Last day in Sweden

The last day in Sweden was quite event filled, and a fitting way to end the trip. We went to Gothenburg University. First we were introduced to the history of both Gothenberg University and the city. It was interesting to learn about how Gothenberg was founded, as a fortified position by King Gustavus Adolphus the second. We will all have to return on February 6th to  eat the special pastry they make to commentate his death! It was also interesting to learn about how the city was built up privately, by Sahlgreen and Campbell, as the royal buildings were in Stockholm. It was funny to hear again how Gothenberg was a major shipbuilding port, in fact one of the largest in the world, in the 1970s.

We also thought it was interesting to compare how the entirety of Sweden is smaller than New York, and that 70% of the GDP is in the service sector. The Rehn–Meidner model was introduced to us and it is such an interesting system. I never realized comparatively how small the Swedish market was and the fact that they don’t have the same internal market and must rely so heavily on exports. Also although we knew Ericsson invented the mobile phone we never realized they had moved out of the mobile phone industry.

After learning about the Swedish degree system and the fact that masters are taught in English we are all strongly considered the significantly cheaper Swedish masters program.

Additionally, as we are Labor and Employment Relations majors, it was enlightening to hear about health policy and trends in the labor market in comparison to the US. It was interesting to see how much Sweden spends on healthcare in comparison to the US (scoring 9.49 versus 17.02). We also thought it was interesting that 1/10 Swedish people work in healthcare. We thought this was especially funny because our first HR host at the board of agriculture was formerly a nurse. It was interesting to hear about the similar struggles with healthcare organization that we also experience in the U.S.  It was also really interesting to hear about Swedish criticisms about their own system. Sometimes Swedes choose to go to other countries to get medical attention quicker if the condition was not serious. What we found most interesting was the reason behind that. Apparently, it is because there are not enough specialists for the population because there are strict rules about who can become a doctor. Although this was new to us it was very interesting information and a great way to end our trip.

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