Exchange report - incoming students
Home university: Nanyang Technological University
Study programme: Biomedicine
Exchange programme: INK
Semester: Autumn semester 2012/2013
Name: SHAY PHING TAN
Email address: SPTAN6@e.ntu.edu.sg

Arrival and registration

Once we got to know the residence being allocated, we sent in an email to Global Friend and requested for a buddy who picked us up at T-centralen, directed us to buy SL card, collected our room keys in advance & showed us to our residence and around KI as well. All the services are voluntary and subjected to the assigned buddy. 

*** Personally, I think it would be great if the assigned buddy can bring a certified letter that proof us as student so that we can buy the SL card @ student price once arrived instead of buying it at normal adult price then back to KI to get the letter from MF then only can buy at student price. This would save on a lot of hassel. 

Acommendation

 

Soon after we handed in our application package, we were informed through email about applying for accommodation immediately. We applied online before even getting our acceptance package so as to ensure that we will be on the waiting list. Once we got the acceptance letter from KI, then only we submitted it to UAC.

Housing is provided by the University Accommodation Center (www.uac.se) under SSSB Company. Most KI Exchange students are offered accommodation at two student apartments, either Strix or Pax (both are nearby, about 3minutes walk). Both apartments are ten minutes away from KI Solna campus via Bus 507 and about 5minutes walk from Vastra Skogen metro station. Surrounding Strix & Pax are several eateries (Chinese restaurant, Pizzaria, Sushi restaurant, bar) and grocery stores (ICA, COOP). ICA outside Strix offer cheaper stuff and they also offer postage service where one can post parcel back home.

I stayed at Strix first floor for ~$650/month; I am glad that I been allocated there as our whole corridor mates are KI exchange students, we all moved in at the same time & explore Stockholm together (because some floors have permanent residence who are not students & they don’t really like to interact much with people). The room is very spacious and we have our own toilet. We are very lucky as previous tenants leave behind a lots of plates, cups, pots, pans, spices, kettle, coffee machine etc in the kitchen thus we don’t have to spend money on all the stuffs. The kitchen is equipped with refrigerators, stoves, microwaves and ovens.

At the basement of the apartment is the sauna room and the laundry room (equipped with washing machines & dryers) shared by all the tenants in the apartment. Thus, you have to book in advance for laundry slots with issued electronic key.     

Leisure time and social activities

I got tried my best to join as much as possible the activities being organized but some activities I got to give it a miss due to limited places. Most of the social activities I got to know either through Facebook or my corridormates not really through the official website thus I would said the accessibility to the information is quite low. It would be great if host student organizations can go through social media for example by creating a FB group and add in all the exchange students so as to keep us up-to-date with all the activities.

 

I had tried out a new sport - rowing which I never regret and hope in future will have the chance to row again along the stockholm canal during summer   

Pre-departure

 

Application Package

The application package mainly contains the items listed by NTU GEM Explorer. Besides, KI also require us to submit our CV. One has to take note that KI do have application form to be filled online and hardcopy to be included in the package.

 

Residence Permit procedure

You have to apply yours RP as soon as possible after you received your acceptance package from KI as the overall procedure can take up a few months. Meanwhile, you can start preparing the material needed (listed in Swedish embassy website) for eg bank letter, medical & travel insurance doc and NTU certification letter.

A lesson I learnt and would like to share is while filled up the RP application form at the section where you need to state the KI term period, never state the term period if you intend to travel around Europe/wish to stay longer in Scandinavian after your exchange. Fill in yours return flight date instead, this will save you on a lot of hassle regarding RP validity period.

 

The application fee is SEK1000.Once the application had been registered by the Migration Board (about 2 weeks after submission), call & book an appointment with the Swedish Embassy in order to submit your biometric data. Remember to bring along passport and all the original documents that have submitted in the online application. The whole process takes about 20minutes. Thereafter, wait for them to email you to collect your RP.

Courses during the exchange period

1BI012 : BACH-Molecular medicine
The Oncology course is without doubt the best course I have ever had. Both of the modules I took are taught in the KI Hospital Solna campus which I think it's very cool learning environment. The lectures are only a small part of the course. The rest includes labs, PBL (problem based learning-where each group need to do research & presentation on different type of cancer in front of the tutors), seminars with doctors and researchers, patient interviews, radiotherapy tour and many others. The lecturers are either physician or researcher (that’s the part I really like about, they can share with us their experiences, real life examples & not just learnt purely from the textbook). At KI the courses emphasize a lot on the clinical aspects and interaction with the lecturers which I think it is very good The grades are based solely on the student’s performance on the written examination at the end of the course (all essay/short answer questions, no MCQ). The exams questions are very different from what we had back in NTU, over here we will be tested based on our concept understanding instead of purely just memorization of details. The questions stimulate me to think and apply what I had learnt.
1BI011 : BACH-Molecular oncology and biostatistics
This course was even more clinical than Oncology course. We had the chance to watch live surgery on angioplasty, lab session where we carried out blood test to determine our own blood group (learning new knowledge & at the same time having fun exploring yourself) Besides, we also have a research application project going on from the start, and we need to give a presentation at the end (according to previous exchange students normally the presentation will be carried out while on the cruise to Tallin/Gothenburg but unfortunately we do not why this year we didn’t have that) ***The one thing that could be improved for this course would be having a more systematic and structure timetable. Maybe because I compared it with the oncology module where we learnt knowledge step by step, a little by little, that's why I think this module's timetable is a little bit messy and too packed. For example we are required to learn totally different topics in a week and it's a bit hard for me to process the information.

Summary

All in all, I really fall in love with Stockholm and wish that in future I would have the chance to spend more time in Stockholm or maybe migrate over there :)

Language and Culture

 

Swedish is Sweden’s national and official language. Though most of the people speaks & understand English you may need to pick up some basic Swedish as it is very important in grocery shopping & getting around. Almost all the labels and signs in the supermarkets and shops are in Swedish (you hardly see English on labels). Nonetheless, the Swedes are more than happy to help you if you were to ask them to translate some Swedish for your understanding.

An elementary Swedish language class (10 lessons) is available for all exchange students. These courses are subsidized by KI and are organized by external agencies.

Since most of the websites in Sweden are in Swedish (some have English translation), it is helpful to have Google Chrome, RockMelt or Firefox (with translator add-on) in your laptop so that pages in Swedish are translated into English automatically.

Studies in general

 No doubt I fall in love with Swedish study environment. I really love how the Swedes learn and teach, it's just so stress-free. I like the interaction with the teacher,supervisor,patient and not to forget to mention the most important thing - FIKA. Personally, I think the idea of having fika after every 2 hours of lecture is a wonderful thing because it provides our mind to have a break & process the information we had just learnt as well as give us time to consult/interact with the teacher to clarify our doubts.