Experience report
Name: Kim Schreurs
E-mail: schreurskim@gmail.com
Exchange semester: Spring 2015
Academic year: 2014-2015
Host University: Lund University
Country: Sweden
TOPIC: Admission, arrival, housing
Lund University was obliged to offer me accommodation. You had to apply before a
certain deadline. Directly from the first contact, Lund University told me about this
possibility and also the deadline to apply. My advice is to apply as the application opens,
because then you have the biggest chance to get the room you want to. I applied a couple
of days later, resulting in that I ended up on a waiting list. Later I received an email that
they could offer me a room from the 4th of February on instead of from the 15th of
January. The same day I received another email that stated that they could offer me a
room from the 15th of January. It was a studio flat. If you don’t accept the offer, then
Lund University is no longer obliged to offer you a room and you have to find a room
yourselves. I accepted the room.
The 15th of January Lund University organised an arrival day. There were students on
Copenhagen airport to lead you to the train to Lund. At Lund Central station there were
students to pick us up with a little van and bring us to the registration. At the
registration you received all the information you needed, including a Swedish telephone
card and a card to use in public transport. Here you could also pick up your keys of the
room and even transportation to the different student houses was provided.
After arrival day there was an entire week of introduction. You were put into groups and
every group had a couple of mentors to show you around. The University also organised
a meeting with all the law exchange students, so that you got to know them really fast.
TOPIC: Location of university/city
Lund is a very small city, but there are lots of activities for students since half of the
inhabitants of Lund are students! Since it’s a very small city, everyone goes everywhere
by bike. The different faculties of Lund University are spread throughout the entire city.
The Faculty of Law was located in the city centre. The Main University building and the
main library are really beautiful buildings and definitely worth it to check out.
I got involved with the student life via nations and sports. A nation is a sort of student
society. During lunch time they offer good and cheap lunches and during the weekend
brunches. Some nations have a weekly club night, others a weekly pub night. Further
they organise all kind of activities you can sign up for. A nation is the cheapest place for
students to eat and to drink. The biggest difference with the nations and the student
organisations in Tilburg is that you have to subscribe for one nation, but that they can go
to all of them at any time. You’re not bound by the nation you became part of. Herkules
is a local bar/club which is free of entrance on Wednesday nights.
Qua sports, a lot of people had a membership at the Gerdahallen, the sports centre. I
didn’t subscribe for any sports organisation, but I went to the swimming pool more
often. If you want to have closer contacts with the locals, I’d advice to subscribe for a
sports club.
When the weather is good, the botanical garden and the city park are really good places
to go. Really beautiful and clean and as soon as the sun comes out it’s full of people in
those places.
TOPIC: Academics
The semester was divided in two periods. In each period I could take one course of 15
ECTS each. I took the courses ‘Enforcement of EU law’ and ‘Introduction to the legal
system of the US’. The second course was not my first choice, my first choice was
‘International Private Law’, but this course was popular among the Swedish students
and for that reason, most of the exchange students could not take that course. The
courses were at master level, but since you only had one course at a time, I thought that
this was not much more difficult than the courses during my bachelor at Tilburg
University. I had the most difficulties with the English legal language. But as the weeks
passed by this got easier and easier.
The Introduction to the legal system of the US did not really add anything to my program
at Tilburg University, but I really liked to learn something about the system as we see it
on television every day. Besides that we were thought by use of the Socratic method. I
learnt to think about the law in a different way and to speak up about it.
In general the classes were in much smaller groups, which made it much more informal.
The professors approached the students in an active way, to make sure that you would
really have to think about the content yourselves and not just assume what was said in a
lecture.
TOPIC: Social life
As I’ve already mentioned we had an introduction during the first week of our exchange.
During this introduction we had a mentor group with only exchange students. So on the
first day you met a lot of people already. Besides the introduction, you could also
subscribe for taking an introduction course to the Swedish language. I can really
recommend this, not just because of the fact that you learn some basic Swedish words
and saying, but also because you meet a lot of exchange students during those classes.
This is were the first groups already were created.
I had most contact with exchange students and almost none with Swedish students.
Swedish people are not so outgoing in general, then won’t walk up to you to start a
conversation with you. Not at the university, but also not in bar or other occasions. If
you really want to get in contact with the Swedish students, then you really have to
make the effort yourself. A good way would be to become part of a sports club for
example.
Besides studying, there was a lot of partying going on throughout the entire semester.
We had lunch almost every day at a nation (this was often cheaper than cooking your
own meal), we went to Kalmar nation every Tuesday, to Herkules every Wednesday and
on the rest of the week days we would make sure that something was happening
somewhere. In Sweden it is really common to have a pre party at someone’s place before
you go to an actual party. We also made our own fancy dinners quite often were we
would all do some cooking and dress fancy.
Besides this, ESN organises a lot of trips. I’ve been to Lapland, Stockholm and Tallinn
with ESN. These are really cool trips were you go with a big group of students (most of
them exchange students) to explore the city and its surroundings. ESN, but also the
International Desk organised also some smaller things as pub-crawls, canoeing, hiking
and so on.
TOPIC: Living costs
When you go on exchange, you get a grant from Tilburg University, but this is far from
enough to finance your exchange. Before I went to Lund, I’d been working to save some
money. This money I’ve been using to do some trips during the weekends. Further I had
a loan of about 1000 euro a month. At the end of the month I’d used all this money. Half
of it I’d spend on the rent, some on insurances, I pay my college money monthly, but also
a lot on groceries and alcohol. As you might now, alcohol is really expensive in Sweden.
If you go and drink a beer at a nation, then the prices are okay, but this is just for
students. Groceries are also really expensive, yoghurt for example costs three times as
much in the Netherlands and so is the case with fruit and vegetables.
The first weeks were the most expensive weeks. You had to find out where to go for
cheap food, but you also had to buy a bicycle, practical things you might need in your
room, books and all the other things you couldn’t bring from the Netherlands.
Don’t forget about all the little things you spend money on when thinking about the
budget, but example the use of public transport, going to a party, the gym.
TOPIC: Culture
I really liked it to be so close with so many people from all over the world. You can read
about all the culture differences in books, but it is much nicer to actually experience it
while having a conversation or a discussion about a certain topic with other students,
students who actually live in a country you might have been reading a lot about. Having
those conversations makes you also think about your own culture much more. How do
we do certain thing in the Netherlands? You start thinking about things you’ve always
taken for granted.
During my exchange I’ve learned much more about different cultures in general all over
the world than that I can point at some specific differences between the Swedish and the
Dutch culture. The only things I could say it that the Swedish people are a little cold, but
really outgoing when they start drinking. An even bigger difference is the relaxing
sphere. In the Netherlands everyone has to be online 24/7, everyone wants to be able to
go to the library/work at any second of the day even in the weekend. I think that in the
Netherlands the people don’t dare to take a minute of rest anymore. In Sweden this is
completely different. The libraries close at 20.00u and in the weekends even on 15.00u.
The rest of the time you have to take off and relax. And people still finish what they have
to do, it’s not that the Swedish people do less work than the Dutch. It’s just that the
entire atmosphere in Sweden is much more relaxing.
Also in Sweden people seem to be trusting each other more than the people in the
Netherlands. You’re not watching your bag all the time when you’re lying in the park.
TOPIC: Personal development
During my exchange I’ve learned a lot about the world, but I’ve also learned a lot about
myself. You meet people from all over the world with different cultures, different habits,
different government systems, different politics; there are a lot of differences in the
world. I really liked it to talk about all those differences with the people from different
countries. You no longer take things for granted, at least, I didn’t. I started thinking
about how a lot of things in the Netherlands are arranged and how many of them could
be different.
Besides that, I also learned to be completely independent. You go on an exchange and
you know nobody. This is completely different after a couple of hours after your arrival,
but they are all strangers. But, those strangers are all you have at that moment. So, I
learned to do a lot on my own, but also to rely on people who I rarely knew.
For me it was a fantastic experience that when you go on a trip with some people, there
are always people you don’t know. But all of those people are really excited to meet you
and so are you, you are always in for meeting new people.
TOPIC: Tips for future students
I’d really recommend everybody to go on an exchange if you can! Up until now it was the
best experience of my life! I’ve learned a lot!!
And yes, I’d recommend everybody to go to Lund University. The city is small, but
beautiful, the student life is amazing and the atmosphere at the university itself was
more than good. I’ve had an amazing time in Lund!