Lund University

Lund University, with campuses in Lund, Malmö, Helsingborg and Ljungbyhed, is the largest unit for research and higher education in Sweden. The University has about 40,000 students in total over a year – of whom 6,400 are international students. Almost half are undergraduate students, and almost one quarter study programmes at Master’s level. The remainder take various types of free-standing courses. Lund University has about 7,400 employees.

Students can choose from among some 280 educational programmes and 2,200 separate courses. Lund University offers over 100 Master’s programmes and 500 courses taught in English. Almost 70 per cent of the employees are teachers and researchers, while the rest are technical and administrative personnel.

The University is divided into nine faculties: Engineering, Social Sciences, Economics and Management, Humanities, Theology, Medicine, Law, Science and Fine and Performing Arts. Since its foundation in 1666, the University has developed into a modern, international centre for research and higher education. The University co-operates with a great number of universities and research institutes all over the world. Within Sweden, the University cooperates widely with trade and industry as well as with governmental and other organisations. There are also various centres that cut across faculty and departmental boundaries. These include the International Institute for Industrial Environmental Economics, the MAX IV Laboratory, the Food Centre, the Centre for European Studies, the Centre for East and Southeast Asian Studies and the Lund Strategic Research Centre for Stem Cell Biology and Cell Therapy. The majority of these are inter-disciplinary, with scholars from different subjects tackling a joint problem area on the basis of their respective specialized knowledge. The flexible form of organisation in these centres makes it possible to mobilize multi-disciplinary competence quickly for a particular research field. The idea of establishing such centres is to initiate, promote, and co-ordinate research and education in a certain area.

The University participates in extensive international exchange and collaboration programmes in undergraduate education, research and postgraduate studies together with a large number of universities and organisations around the world. The number of formal student exchange agreements with foreign universities alone amounts to about 680. Each year about 1,900 international students in exchange programs study at Lund University, and 1,100 Lund students study as exchange students at foreign universities.

The university is characterised by a democratic viewpoint, critical thinking, care for the global environment, and ethnic and social diversity. Innovative thinking combined with a humanistic perspective and a sense of humour are other values that Lund University represents.