Lund University International Podcast

Maria Lindblad (ML): Hi, everyone, and welcome to Lund University's International Podcast! So my name is Maria Lindblad and I work here at Lund University as an International Marketing Manager, and I'm here today with Elliott.

Elliott Gunnell (EG): Hi!

ML: Yeah. Hi, Elliott!

EG: I'm a current student here at Lund University, and I studied the Bachelor's in Development Studies Programme.

ML: Hi. Yeah. And today we're going to welcome you all to this podcast pilot. We're going to have a series of podcast episodes coming up for you on different topics around the University. And today, we're going to start with an introduction to student life. And Elliott is here as our specialist, very much experiencing the student life.

EG: Mm hmm. I am. Yeah. And one of the things I actually do in my student life is I work with the UPF Pod and Radio Committee.

ML: Alright!

EG: Which is an organization here in Lund... I don't want to dive too far and fast into it, like we said earlier. But I love the podcast medium, and I love being on today, so thank you.

ML: So you're the perfect guest to get us started, I think. Well, like I said, today is going to be all about student life. So I think, why don't we just start, Elliot, if you could give us a general overview of the student life at Lund. What's it all about? Just some idea for prospective students out there who might be considering coming to Lund.

EG: Well, Lund University in all of its campuses, but especially at the Lund campus, has a very diverse range of activities that can be kind of accessed if you're a student here. So one one of them is the Student Union. There's a big student union that has a bunch of different activities in it for it for students. It's housed in the AF Borgen building here in Lund on the Lundagård campus. And basically there are so many different activities. You can get into so many different clubs. If you like theatre, you can get into theatre clubs; you like choirs, there's choirs you can go into. I personally belong to a organization that deals a lot with foreign affairs called UPF. Really enjoy doing that with the Student Union here.

EG: But there's also this whole network in Lund of these things called Nations. And these nations are famous in Lund because they're kind of like these student-led organisations where there's different clubs activities and kind of the more traditional social life. So not the extracurricular or the kind of the academic route, but more of the party and the fun route that happens at Lund.

ML: You need a bit of both!

EG: Both, yeah, you need both. It's a work-life balance; Sweden is known for the work-life balance, right? So the Nations, they're a great group of people. You can get to know Swedes and international students alike. They have many different activities that go on during the year and different festivals and parties and activities that happen during each week.

EG: And they're very, they're all very different, very unique. So there's definitely a place for all the students coming to Lund in each of those. And then there's this, you know, these groups of associations that work outside the system, and they're they're doing things kind of on an active basis, maybe connected to academic institutions here at Lund, like the Student Unions and and things like that.

EG: So there's a lot to do, and there's a lot to be introduced to. But it's kind of the thing I would say is you've got to keep the Student Nations kind of... it's all part of student life, but the student nations are quite different than the Student Union, in their content.

ML: Yeah, for sure. So many different directions we can go there!

EG: I know!

ML: But that was a very good first step, and then we'll dive into the bits and pieces of this. You kind of touched on it already a little bit, but you know Lund is often voted the best student city in Sweden and its famous as you were saying for its student life founded many things so why do you think that is? What is so special about it?

EG: Well, I think one thing that makes Lund unique in its student life is because it's such an international university. It's the number one international university in Sweden. And so it kind of, you know, if you are in the student life, if you are in these organisations that are tackling different issues, if you are, you know, at parties and clubs, you're going to meet a student body that is so diverse.

EG: And I think that is really what makes it unique to come to Lund, to study at Lund in general, but also for the student life at Lund is that you can be, you know, in a committee in which you think it's all Swedes, right. But actually it's a European committee or it's a world committee or something like this, because you have people from literally all around the globe who are taking part and being active in these particular activities.

EG: You can be partying and there's someone from, you know, Malaysia on one side and someone from, you know, Eswatini on the other. And you're thinking, "wow", I mean, "where can I be in the world that it's this international?". Maybe the U.N.! But Lund University, that's really why it's special for me.

ML: Yeah. Yeah, that's very interesting. Yeah, that's definitely interesting. What we talked about, Elliot has already mentioned here, unions, associations, nations, all that. We're going to get into that. But just to kind of try to puzzle this together, if somebody is listening and they're like, well, how does this actually work? Could you give an idea of what could a typical week look like when you're just maxing out your student life and enjoying yourself outside of your studies?

EG: Well, I mean, so when you come to Lund as a student, you can you can get this membership called Studentlund, which is basically kind of your gateway ticket into into life in Lund as a student. And what that gives you is it gives you access to the different Nations. So if there's a club night on Friday night and you want to go, you know, to the pub at your Nation with your friends, you have your Studentlund ID and it helps you to get into that club.

EG: And it's a membership that you pay for and most students pay for all year round. But it also gives you access to different activities in the AF Borgen building. If you're part of, you know, any of the organizations there, you can also join. So my weeks usually look like they're quite busy and in between studying, I'm active in UPF, as I've mentioned, so I usually have a committee meeting on a Tuesday night.

EG: So I go to that and I meet with my Pod and Radio Committee and I work with them on different projects. And Wednesday night, you know, my friends might want to go to a club that's open on Wednesday nights, so we might go to that and hang out and dance a little and have some fun midweek.

EG: And then of course Thursday, that's usually a pretty studious day. You're trying to catch up for Friday. And then Friday, of course, nightlife in Lund is quite fun. So we might have like a dinner party and then go to something at a nation afterwards or something like that. But, you know, normally there's a lot of things going on. I mean, if you're interested in sports, there's different sports areas you can go to in Lund if you're interested in it, like choirs or theatre or things like that. You can also do that here.

EG: But yeah, it's a lot of fun. And a word of warning, you can overdo it! It's possible! It's possible to overdo it.

ML: It sounds like it, yeah!

EG: Yeah, so you might want to moderate just a little.

ML: Yeah we do want to put in a disclaimer here that it's still like a 40 hour study week.

EG: Oh yeah, there's a lot of student work going on.

ML: That's the intention! We're talking about your spare time now.

EG: THis is spare time now, yeah. 100%. 100%.

ML: I do see that it can be overdone.

EG: Yeah, definitely.

ML: I want to dive into something that you mentioned. Now, when it comes to, like, particular interests, you were saying, "if you're into this, if you're into that", can you describe how that works a little bit? So let's say I'm a, I'm a prospective student, I'm coming and I'm like super interested in becoming a journalist, or I play some instrument and I really want to keep working with that. And how does that, how do you do that?

EG: Yeah. I mean, that's a great question because that's a question that I asked myself when I came here. "How do I get involved? What do I do?" And the thing that I've realised is that Facebook is your friend. So if you are interested in some of these things, like you said, you know, oh, "I'm a mountain climber", you know, "I love to hike" or things like this.

EG: I would highly recommend that you go on Facebook and you just start kind of typing it like, you know, "Lund mountain biking" or, you know, "hiking group" and see what comes up. Because from that position, from what you see on there, you can kind of get a feel of what's going on because there's a lot of information that's on the Studentlund website about the different organizations and Studentlund.

EG: There's a lot of information on the Lund University website, about the different things in student life here at Lund. But there's also kind of this third channel that I would say, which is Facebook that has a lot of kind of grassroots organic organizations you can get involved in. But the way that I would I would recommend is, you know, research on Facebook, but also look on Studentlund and get your membership for Studentlund, because if there's anything that your mentor group is doing when you get here to Lund, if you're an international student or if your friends are saying, we're going to go do this, you know, if you have that Studentlund membership, you'll be able to go and do it right away. And it's kind of part and parcel of being a student here at Lund. And I think that's really what I would recommend is just keep active, keep looking. And, you know, keep an ear open to what's going on in the community. I mean, you can have friends of friends who are saying, "I'm doing this", "I'm doing that"... join them, it's a lot of fun.

ML: Yeah. And the Studentlund card that you were talking about earlier, that's kind of what connects all these different associations, organisations, unions, Nations.

EG: Yeah, right, exactly.

ML: And you get, you're like a member of it all. More or less of it all.

EG: And there's so much more. I mean, there's more to see than can ever be seen. Know you will never, you know, be a part of everything. And if you do, you won't get any studying done, which is important. So pick, pick what you want to do, you know, just explore everything but also remember that Lund has so much to offer that we cannot do it all.

EG: And we have to kind of say, "what is my priority? What is my most, you know, the thing I want to explore the most? What skills do I want to work on the most?" Yeah, that's a process. You can take with the Studentlund membership.

ML: It's a good place to start.

EG: It's a good place to start.

ML: And at least you can see how much time and energy you have for other things. One thing that we often get questions about and that I wanted to ask you specifically, since you're also from the U.S., is sports, because you know, it's so different, obviously compared to in the U.S. where you're used to your university having, like, their own sports teams, and their own sport shops and all of these activities. So how does that work over here? If you're interested in playing football, what do you do?

EG: So I would say to any American student who's listening or any student from around the world, Lund can often be very focused on what really matters when you go to university, which is education. And I think that's one strength that I really appreciate coming here is that the educational focus is top notch, but that also means that some things are decentralised.

EG: So housing, for example, decentralised, you know. You might be able to go through with LU Accommodation, but a lot of housing is provided through third parties. There is no meal plan if you want to come here. So you have to go and grocery shop for yourself and figure out what meals you want to eat. And you know, it's kind of a liberating factor, but it's also can be kind of, you know, kind of a thing to consider.

EG: It's quite different to the American system where you're kind of taken through everything with yourself. So when it comes to sports, we unfortunately do not have a mascot here. There is no Big Tiger, or something!

ML: Although they did try once with the lion.

EG: I mean, we could be the Lund Lions. We could try! But there is no American Football team. There's no football team. There's none of that. Because Lund's focus is academia. And it doesn't mean we don't have fun. But there's going to be a third party that you can go and watch. And, you know, the other thing that's great about being in Lund is that you're you're kind of at the doorstep of a huge community of people in Copenhagen, in Malmö, in the Skåne region.

EG: So if you are super interested in football, even American football, you can go to Malmö and watch a game. There's American football games there. They play there. There's regular football games there where they're playing soccer.

ML: And not just watch, you can also join local teams.

EG: You can also join. Yeah. And there's a million different clubs that are doing these kind of activities. I recently was picking up tennis, so I was playing tennis with my friends and we were trying to play doubles and all these things and, and we made our own little tournament and stuff like that. But, you know, I think these are the things that are, that's so great about Lund, you know, some different opportunities.

EG: And you never have to support just one team!

ML: Yeah and we always say that when we meet prospective students as well; that, you know, you can find almost anything related, you know, within the student life. But even if you don't find it, create your own!

EG: Right! That's true. Yeah.

ML: Yeah. We had a guy who came a few years ago, a student who was like really into yoga and he couldn't find the perfect yoga studio. So he just opened one himself, and he just started and got all these students involved.

EG: That's so cool!

ML: So that's, as you were saying, it's a lot of sort of responsibility in a way to be more independent, but also a lot of freedom to create your own path. Both when it comes to studies and your student life.

EG: Definitely. And Sweden in general I think is that way.

ML: Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, for sure.

EG: Take it in your own hands.

ML: So you mentioned that, you know, we talked about some of the differences from your home country, in your case, the U.S. What are some other things that you've noticed when it comes to student life that are very different from the way it's run in the U.S. as an example?

EG: Well, one thing that is quite familiar to me, but might not be familiar to other students from the United States is that the educational system here in Sweden, it's quite like informal I would say in some ways. So you might address your teachers instead of by last name, you might address them by the first name.

EG: The barrier between the hierarchy of the student and the teacher is often sometimes a little blurry. Yeah, which is quite interesting and which can be quite an experience to learn in. Because you you almost feel encouraged to go and kind of challenge yourself more than maybe you normally would if it, if you knew exactly what you needed to do to get the right grade.

EG: Grading here is also quite different than the American schools. So when people get Cs or when they get, you know, maybe even a D once in a while, it's not the end of the world. It's actually that you did an average job, you know, and you know, you did just okay, there's no B-minus, A-minus, you know, all that kind of structure.

ML: Yeah.

EG: You know, the B+ is the new C, I guess is how I would describe the U.S. system.

ML: I think we're going to have to do a whole episode on this, on the academic system.

EG: We can do grading, yeah! But yeah, I mean, when it comes to like, student life, I think it's so, well, it's led by the students, which is quite different. You know, all of these organisations in Lund; all these committees and different activities and all these things, they're really taken up by passionate students who are seriously motivated on their own accord to to do these particular things. So all the events that I've gone to in the past couple of months, being a student here, you know, have been student led. I mean, we just had the Lundakarnivalen.

ML: Yeah, I was just going to get to that.

EG: It's just this, you know, amazing event that is every four years. It's a massive undertaking that puts students in charge of this event. And of course, there are advisors and there are, you know, past members that are, you know, advising these particular students who are running this show. But it's a logistical challenge that also prepares students in their activities of fun for real life.

ML: Oh yeah, for sure. Those are some proper project management skills.

EG: It's the real deal, yeah. When you're coordinating, you know, hundreds of volunteers to put on a huge carnival that lasts for two, three days, you know, that requires, you know, hundreds of thousands of dollars... well, maybe not hundreds of thousands of dollars but hundreds of thousands of crowns (kronor) to put out, you know, it's really quite a spectacle. And there's a lot of systems that are being put into place.

EG: But that, again, is kind of a broader, the broader theme is that, you know, all the Nations, the unions, the student-led organisations, their focus is "by students, for students". And that's totally different than the United States, I think in my personal experience.

ML: Yeah. A couple of things I picked up from there. One, you were mentioning the carnival, and just to give people some context, you said it happens every four years and so on, and there are usually around 5 to 7000 student volunteers running the show.

EG: It's a lot.

ML: And it's about 220,000 visitors just to see the actual carnival parade. So it is definitely a massive project.

EG: It's a huge event.

ML: And it's been going on for a very long time. It's one of the oldest traditions in Lund.

EG: Over 100 years, yeah.

ML: And that leads me into traditions, which was another thing I wanted to talk to you about, because Lund as you know, Lund University is from 1666, and when you've been around for that long, you've inevitably built up a lot of traditions. And the carnival is just one of these, one of many massive traditions. Can you talk a little bit about some of the other ones?

EG: Oh, well, there's, so I think I don't want to go too much in-depth into some of these crazy traditions because I'm actually not informed enough to know why some of these crazy things exist, like Valborg and all these crazy things.

ML: "What are they doing over there?"

EG: So I think what I would say is, you know, if someone is sitting at home and they're listening to this, maybe you're doing the dishes or something, you know, if you're sitting there going, "Oh, I wonder what is like?", well, you're going to have to come and find out! You have to come and you have to apply and you have to...

ML: Some things just need to be experienced!

EG: Let's leave it a little bit mysterious because some things are, I don't even understand why! And some of these things, I mean, they're never, they're never you know, they're always very safe. They're always, you know, everything is taken care of. I never felt in danger when something was going on, you know, some of these crazy events. But I think the thing is they're quite... because the nature of tradition is that sometimes we don't know why we're doing them, but we're doing them and we feel connected.

ML: Exactly.

EG: And I think Lund is kind of, in this particular situation, this particular city, there are so many things that we don't know why we're doing them, but we feel connected to a bigger student body that has been at the university. Maybe in 1759.

ML: We've always... exactly, "we've always done this, god knows why, but"...

EG: I don't know why we do these things, but you know, we feel integrated into this longer network and in some ways it's reassuring to know that when our time here is done, that some of these things will also continue. And that, you know, some of these crazy events when these kids are walking around looking at the carnival going, "what is this mess?"

EG: You know, that's great, because then they're going to be going with their kids in 30 years and saying, you know, I was here and I don't know why we do this, but this is why. And that's a tradition.

ML: And it's comforting in a way as well. I mean, you get connected to history, but it's also comforting to know, just like you said, if I bring my kids here 30 years down the line, yeah, they're going to go through the same thing, it's still going to live on because it's already lived on for 200 years or something.

EG: Well, and one anecdote that I could give you is in the Nations, there are sometimes these balls that happen. So you have these big parties of very fancy parties. Everyone gets dressed up in these suits, very traditional suits with the medals and all that. You've probably seen the photos if you have been on the Lund, you know, university website, you've probably seen these photos of student life.

EG: But you know, what's reassuring is to see some of the older members of the Nations who are maybe in their fifties and sixties and seventies almost who are attending these balls. And they are still part of this Nation. They still have their medals from when they were in the committee that organized the ball or something like that.

EG: And and that's really fun to watch, you know, to see these kind of older folks who are also super excited to be involved when we're in the carnival walking around, there was plenty. There was there is a whole cycle of life that went to this carnival, you had people in wheelchairs...

ML: With the grandkids, yeah!

EG: Yeah! And then there is some people who, you know, at my age you're running around, having a lot of fun. And and I just think that that is a testament to how Lund is such an institution in the region, in Sweden and in Scandinavia for what it brings to the table in terms of student life.

ML: Yeah, very interesting. There's so much we can talk about. There was one other thing I wanted to tie back to, and that also actually connects to a tradition, because one tradition that we have is on the 1st of May, the students and the student organizations can grade the vice chancellor and they give him a speech and they tell him if they feel that he has done a good job and this is, of course, something very Swedish, the way that students are involved, not only in the fun things, but also in actually running the university.

EG: Big time.

ML: Students are heavily involved in any kind of meeting, any kind of decision making, any major change around the University is always, you know, you always have to have student representatives. And this is something that is very unique around the world. And you were talking earlier, Elliott, about unions. And I know that, you know, being out in the world, meeting prospective students and we mentioned the unions kind of in passing and they're like, "you have student unions?"

EG: Right?

ML: "What? What is that even?" Can you just give us a little bit of insight? Like, how does this work and what does it mean to have like a student union?

EG: Well, okay, this is you know, again, it was something when I came to Lund I was not prepared for how organised the students were as well as the faculty, because it's understandable to think, okay, a university that's been around the block for a long time. Yeah, they probably have a really strong group of faculty members who understand the ropes and the rules of the university, and they run the show.

ML: Yeah.

EG: I did not, I underestimated how intense the student activity is with that particular point of kind of unifying academia and things. So when it comes to the student unions, I'm part of the the Social Science faculty here at Lund. I'm in that group of teachers and I'm in that group of students. And I take classes with Social Science faculty all the time.

EG: And that also puts me in the Social Science student union. So that means that with all of the other Social Science students at Lund, people who are studying, you know, things that are much different than what I'm studying, we're all in a group of like-minded students that can lobby different changes that we want to see, or we can also kind of, if we have a complaint against, you know, something that's going on, maybe, you know, maybe the literature list of one of our courses is really outdated. You know, we want to change that.

EG: Well, what I would do is I would go to the student union, which is a building on site here in Lund and in one of our campuses. And I would just go talk to somebody and say, I've got this idea. I've got this idea. I want to get, you know, more women of color on the reading list. I want to have more diverse authors. And they would say, okay, let's take this through the right channels and we can make the change.

EG: And I think for the United States, for students in the United States, we're used to this kind of, "join in the Union Square", kind of with your posters and all this stuff. And, you know, your megaphones and start yelling at the buildings and, you know, get all angry and upset and huff and puff and nothing really gets done. And you have to lobby and signatures and this and that. And it's a show. But here in Sweden, I mean, we actually can make change because we have organised ourselves in a way that puts us in a powerful position, equally as powerful, I think, as the faculty at Lund, because we're one half of the teaching-student relationship.

ML: Right?

So I think it's really a powerful thing to be part of, but it also allows us to have avenues and channels to go with solutions and answers to certain problems that we see. And I think that's Lund in general.

ML: Yeah exactly, and it's something that I think ties back to this sort of Swedish teaching style as well. I mean, you're here to learn and the staff is here to support you to learn. It's not like they're telling you what to learn, because that's up to you.

EG: Right?

ML: So if it's not working for you, then obviously you need to be able to influence that. And the Vice-Chancellor and everybody else working here are kind of in service of the students because that is the whole point, we're running a university. So therefore, why would he or she make a decision that students don't approve of? That doesn't make any sense.

EG: Well, in Lund, I mean, it's also that there's so much more oversight in general, and we can get into that, you know, probably a different pod. But, you know, that's one theme that I felt very comfortable with here in Lund. It's that you feel that, like, your studies matter, the University cares about your studies. There are systems in place that can kind of get you to be a better student in many different ways.

EG: But I think the student life supports that as well. I mean, it's a natural kind of nourishment to this social aspect; to growing and to learning at the university level. And when you kind of get this kind of great student life and you pair it with a strong academic life, you're really going to grow and you're going to grow quite fast, at Lund. And that's how I felt. I feel so much more prepared to go out into the real world because we've been given opportunities to take to take activities and things we're passionate about in our own hands. And it's important.

ML: Well, that's a really good way to wrap up student life, to say "you take it in your own hands", because that's really what it's about. That's also why the University doesn't organise student life, because we're not going to tell you, "here, go do this and have fun". You know how you want to have fun, or how you want to grow, or what you want to focus on.

EG: Exactly.

ML: So it really is a way for you to develop that on your own. That's been great. This has been great, Elliott. I think we have a lot more points for coming episodes. There's so much to talk about, but this I think was a good overview, an introduction to a little bit of everything. Student life, your real life...

EG: A little taste of everything!

ML: A little bit of what it's like to be in Lund, and differences from where you came from in the U.S. Thank you so much.

EG: Thanks for having me on today.

ML: Yeah, let's wrap it up for today. Thank you.

[Outro music]

Outro: Thanks for listening so much to this episode of the Lund University International Podcast. If you're interested in learning more about Lund University, you can go to our website at lunduniversity.lu.se. You can also follow us on social media, on Facebook and on Instagram, and we look forward to having you listen to our next podcast soon. Thanks so much, bye.