Student blogs

Are you still in doubt about applying to Karolinska Institutet? Based on my 4 months experience, studying at KI is way different than studying in any other countries or universities. Here there are 4 amazing things about studying at KI.

1. Relationships between students and teachers

I would say that the hierarchy is flat here at KI. Students call their professors/teachers by first name. Of course, we pay much respect to teachers. We are also allowed to stop a lecture when we have a questions and even criticize if you have a different opinion (I know it is not a very good manner in some culture settings…).

2. Coffee break

Welcome to Sweden! Fika is life here. Every hours we have a 5 to 10-minute short break or sometimes a long break (15-20 minutes). When a teacher say “Okaaay, now we will have a 15-minute break. Go grab some coffee.”, it is the time for fika!

3. Group work

Almost every courses has a group work, a group presentation, or a group assignment. We even had a “group break time” that a teacher randomly assigned us into breakup rooms on Zoom during a 10 minutes break time to chat. For me, working in a group improved my communication skills, task management skills and confidence level of public speaking. Since we have many group tasks, it also helps us to connect each other with classmates.

4. Exams and Grades

Here at KI, final exams are occurred in the final week of a particular course which is usually for 5 to 8 weeks. It means that you can focus on a specific course and topic for a while and you don’t have to be bothered from forgetting what you have learned on the first week of the course when you study for the exam. I really love this system! As my bachelor, “the final week” didn’t let me sleep on the bed.

Grading system is also unique here. There are only Fail, Pass, and Pass with distinctions.

Thank you for reading! Feel free to contact me if you have any kind of questions 😉