Month: May 2026

Moving to a new city and a new country is very exciting! Daydreaming about your new life, being curious about your new favourite coffeeshops, parks, or clubs is becoming a new hobby! But before that dream can become true, one of the most crucial steps needs to be taken: find your new home.

This can be a very stressful activity, and can feel veryyyy overwhelming! Advertisements are popping up everywhere, your whole Facebook feed might be full of possible places and people who are looking too…., and panic might start too…

But no worries, I’ve gathered all the tips&tricks, and have collected your most asked questions in this blog.

First of all, use the university website, as it provides a lot of information already!

Secondly, the university offers rooms to fee-paying students through the housing office.

There are 2 different streams:

1. Fee-paying students

2. Non-fee-paying students

Fee-paying students (you are a citizen of a country outside the European Union, European Economic Area, or Switzerland) can take advantage of the housing guarantee. This means that the Uppsala University’s Housing Office will provide you with a student dormitory room, as long as you apply and accept the offer on time.

Non-fee paying students (you are from an EU/EEA country or Switzerland), need to find their housing on themselves. It is their responsibility.

Different student neighborhoods – Uppsala

1. Flogsta

• Iconic flogsta scream at 22:00 and flogstaparties
• Close to Ica Väst (hero as it stays open till 23:30)
• Close to nature
• Not as central – bike really recommended!

2. Nation housing

• Very central and close to the nations
• Mostly cheaper in rent
• Different nations have different types of housing!

3. Klostergatan

• Very central
• Own kitchen + big common kitchen

4. Kantorsgatan

• Not as central
• Close to nature
• Big kitchens

5. Rackarbergsgatan

• Between city center and flogsta
• Corridors, close to ekonomikum

6. Privat housing

• Can be anywhere!
• Maybe a possibility for pets
• Be aware of scammers!

Student’s favourite sites:

Heimstaden

• First serve, first place: check the site regularly!
• Flogsta housing

Uppsala Bostadsförmedling

• Pay for the queue as soon as possible!!
• A lot of rooms in different neighbourhoods!
• Personalize your preferences to get personalized emails

Housing

‘How much is the rent?’ Very important question, but this can vary a lot! You can find housing for 4500kr, but also 10000… A tip: use the filter on the website to stay in your budget!

‘Do I need to pay during June-July?’ This really depends from place to place… I, for example, needed to pay during those months (room with a pentry in Flogsta), while my friends living in a corridor in Flogsta didn’t need to.. It is always mentioned in your contract whether to pay it or not!

‘When should I start looking for a place?’ Preparations are key! Try to use the university’s website to get familiar with the most used sites, and sign up in the queue as fast as possible!!

Tip: I sent out emails to the biggest websites to ask when their rooms will be put on the site, and even automated my preferences. So I knew exactly when to look online and how their queuing system worked, and was less stressed beforehand. Also, if you want a room through ‘Uppsala Bostadsförmedling’, pay for the queue already! I did that right after I knew I got accepted, and was still in place 20 at the beginning of June….

‘Can I rent without a personal number?’ Yes! You might need to prove that you are a student, for example, your admission letter.

‘Do I need to start to rent a house in May, even though I’m only arriving in late August?’ Short answer: NO! You can perfectly find a room that starts in August; most contracts do start the first of the month, but you don’t need to start renting a place a few months in advance!

Walking into a Swedish university classroom for the first time can feel surprisingly confusing. Professors insist you call them by their first name, seminars feel informal but still count as examinations, and no one seems particularly impressed by long-winded questions or dramatic academic performances.

For many international students, the Swedish system feels relaxed on the surface—but that informality hides a very clear set of expectations. Understanding these unwritten rules early can make the difference between feeling lost and feeling confident in seminars.

Below is a practical guide to how the Swedish classroom works: what seminars really are, how to interact with professors, and how to participate in a way that fits the academic culture you are stepping into.

1. Flat hierarchies: professors are not distant authority figures

One of the most striking features of Swedish universities is how flat academic hierarchies are. You address your professors by their first name, not by titles. There is no “Professor X” or “Doctor Y” in daily interaction.

In the beginning I couldn’t wrap my head around this concept, because I come from a very different education system where this would count as disrespect. But in Sweden, non-formality reflects a deeply rooted cultural value: knowledge is not something that places one person above another, but something that is shared and developed together. Professors are experts, yes—but they are also facilitators, discussion partners, and mentors.

That said, there is an important caveat. Because the general culture here is rather reserved, you might not immediately feel this openness or mentorship aura. Professors will rarely approach students proactively or single them out for guidance. But this should not be read as disinterest.

Once you take the initiative—by showing genuine curiosity about their research, or by asking an honest question about your academic or professional ambitions—walls tend to come down fast, and mentorship can emerge very organically. What matters is that the interest is sincere rather than opportunistic. 

So if I were to sum up my experience: you are expected to take the first step, but when you do, you will often be met with real generosity and engagement.

2. Non-formal, but not intimate: mastering the Swedish balance

Here is the twist though: flat hierarchies do not mean the absence of boundaries. One of the trickiest things for international students is mastering the balance between being relaxed and being too personal. The Swedish academic culture, in my opinion, is informal in tone but reserved in substance. You can joke and disagree openly—but oversharing personal details, assuming comfort with physical contact, or overstepping professional distance is still considered inappropriate.

I recently learned about the categorization of informal, non-formal, and formal education, and it really helped me situate the Swedish system. I would personally place it at the intersection of the formal and the non-formal category: interactions are friendly, approachable, and collaborative, but they still follow implicit norms and boundaries that guide academic engagement. 

3. Asking questions: clarity over performance

In many education systems, asking a question often comes with a long preamble:

“This might be a stupid question, but…” or “Based on my background and previous experience…”

In Sweden, this is unnecessary—and sometimes even counterproductive.

Questions are expected to be clear, concise, and unpretentious. You do not need to justify why you are asking. The question should speak for itself.

This is closely connected to something often referred to as the Law of Jante: a cultural norm that discourages self-promotion and performative displays of knowledge. You are not expected to show how smart you are by asking a question; you are expected to contribute to collective understanding.

A simple, well-formulated question is valued far more than an elaborate one designed to impress.

4. What is a seminar, really?

Seminars at Swedish universities—Uppsala University included—are usually examined moments within a course. They can sound intimidating in the beginning, but in reality they are very different from oral exams.

There is no single seminar format. It depends on the discipline, the level of the course, and the instructor. That said, especially in the social sciences and humanities, seminars tend to be:

• highly interactive
• discussion-based
• collaborative rather than competitive
• sometimes role-play oriented

The most important thing to understand is this: you are not expected to perform perfectly.

The key word is contribute. As long as you:

• have done the readings
• follow the instructions
• engage with the discussion
• say something meaningful at least a few times

you will almost always pass.

A seminar is not about being examined every second. It is about showing that you are intellectually present and willing to engage. Silence throughout the entire seminar is usually a bigger problem than saying something imperfect.

5. Peer review is taken very seriously (and it is a skill)

One thing many students underestimate—especially early in their academic career—is how much value is placed on giving feedback in academia.

I remember how in my school peer review was perceived by us as a tedious extra task, something teachers make students do to save their own time. Yet, it is only within the Swedish university system that I realized that feedback is actually a core academic skill.

You are not just learning how to write papers; you are learning how to evaluate scholarly work.

If you are assigned as a discussant on a paper, you are expected to engage with substantive questions, such as:

• Is the argument theoretically grounded?
• Is the analysis independent and critical?
• Is the methodology appropriate for the research question?
• Does the paper contribute something meaningful or policy-relevant?

Grammar, spelling, and structure matter only insofar as they affect clarity. Peer review is not editing. 

You become trained to be critical and constructive at the same time—something Swedish academia places enormous emphasis on.

Final thought

The Swedish classroom may feel relaxed, but it is not casual in its expectations. Respect shows up not through formality or hierarchy, but through preparation, clarity, and constructive engagement.

Once you understand that balance, seminars stop feeling intimidating—and start feeling like what they are meant to be: collective spaces for thinking out loud together.