Details

• Sweden
• BaWiSo-23
• Undergraduate
• WS 2025
• Time spent at the partner university: 4 months

1. Preparation

Ask yourself why you want to do the exchange semester and submit a homogeneous work/life experience that goes along with your motivation. You should be able to talk about it and what value the exchange will provide you and the universities, as well as society overall. Some professors will ask very thorough questions during the interview. Make sure the region/country/culture you want to go to university in, fits your requirements and personality type

2. Accommodation

JU provides guaranteed accommodations (student accommodation) you can list based on preference. The whole city is very safe. I have not heard of anybody feeling unsafe at any time in or close to their accommodation, no matter where they lived. I was at linsen, which is the most wanted accommodation because it is the most modern and just 10 minutes by foot to university. The city center is around 20-25 minutes away and there is a grocery store, restaurants and pharmacy right outside the building. It makes sense to get the bus pass even though university is so close because you will be wanting to join your friends on trips around the city or other accommodations.

3. Academic life at host university

The campus for business and economy is compared to WU much smaller but there are other faculties for health care, communication etc. all at the same place so you will most likely have friends from different faculties as well. In general the administration at WU is more organized and quicker with the course schedules so you might have course clashes that you will not know about before you arrive in Jönköping. The campus itself is only about 10 minutes away from the city center and right next to one of the lakes. There are many more group projects and you will have much more time for completing your exams in ju than wu. The classes are also generally much smaller which gives the opportunity of more personal contact to the professors. The teaching style in general is pretty similar, though. Compared to wu you get much more ECTS for the amount of effort you put into the course than WU which makes JU perfect for an exchange if you want to focus on being involved in student organizations and connect with other exchange students.

5. Every day life in the host country

Public transport is limited to busses and trains. They are usually somewhat punctual if you have the app they will tell you about. Safety wise Jönköping is perfect. Everyone is very respectful and helpful and keeps a comfortable, societally accepted distance from you. There is much to do. Tuesdays there is a soup kitchen the students all go to that makes delicious vegan soups and bread plus salad all for 30 Krones (~3€). Many students also joined sports teams or student organizations. There are a lot of them. JU also has a student run dance club called Akademien, in short aka, that runs every Wednesday and has free entry until 10 or 9 depending on the day, plus free sodas.

6. Testimonial

JU was an amazing experience to meet tons of international students from literally everywhere. I had a lot of eye opening conversations and perspectives changes throughout. Especially at the beginning the weather was amazing and simply taking a nice walk around the city or lakes is super calming. The Swedes are also in my experience extremely helpful and friendly, although most of them do fit the stereotype of being a bit more closed off compared to all the other exchange students.