Why Lund?
Former Exchange Students on what they appreciated most

"Lund is such a nice small town and Sweden is such a beautiful and great country."

"The professors were really helpful in talking with me individually."

"Interesting subjects, different way of teaching. This was an enrichment in my education. In Lund I did more presentations, wrote more reports and did more group work than I have done in 3 years of study before."

"The student life. Everything is made to favourise the contact between students."

"The candidness of the Swedish people. Its not that formal, you call the professors by their first name and use "du" for talking to someone, even if you not know him. This makes life a less complicated and makes you feel welcome everywhere. The door of the professors or teachers was always open for questions or anything else."

"Good non-Swedish course offerings. Lovely, compact town - with a bike you can spend the year without ever using a car! Lots of other international students."

"The course content was always interesting. Coming to Sweden from as far away as NZ gives a totally different perspective on ecology and law."

"People here are unbelievably friendly. Even at the presentation of the design project no one tries to critcise you harshly."

"Getting to meet not only Swedes, but people from around the world. I also enjoyed travelling throughout Europe. I was able to travel throughout Scandinavia, as well as visiting many of the other major cities and cultural centers of Europe."

"The teaching, a lot of discussions, field trips and study trips, seminars..."

"Helpful corridor-mates. Labs designed for learning. Courses taught entirely in English. Planned activities through the school or nations."

"An amazing study abroad period. I can't sum up just one thing that I appreciated most other than the whole experience I was able to make so much personal growth because of my new surroundings and new international friends. Lund was an amazing place to be. I loved it all!"
The Town

Lund, a city of 100,000 inhabitants, is located in southern Sweden, about 15 minutes by train from the major city of Malmö and less than an hour by train from Copenhagen, Denmark. Lund not only represents a thousand years of history: it is also very much an exciting city of youth and of bustling student life which explodes every fourth spring in a student carnival (2006 is the next one). For many centuries Lund was a cultural and religious centre in southern Scandinavia and its traditions of learning date back to the Middle Ages, when the divinity school was located there.
The University

The university was founded in 1666, partly in order to bind the provinces, which had been ceded by Denmark in 1658, closer to Sweden. Since then, Lund University has developed into a modern international centre for research and education. Today the university is one of the largest and most comprehensive universites in Sweden enrolling about 44.000 students annually. It is a very large university in a rather small town, which makes for an extremely rich and stimulating environment.

The university is divided into eight faculties that work in a decentralised structure. The faculties are the Lund Institute of Technology (LTH), Science, Law, Social Sciences, Medicine, Liberal Arts and Theology, Economics and Management, and Performing Arts.

Lund University cooperates with a great number of universities and research institutions all over the world. It takes part in the educational and research programmes of the European Union. Extensive exchanges of teachers, researchers and students with universities in industrialized as well as developing countries makes the university truly international. Lund University is also a member of the Öresund University, a regional confederation of universitites in Denmark and Southern Sweden.

Lund University offers more than 250 courses in English annually. These courses are primarily reserved for exchange students and enrolment is normally open to students whose home university has exchange agreements with Lund University. The university also offers 18 International Masters programmes in English open to all students with the required academic background.
The Academic Year

The normal academic year is divided into two semesters of 20 weeks each. The autumn semester runs from early September to late January, and the spring semester from late January to early June. There is a short break for Christmas.
The Credit System

Academic achievements at Lund University (the student workload) is measured according to the Swedish credit system. One Swedish credit equals one week of full-time studies. Thus, after one semester of successful full-time studies (passing the examinations) the student obtains 20 Swedish credits (equivalent to 30 ECTS credits).
Social life

Following an old tradition, the social life of the university is organised into "nations". Historically, each nation was the social and academic centre for students from a different region of Sweden. Today, all students, including exchange students, join one of the student unions and one of the nations upon arrival in Lund. The nations offer many activites and programmes, including sports, movie screenings, weekly pub nights, student choirs, and holiday parties. Each nation has an international secretary who helps exchange students become involved in nation activites.

Coming to a foreign country can be both exciting and difficult. In order to help Exchange & International Master students settle down and get to know student life the international student can apply for participation in the mentor system. A mentor at Lund University is not an academic mentor; he/she is a fellow student at Lund University who, in most cases, is studying at the same faculty. The Mentor system creates informal groups of Swedish mentors and international students that can have fun together and learn from each other.