A language barrier, heavy university administration or the Swedish social reluctance: those were the main debates of the day. The International Day was dedicated to solving the problems that most international students meet when they arrive in Sweden.
This event was organized today in the Eden building at the Social Sciences Faculty. Housing organizations, unions, entrepreneurship organizations and Skånetrafiken were present and some seminars were set up. On one hand, the organizers wanted to report the international students’ issues, like finding housing. Student housing organizations proposed a summary table about students’ accommodations issues.
On the other hand, a Swedish CV workshop was offered for all international students in order to facilitate their integration into the Swedish labor market. For free, international students could as well have a CV picture taken and they could receive other advice on how to build a CV.
“Compared to other countries, the Swedish model favors having a modest CV, that is not too positive about yourself,” Alma Sanberg, one of the seminar speakers, said.
Alma works at Nordjobb. She explained her different experiences with finding a job in Sweden and gave advices for the international students.
There are always issues that are difficult to solve. For example, the lack of student housing at the beginning of each semester. However, there are some interesting issues that international students meet depending on the country they come from.
Photo: Lukas J. Herbers
“Getting Swedish friends is difficult”
Fei Kong and Yue Cao have been living in Lund for more than four years, since the Chinese girls studied their bachelor here. They are now studying their first master year in service management.
“For me, the hardest issue here is the Swedish culture and the Swedes’ social ways to get/make friends,” Fei said.
“I have some difficulties to get friends,” Yue added.
They were also surprised about the concept of booking an appointment with the doctor when they were sick. They did not receive any information about how it works in Sweden. They think that the International Office should not forget to explain precisely how this works here in Sweden, or in Europe, for non-European students.
Photo: Lukas J. Herbers
“An overdose of information”
Alejandro Sánchez Contreras is from Spain. He is following the master program International Marketing and Brand Management.
“When I arrived, it was a chaotic process to apply for a personal number. I had some problems with the bank as well. But above all, the administrative stuff is complicated in Sweden.”
Alejandro Sánchez Contreras also suggested the University to use one card for everything because “there are many cards with one single function, I was very confused at the beginning”.
Miguel Burgos is Mexican and is studying his master in Corporate Entrepreneurship. According to him, “there is too much information in a short period of time. The International Office should spread out the information about the University.”
Photo: Lukas J. Herbers
For that matter, Bopoolen and the University are working on the idea to facilitate the information about students housing in Sweden.
Moa Persdotter represents the Student Union of Social Sciences and is “very satisfied with the international students’ participation.”
She noticed that there were more master students this year and that all the workshops about the CVs and the lectures were full. She noticced in particular in this session that
“there were more problems between international students and Skånetrafiken. As the regional organization changed its system at the beginning of the semester, many foreign students did not get the students discounts because they did not have the right paper proving that they were students.”
Despite some negative aspects, international students seem to be complaining less than before about the Swedish domination in advertisement or events from Lund University. The housing issue seems better during this Christmas time… until the arrival of the next semester.
