How does the decision to study in Sweden change people's lives? Vlad Kozak, a business analyst and until recently a student from Ukraine who swapped Kyiv National University for Stockholm University, shares his experience on the pages of Sweden.ru.
I was here a year before enrolling. Sweden seemed like a country of the future to me. I was struck by the fact that they have waste processing, recycling, which we didn't have, that the toilet flush can be full or half as much, and that escalators don't run when there are no people on them. And excellent tap water. I thought: why not Sweden, actually?
Before that, I studied economics, and I wanted to find something more creative in the same field. I applied to marketing programs – among them was a program at the Stockholm University School of Business.
When applying to a Swedish university, I realized how important it is to follow a checklist – the list of required documents. When I applied the first time, I was disqualified during the application review because I submitted only a translation of the original diploma, not a copy. Because of that, I lost a whole year. The second time, of course, I was more careful and did everything right.
The principle of the checklist is that you must submit exactly the documents listed, without missing anything. Maybe it's even worth sending something extra: for example, certificates of additional courses, participation in a scientific conference, or internships.
Besides that, I had to write a bunch of motivation letters: for each university I applied to, and also separately for the scholarship application. This is a special genre. In a motivation letter, the main thing is to be able to explain why you deserve the scholarship. I emphasized that at that time there were few specialists in marketing with a European education in my country. And I wrote that I would like to study in Sweden in a specialization that we didn't have.
Writing a good motivation letter is also a kind of marketing; you need to sell yourself. It's important to understand that besides you, there may be ten or twenty other applicants for your scholarship.
I remember the moment when I found out I got the scholarship. I just opened the Swedish Institute website, saw my name on the list – and started jumping and dancing with joy. It was one of the most significant events in my life – one that I think changed me.
Then the search for housing began – a sore subject, especially in Stockholm. I advise starting to look early. Stockholm University, unfortunately, does not provide housing for students. It was very difficult. When it was time to go to Sweden, I still didn't have a roof over my head. First, I asked to stay with friends for a week. And when I was flying from Kyiv to Stockholm, I met a couple sitting next to me. They lived in Stockholm, and I asked for help. They gave me the contact of a friend's daughter, with whom I was able to stay for a month.
To get a room, you had to wait in an electronic queue for at least a year. But later, through my classmates at the university, I learned that SSSB (the organization that builds and manages student campuses in Stockholm) has an option called in Swedish "sista minuten" ("last minute"). Every week, SSSB posts a list of available student apartments and rooms on its website. And sometimes, though very rarely, options marked with this icon appear. And if you are the first to click the button, you have a chance to get a room out of turn. So I sat at the computer for a week refreshing the page until finally the coveted "sista minuten" appeared on the screen.
There is also the website www.blocket.se, where people rent out and rent housing. You can also search on various forums, student groups, and university groups on Facebook. The Lappis campus, where I lived, for example, has its own forum – ads for renting rooms appear there. Don't be afraid to ask for help even from people you barely know. The main thing is not to panic; a solution will definitely be found.
In the end, I had a fairly decent room of 18 square meters, with my own toilet and shower. The kitchen was shared by eight rooms. A shared kitchen has its advantages: there I constantly met new people, chatted with someone. There are also downsides – sometimes it was dirty or noisy. But I was glad to experience it all: student life is cool.
It's important to open a bank account upon arrival in Sweden, as the country practically doesn't use cash. To do this, you need to get a personal tax number. This takes a couple of weeks.
The approach to studying in Sweden differed from what I encountered in Ukraine. There, we usually memorized large amounts of data. Then you come and repeat what you learned – for example, definitions. But in Sweden, there were no exams in a classroom where you draw a ticket – instead, there were "home" exams: you are given a certain time to write the exam at home. You can use all available resources – you just need to cite them correctly. And of course, reproducing theory was not required; what mattered was a critical approach to the material, rethinking it, and presenting it with analysis. It took me time – the entire first year – to get used to this system.
Sweden is generally a very informal country. Regardless of age or rank, you address the other person as "you" and by first name. At the university, there was no addressing "professor" or using patronymics, and the greeting "hej" is the same whether you're addressing a classmate or a professor.
At first it's unusual. But then you realize it's great. Because such an environment creates an excellent atmosphere for debates. The professor is not an authority who knows better, but a moderator leading the discussion during the seminar. For Swedish teachers, what matters is not how accurately you present the theory, but how critically you think. The more critical your approach to the issue, the higher your grade.
Almost 30-40% of each course is group work. It looks like this: four or five students join together to write a project as a group. The result depends heavily on both the people you work with and your position in the group. You can participate actively, or you can sit and do nothing. You can take on the role of leader and lead this group work if you are interested in it.
For me, group work was harder than home exams, where you can just push yourself and write everything, even if it's the last night. But here you have to adapt to people, assign responsibilities in advance, and then write and discuss together. But it was also a cool experience because when you work with people from different countries, you see cultural differences in action.
The thesis is the hardest part of the studies. It requires enormous self-organization to gather material and then sit down and write. You need to read a ton of articles, choose what suits you, and decide on a topic. Unlike the Ukrainian experience of writing a thesis, where we had a list of about thirty topics to choose from, in Sweden you choose the topic yourself and then approve it with your supervisor, who can only slightly adjust the title. A lot is based on individual work. We were given six months for this. I wrote about branding Stockholm. And if in my first university everything depended on the defense, in Sweden it turned out to be more of a formality.
Student life is very well organized. We had various student dinners, an orientation day where we were told in detail about Swedish culture. But still, life in Stockholm is not as vibrant as in student cities like Uppsala or Lund. I was at a few parties there; the whole city is one continuous party.
In principle, you can start looking for an internship right after admission. I got an internship at a brewing company and stayed there to work.
Studying at a Swedish university helped me become who I am now, gave me the opportunity to learn to think globally. I met many people. I see it more as a personal experience. I realized that the world is much smaller than I thought. Before moving here, I thought Sweden was so far away; in fact, it's close. My conclusion: don't rely on stereotypes, be open to new opportunities.