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Academic Program

The Arts and Sciences program, established in fall 2009, offers students the opportunity to study alongside Swedish and other international students at one of the top universities in Scandinavia. Students pursue their own academic interests in fields such as business, natural sciences, information technology, and social sciences while learning firsthand about contemporary Sweden and its people through required Swedish language and culture courses. The academic semester at Uppsala University is divided into four periods of roughly five weeks each. Students take at least one but no more than two courses each quarter.

What You'll Learn

The goal of the Arts and Sciences program is for students to develop an understanding of Swedish society and culture while enrolling in a variety of rigorous academic courses at one of the premier universities in Scandinavia. Through coursework at Uppsala University, participation in University activities, and program excursions and activities, students gain valuable insight into Sweden’s past and present while having a rewarding academic experience in an atmosphere of world-competitive research.

Academic Culture

Swedish university courses place a great deal of emphasis on individual student responsibility and performance. Courses combine a variety of methodologies, including lectures, seminars, group work, laboratory work, and independent study. In addition to remembering the materials covered in class, students are expected to spend a significant time outside of class engaged in independent analysis and evaluation of the ideas being presented. Many American students may find the teachers and teaching style rather informal, but the faculty has high expectations and assumes that the individual students are working diligently outside of class in order to produce top results. All courses include written and/or oral examinations.

In contrast to many courses at U.S. academic institutions, Uppsala University course schedules are set by the individual departments. This results in course schedules that may fluctuate from week to week, and requires students to be flexible and highly organized. In general, scheduling conflicts are minimized if students take all of their elective courses in one academic area.

Nature of Classes

CIEE students take Uppsala University courses with local Swedish and other international students. The Swedish language and some Swedish culture courses are only open to foreign students.

CIEE Language Commitment

At all program locations where English is not the primary language, CIEE encourages participants to use the local language whenever possible.

Internship

This program does not currently offer an internship. For a list of programs that do, visit Search for a Program and search for "internships" under "what do you want to study."

Grading System

Swedish universities typically award grades based on the following scale: Pass with High Distinction, Pass with Distinction, Pass, or Fail. For most courses, the Uppsala University transcript currently also lists grades according to the European ECTS grading scale, which includes five levels of passing grades and two levels of failing grades. However, due to new EU regulations, the national grading systems will be the norm, and the ECTS letter grades will be abolished and replaced by information on the statistical distribution of the national grades for each course over time. Thus, the academic year 2011–12 will be a transitional year when both the current and the new ECTS system may be in use. CIEE converts the Uppsala University grades into recommended U.S. letter grades of A–F.

Program Requirements

All CIEE students take a Swedish language course, at least one elective course with a focus on Sweden, and two to three elective courses at Uppsala University.

The academic semester is divided into four periods of approximately five weeks each. Students take at least one but no more than two courses each quarter. Students must plan carefully in order to confirm that scheduling for their desired courses does not conflict, as individual departments have a certain degree of freedom in deciding course start dates and times, including breaks.

Credit Description

Total recommended credit for the semester is 16–17 semester/24–25.5 quarter hours and 32–34 semester/48–51 quarter hours for the academic year. All students must take a total of 30 Uppsala credits (points) per semester. Course credit varies between Uppsala faculties. Courses are offered for 5, 7.5, 10, or 15 Uppsala points, or 3, 4, 6, or 8 U.S. semester credits respectively.

The culture courses Swedish Art, Architecture and Music, and Swedish Literature are each worth 7.5 Uppsala credits (4 U.S. credits). The Swedish History course is worth 15 Uppsala credits (8 U.S. credits).

Course contact hours are 20–48 hours unless otherwise indicated. The Swedish system generally requires more self-directed learning per each hour in class than U.S. institutions. The contact hours listed on students’ grade reports refer to the time spent in class, and CIEE credit recommendations are based on an evaluation of the total effort required for each course.

Courses

Uppsala University Courses

Required Language Course

Beginner’s Course in Swedish as a Foreign Language: Basic Swedish 1
This course provides a general overview of the structure of Swedish and includes an introduction to basic vocabulary, principles of sentence construction, intonation, and an introduction to Swedish university and study traditions. Recommended credit: 4 semester/6 quarter hours.

Required Swedish Content Course
All students on this program are required to enroll in at least one course with a Swedish focus. Many students choose to take one of the “Swedish Culture” courses. These courses examine contemporary Swedish culture and society through analysis of Swedish history, art and architecture, music, and literature. The course is offered in three sections, and CIEE students are recommended to take at least one of these sections. Participation in this course allows students to develop a deeper understanding of issues impacting Swedish society today and provides them with a framework for their overall study abroad experience in Sweden. In general, students are recommended to choose either Art, Architecture, and Music or Swedish Literature due to credit and scheduling considerations. Students may choose one or more of the courses below or any additional Uppsala University course with a Swedish focus (i.e. politics, history, etc.)

Swedish Art, Architecture, and Music
The development of the arts in Sweden is the natural focus of the course, but influences from abroad and parallel developments elsewhere are also considered. The lectures give an historical survey of the most important movements, styles, and individual artists in the history of Swedish painting and architecture. The course also gives an historical survey of musical life in Sweden with emphasis placed on the emergence of a national tradition and its relationship to other European musical traditions and styles. Recommended credit: 4 semester/6 quarter hours.

Swedish Literature
This course provides an overview of Swedish literature from the so-called "modern breakthrough" in the 1880s to the new vogue of "storytelling" in the 1980s. The selected texts are studied with an emphasis on their social and historical context, and with an eye to their relationship to the European literary tradition. Due attention is given to the generation of "proletarian
writers" which emerged in the late Twenties and had a significant impact on Swedish culture. Recommended credit: 4 semester/6 quarter hours.

Swedish History
The aim of this course is to give students a general knowledge of the basic historical, economical- historical, and religious contexts of evolving Swedish society. The course concentrates around five themes: the Vikings, the origin of Sweden as one country and a national state, Sweden as a great power, the period of liberty, and the period after 1809, which includes the great transformation of the Swedish society. Recommended credit: 8 semester/ 12 quarter hours.

Uppsala University Elective Courses Taught in English
The following list provides a sample of the courses offered in English to students at Uppsala University each year. Students should consult the Uppsala University website for an updated list of courses taught in English at http://www.inter.uadm.uu.se/visitors/students/exchange.

Faculty of Arts

Department of Cultural Anthropology and Ethnology
African Studies
People, Power, and Food
Political Ecology

Department of History
Center and Periphery: Decolonization and Neo-colonization
Directed Studies in Holocaust History and Memory
Genocide and Mass Violence in the Modern World
The Holocaust in European History and Historiography
The Legacies of the Holocaust on the Development of Democracy in the EU
Migrants and Minorities in Swedish History
Multi-ethnic Research and Holocaust and Genocide Studies/Hugo Valentin Center
Peoples of the Baltic
Scandinavia and Sweden c. 700–1300
The Twisted Road to Democracy: Neutrality and the Welfare State

Faculty of Languages

Department of English
Celtic Languages
The Empire Writes Back
Introduction to Celtic Literature
Race and Ethnicity in the U.S.A.

Department of Scandinavian Languages
Beginner’s Course in Swedish as a Foreign Language: Basic Swedish 1
Beginner’s Course in Swedish as a Foreign Language: Swedish 2, intermediate level
Faculty of Medicine

Department of Public Health and Caring Sciences
Culture and Health
Trends in Global Health

Faculty of Science and Technology

Biology Education Centre
Applied Ecosystem Ecology
The Baltic Sea Environment
Conservation Biology
Diversity and Evolution of Plants
Evolutionary Genetics
Genes, Brain, and Behavior
Immunology
Limnology I
Linnaeus’ Life and Sciences
Microbial Genetics
Molecular Cell Biology
Neurobiology
Toxicology

Centre for Sustainable Development
Global Challenges and Sustainable Futures
A Sustainable Baltic Region
Actors and Strategies for Change – Toward Global Sustainabilities
Sustainable Design – Ecology, Culture, and Human Built Worlds

Department of Biochemistry and Organic Chemistry
Biochemistry
Biophysical Chemistry
Structure and Function of Proteins
Synthetic Organic Chemistry

Department of Earth Sciences
Air Pollution Technology
Applied and Environmental Geophysics
Climate and Soils
Dynamic Meteorology
Earthquake Seismology
Glaciology and Glacial Deposits
The Life and Times of Dinosaurs
Mineralogy and Petrology
Origin and Early Evolution of Life
Sustainable Water Management in the Baltic Region

Department of Information Technology
Advanced Computer Graphics and Visualization
Artificial Intelligence
Data Mining
Electronic Commerce and Security
Measure and Integration Theory
Peer-to-Peer Computing
Software Architecture with Java

Department of Materials Chemistry
Advanced Electrochemistry
Biomaterials
Materials Chemistry

Department of Mathematics
Algebraic Structures
Applied Mathematics
Complex Analysis
Introduction to Partial Differential Equations
Markov Processes
Ordinary Differential Equations

Department of Physical and Analytical Chemistry
Chromatography and Capillary Electrophoresis
Inorganic Analytical Chemistry
Laser Spectroscopy
Mass Spectrometry
Physical Chemistry
Polymer Physics

Department of Physics and Astronomy
Physics:
Accelerator Physics and Technology
Advanced Particle Physics
Elementary Particle Physics
Molecular Physics
Non-Linear Optics
Nuclear Astrophysics
Nuclear Physics
Quantum Field Theory
Quantum Mechanics, Advanced Course
Statistical Mechanics
Surface and Interface Physics
Astronomy:
Astrophysics I
Cosmology
Dynamic Processes in Astrophysics
Observational Astrophysics I
Plasma Physics
Space Physics
Theoretical Physics:
Dynamical System and Chaos
Gravitation and Cosmology

Faculty of Social Sciences

Department of Business Studies
Advanced Management Accounting
Cross Cultural Management
International Business
International Financial Management
International Marketing
Management Consulting
Marketing, Consumers, and Companies
Organizational Behavior

Department of Economic History
Sweden’s Economic and Social Development in the 19th and 20th Centuries
Department of Economics
Applied Macroeconomics
Economics of Development
Economics of the Organization
Gender and Economics
Macroeconomic Theory
Microeconomic Theory
Real Estate Economics

Department of Education
The Classroom – A Social and Cultural Meeting-Place
Children’s Geographies and Identity Work
Education and Reform Strategies in Sweden
Education and Teaching—an International Process
Introduction to Comparative Education

Department of Government
Comparative European Politics
Comparative Politics: Political Participation
Comparative Welfare States
Introduction to EU Law
Political Psychology
Swedish Politics
Tragedy of the Commons: Climate, Water, and the Politics of Natural Resource Management

Department of Informatics and Media
Image, Identity, and New Media
International Media and Communication Studies
Media, Culture, and Society
Organizational Communication
Strategic Communication

Department of Peace and Conflict Research
Explaining Post-Communist Transformation: Institutional Theory and Constitutional Law
International Conflict Studies
Nationalism and Ethnic Relations in Eastern Europe
Security Analysis

Department of Psychology
Brain and Behavior
People and Environment I

Department of Social and Economic Geography
The Changing Geography of Sweden

Faculty of Theology

Department of Theology
Welfare and Values in Europe

This course listing is for informational purposes only and does not constitute a contract between CIEE and any applicant, student, institution, or other party. The courses, as described, may be subject to changes as a result ofongoing curricular revisions, assignment of lecturers and teaching staff, and program development. Courses may be cancelled due to insufficient enrollment. Syllabi for the CIEE courses listed above are available upon request.


CIEE Study Center Syllabi
To view the most recent syllabi for courses taught by CIEE at our Study Centers, visit our syllabi site.

Faculty

All courses are taught by Uppsala University faculty.

Cultural Activities

Cultural Activities and Field Trips
The CIEE program includes a variety of local and regional excursions designed to  introduce students to Uppsala and the surrounding Uppland countryside. Excursions vary each semester and include such locations as Uppsala Castle, Gamla Uppsala (Old Uppsala), local festivals, Stockholm, the Stockholm Archipelago, and a tour of the Province of Uppland. In addition, Uppsala offers a number of cultural and historical events and has a concert hall, a number of museums, and theaters.

Campus Life
The Uppsala University Student Nations provide students with activities and cultural events throughout the year. By participating in these active campus organizations, students learn firsthand about the life of Swedish university students. Student Nations organize formal dances, sporting events, discussions, theater and music events, and the ever-popular “gasques” (large dinner parties with live music).

University courses may also include opportunities for field research and community involvement.

Immersion

Immersion in the local culture is a priority at CIEE Study Centers around the world.CIEE participants make the most of their program through CIEE-guided excursions, field study and internship programs, volunteering, conversation exchanges, homestays, and special events. The opportunities will vary depending on location. read on to learn more about this program.