NEWS Umeå University's main campus is beginning to wake up again and is buzzing with life and action. Some of the first to arrive are the university's international students, many of whom arrive the week before the start of autumn semester. Umeå was basked in sunshine as the students started to arrive. Many are looking forward to their new student life experience in Umeå.
Yonas Daniel Taye, first year student in the master's programme in public health.
ImageMattias PetterssonYonas Daniel Taye is from Ethiopia and will be studying the master's programme in public health and was impressed with the quality of education at Umeå University. “I have chosen Umeå for its diversity, breadth and international profile,” he says.
Rogier Faber, autumn 2022 exchange student from the Netherlands.
ImageMattias PetterssonRogier Faber is an exchange student from Arnhem Business School in the Netherlands. He emphasises that he is first and foremost looking forward to studying, but there are also other things that appeal to him.
“I want to explore nature and really experience all of the culture in Västerbotten”, says Rogier Fabier. “I want to say yes to everything.”
This autumn, Umeå University will welcome around 500 exchange students and approximately 260 tuition fee-paying students. In addition, there is a significant number of degree programme students that come from within Europe.
“We are incredibly happy for the students who are coming here now that the campus is opening up again,” says Ingrid Svensson, Head of the International Office. “We will be welcoming all our international students with an orientation session in Aula Nordica. It will be the first in-person orientation event since spring 2020.”
Ingrid Svensson says that new for this year is a special initiative to keep in touch with students during the time between admission and registration. Through an app developed for this exact situation, students have been able to keep in touch with the university and each other immediately after they have been admitted. Interest groups have been created in the app for students with common interests and there are now many such interest groups created by the students themselves.
Our incoming international students are our greatest asset!
“We can see that several interest groups have booked to meet face-to-face here in Umeå. We have also noticed that there is a great interest among international students to learn Swedish,” adds Ingrid Svensson.
The international students who come to Umeå enrich the university with new perspectives and experiences.
“We often talk about Internationalisation at home. It's about giving all our students a broad world view and the opportunity to develop their intercultural skills, where we make use of everyone’s knowledge and experience," says Ingrid Svensson. “In this work, our incoming international students are our greatest asset!”
Represented by the following countries/regions:
Austria, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, China, Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Hong Kong, India, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Kosovo, Latvia, Lithuania, Mexico, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Singapore, Slovakia, Slovenia, South Korea, Spain, Switzerland, Taiwan, Turkey, Ukraine, United Kingdom and the United States.
