Uppsala Universitet – International student guide 2012/2013

Higher education and
research in Sweden
Higher education in Sweden is divided into
three distinct levels; First cycle (undergraduate),
Second cycle (master’s) and Third cycle
(doctoral). In more than thirty locations in
Sweden you will find a university or a university
college. There are 16 universities and
27 university colleges in the country.
The universities, such as Uppsala University,
generally offer a wider selection of
courses than the university colleges. At the
universities you can study subjects from
all the academic fields and at all educational
cycles. The Ministry of Education
and Research is responsible for all higher
education and research in Sweden. As of
the academic year 2007/2008, Sweden has
adopted the higher education degree structure
and other reforms in line with the current
Europe-wide Bologna Process aiming
at making higher education structures in
Europe transparent.
Many students continue after the master’s
level to the doctoral level. The Conferment
Ceremony takes place twice a year in
the distinguished Grand Auditorium of the
University Building.
The university decides on an annual
basis which courses it wishes to offer, although
the course offerings do not change
substantially from one year to another. In
Sweden, studies are usually confined to
one subject at a time during a given semester,
which is a marked difference from, for
Student lIFe
instance, the case in the USA and in most
other countries. Single subject courses
vary in length from 7.5 to 60 credits and
may be combined into a programme leading
to a degree but not to a professional
degree.
Credits, Grades and Examination
The duration and extent of programmes
and courses are expressed in a system of
credits (högskolepoäng). The Swedish credit
is the same as the European ECTS credits.
Thus, one week of full-time study corresponds
to 1.5 credits. One semester of fulltime
study is equal to 30 credits (15 U.S. or
Canadian semester credits). The requirement
for most undergraduate degrees is less
than 240 credits, corresponding to a minimum
study time of between 3 and 4 years,
respectively. A master degree, two years, is
thus 120 credits.
The credit system is very systematic. If
a course has 7.5 credits it corresponds to
five weeks of full-time work if no parallel
courses are taught at the same time.
Students usually take one course at a time
even though courses of short duration (for
instance 7.5 credits) often run parallel
with another course of 7.5 credits during
a 10-week period. Please note that in
Sweden the number of teaching hours per
week may vary considerably between different
subjects and courses.
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