Staff exchange – Karolinska Institutet

By: Karin Forslund, Intenrational Student Coordinator, Education Support Office

Working as an international coordinator at a university, I continuously encourage our students to travel abroad, gain international experience, try to use their knowledge in a different setting, learn new things and get to know other cultures and people. As a student I did an exchange study period abroad, I wrote my Master’s thesis abroad, I have carried out shorter staff exchanges in France and Spain. I believe that a mobility period abroad is very enriching, educative and inspiring both personally and professionally, so I was interested in doing a longer exchange period myself. After having searched the Internet for available programmes and also made enquiries with colleagues at other Swedish universities, I found an interesting programme that I could be eligible for.

In April I submitted an application to the Erasmus Mundus Action 2 partnership programme Lotus Unlimited.  Working as an administrative staff at a Swedish university, I qualified to apply for a one-month long staff mobility at an International Office in one of the participating countries. Hue University in Vietnam accepted my enquiry to carry out a mobility period at their university, and in June I was notified of the selection. I was so thrilled and excited about the news; grateful to Hue University and the Lotus Unlimited programme for selecting me and also to my head of unit at Karolinska Institutet, who approved of my participating in the mobility programme.

Now the time has come for the staff mobility to start. During the following four weeks, I will blog about my experiences participating in the mobility programme at Hue University. I hope that you too will be inspired and take the chance whenever given.

/Karin