Higher, farther education
Reader Dave Null of Claremont writes:
"I know that you are always looking for unusual stories. I am a distance student in the MBA (Masters in Business Administration) program at Blekinge Tekniska Högskola in Sweden.
"This program is carried completely on the web (except for thesis presentation that has to be done in Sweden) so there are students in it from all around the world. I've found two other students from the U.S.
"Although the program is from a Swedish University, it is in English and is FREE to anyone who is accepted into it. Rather unusual isn't it? Even the textbooks are American (like Corporate Finance by Ross, Westerfield and Jaffe (McGraw-Hill)) but this is pretty much the case everywhere in the world.
"BTH is a state university in Sweden. It specializes in high technology. The MBA I am enrolled in is the only Internet-based degree. Undergraduate programs are in Swedish but all graduate programs are in English.
"It was explained to me that no foreign students could be attracted to the graduate school if it were conducted in Swedish. Even Norwegians and Danes speak English when talking to Swedes. Of course Swedes speak better English than the average American so having the graduate schools in English is no burden to them.
"I am a retired professor from Cal Poly Pomona and already have PhD, JD and LLM degrees, but I am now a finance and administrative officer for the Civil Air Patrol, the Auxiliary of the U.S. Air Force, so I need some more training in accounting and management."
The problem with taking university classes in Sweden from California is you miss out on those famous Swedish meatballs and stewardesses.
I'd like to comment on your blog regarding telephone prefixes. You didn't mention Pomona's prefix "Lycoming". You see, I go way back, having been born in Pomona, and enjoyed the big celebration downtown on the corner of 2nd and Gary when WWII ended....I was 10 years old.
Yep, I attended Roosevelt Elementary school in 1943 when the zinc penny was first introduced. Wow...what beautiful memories.
[Thanks for the note, Bruce. And true, I didn't mention LYcoming this time, but I did, along with all the other local exchanges, when I wrote about exchanges in my column a few months back. -- DA]
All education in Sweden is free. And, they give scholarships for living expenses to qualified students just like every other school. If you don't get a scholarship, they don't mind if you take a part-time job, either (unlike F1 students in the US). So you may be able to have those meatballs yet.