Lund University pars unio

First exams in Sweden passed, time for a review ...

Of course this is not a Pisa test with boring stuff like grammar and orthography and stuff. ;) (Though this can be very interesting if you really care for it, just saying ...) It is more a short resumee on my studies in Sweden so far. So especially people who think about going abroad to Sweden might find this interesting. (Answer in short: Yes, do it!)

Exam in Processing and Device Technology.

So first some short factual differences to good ol' Germany: The semesters last four month here and at least for us physicists they are usually divided into two halfs. For two months I heard Semiconductor Physics and Processing and Device Technology now, wrote an exam on Tuesday and had an oral examination today. The next two month will be Physics of low dimensional Structures and Analysis on the Nanoscale with exams in December. This is a great separation I think because in this way you can really focus on two subjects and still do four courses in one semester. In Germany it was not particularly fun all the time doing up to four or five courses in parallel over a whole semester. The next semester will start after Christmas, so no break as long as after the German winter semester.

However, the real difference is the contact between students and professors. When you come to Sweden from Germany you do not feel like dealing with professors here ... Everybody uses first names, you can stop by at the professor's offices at any time and you can even call them. On their mobile phone. This is, let's say ... not usual in Germany. (At least calling professors on their mobile phone ...) In Sweden I got the impression (and that is what the professors proclaim as well) that the teaching is more of a mutual nature and that the professors are eager to learn something from their students as well. (Although this is probably patience most of the time. ;) )

This sounds probably great. In many ways it is great. Still there is a negative side to it as well in my opinion. At least it starts at this point. It seems that the first small setback here in Sweden was caused by the supervisors of the lab excercises .Of course I do not want to offend anybody but with only two exceptions the supervisors (phd students all of them) did not leave an impression as confident and as professional as I was used to from phd students before ... This goes in the same direction as the easier contact to the professors: The aura of omniscience that uses to surround the professors I knew so far is not as present here - I suspect this is because of the easier contact. In general the university here is more "comfortable", not as demanding as and one step slower than I was used to. Positive on the one hand, feels like something is missing on the other hand. Summarised, the university experience is less of a fortress of wisdom and a shelter of knowledge impression than you might (or at least I do) expect of a university ... (You totally should study in Lund anyway, this might sound harsher than it is supposed to. ;) )

But at the end of course let's consider the positive aspects: Step I of becoming a Master of Physics (ouw yeah!) - rock the first master exams - mission accomplished!