Course mapping for exchange students

The Swedish academic year is divided into two semesters. Each semester consists of 20 weeks, making the academic year a total of 40 weeks.

The year begins with the autumn semester and finishes with the spring semester.

There are no formal holiday periods during the semesters but there are a number of public holidays at Christmas, New Year, Easter and later in the spring.

Semester dates

2024/2025

• Autumn 2024: 2 September – 19 January
• Spring 2025: 20 January – 8 June

2025/2026

• Autumn 2025: 1 September – 18 January
• Spring 2026: 19 January – 7 June

Uppsala University has campuses in two cities far apart from each other: Uppsala, on mainland Sweden, and Visby, on the island of Gotland.

You need to make sure that you choose courses located either only in Uppsala or only in Visby.

You must meet the entry requirements for each course you select. The more specific the entry requirements, the more specific your answer must be.

For example, if a course requires “object-oriented programming” it is not enough to have taken any programming course. You must, in this case, be able to refer to an object-oriented programming course in your transcript of records.

All courses are labelled with the cycle and the in-depth level:

• The cycle: if the course is of a Bachelor’s or Master’s degree.
• The in-depth level: the expected number of credits a student will have completed within that specific subject area by the time they take that course (e.g. 7.5, 15 or 30 credits).

The duration and extent of programmes and courses are expressed in a system of credits (equivalent to ECTS credits).

At Uppsala University a full academic year is 60 credits, and since the academic year in Sweden is divided into two semesters, one semester is 30 credits, making each week of full-time study worth 1.5 credits.

One week of full-time studies should consist of 40 hours of study.

Translating credits

Knowing the total number of credits needed to get a degree and the duration of the degree (the number of years) in your local credit system, you can estimate the conversion factor (CF) as follows:
CF = (the number of years in your system × 60) / the total number of credits in your system)

For example, if your 3-year Bachelor’s degree corresponds to a total of 120 credits in your system, then:
CF = (3×60) / 120 = 1.5

This means that a 4-credit course in your system corresponds to 4×CF = 6 credits at Uppsala University.

Grading scales

Uppsala University uses five different grading scales. Each faculty decides which of the grading scales will be used in that faculty. The syllabus for a course must always specify which grading scale will be used for that particular course.

The syllabus must specify the course goals, formulated as intended learning outcomes. The goals describe the requirements for a passing grade. The requirements for higher grades must be formulated in terms of increasing levels of quality of goal attainment.

Grading scales for first- and second-cycle courses as of 23 October 2018. The following grading scales are used at Uppsala University:

• Fail (U), Pass (G)
• Fail (U), Pass (G), Pass with distinction (VG)
• Fail (U), Pass (3), Pass with credit (4), Pass with distinction (5)
• Fail (U), Pass (B), Pass with credit (Ba), Pass with distinction (AB)
• Fail (F), Sufficient (E), Satisfactory (D), Good (C), Very good (B) Excellent (A)

The grade “Fail” does not appear on an official transcript of records.

If a student receives a passing grade, no re-takes or supplemental assignments can be done to receive a higher grade, nor can a student be re-registered on the course.

Note that ECTS grades are not offered to students at Uppsala University since a 2010 decision by the Vice Chancellor of Uppsala University.

There are four study periods during a semester. Period 1 starts on the first day of the semester and ends approximately five weeks later, when period 2 starts, et cetera. The study period of each course is defined by actual dates (YYYY-MM-DD), for example from 2019-09-02 to 2019-10-02.

Please note that in the exchange student course catalogue, period 1 and 2 are merged and called period 1, while period 3 and 4 are merged and called period 2. As this may be confusing, please always check the actual dates that courses are given.

The duration and extent of programmes and courses is expressed in a system of credits. A full academic year corresponds to 60 credits and one semester corresponds to 30 credits. Courses at Uppsala University are often given during 5 or 10 week periods (5, 7.5, 10 or 15 credits courses).

• 100% pace of study equals full-time studies, i.e. 7.5 credits over 5 weeks
• 66% pace of study equals two third-time studies, i.e. 10 credits over 10 weeks
• 50% pace of study equals half-time studies, i.e. 7.5 credits over 10 weeks
• 33% pace of study equals one third-time studies, i.e. 5 credits over 10 weeks
• 25% pace of study equals part-time studies, i.e. 7.5 credits over 20 weeks

In order to get an even pace of study, students should make sure they have a 100% pace of study in each of the four study periods. This could mean one course with a 100% pace of study per period, two courses with a 50% pace of study per period, or other combinations that result in 100% pace of study.

Pace of study formula

Still can’t work out your pace of study? Try the following formula:

(credits of one course)/(duration of one course in weeks x 1,5) x 100 = % pace of study

If the figure you get is less than 100 the course you are interested in is likely designed to be taken in conjunction with another course.