Exchange report - incoming students
Home university: Shandong University
Study programme: Public Health Sciences (Master's)
Exchange programme: Linnaeus-Palme
Semester: Autumn semester 2011/2012

Arrival and registration

The Global Friends do a very good job and serves a lot of useful information. It is not convenient to pick the key from the UAC office, and there is no direction board to show th right way to student accommodation building. I have not made contact with student health centre, and I guess it is easy to make contact with the provided telephone number.

Acommendation

 

I apply for my room though the UAC, and it is very convenient to rent the room and get quite clear information though the UAC. The student room is very nice but the rent is so expensive. but take consideration of the quite good equipments, many opportunities for student to communicate and the very convenient traffic, the cost is not unacceptable.

Leisure time and social activities

There are a lot of social activities organized by the Global Friend. I don’t love party so I don’t participate in all activities. But I think it is very nice to have this opportunity to make friends with other students.

Pre-departure


Karolinska is a very famous medical school and contribute a lot to health protection and health promotion. Emilie Agardh from KI has been to my home university and open a very interesting course. This course has showed us a lot of new ideas and help a lot for improving our academic abilities.

 

The information from KI website and coordinator is enough for us to prepare the upcoming study. My suggestion is to serve brief course description and some assistant reading materials before choosing courses. Also, I would like to bring certification after finishing exchange study.

Courses during the exchange period

4FH041 : EP-Introduction to Public Health Epidemiology
This course is also an introduction course, and Christina is a very nice coordinator and examiner. I love the examination format and evaluation standard. There is no final written exam, which has been instead of individual work, group work and some quizes. The assignment is very interesting and the instruction is very clear. I also learn how to read scientific papers in this course.
3GB000 : GH-Global Health
Global health is a new subject to me and explicitly explained a lot of new concepts. This course focus on international cooperation and talks about health determinants, health indicators, health system etc. Most lectures have substantial contents and help develop a whole understanding of Global Health. The final examination is divided into written exam and group assignment. For me, the questions in the written exam is not well developed, especially the multi-choice questions. And we don’t have enough time to prepare the group assignment, so the outcome of group work is not very good. I think the examination can be improved to be better managed.
4FH051 : HEPM-Health systems and policy
This course focuses on six building bocks of health system and also talk a little about hralth policy analysis. There are a lot of talking in lectures and also two WHO professors are invited to give a lecture about some new concepts. This course help us understand the whole health sytem but some aspects are missing in the class. Th examination format is very nice and there are four seminars to support our group work.

Summary

I really enjoy my exchange study and my stay in Stockholm. I hope this exchange program will continue for a long time.

Language and Culture

I participate in the Swedish language courses, but I found Swedish is so hard for me to pronounce and learn. And I think only ten days’ course is not enough to learn a new language. For the Swedish language course is on Monday evening, I feel so tired and do not want to take another course after a whole day lecture. My suggestion is not in the evening but in the weekends, or at least not in the Monday evening.

Studies in general

I really enjoy my study at KI. The teachers have rich teaching experience and the lectures are very interesting and helpful. Also, there are a lot of seminars to help surport students’ learning and work. There are a lot of interesting talking in the class. I think it is a very big difference between my home university and KI. Moreover, finishing the assignments instead of only written examination is a better way to evaluate students’ learning outcome as well as process.