Welcome to Lulea University of Technology

It is a great pleasure for me to welcome you to Sweden and Lulea University of Technology. I am glad that you have chosen Lulea and I hope that you are looking forward to come here. My name is Fredrik Carlsson and I am your Student Coordinator. I am responsible for your accommodation, arrival and other practical matters. I am also a member of the student organization LURC (Lulea University Reception Committee). Together we will do our best to help you sort things out before you arrive in Lulea and during your stay here. LURC and me work together with the arrival service and LURC also arrange social activities and trips for you during the year.

Your first weeks in Lulea will be quite intense. You begin your courses the 21st of January and during the first two and a half weeks you will also have the Swedish beginner's course. During the first week, from Tuesday to Sunday there will be activities organized for you by LURC and some of the exchange students that arrived in August. I encourage you to participate in as many of these activities as you can; they are organized in order to make you feel welcome in Lulea. This is a great opportunity for you to get to know Lulea and the campus area, find out what you can do here apart from studying and most importantly, meet new friends.

We in LURC will provide an arrival service for you, picking you up at the airport, train station or bus station. To be able to pick you all up we need to know your date of arrival in advance:

You have to let us know your exact date and time of arrival. This means that it will be more difficult for us to pick you up if you fly stand-by. Please use the arrival form at our homepage to send us your arrival details and please send them in before the 31st of December. Link: http://www.lurc.se/arrival-form

We provide the arrival service between the 14th and 20th of January, every day 8 am to 10 pm.

Please try to arrive during office hours, 8 am to 5 pm.

If you do not consider this you might have to take a taxi from the airport and spend the first night in Lulea at a hotel. We will do our best to pick you all up, but since there are more than a hundred new exchange students coming here, we have a tight schedule and need your cooperation.

We know however that it can be difficult for some to arrive during office hours due to long traveling times. Therefore we will pick you up at almost any time during this period, but please try to arrive before 10 p.m.

If you arrive after the 20th of January we will not be able to pick you up. Neither can we promise that you will have your accommodation the same day if you arrive outside of office hours. You may have to stay one night in a hotel. You also have to make a special appointment to pick up your key since our office will not be manned. This you make in the Arrival form at our homepage. You should not book a hotel before you have received an appointment because you might not need it. We will of course help you as soon as we can but we are during this time busy with the social activities we arrange. For those of you who are calculating costs, a taxi from the airport to the university costs about 250 SEK and then you probably need another taxi to your apartment which will cost you about 100 SEK. These are expenditures you will save if you arrive between the 14th and the 20th. Also if you have not arrived by the 21st of January and not let me know that you will arrive late, you will loose your accommodation.

After we have picked you up at the airport we will take you to our office at the University. There you will sign your tenancy agreement, receive the keys to your apartment/room, and get some general information. Afterwards we will take you to your accommodation.

All exchange students coming to Lulea are guaranteed accommodation. For more information about the different accommodations, see http://www.lurc.se/housing-information. Please note that not all accommodation option have separate bedrooms. No matter which date in January you arrive you have to pay the rent from the 1st of January. If you for some reason have to arrive in February you also have to pay the rent for all of January You can also find more information about accommodation in the document called Information for Exchange Students. Link: http://www.lurc.se/information-for-exchange-students

In order to secure accommodation you need to fill out the application form at our homepage and send it in before the 31st of October. Link: http://www.lurc.se/application-for-accommodation

You also have to let me know if you decide to find an apartment on your own, please use the Application for accommodation form.

If you have changed your mind about coming to Lulea and Lulea University of Technology you have to let me know as soon as possible so I can cancel your accommodation.

When you move out from your accommodation it has to be well cleaned and all the furniture in the same condition as they were when you arrived. If you have not cleaned your room or if anything is broken you will be charged accordingly.

To make your stay in Lulea even more pleasant we in LURC try to arrange for all exchange students to have a Swedish buddy. A buddy is a student at Lulea University who has volunteered to help you. If you have any questions before you arrive you can always ask your buddy. Your buddy can help you get settled and show you how things work in Sweden and hopefully he/she will be your first Swedish friend! If you would like to have a Swedish Buddy please fill out the Buddy form on our homepage before the 10th of December. Link: http://www.lurc.se/buddy-form. You will then receive an email from your buddy in December. Disclaimer: We try to arrange buddies for everyone but since it depends on finding volunteers we cannot make any guarantees.

If you have any questions or concerns, feel free to contact me at the following addresses or numbers.

E-mail: fredrik [dot] carlsson [at] ltu [dot] se

Address:

Fredrik Carlsson / LURC

Student Coordinator

Lulea University of Technology

c/o International Office

SE-971 87 Lulea

SWEDEN

Phone numbers:

Office: +46 (0) 920 49 29 07

Fax: +46 (0) 920 49 29 57

Mobile phone: +46 (0) 72 539 31 55

Homepage: http://www.lurc.se/

The easiest way to get in touch with me and get your questions answered is via e-mail.

Once again, welcome to Lulea! I am looking forward to see you in January and I hope your time in Lulea will be an unforgettable memory. Until then, have a nice time!

Best regards,

Fredrik