After 2.5 years of living in Sweden, I was ready for a new challenge. The semester abroad was one of the main reasons why I decided to study at Karolinska Institutet, and it had been my plan all along to do my thesis project at Imperial (I had been thinking about doing my whole Bachelor there but decided against it for personal reasons). Imperial College London is one of the top universities for medicine worldwide and located in one of the greatest cities in the world, so I was beyond excited for this opportunity. 

I got the nomination to go on exchange right at the beginning of the pandemic so, naturally, planning was put on hold for a couple months. The organisation was a little tricky as the responsible person at Imperial hat taken a year off but after initial difficulties, I found the administrative side of Imperial very helpful. They were very experienced with Erasmus exchanges and answered emails promptly. 

I applied to a variety of labs and had interviews with a couple PIs before making my decision. I had a really good relationship with my PI from the very beginning and we were able to quickly get all the documents together. Although Imperial only takes in students in the Life Science Department, I ended up working at a lab at the Faculty of Medicine. However, I am not sure if I would recommend this as there was a lot of resistance from both Imperial and KI about this decision. 

Moving to England in the midst of a pandemic and a week after finalisation of Brexit brought a lot of challenges. As an EU citizen, I was not required to apply for a visa but instead got granted “short-term study entry clearance” as the course was under 6 months. The COVID restrictions turned out more difficult, as the UK had shut down a couple weeks before the moving date. There was a lot of back and forth and mental stress about whether to move or not but thankfully, everything worked out smoothly in the end. I had all the required documents to be exempted from the entry ban and had to quarantine the regular 10 days.

As mentioned, my semester abroad started with 10 days of quarantine. I had discussed this with my supervisor and used the time to take care of administrative things prior to starting in the lab (health and safety inductions/courses). 

Unfortunately, Imperial hosted no introductory events. I think this might have been due to the fact that they had no visiting students due to COVID (that were taking courses at least) and because the term dates are slightly different than in Sweden, so I arrived at the end of the winter term rather than at the beginning of a new term. ESN London (the Erasmus network) organised a couple online events which were fun but overall, I didn’t meet any fellow students via events hosted by Imperial/ESN.

If you decide to go to London, make sure you know: London is really, really expensive. This is already shown by the fact that as trainee student, I received the highest possible Erasmus grant that they give out. 

Thankfully, that extra money helped a lot and at least for me covered exactly how much more expensive London is compared to Stockholm (and this means mostly rent). I had also lived on a very tight budget in Stockholm and saved up quite a lot of money by that. I had made the decision beforehand that I am willing to spend more money in London and take with me all the wonderful experiences I made, so it will definitely be possible to spend less money than I did (but you might miss out on great stuff, too). 

Here are practical tips for living on a student budget in London:

1. Same thing as in every city: Choose wisely where you buy your groceries. Buy in bulk at cheap stores such as Lidl, Asda or Aldi and then whatever they don’t have at Tesco, Sainsbury’s etc. Sign up for the loyalty/Clubcard memberships as they get you discounts!
2. Get the student Oyster card or alternatively, bike/walk. I lived a little further from the hospital I worked at so I needed to take the tube every day but if you like walking/biking like me you might not even need an oyster card.
3. As I worked at a hospital, I had an NHS card and there are big NHS discounts almost everywhere as a thank you for the hard work they do (literally the only good thing about this pandemic). 
4. There are A LOT of student discounts that you can sign up for, such as Unidays. In general, whenever you order something or sign up for something check if they have offer student discounts before you pay.

Imperial College is located in one of the nicest areas of London (Kensington)i. London is a huge city so unfortunately, this means if you want to live anywhere near campus, rent will be high. However, the area is also very beautiful, and I really enjoyed living there. The buildings and streets are beautiful. Hyde Park and Holland Park are just around the corner, together with great museums, cute cafés, restaurants or pubs. Another advantage: you are closer to the city centre so biking/walking somewhere will definitely be possible. 

Unfortunately, I was not eligible for student accommodation as it is only for undergraduate students and because of the lab I worked at, I was considered a postgraduate. That being said, I am quite sure that this is not the case when you choose a lab at the Life Science Department and then I think Imperial student accommodation would be a great choice.

If you decide against it, then I recommend posting on Facebook (search for flat share groups in London or for other nationalities (or languages you speak) such as Svenskar i London). Spareroom.co.uk is the biggest page for finding a room and that’s where 90% of my friends found their place. Of course, if you have friends/acquaintances in London, talk to them and see if they know anyone who’s looking for a flatmate. I actually didn’t work on the main South Ken campus but worked in 2 hospitals so in case this is happening for you, make sure that you look into the commute to the hospital as that is where you’ll be most of your time.

I did not take any courses at Imperial but only conducted my thesis project. My supervisor was Hungarian, but Imperial is an equally international institution as KI, so I think that is quite normal. We had a really good relationship and got very well along. We had a lot of fun working together and even met for dinners. I found the work atmosphere to be very similar to Sweden (horizontal, little hierarchy, very casual) but this definitely depends on your supervisor/PI. I heard that in other lab groups, the traditional hierarchy is much more established (not that that’s a bad thing, I just prefer the Swedish way).

This was also the first time that I really experienced KI’s international reputation. Other researchers treated me like the prodigy and were very curious to hear about research at KI. To be fair, I do think that the facilities at Karolinska are exceptional as I definitely felt a downgrade in equipment and facilities coming from Biomedicum to Imperial.