Åsa Cajander, newly appointed Adviser to the Vice-Chancellor on Equal Opportunities, commenced by welcoming all participants to the seminar and introducing Anders Backlund, Adviser to the Vice-Chancellor on internationalisation. They briefly discussed professional and personal experiences of internationalisation, travelling and experiencing different cultures.
“Internationalisation has a lengthy history at Uppsala University, perhaps even as far back as 1477,” said Matt Greig, head of the Division for Internationalisation’s Unit for International Mobility, who went on to discuss the work of the Division and the units for International Mobility and Global Partnerships.
Internationalisation is crucial
If it were to disregard internationalisation, the University could hardly be considered a top university. Matt Greig emphasised that the University has 1,400-1,500 incoming and 800-900 outgoing students each year within the framework of around 800 current exchange agreements.
“Uppsala University has seen an increase of approximately 30% in registered, paying international master’s students since autumn semester 2019. It is a requirement that we work with internationalisation if we are to maintain our status in the world. Internationalisation belongs to everyone: every division, unit, department, working group and individual employee must work with it, not simply the Division for Internationalisation.”
Experiences of internationalisation at Uppsala University: A few examples
Fredrik Jonasson of the Uppsala Union of Engineering and Science Students (UTN) described the work conducted to ensure that international students studying at Uppsala University are given the same opportunities to benefit from their education as their Swedish peers, including UTN’s regular invitations to international students to join student union activities.
Angelika Drigo, representative of the Doctoral Board, believes that the University’s information in English is generally very good, even if there is room for improvement. Although many international doctoral students are offered the opportunity to teach, the preparations required to teach in Swedish are often too time consuming unless they have already mastered the language.
“Of the doctoral students admitted to Uppsala University, 55% do not have Swedish as their mother tongue. While many are keen to learn Swedish, 47% do not feel that they have the time to do so. Once they return to their homelands, international doctoral students become ambassadors for Swedish education in general and Uppsala University in particular. It is therefore important that they feel that they have the same opportunities and conditions as their Swedish colleagues during their doctoral studies.”
Maria Klemm, lecturer at the Department of Earth Sciences’ Wind Energy division at Campus Gotland, explained that the division’s international students share examples from their homelands during lectures. Sustainability Days are one opportunity for students to collaborate on sustainability issues across international borders.