This also means that the reception of new students, “Nolle-P”, has got started.
“They get an introduction to student life, both in terms of studies and the social side of things. I don’t think any student will forget this first part of their time here, they all seem to really enjoy themselves,” says Andreas Whålen, chairman of Stuff, the student union for Educational Sciences and the Faculty of Arts and Sciences at Linköping University.
The University’s three student unions are in charge of Nolle-P, which runs for two weeks for each programme. Older students take care of the new ones. Some have already arrived: the new engineering students, a few from the Faculty of Arts and Sciences, and lots of international students who start off by studying the Swedish language. 22 August is the start date for the education students and most of the students from the Faculty of Arts and Sciences, and the following week it’s time for the students at the Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences.
Tobias Elf Svensson from Linköping and Sebastian Sundin from Uppsala have just started their programme, Human Resources Management and Work Sciences. After just one day they’re really happy with how they’ve been received.
“There are 70 of us in the class and our peer students are amazing, everyone is really into it,” says Tobias Elf Svensson.
Shuqi Huang and Xiaomin Qin came to Linköping a few weeks ago. They are exchange students from Jinan University in China, and have come to LiU to study management. This is their first trip abroad.
“We’ve had a long trip. Everything is different in China and we want to take in as much as possible of everything new. I love the countryside here,” says Shuqi Huang. But they both find it a bit cold in Sweden.
Right now they’re studying the Swedish language, and in their class they met Luna Yuen. She is from Hong Kong but has just finished secondary school in the UK.
“After that I backpacked alone through 14 countries, and the last destination was Stockholm. I felt that ‘this is the place’ and gave up on the idea of starting my university studies in the UK. The culture and the countryside here are fantastic,” she says.
Now she is going to study Swedish for one year, and then apply for a bachelor’s degree at LiU, either in design or engineering. After just two weeks in Linköping she has already learnt some of the most important Swedish expressions. In perfect Swedish she tells us a couple of them: “Ta det lugnt” (Take it easy) and “Kan jag få en kanelbulle, tack” (Could I please have a cinnamon roll).
