Medical education at the University of Uppsala in Sweden (the oldest in Scandinavia!)
My questions:
Hello
I am Egor Kugno, a 15-year-old pupil of the 9th grade in Moscow school.
I have a small website — https://kugno.ru / where I write about my studies, exams and publish various answers from Russian ministries (about paying for studies abroad, transferring money for studies and so on)
The first 7 years I studied in an ordinary (good) Moscow school, had additional classes in biology (microbiology) and chemistry; last year I passed through the competition entrance exams to Chemical School #1501 — #10 in the rating of Moscow schools (it is approximately #30 among ALL schools in Russia). The school chemistry was very good — 6 hours a week, all year round (the standard in Russia is 2 hours a week, now there is no chemistry at all in humanities classes), but everything else, except chemistry, was not very good, and I went to 9th grade to school at the Higher School of Economics — (through entrance exams, of course) — where chemistry is a bit less, but everything else is much better)
Although I am still studying 2.5 years, I started researching universities of the world — to understand where I can go to study, what requirements I have to meet, whether to study languages other than English and Spanish that I am studying now at school, and of course — whether my parents will be able to pay for my education.
At the moment I am most interested in medicine (pathology, chemotherapy and hematology), chemistry (more like laboratory management) and pharmacy (more like managing science and research in a pharmaceutical company, but of course with a full understanding of what scientists do, and with a deep knowledge of biochemistry).
Right now I am studying primarily medical education, as it is the most complicated, expensive, there is a lot of information and it is the hardest to find.
Later I will gather information about chemical and pharmaceutical education.
I checked out your university’s website, but I have a few questions for you:
1. Is it possible to enter your university after I finished my 11 years of school in Russia — or do I need to take another course at a university in Russia?
I am studying English (I will graduate with a C1) and advanced chemistry and biology. Starting next year, our school will have compulsory participation in all the Olympiads in Russia for schoolchildren — all in all, it’s a great school.
But, as I wrote, we are only 11, not 12.
2. Do you have any students from Russia who are studying to be a doctor?
3. Are there any quotas for foreigners to study medicine at your university (and are there any quotas for Russians?)
4. Do I understand correctly — I need to study for 6 years?
5. Does your university have dormitories for students for the entire period of study?
5.1 If there are no dormitories (or there is a five-year waiting list), can the university act as a guarantor when renting accommodation?
6. What is the cost of tuition and living in dormitories and all other expenses per year for studying to be a doctor at your university (I mean education-related expenses — i.e. textbooks, labs, etc. — not including food and transportation, of course).
I know that prices are going up, but the overall costs need to be understood early on.
6.1. are there scholarships for Russians to study and/or live in?
7. What exams do I need to take besides English?
7.1 What language certificates do I need to register?
7.2 Is it possible to study in English?
This is an important question because I know that in most countries medical education is done in the national languages of the respective countries and I think that 2.5-3 years of training in any language is enough for level C1 — if taken seriously.
7.3 Are internal Russian achievements recognized and important (participation in Olympiads, successful passing exams in Russian universities)
8. Is it compulsory to take preparatory and/or language courses at your university before entering university?
9. What is the further procedure of training as a doctor after graduation (postgraduate course, residency, specialization) and obtaining a medical license (if you know)?
10. Will I be able to work after graduation?
11. If training to be a doctor is not possible, please tell me if it is possible to study to be a pharmacist (if you have one) and a chemist (biotechnology, as an option — chemical engineering for pharmacy)
Great if you can indicate in your answer if it is possible to study in English for a chemist or a pharmacist)
P.S. Even though I’m only 15 years old, I’ve started seriously looking for a university to get a good education. I have noticed that many universities put information in PDF format on their websites. This, in my opinion, is very wrong. Not everyone REALLY knows English (French, Chinese….), and such guys, going to a university website and not finding information that can be read in Google Translate, will leave forever and not come back.
Sorry for the unsolicited advice))) — But it would be great to have all the information about the university not only in PDF format, but also as plain text on the websites)))
P.S.2. If you have students from Russia, could you give them my email address or forward them my letter?
I would love to talk to them.
Thank you very much again.
Egor Kugno
Answer:
Hi,
Thank you for your interest in Uppsala University!
All of Uppsala University’s professional programmes ending with a professional degree (such as Nursing, Law, Pharmacy, and Medicine) are instructed in Swedish. They require previous language skills in Swedish or other Nordic languages, (Norwegian, Danish, Icelandic, or Swedish from Finland’s upper-secondary schools). We do not offer any programmes in Dentistry.
We do have some master programmes related to medicine that are instructed in English, you will find those here:
www.uu.se/en/admissions/master/
The master programmes require applicants to have a finished Bachelor’s degree equivalent to a Swedish kandidatexamen.
Most Master programmes also have programme-specific entry requirements, usually previous studies in the subject of the Master programme.
For our undergraduate programme in medicine, entry requirements for undergraduate studies are based on the Swedish upper secondary school system. General entry requirements include the following for foreign applicants:
-A complete foreign upper secondary schooling (with a diploma) corresponding to the same level in Sweden.
-Skills in English, written and oral, documented by means of either an internationally approved test:
TOEFL, IELTS, MELAB, Cambridge First Certificate, or from your upper secondary education corresponding to the level of English from a Swedish upper secondary school.
-Skills in Swedish, normally attested to by means of a passing grade in the official test of Swedish (TISUS).
TISUS includes reading comprehension, oral presentation and written composition. Please, contact Stockholm University,
Department of Nordic Languages, for information about TISUS outside of Sweden,
www.su.se/tisus or within Uppsala, www.nordiska.uu.se/utbildning/
In addition to the requirements listed above, our medical programme also requires applicants to have taken courses in their upper secondary education equivalent to Biology 2, Physics 2, Chemistry 2 and Mathematics 4 in the Swedish upper secondary education system.
Moreover studies in medicine also require applicants to have very good grades from upper secondary school in order to be admitted.
Application is submitted online at www.universityadmissions.se for international master programmes taught in English and at www.antagning.se for undergraduate programmes taught in Swedish.
The tuition fee for studies in our school of medicine is SEK 240 000 per academic year for non-EU/EEA citizens.
Admission application deadlines can be found here:
https://www.universityadmissions.se/en/key-dates-and-deadlines/
Please note, our university does not have any master programmes beginning in the spring semester.
Uppsala University has a limited number of scholarships that will cover tuition fees for international students admitted to our Bachelor’s programmes.
You will find information about those, here:
https://uu.se/en/admissions/scholarships/prospective-students/.
For other scholarship information, please visit the website of the Swedish Institute,
https://eng.si.se/
Uppsala University does not offer any beginner courses in Swedish, other than to official exchange students or admitted Master’s students.
Here you can read about other Swedish universities offering beginner courses in Swedish:
https://studyinsweden.se/moving-to-sweden/learn-swedish/
Good luck with your application!
Best regards,
Annika
Studentservice
Uppsala University
Box 256, 751 05 Uppsala
Besöksadress: Dag Hammarskölds väg 7
Telefon: +46 (18) 471 55 50
www.uu.se/education
studentservice@uu.se
www.facebook.com/uppsalauniversitet