The student

nations A nation is a type of social organization where a collective identity, a national identity, has emerged from a combination of shared features across a given population, such as language, history, ethnicity, culture, territory, or societ ...

or ''nationer'' at the two ancient universities in

Uppsala Uppsala ( ; ; archaically spelled ''Upsala'') is the capital of Uppsala County and the List of urban areas in Sweden by population, fourth-largest city in Sweden, after Stockholm, Gothenburg, and Malmö. It had 177,074 inhabitants in 2019. Loc ...

and

Lund Lund (, ;"Lund"
(US) and ) is a city in the provinces of Sweden, province of Scania, southern Swed ...

, of which there are now thirteen at each university, are the oldest

student societies A student society, student association, university society, student club, university club, or student organization is a society or an organization, operated by students at a university, college, or other educational institution, whose membership t ...

Sweden Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. It borders Norway to the west and north, and Finland to the east. At , Sweden is the largest Nordic count ...

. The Uppsala nations have a history stretching back to around 1630–1640. The nations in Lund were formed at the time of the foundation of the university (1666) or shortly thereafter. Traditionally, students were required to be members of the nation corresponding to the area from which they came. With one exception, Södermanland-Nerikes nation at Uppsala, this requirement is now voided, and students may even join more than one nation. International students are also free to choose whichever nation they desire. The nations are in charge of the sorts of social activities and venues that at other universities are handled by the student unions, fraternities, or companies: bars, clubs, theatre companies, orchestras, sports societies, and also some housing. Nations notably host gasques, themed dinner parties that are a traditional part of Swedish student life. The nations take their names from the

Swedish provinces The 25 provinces of Sweden () are historical, geographical and cultural regions. They have no administrative function, but retain their own cultural identities, dialects and folklore. Several were administrative subdivisions until 1634, when th ...

from which they traditionally recruited their members, but do not always adhere to the strict practice of limiting membership according to those principles. These are named on regional lines, where the nations in Lund take their names from provinces and areas in southern Sweden, and those in Uppsala take their names from all over Sweden, except for the

Scanian lands The term Scanian (, , or ) can refer to: * A person born or living in the province of Scania proper (Skåne) * The people and language of the historical provinces of Scania (Terrae Scaniae, Skånelandene (Danish), Skåneland (Swedish) * Scanian d ...

, the traditional catchment area for Lund, which was founded in 1666 to provide higher education for the youth in the newly conquered areas. In addition to Uppsala and Lund, student nations were also formed at the

University of Tartu The University of Tartu (UT; ; ) is a public research university located in the city of Tartu, Estonia. It is the national university of Estonia. It is also the largest and oldest university in the country.

and

Royal Academy of Turku The Royal Academy of Turku or the Royal Academy of Åbo was the first university in Finland, and the only Finnish university that was founded when the country still was a part of Sweden. It was founded in 1640. In 1809, after Finland became a ...

(now

University of Helsinki The University of Helsinki (, ; UH) is a public university in Helsinki, Finland. The university was founded in Turku in 1640 as the Royal Academy of Åbo under the Swedish Empire, and moved to Helsinki in 1828 under the sponsorship of Alexander ...

), the second and third oldest universities in the

Swedish Empire The Swedish Empire or the Great Power era () was the period in Swedish history spanning much of the 17th and early 18th centuries during which Sweden became a European great power that exercised territorial control over much of the Baltic regi ...

. Nowadays there are 15 student nations in the University of Helsinki and one in the

Helsinki University of Technology Helsinki University of Technology (TKK; ; , HUT in international usage) was a technical university in Finland. It was located in Otaniemi, Espoo in the Helsinki metropolitan area, and it was one of the three universities from which the modern d ...

. Swedish educational institutions also have student unions, political and religious student societies, etc. Student nations exist at other Swedish universities as well, but they are strictly social organisations and membership is not required of all students. Sweden also receives a relatively great number of foreign students, who are fully entitled to join the student nations. The universities that top the number of admitted students from abroad are

Lund University Lund University () is a Public university, public research university in Sweden and one of Northern Europe's oldest universities. The university is located in the city of Lund in the Swedish province of Scania. The university was officially foun ...

(578) and

KTH Royal Institute of Technology KTH Royal Institute of Technology (), abbreviated KTH, is a Public university, public research university in Stockholm, Sweden. KTH conducts research and education in Institute of technology, engineering and technology and is Sweden's largest te ...

(503).

References

;Footnotes ;Notes Student societies in Sweden {{University student nations

See also

References