Higher education

The campus family - finding a home in Skellefteå

What is it like to leave your friends and family to study in a new city? Friends Eh Soe, Martin Ingemarsson, Diana Alistar and Jakob Gardelin all come from different parts of Sweden and met at Campus Skellefteå.

- Student life here is great fun! Many are active in the association and you become very close, says Martin Ingemarsson.

Almost 90 percent of all students at Campus Skellefteå are immigrants from elsewhere in Sweden and the world. Many are attracted by innovative programs focused on the tech and gaming industry, including Martin Ingemarsson who comes from Kinna, 20 miles southwest of Borås. He really had no plans to move this far north, but when he - a week before the start of the course - received the admission notice to an LTU program in 3D graphics on Campus Skellefteå, everything went very quickly.

- I have a background in theater and wanted to do something creative - this education felt just right. We were the first wave of students to move into the student barracks and I think that helped socially. You get close to each other, for better or worse, and there was quickly a very good cohesion here, says Martin Ingemarsson.

"I hadn't participated much in the student association's activities before, but here I became curious and showed up to help.

Today, Martin is one of seven people who volunteer to run the student pub Traversen, or Travven as it is called, on campus - a meeting place for students that is open on Fridays and Saturdays.

- At Travven you can hang out with friends, meet students from other courses and it's often where the student association's events take place. Students volunteer behind the bar, it's fun and you don't need any previous experience from bar work, says Martin Ingemarsson.




Course participant Eh Soe is the chairman of the Student Association at Campus Skellefteå. He first studied at LTU in Luleå and heard about the university's computer graphics program in Skellefteå, which he thought was exciting. The move went south.

- I had not participated so much in the student association's activities before, but here I became curious and showed up to help. Suddenly I was chairman. It was unexpected, but it has been a lot of fun and educational.

And for new students in Skellefteå, Eh Soe has a simple piece of advice for getting into campus life:

- Participate in the introductory period! It's a lot of fun and a quick way into both student life, the community on campus and Skellefteå as a whole. Even if you are generally skeptical of the nollning tradition - give it a chance.

He is supported by Diana Alistar, who moved from Stockholm to Skellefteå after high school to study VFX at Visual Magic University of Applied Sciences. Her high school teacher advised her to apply for the design course in Skellefteå, not least because the Skellefteå campus had a good reputation. The move 80 miles north was a fresh start in many ways.

- There was one thing I had decided when I moved up: to stop being so introverted. The initiation was a first step; it's one of the most fun things I've ever done. It felt natural to immediately get out, meet people and participate in activities," says Diana Alistar.

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Senast uppdaterad:
4 April 2023