Mobility specification

Country:Sweden

Institution:Örebro University

City:Örebro

Program:Erasmus+ for study

Activity type:Study

Academic year:2024/2025

MU faculty/department:Faculty of Social Studies / Department of Psychology

Study level abroad:Master

🎓Hit the books! How do you rate the university experience?

Can you enroll in a course where you can learn the local language?yes

Does the university offer enough courses in English?neutral

Are your credits converted?yes

Can you give an example?Items are very often worth 7.5 credits. In my case, MUNI accepted such courses for 8 credits.

Was there anything in the teaching methods that surprised you?The semester is divided into five periods, and each period can have one full-time course or half-time course (i.e. a course that is less time-consuming, usually spread over several periods) in combination with a second full-time or half-time course. Each period is followed by an examination and then a second period with other subjects, ending with another examination, and the cycle repeats itself throughout the semester. Thus, when registering for courses for a full semester, you should be careful to make sure that 1) you meet the required minimum number of credits per semester (about 30), 2) you have at least one course registered in each period, and 3) you are not overlapping two full-time courses in one period. So registering for courses is quite annoying. Occasionally, one finds that one cannot register for a course that one would like to, as one is unable to combine it to meet all the rules. However, most of the time it is doable.
One period lasts about a month. So, within that month, you usually study one subject quite intensively. This has advantages and disadvantages. The advantage, for example, is that you don't accumulate deadlines. You don't have to hand in five seminars in one week. You have one course, so you concentrate on one paper. The disadvantage is that a month is not that long, and if you have to do the whole course, the schedule is quite busy. You don't pile up the term papers, but it's still better to start them immediately, because there is little time to work them out. Also, you don't play so much on free holidays - personally, for example, I had a lecture the day before Christmas Eve and I took my last exam on Saturday.
The teaching is very similar to that at MUNI. The courses consist of optional lectures and (usually) compulsory seminars. However, I found the exams more rigorous. They are taken in special halls where there are fairly strict rules about what you can take in and what you can't (which are of course checked). There is also an entrance check, consisting of an identity check, your identity is then verified once more during the exam. Tests are written on computers in my experience (I've heard of handwritten tests too, but haven't experienced any myself), and you need to use your own laptop - the university should offer the option of borrowing laptops, but I didn't take advantage of this. The difficulty of the exams varies a lot depending on what field you're studying. I studied mostly criminology subjects, I can only speak for them. Most of my exams were scheduled for five hours, but don't be alarmed, they didn't take that much time for anyone. It must be acknowledged, however, that the exams usually require you to write an answer to 12 open-ended questions in the form of a coherent text, which takes some time. Speaking for myself, I would have been able to hand them in in about two hours, but as I checked the answers thoroughly afterwards, the exams usually took around three hours. As scary as it is to see a five-hour exam on the schedule, it has a huge advantage, namely that you are not in a time crunch. I haven't experienced anyone slacking off, on the contrary you can write in peace and think about the wording of the answer without undue stress. As I mentioned, this varies from field to field, I have heard, for example, that exams in marketing subjects are again ridiculously easy.
The exams have two deadlines, the second one is only a revision. However, as the timetable for one term is very full, it happens that there are large gaps between the regular and the remedial term (for example, the regular term in January and the remedial term in March).
The relationship between teachers and students is less formal than I was used to from MUNI; teachers can be addressed by name. Overall, Sweden gave me the impression of a less formal country.

Does the university offer international students' programs and activities outside of lectures and seminars to help them integrate more quickly?The university offers an orientation week. Part of the activities, focusing on the examination system, the semester and the running of the university, were free and compulsory. The orientation part is paid and organized by the student association. There are indeed many societies at the university (one specifically for international students) that organize many activities, but I have no experience with them.

In which areas does the university offer support for students with special needs and strive to be inclusive?Psychological counseling
Barrier-free access to classrooms and dormitories
Support for LGBTQ+ students (e.g., safe spaces, counseling services)
I haven’t noticed

💸Did you have to rob the bank?

Try to take a guess at what your monthly expenditures were:6000 CZK/month

Did you stay in dorms?yes

What about unexpected expenses? Did anything surprise you?Rather pleasantly. Student flats usually don't have their own kitchen utensils, cleaning products, bedding, etc. Students either have to buy these or, if they are quick enough, take already used items that the university keeps. So quite an investment will be required initially. I was lucky though, the student before me left all the stuff at the apartment, so I saved a lot.

Do you have any tips on how to save money?Cook your own food, restaurants and canteens on campus are expensive (two to three times as much as in the Czech Republic). It is better to buy food in large hypermarkets, such as ICA or Willys (which is a kind of Swedish version of Lidl), where you can find goods that are very close to the Czech price (otherwise count that food also costs about twice as much). In Sweden, it is much more common to buy in bulk, for example two-kilo packages of flour or three-kilo packages of minced meat are common. These large packs are often worth more than smaller ones.
Sweden doesn't recognise ISIC, so it's a good idea to set up a Mecenat as soon as you arrive. This will get you student discounts on fares and other discount promotions. The approval process was quite lengthy and in my case there were still complications with proof of study - so the whole thing took about a month and a half in the end.
Second-hand shops of all kinds are common, from clothes to home decor to second-hand bicycles.

🗺 Learn the ropes in a new city

How well did you manage to communicate in English?almost without problems

How does public transport work in the city?neutral

And what about transport outside the city?I've seen better

Where to find connections? How to buy a ticket?There are three ways to buy a ticket within Örebro. Either with the driver, with a surcharge, or with a city card or with the Örebro länstrafiken app. The app works in a similar way to Poseidon for the South Moravian Region, for example. There you can find connections and buy tickets for public and suburban transport. The region around Örebro (Örebro Län) is integrated, so you can take public transport and change to a regional bus on one ticket. The nature around Örebro is beautiful, so those who like hiking will certainly take advantage of it.
If you go outside the region, you have to take into account that the transport in each region is handled by a different company, which has differently set fares, discount system and its own app. I used two apps for my travel: the Örebro länstrafiken for Örebro and surroundings and the SL for Stockholm and surroundings.
As for trains, different carriers are in charge of different lines. The SJ (Swedish national carrier) website can find train connections for all carriers and can buy a ticket for them (which is more expensive than if you bought it directly from that particular carrier's website, though).
I haven't used the long-distance buses much. When I did, I used either Vybuss or Flixbus (but the latter doesn't run that often).

Did you deal with any health issues during your stay?no

🤠Help create the perfect bucket list

What is a must-see in the city?Örebro Castle - inside it serves as office space or a place for exhibitions, but from the outside it is beautiful.
Wadköping - a historic village just outside the centre, it functions as an open museum and has a market at Christmas.
Svampen - a water tower that you can climb up, it has a very nice view of the surrounding area (and there's a restaurant up there)
Lake Hjälmaren - we can imagine it as if the Nové Mlýny reservoir had moved just outside Brno, only even better.
Every summer there is an Open Art festival in Örebro, you can see art of all kinds.

What are the must-visit trip destinations?Ånnaboda - nature park in the mountains, not far from Örebro, beautiful.
Stockholm - there are a lot of interesting places here.
Gotland and Visby - the island of Gotland is a bit out of hand, but well worth it, Visby has a wonderful historical center.

💅A nugget of wisdom to make the life easier

Did you need to handle a visa?no

How did you get to the place?Plane
Train
Bus

Is there anything to watch out for before the trip?Both trains and buses run directly to Örebro from Stockholm Airport. If you want to take it via Stockholm itself, don't take the Arlanda Express, it's fast but not worth the price.

Can you pay by card?everywhere

🥳Summary

Whew, what a ride! 😮‍💨 Thanks so much for taking the time to complete our survey and for sharing your unique experience. Just one last thing. 🙏 How would you summarize your trip in one or two sentences?Such good conditions for a trip may not be repeated and the experience of a foreign country is never wasted.