan rekommendera. Jag bodde i en korridor med fem andra personer och delade kök och toa, men hade en förhållandevis låg hyra (155 pund/ vecka) och gångavstånd till campus. Man är inte garanterad boende om man börjar på vårterminen, som jag gjorde, men jag upplevde att de flesta som sökte hade fått. Man bör nog göra det så fort man kan dock om man vill få sina priorities uppfyllda. Your finances 15. Describe the cost of living. Did you find CSN adequate? How was the rent in comparison to your rent in Uppsala? Did you undertake part-time work in addition to your studies? London är dyrt. Hyran är mycket hög och det är nog bra att ha lite sparpengar eller ett extrajobb för det finns så mycket man vill göra och allt är rätt dyrt. Jag tog extralånet för utlandsstudier av CSN och hade erasmus och det upplevde jag räckte rätt bra. Free time 16. What did you do in your free time? Did the university arrange any special activities? Where there any activities specifically for exchange students? Were you happy with what was on offer? Det finns mycket att göra i London och jag kan rekommendera att gå med i någon/några socities. Man bör göra det rätt fort dock, för de flesta lägger ner sin verksamhet under självstudieperioden. I min korridor var det endast utbytesstudenter som även de började på vårterminen, så att ha korridorsboende är ett toppen för att lära känna folk. Your exchange on the whole 17. Please sum up your exchange experience. If you have any other tips for future exchange students, or any other comments feel free to include them here. Jag har en blandad upplevelse av UCL och hade jag fått välja om hade jag kanske valt ett annat universitet. Det var dock underbart att få bo i London ett halvår! Approval 18. Your report will be available for future exchange students in printed form at the International Office and will be sent by email to individual students requesting it. Do you also approve the publishing of your exchange report on Uppsala University s website? Yes 19. Do you have any photos you would like to upload and include in your exchange report? - 20. Please tell us a little bit about the picture/s. - 21. Publishing of pictures - Thank you for submitting your exchange report! Vetenskapsområdet för medicin och farmaci, Uppsala universitet Sida 225 av 237