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A meeting of minds - international students at Swedish universities
Continuing the interest of international postgraduate students in pursuing their degrees in the Nordic countries, Stefan Geens examines some of the unique features of the Swedish university system.
For bright international students, attending university in Sweden has never been easier: exchange programmes for undergraduates are widely available and graduate students can now choose from over 300 English-language masters programmes, ranging from bioinformatics to human rights law to space engineering. The result is that more non-Swedes than ever before are coming to Sweden to study.
During the 2002-2003 academic year, around 10,500 of 83,000 new enrolments at Swedish universities, or 12.5%, were by non-nationals, according to latest available figures by the National Agency for Higher Education; that�s almost double the number just five years ago. This trend is being encouraged both by the government and by universities themselves, because they consider an international student body to be an asset for all students.
WHY SWEDEN?
For some students, the answer to that question is easy: �All of my dad�s relatives are Swedish and that is the heritage I associate most with,� says Katie Lundquist, who was an exchange student from Dartmouth College in the United States, studying engineering at the Royal Institute of Technology. �When I found out I could spend a term in Sweden, I jumped at the chance.� Others choose Sweden on account of its reputation for natural beauty, social welfare or a cosmopolitan culture. For many, however, the most compelling reason is the education itself.
ENGLISH-LANGUAGE COURSES
The wide choice of English-language courses � aimed at both Swedes and non-Swedes � is perhaps the most obvious draw for students shopping the world for higher education. �I had rather a lot of choice in what I studied,� says Northern Ireland�s Andy Fugard, a masters student at Chalmers University and research assistant at the IT University in G�teborg (Gothenburg), on the west coast. As a result, �I was exposed to, and found fun things that I normally would not have considered interesting.�
One reason Andy had so many English-language options is that Swedish universities have a tradition of being responsive to student demand � and for many Swedes, all of whom speak fluent English, studying in English is a self-evident choice when preparing for an international career.
The enthusiastic adoption of English in Sweden as the lingua franca for many of its business and academic pursuits is one reason why the country continues to top global competitiveness surveys. It doesn't just make Swedes more competitive abroad � it makes non-Swedes like Andy more competitive in Sweden, and this feeds
a virtuous circle.
Of the 300 masters programmes available today, around 40 percent are in the natural sciences, technology or engineering � fields that have been the most thoroughly anglicised globally. Tina Fransson, a recent graduate from the University of California Los Angeles (UCLA), completed such a programme: the International Masters Programme in Water Resources Engineering at Link�ping University (about 200 kilometres southwest of Stockholm). �It is one year of courses followed by a masters thesis,� she explains. �We have studied subjects such as waste water treatment, hydrology and ground water chemistry. The programme prepares the student for a future career involving water.�
Around 20 percent of programmes are in the area of business and economics, and it is one of these Pongpat from Thailand chose: the Masters Programme in Leadership and International Management at the University of Kalmar�s Baltic Business School (located in southern Sweden on the south-east coast). �In the class, we mainly study strategy, business intelligence, leadership and management, which also included team building and research
workshops,� Pongpat says. �There are 45 students in my class from 20 nationalities, but not only the students are international � also our lecturers, who are French, Italian, German, Thai and, of course, Swedish.�
Other masters programmes offer degrees in the social sciences, art and design, health and medicine, law, and the humanities.
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