Bachelor Project and exchange studies

For the 6th and final semester of the Bachelor of Science programme with a major in Biomedicine, the students are offered the opportunity to go abroad for the Bachelor project. This project was to be performed at a research lab at Karolinska Institute or at a partner university of KI. The project could either be executed during the whole semester i.e. 20 weeks or as a shorter project in combination with courses. The decision to apply for a semester abroad was made already a year in advance due to the deadline for applying. A maximum of 6 choices could be made arranged according to priority. Where schools in countries such as Australia, Singapore, USA, Canada, Great Britain and numerous of locations in Europe could be chosen.

Some schools demanded participation in one or two courses, automatically leading to a shorter project. Furthermore, the semester at the partner univeristy often started in the beginning of January which complicated matters for the final course at KI during the autumn which did not end until the 16th of January. However, if decided in time arrangements could be made to write the last exam of the Swedish semester at the new school.  

Why go abroad?

My decision to go abroad for my project was not difficult to make. I went for exchange studies during the 3rd semester of this programme to Leiden University, Netherlands and really enjoyed. It was definately one of the best semester during my studies. Of course it is not always easy and you have to work hard.

As a career choice, going abroad during your studies is greatly appreciated by future employers, especially in the Science community. On a personal basis it is an opportunity to meet people from around the world, live in another country in addition to the possibility to grow as a person.  

Applying and the Application procedure

I decided to apply for London, England as my first choice of country and was nominated by Karolinska Institutet to go to King's College. When recieving the nomination, the adventure started. I quickly accepted the offer of nomination and was given directions of how to apply directly to the school. Plenty of administration procedures were tangled out with the help of the international coordinator at KI in time for departure.

I was given a contact person at King's College that would arrange for a placement within a research group where I could perform my Bachelor project. A list of possible projects was distributed and i could decide 4 project I was interested in and would be assigned one, as soon as they had recieved the choices of other students. Most of these projects was however within the Biochemistry department. Since I was more interested in conducting a project within the field of neuroscience, I accepted a placement within a neuroscience group which had accepted KI students before.

One of the major hickups in this was the overlap of the semester of the different schools. At King's College the semester started already the 5th of January with introduction days where you have the chance to aquaint yourself with the school and the opportunity to meet other students. At KI, our semester ended the 16th of January with an exam and presentations during the final week. It could be arranged to be able to go before which I would had done if I could remake the decision. Missing the introduction week proved to shape the rest of my semester since I did not meet any exchange students or local students from King's College during my stay there. My advice to other students going would be to plan to be there for the introduction week in order to not miss out on student activities.

Since I did not attend the introduction week I was given an appointment two weeks later for registration procedures, when I would have arrived in London. Registration and recievement of a student card was done at the Strand campus.

The first day was filled with arrangements of bank account, british phone number and applying for a student travelling card.

The student travelling card took about 1 week to arrive and gave a significant discount on montly cards.

A classmate of mine from KI and I had decided to live together and had thus arranged for an appartment beforehand through an acquaintance. However, we did not have access to the apartment for the first two days and I was therefore staying two nights at a hostel.

The remaining things on the list to fix was to figure out how to arrive at King's College on my first day. From the new apartment situated in West Dulwich it was an easy travel from Tulse hill station. 20 min on the National Rail right into London Bridge where the Guy Campus was situated.

I had arranged with my supervisor for meeting at the reception in the Hodgkin building and was from there met and escorted to the Wolfson Centre Of Age Related Diseases where the lab group had their office and research facilities.

The first day started with a meeting with my main supervisor and the head of the research group. I was introduced to the project I would be responsible for during my stay. The Project proved to take another approach than I had been informed about earlier in the application process. The continuation of the day was then focused on reading about the subject and to obtain a basic knowledge about the field.

London is expensive! I therefore recommend to have some savings at hand.

Travelling:

Student Oyster card (underground, bus, tram) costs: Zone 2 - £87, Zone 3 - £98. per month

ONLY Bus card: £55/ month.

Living expenses:

Rent when sharing a two bedroom apartment in zone 2/3 was £610/month.

Renting a room at school campuses: £400-800 depending on location, en suite etc.

Supermarket: Buying food in the supermarket was similar to Swedish prices and sometimes a bit more expensive. Lunch offers in the supermarket from £3.50 (sandwhich, fruit and a soft drink). During lunch hours employees from around the area Went to the nearest Sainsbury for supermarket lunch.    

Dining out: Restaurants from the whole spectra could be found. Sometimes offers could be found with 2 Courses from £10 at some places. By searching BookATable website in London nice offers could be found.

Nightlife: Drinks are generally cheaper than Sweden. At least if going to the common local pubs. A beer £2.5 and a glas of wine £4. Drinks in fancier clubs or bars had more similar prices. For example in the bar on the 30th floor of the Heron Tower (well dressed guests with proper shoes are allowed) a glas of wine from £7 and a coctail £12.

Entrance to clubs varied. Generally tickets to many events could be bought before hand through Facebook events or other websites. At the door most clubs charged < £20.  

A classmate and I had arranged private accomodation through a acquaintance, where we paid £ 610 each for a 2 bedroom apartment including expenses. The apartment was located at the boarder of zone 2 and 3 in the South east of London.

King's College also have accomodation that usually is offered to British first year students or international students stuyding for one year at a minimum. As an exchange student only staying 5 months, I was not prioritized. However, I applied anyhow and could choose between different locations in the city and doorm rooms to different prices. I recieved an offer which unfortunately was not one of the ones that I had applied for. In addition, it had a higher price than what I ended up paying for the apartment I shared with my classmate.

In general, apartments and rooms for rent in London goes quickly once they are out on the market. In addition, for your own safety as well as for security for the renter, most apartments has to be seen in person, which makes it difficult to arrange accomodation, before arriving in London. Sites such as spareroom.com and gumtree.com advertise available accomodation. At spareroom.com you can also make your own profile saying what you are searching for which leads to matches to available accomodation.

I did not attend any courses at King's College since I was only there to perform my Bachelor's Project that was executed at a research lab at the Wolfson Centre of Age-Related Diseases. I was taught up by other employees within the lab group that had specific knowledge about the different techniques I was going to use.

I was able to discuss parts of my Project with members of the group and later on in the Project process I had meetings with the supervisor to discuss the results I was obtaining.

Simultaneously I was writing parts of my report and the final week of the Project I focused only on the report.

The project took a lot of time, and I was usually early at the office and stayed late. This seemed to be quite common for other Bachelor students at other research labs. However, there were many differences between different groups.

While I learned to mind my own Project and time well in the end, it was not a smooth ride. I was not used to this from school, where we have not been alone in a Project. Here was the first time I was treated like a self-going member of the group. I was showed the techniques to use once and was expected to do them on my own.

In other groups some supervisors would instead follow every step and would not let you perform any experiments on my own. So in the end I really appreciated my independence, however I would have appreciated a more thorough introduction.

Although it was not so visible in my research group, there is a certain hierachy where you at the lowest position are not suppose to adress the head of the group directly and instead go to other members of the group first for any questions. Since the supervisor you have generally is the leader of the group it is not uncommon that you have no direct Contact with him/her throughout the project.

Everything was of course in English. This was not a problem for me since the Bachelor programme in Biomedical Sciences at KI is taught completely in English as well. In the research world, Everything is performed in English, which made this a perfect opportunity to improve my English in a native English country. Perhaps. some classes to improve your English was given, however in that case I was not aware of it. Instead, it was more the opportunity to practise your English everyday that gave an advantage.

I did not experience that much of a Culture shock in London. I have been there a few times before.

Englishmen are extremely polite. In the supermarket they will great you with " How are You today?". Which to me felt very nice but also caused some confusion since I didnt know how to answer it. "Im fine thank you" felt a bit selfish. Asking back, "Oh and how are you", did not recieve a reply.

What is somewhat difficult to get used to in London, are the crowds. The morning and afternoon rush on the Underground in the low labyrinths of the underground system can give anyone claustrophobia. Trying to go for a slow stroll around Picadilly Circus or heavens no trying to go the opposite direction is out of the question. You will be swept away by the passing pedestrians leading to the likelihood that you will end up somewhere not even remotely closed to where you were aming for.

Downing a pint at the pub Close to your office at the end of the work week seems almost religious. Suited bank workers around Bank Station crowd the fancier bars. The pubs next to the Borough Market at London Bridge begins to be crowded by all employees from the Surrounding areas already at Thursday afternoon. A London true English pub, is crowded out on the streets by beer drinking happy Briths.  

London has something for everyone!

Art galleries, Open mic nights, pubquiz, Lindy hop lessons, museums, Fancy Bars up in the Skyscrapes (requires proper shoes), Bars down in prision cellers, Food markets, Second hand markets, Coffee grinders at the back of a truck, Local beer brewers, Historical monuments, Boat rides, Student pubs, British Pies with mashed potatoes and gravy, Fish and Chips, World famous Musical and theater productions, Hipster Mecca, Shopping etc.

I can go on forever!

There was never a lack of things do to. It is more time and Money that decides how your London experience will be. There are plenty of ways to find free events too. For example, the Victoria and Albert museum offer a free event, usually on the last friday every month, where new installments and Djs can be combined. These events are also entwined with massive crowds and long lasting cues, which requires good planning to show up in time.

Some of the best things I did was to go to see Les Miserablés which was a great experience. The cast was amazing and it can defininatly be recommended. Every Thursday some people from the office went to the nearby Borough market where British pies, german sauages, paella and mostly any kind of food imaginabl could be bought for around £5.

Sundays was sometimes spent at the Brick lane market in the east of London finishing at Cafe1001