For Erasmus+ partners
Erasmus code: S UMEA01
Erasmus Charter for Higher Education (pdf)
Erasmus Policy Statement (pdf)
Umeå University is a comprehensive university which offers research and education in medicine, science and technology, social sciences, arts and humanities, and educational sciences. We offer exchange students close to 300 courses in English and have many international staff members as well as modern facilities, ensuring high-quality education to our incoming students.
Northern Lights (Aurora Borealis) over Campus Umeå.
ImageMattias PetterssonLevel of exchange
Undergraduate courses, graduate courses
Short semester, one semester, a full academic year
Semester dates
The academic calendar at Umeå University is divided into two semesters, each lasting 20 weeks. The autumn semester usually starts at the beginning of September and ends in mid-January. The spring semester begins in the middle of January and ends in early June.
Insurance
Exchange students are covered by an insurance policy, Student IN.
The insurance covers necessary and reasonable costs for health care, emergency dental care and damage to property. Travels outside of Sweden are not included in the coverage. EU/EEA citizens are required by the Swedish authorities to bring the European Health Insurance Card.
No matter their nationality, students are strongly advised to secure their own Health, Travel, and Accident insurance policy.
Support for students with disabilities
We offer individual support to students who have a disability. The support aims to ensure the student may pursue their studies under the same conditions as their peers.
Course catalogue
Umeå University offers a wide range of courses in English for exchange students.
Students can apply for all courses in the aforementioned catalogue. To be admitted to a course, there must be places available, and the student must fulfill the course requirements.
The course selection should be discussed with the home university to make sure it is approved.
Students who want to apply for courses instructed in Swedish need to have reached a level of B2 or C1 depending on which course they wish to apply for. If a student wishes to apply for courses instructed in Swedish, they should contact the International Office to receive information on how to apply.
Course changes after the application deadline are restricted and not guaranteed. Should students require a course change they should reach out to International Office by 30 May. Any requests of course changes received after this date will be processed in August, after the summer break.
Contact the International Office for more information: incoming.io@umu.se
Swedish study system
According to the Swedish study system full-time courses (100 % tempo) are taken one at a time rather than parallel. Therefore, it is important to carefully check the start and end dates for each course. More information about the Swedish study system.
Grading system
The Higher Education Ordinance states that the following grades may be awarded, unless the institution decides to grade on some other scale.
A number of courses use only two grades: Pass or Fail. Others, for example in Law and Engineering, traditionally use scales with several levels – expressed as letters or numbers.
No overall grade is given for a degree and students are not ranked.
The home university is responsible for the conversion of the Swedish grades. To support the translation, the ECTS grading table is used at Umeå University. It shows the distribution of awarded grades since the course was established with the current course code, until the date the student has completed the course. The distribution will only show for courses established at least two years before the student completed the course.
Course load
One academic semester comprises 20 weeks. This corresponds to approximately 40 hours of study per week including a varying number of lectures and classes. Most courses consist of 7.5, 15 or 30 ECTS.
1.5 ECTS is the equivalent to one week of full-time study.
Examination period
Exams are generally held at the end of each course, rather than at the end of a whole semester. The same applies to final essays. Please note that students are required to register/sign up for exams at Umeå University. Failure to do so will mean that the student cannot sit the exam.
International students from 137 universities across the globe responded to the International Student Barometer (ISB) survey during the autumn semester 2023. Umeå University placed first of all participating universities in the main categories of living, support, and overall satisfaction.
Learn more about results
Digital nominations are submitted via the mobility tool, Solemove.
Instructions for nominating your outgoing students.
Exchange students must be nominated online through Solemove (Umeå University's administrative system for student mobility). If you have not received login information from Solemove, please contact the department at Umeå University which you have signed the exchange agreement with. For university-wide agreements, please contact the International Office at incoming.io@umu.se
After the nomination is submitted, an automatic e-mail with the application instructions will be sent to your student(s).
Proficiency tests in English are not required from students under formal exchange agreements. However, please make sure to nominate students who have sufficient knowledge of English, both oral and written, so they are able to succeed in their courses.
Nomination period
Please note: If the dates below fall on a weekend/holiday, the deadlines are moved to the nearest workday.
For the Autumn semester and for the full academic year: 1 March–1 April
For the Spring semester: 1 September–1 October
Important! Only online nominations on Solemove submitted within the nomination period will be accepted.
Which information should be included?
When you log in to Solemove you will be asked to provide us with the following details:
When is the nomination and application deadline?
Please note: If the dates below fall on a weekend/holiday, the deadlines are moved to the nearest workday.
Spring semester
Nominations: 1 October
Applications: 15 October
Autumn semester
Nominations: 1 April
Applications: 15 April
Umeå University offers a wide range of courses in English for exchange students.
Students can apply for all courses in the aforementioned catalogue. To be admitted to a course, there must be places available, and the student must fulfill the course requirements.
The course selection should be discussed with the home university to make sure it is approved.
Students who want to apply for courses instructed in Swedish need to have reached a level of B2 or C1 depending on which course they wish to apply for. If a student wishes to apply for courses instructed in Swedish, they should contact the International Office to receive information on how to apply.
Contact the International Office for more information: incoming.io@umu.se
Detailed application instructions are found at:
Application instructions
Recommended arrival days
Orientation
The Orientation consists of a series of lectures and activities that are designed to help you become acquainted with life in Umeå and studies at our university. A digital pre-arrival information session is held roughly a week before the start of the semester, and Orientation is held during the first week of the semester. Please refer to the Orientation webpage for specific dates for the upcoming semester.
Accommodation
Umeå University offers exchange students the opportunity to apply for halls of residence close to the university.
More information on student housing
Meal plan: Students are responsible for cooking their own meals, and the residence halls are equipped with common kitchens for this purpose. At Umeå University there are lunch rooms where students can heat (microwave) their food. Students can also buy their meals and fika at Umeå University's restaurants and cafés.
Off-campus accommodation: It is possible to rent from private landlords. If so, we strongly recommend student to start the search early and not to rely on finding their accommodation after their arrival in Umeå.
More information on finding accommodation
The Buddy Programme is a multicultural community engaging hundreds of international and domestic students. The programme offers the opportunity to take part in a wide variety of social activities, and to explore Swedish traditions. "Buddies" are students at Umeå University who volunteer to introduce new international students to the Swedish way of life.
Read more about the Buddy Programme
We have gathered information and tips for your students in several areas: housing and budget, residence permit and visa, insurances, health care, travel, and social life.
All current exchange agreements we have can be found on Solemove.
In addition, we participate in a number of international cooperations and networks:
International Cooperations
Does your university want to sign an exchange agreement with Umeå University?
Exchange agreements are mainly signed at a departmental level. If your university wants to sign an Erasmus+ or Nordplus agreement with our university, you need to contact the international contact person at the respective department.
Promotional material
If you would like promotional material about exchange studies at Umeå University please contact International Office's communication officers at komm.io@umu.se
Information for Erasmus+ partner institutions regarding the connection to Erasmus Without Paper (EWP)
Umeå University has connected to EWP according to the EU timeline requirements using SoleMove as our mobility system.
Online Learning Agreement – OLA
Incoming OLA
All departments use OLA for incoming students via SoleMove. If you use Erasmus Dashboard or your software is connected to EWP – we can sign OLAs for your outgoing students. All OLAs are currently handled by incoming.io@umu.se
Outgoing OLA
Umeå University has implemented OLA for outgoing students. All departments use OLA for outgoing students via SoleMove. If you use Dashboard or your software is connected to EWP – we are able to send digital LAs for our outgoing students to you.
Inter-Institutional Agreements – IIA
Umeå is processing digital IIAs via EWP - please contact the department you already have an existing agreement/ wish to have an agreement with BEFORE initializing a digital IIA. Umeå is using SoleMove for IIAs. Please DO NOT send digital IIAs without prior contact/confirmation with a specific department.
Departments at Umeå University
ESI
The European Student Identifier has been implemented, and is available in EWP via SoleMove, and through login via Umu-id for Umeå University students.
Questions?
Please contact us at solemove@umu.se
Erasmus code: S UMEA01
Erasmus Charter for Higher Education (pdf)
Erasmus Policy Statement (pdf)