Exchange report - incoming students
Home university: Kobenhavns universitet
Study programme: Biomedicine
Exchange programme: Erasmus
Semester: Spring semester 2014/2015
Name: Lise Sjøgaard
Email address: lisesjoegaard@hotmail.com

Arrival and registration

Arrival was made very easy for us with the great pickup service. Perfect!

Introduction day was a nice intro to sweden and culture and all but too bad that most students were medicine students so I never saw them again. 

Acommendation

Housing was also made very easy for us although I was a bit nervous since I received the last documents from KI very late and therefore couldnt apply for accomodation until very late. But there were no problems and Pax was a very nice place, relatively clean - our corridor not the most social but I guess it varies and I had enough to do outside of the accomodation. Great to have own bathroom. A bit more expensive than in Copenhagen.

Leisure time and social activities

Not so much at KI - hard to find friends and interesting activities. Boring parties, closes too early.
Had almost all my friends from KTH and we did a lot of social stuff but outside of university. Almost only exchange friends - since we all have a need to make new friends that the swedes didnt. Not that swedes are unfriendly.

Pre-departure

We are all encouraged to go on exchange (Molecular Biomed. students from KU) and since most did it I thought why not as well. I chose KI because I previously had been in Stockholm and wanted to live there and KI is one of the best medical universities in the world. Also my programme coordinator at KU spoke well of it.


Very hard to do all the paper work and sufficient applications in DK - every office sent you on to another and nobody knew anything - very challenging and confusing.

Courses during the exchange period

BIOX10 : BACH - Biostatistics
The very best course with a super good teacher. He held good lectures and made sure everyone understood and knew our level. Great teacher-student relationship. A little easy.
BIOX07 : BACH - Neuroscience
Ok course, great regarding anatomy. Not so well-organized, some really bad teachers once in a while. Not enough detailed.
BIOX09 : BACH - Pharmacology and Toxicology
Good course as well, but very few details because of the many different pharma areas they want to cover. Mostly good teachers. Toxi part not so good, not relevant I feel in the way it is now taught. Not university level. Bad teachers.
BIOX08 : BACH - Tissue Biology
Challenging to go to a campus so far away. Bad teachers. Way too few details compared to my histology course in Copenhagen. The course wants to cover too much for 5 ECTS. Very bad exam with almost 50 pages - not in accordance with credits and the taught material. project work was nice but advertised very misleading - as a "research project" - just call it what it is: a very planned exersize.

Summary

It has been a wonderful time - language skills improved, some studying (dont go there to improve professionally though), a lot of networking and new friends and so so much fun. Stockholm is a beautiful city and I will return for sure. 

Language and Culture

Since I am danish I didnt and I understand most swedish but did learn some and could communicate otherwise in englisg which I indeed improved regarding my use, but not regarding my vocabulary skills and understanding beforehand. More relaxed about english now. 
Understand German better know as well.

Studies in general

General impression is that studying at KI is much easier than at KU - and all exchange students I met said the same about all the swedish universities. Perfect for an exchange where you also focus on a lot of other stuff but bad for swedish students - definitely not what gives KI it's good international reputation. Courses not so well organized - too many lecturers that didn't know what the others had taught and was out of tune with what you know at bachelor level. Some even so bad at english we left the lectures. Students also not on the same level as on mol. biomed. at KU - but I think very few are since this is a very special case.
Teacher-student relationship only good for the last course, biostatistics. Otherwise we mostly saw them once or twice and had no relationship. 
Overall I learned a lot less at KI in a semester than I would at KU in one semester - and this is even with the very satisfying grades: A, B, A, A in four courses.