Exchange report - incoming students
Home university: Universidad Complutense de Madrid
Study programme: Medicine
Exchange programme: Erasmus
Semester: Autumn semester 2012/2013
Name: Álvaro Lafuente Romero
Email address: alafuenter@gmail.com

Arrival and registration

Great coordination. They picked me up in Central Station after contacting through email. Then they explained me the basics of the city, transport and accomodation, gave me my keys and went with me to my new residence.

The introduction day was useful, but much of the information was unnecesary, as it was too late for example to know about accomodation. Some stuff was just repetition of the prearrival package

Acommendation

We were very lucky! KI reserves some spots for all the erasmus students in a couple of residences and I got the best one (great location, rooms, facilities...). That's great, because many friends from other universities or from master's studies were struggling to get any housing.

The life in a student corridor was very enriching. We only lacked common places, but got to know a lot of people from many different countries!

I only have one complain: the fees, especially the deposit. I'm still waiting for a reply, I havent gotten it back yet and many friends didn't get it even if they left the room perfectly as they found it. There should be an inspection before we leave it, not an arbitrary one after!

Leisure time and social activities

Global friends organizes nice activities, always offered by email available for everybody.

Anyway, the social program of KI is not as active as other universities. Meeting swedish people is a bit difficult, maybe because our culture is quite different. But eventually I made a couple of good friends in class

Pre-departure

I decided to go on exchange because it a great life experience: living abroad, independently, meeting international friends...

I choose KI because its one of the highest ranked medicine universities in the world and because I wanted to go to a english speaking university. I didn't get too much info in my home university, but KI did help me with their online info and answering emails.

Courses during the exchange period

D8XX01 : Clinical Medicine - Surgery
The surgery course was a lot of fun, but maybe I expected to be offered to do more. The seminars and lectures were great, as the lead doctors were very involved. Not the same some surgeon in the ORs who didnt care too much about explaining or teaching
D10X01 : Clinical medicine-emphasis on reproduction and development
It was very intense and short. I wish it had been a bit longer and relaxed as surgery. The pediatric part was the toughest, with very tight schedule, but afterwards the gyn-obs was very easy-going. I loved it, because it was perfect to enjoy the better weather and to prepared the final exam

Summary

It's been the best year in my life. As the saying says: exchange is not a year in your life, it's a life in a year!

Language and Culture

Yes. I took el EILC Intensive Sweidh course one month before starting in KI. Totally worth it, as I learnt most of the swedish I used during the year and I met people from all the universities in Stockholm and sweden, including my best friends.

I also took the one offered by Studiefrämjandet via KI. But it's not good at all. I don't recommend it

Studies in general

The swedish system is much more relaxed. The relation with teachers is very open and "same level", they are always very helpful and asking for feedback

I was very happy with seminars and lectures, as they were always in english and a very good ad practical level. In Spain they make you learn too many useless details.

The clinical education was very good too, very applied. But as usual it depended a lot on the doctor and it was sometimes a bit annoying to have to remind all the time we spoke english (but it was something expectable in the hospital)

But the best is the organization. The secretary and the teachers are always planning everything and being very helpful in case any problem shows up. They even organized trips for us the first week of each course!