Student blogs

Happy back-to-school season! Welcome to our new students, and hello prospective students. Sometimes it can be daunting and confusing to join the greater KI student life. But fear not! I’ll share with you my experiences of becoming an active committee member of the Medical Student Union. Specifically, I will share my experiences of being in the Event committee, on both hosting and going to student-led social events, and about the overall culture that comes with the Swedish student life.

What is the Medical Student Union?

The Medical Student Union or Medicinska Föreningen (MF) is KI’s largest and overarching student union. It’s open to all students (except for Dental Program students), including the Global bachelor/master’s program students. It is also Stockholm’s oldest student association! MF consists of a student-run board, 12 sections, 10 committees, 7 commissions, and more than 10 associations. Overall, there are many leadership positions and opportunities for students from every program to positively impact the quality of education, address any systematic issues, or plan social gatherings! For more information, check out MF’s webpage. While I am not active in the Public Health section, I am active in the Event Committee.

The Event Committee

What is it?

I got introduced to MF’s Event committee (PRU, or Programutskottet in Swedish) since last fall. PRU organizes the bigger social events on campus, such as parties, balls, and sittings! (Fun fact: A sitting is a Swedish university tradition in which students gather for a banquet-like, often three-course meal paired with various beverages, performances, and a lot of singing.)

I was initially interested in PRU because of my experience in the service industry, and because I wanted to be a part of Swedish student life. So far, I have worked the Start-of-the-year sitting (Amphiox sitting, which is meant for first-term students. The term amphiox refers to the most basic vertebrate i.e the lancelet, and represents the first-term students, as they are new and therefore still “lack” integration to the student life at KI, until they attend the sitting!), a Halloween party, the annual Luciaball (we got to serve one of the Nobel Prize Winners in Physiology and Medicine!), the graduation party, and many Friday pubs hosted at the MF Student Union building.

My experience in PRU

Hosting events

Initially, I was worried I would struggle to fit in. This was due to 1. my age: I am maybe 2-3 years older than many of them and 2. my background: I was so scared I wouldn’t fit in with other Swedish students. But now I can say that joining PRU is one of my highlights at KI. And in my experience, PRU is very diverse. Currently, there are several active members from the Global bachelor’s and master’s programs. And there are quite a few different Swedish programs (Medicine, Speech Pathology, Nursing, or Physiotherapy, to name a few) represented. We also have quite a few nationalities represented in PRU, which makes the conversations we have (a mix of English and Swedish) very enriching and fun!

Since hosting big parties means long hours, we have definitely bonded by spending a lot of time together. We spend days prepping for events, after-hours cleaning up (at ungodly hours), work in chaotic pub and dinner settings together. It’s sometimes a bit exhausting, but I think we all gain great joy from seeing attendees having a good time at our events.

Going to external events!

Outside of our events, we also participate in sittings, pub rounds, or other events organized by other Stockholm universities. For instance, we participated in a boat/float-making competition hosted by KTH this spring. We designed, built, and sailed our own float on open water along with other university students. Turns out we have many artistic folks in PRU too! We also go on pub rounds to SU and KTH during Valborg, a Swedish spring festivity! Because of our common experiences together, I can call many PRU members very good friends!

So if you feel unsure or intimidated about joining KI’s student life, don’t! I feel like people are very accepting here, and want to get to know you regardless of background.

Wearing overalls!

When working, we have a specific dress code, which is both unique and common in Swedish university student life. Once you are an active member, we wear our overalls with KI’s school colors. Before you become an active member, you wear medical scrubs and are referred to as AT’s. (This term is an abbreviation for allmäntjänstgöring in Swedish, which refers to medical interns. Therefore as an AT, you are considered an intern for PRU!) On our overalls, we sew on patches that we collect from both our own, and other student pubs in Stockholm’s universities. This way, you can customize your overall to truly make it your own! Mine is a forever work-in-progress, as I collect patches often and change the patch constellations every time.

This tradition is not unique to KI, but it’s a common practice for many student associations/sections at all Swedish universities. It’s always fun to meet and spend time with other university students representing their schools/sections, which is another fun aspect of being in PRU.

Concluding words

To summarize my experience of KI’s student life, I find it to be welcoming, a bit chaotic, and also empowering. There’s a lot of comradery and opportunities to get to know students outside of your academic programs. On top of this, you also learn quite a few practical and logistical skill sets that you may not have the chance to learn in your classrooms. I hope this made joining the greater student life a little less intimidating, and that you got to know a little more about Swedish student life traditions!