Exchange report - incoming students
Home university: Ruprecht-Karls-Universität Heidelberg
Study programme: Medicine
Exchange programme: Erasmus
Semester: Autumn and spring semester 2015/2016
Name: Sebastian Regnery
Email address: s.regnery@stud.uni-heidelberg.de

Arrival and registration

Right in the beginning, KI offers an intensive language course, which is a great opportunity to meet other exchange students and learn some basics about Swedish culture. This made it easy to get to know each other and make new friends. The welcoming procedurs afterwards were warm and informative.

Acommendation

During my stay, I rent an apartment via KI-housing in Jägargatan 20. The application procedure was easy and my pre-departure information was well structured and helpful. The dorm in Jägargatan is well situated in the center of Stockholm and provides everything necessary for daily living. I'd like to emphasise the great opportunity to get in contact with a lot of other open minded international students. Throughout the whole stay, the staff of KI-housing offered excellent service and made an effort to arrange our living as comfortable as possible.

Leisure time and social activities

Especially Global Friends offered a broad spectrum of different activities for exchange students to come in contact with each other, but also with the Swedish culture. Those events are in general well-organised and a refreshing and inspiring change to the study program.

Pre-departure

In first Place, I was interested in the very practical education which is offered by Swedish medical schools. The opportunity to apply all my theoretical knowledge already during my studies sounded promising.  In addition, KI is a University that is not only famous all over the world, it also received excellent evaluations by lots of former exchange students. The application process itself was comparatively uncomplicated and really well organised. All important information was available in good time before my arrival. A mandatory MRSA-test is performed on KI during the introduction week.

Courses during the exchange period

D8XX01 : Clinical Medicine - Surgery
The course focused on practical education with mainly clinical courses, which I consider reasonable in the field of surgery. Teaching quality was on a high level and the examination formats in the end fit the learning aims of the semester. I have to underline the very welcoming study environment in Danderyds hospital. It was a completely new and great experience for me to study under such almost familial supervising.
D9XX01 : Clinical Medicine - Neuro, Senses and Psyche
This course offered a good mixture of theoretical education and clinical courses. All different specialties provided well-organised and competent lectures, seminars and rotations. Examinations took place both during and in the end of the semester and fit the learning targets. The contact with the teachers throughout the course was both friendly and respectful.
ELA005 : Internal Medicine 1
The rotation offers in first place practical education comparable to an internship.

Summary

The experiences I actually made lived up to my high expectations. I studied in a highly creative, motivating Environment that was coined by both dedicated and competent teachers. A good pre-departure organisation of my stay and especially the support of KI-housing made my exchange round. I would definitely recommend an exchange with KI to other students in my home university.

Language and Culture

As I learned Swedish on my home university, I did not attend any language course on KI.

Studies in general

There is a focus on clinical education, during which students may take over a lot of responsibility. In addition, the relationship between students and teachers is very respectful and open. This shapes an incredibly welcome and motivating learning environment, which focuses not only on medical knowledge, but also on soft skills. I was able to build up whole new, practical abilities and experience compared to the rather theoretic targeted program on my home university. Thus, my studies in KI completed my medical education in a complementary way.