The first impression was really good and you met many new people from various programmes.
Eventually you also get to know students from your programme during the introduction day.
There is a lot of information on the first introduction day, so it is easy to forget some things, but the KI staff is always there to help you.
The first impression of the acommodation was positive, since it was not too far away from KI.
I applied for housing through the KI Housing website, where information is given on how to apply for accommodation.
The housing met the standard of a normal student dorm. The cost of the housing was also reasonable, so that im quite pleased with the accommodation.
Utsikt över poolen från balkongen
Unfortunately, i did not particpiate in many events provided by KI, since me and my friends planned activities by ourselves and there was no need to get information about KI related social activities.
Since the Karolinksa Institute has a high reputation in the medical field, it was clear to me that this exchange would give me the opportunity to refine my topic-related knowledge and my english-skills.
The information given by my home university was very detailled in form of reports from previous exchange students.
The KI website was also very informative and gave not only information about the programme i would attend, but also about accommodation. I was not required to get vaccinated.
4FH004 : HEPM and EP - Introduction to Public Health Science
I was very pleased with the teacher in this course, but the quality of information which was given was really low. It is understandable that this is the very first course of a masters-programme at KI and it is used to give everyone the chance to start on a even level. But much of the information was already known by 90% of the participants, since the information was really basic. Someone who studied something related to Public Health should have already known all the information which was given during this whole course.
The examination format was in my opinion not appropriate for this course, since most of the content was very theoretical. Therefore, you "only" had to memorize all the information in a few days in order to pass this course. I can not clearly remember even what the content was, which is evidence for an examination format which does not only requires you to memorize, but to understand the topic.
However, this was only partially the responsibility of the teacher. since he/she can not decide on the topics, which are to be covered during the course. The teacher was very motivated and sought our recommendations on how to improve the course.
4FH064 : EP-Methods for studying the distribution of health
This course was led by more than one teacher, with them inviting guests from various institutes in order to present their work/knowledge. The examination here was appropriate and overall i was very pleased with the group-work based teaching.
4FH059 : EP-Basic statistics and computer based statistic analysis
This course was divided into two parts - Theoretical statistics and working with the programme STATA. However, the information given prior to this course stated that we would work with SPSS, which could have disappointed participants. The reason for this change was that further courses would rely on STATA and not SPSS. The computer room however was really small and did not provide a good environment for studying, especially with a statistical programme which is not easy. Overall this was a really good course in my opinion.
4FH044 : EP-Collecting and organizing data
This course was also divided into two parts, the first being the theoretical part related to collecting and organizing data, and the second part focusing on sample calculations. However, the majority felt that the second part was not really good conveyed due to the teacher, who did not seem very motivated to teach. Furthermore, the second teacher was very unorganized, which also caused confusion among students. The first teacher however was very competent and the content of the first part was very interesting.
My overall impression of the exchange period at KI is really good and i can only recommend everyone who considers to do an exchange programme to do it. KI gives you many opportunities other universities may not give you, for example help on accommodation, social activities etc.
I participated in an intensive swedish language course covering 3 days. The teacher was very good and you learn a lot of basic information about swedish mentality and everyday swedish language, in order to be able to communicate with other people on a very basic level.
The Swedish study environment is different from the german environment. Studying in Sweden is project- and groupwork-based and there are only few occasions where you were given an individual assignment, which is a big difference between my home university and KI.
The degree of difficulty also varied a lot between courses, which was a bit confusing. There was a significant difference between the first and the last course of the first semester for example. Nevertheless, all the teachers were very cooperative and always gave you the chance to express your critical thoughts and encouraged you to do that.
The courses and the group-centered work give you the chance to refine your topic-related knowledge but also to acquire soft-skills, which are important in a group-work setting.