Apply for a freestanding course
You submit your application to Sweden's central application portal universityadmissions.se. Here is our step-by-step guide on how to apply for freestanding courses at Karolinska Institutet.
Application periods
- 16 September to 15 October 2024: Application period for studies starting in spring 2025
- 17 February to 17 March: Application period for studies starting in summer 2025
- 17 March to 15 April 2025: Application period for studies starting in autumn 2025
For information on key dates in each application period, check course descriptions.
1. Choose your courses
Before you apply, your first step is to decide which courses you want to study. If you haven't already decided, you can find a list of our freestanding courses with description and syllabus below.
2. Check the entry requirements
To be eligible for a freestanding course you need to meet all the entry requirements, and prove your English language proficiency.
You will receive a formal eligibility assessment after you have submitted a complete application to University Admissions in Sweden.
The general and specific entry requirements differ depending on the level and the type of course you apply to.
Most of our freestanding courses have specific entry requirements, for example a minimum of credits within a specific subject area.
You can find the course specific entry requirements in the course descriptions. Remember to follow your documentation requirements for your country when submitting your application documents.
Country instructions for submitting upper secondary school documents
All freestanding courses require English language proficiency. The English language requirement is a level of English equivalent to the Swedish upper secondary school course English 6. There are three ways of proving your English language proficiency:
- Certain upper secondary school studies
- Certain university studies
- Certain English tests
3. Apply
You apply at universityadmissions.se.
Non-EU/EEA citizens are not recommended to apply for freestanding courses offered on-campus, since there will not be enough time to apply for and receive a residence permit for studies. Some courses are offered as distance learning.
Good to know:
- By applying early, you increase the chances of getting notified about missing or incorrect documents before the documentation deadline.
- Ranking your courses is important! You can take up to 45 ECTS per semester. When you have been admitted to 45 ECTS, all other courses that you ranked lower will be deleted.
- Documents received after the documentation deadline will not be considered.
4. Document your citizenship or pay the application fee
Your application will not be processed until you have paid the application fee (non-EU/EEA) or submitted proof of your citizenship (EU/EEA).
5. Follow your application
Once you have applied, be sure to check for messages from University Admissions in your account. University Admissions will notify you if you are missing any documents. However, it may take several weeks for University Admissions to assess your documents, and there is no guarantee that they will notify you before the documentation deadline. It is the applicant’s responsibility to submit the correct documents on time.
Good to know:
- The status you can see at your account on University Admissions is not a final admissions result.
What happens now?
Our freestanding courses have different selection processes.
Our first cycle courses are based on one of the following selection processes:
- Upper secondary school (34 %), Swedish Scholastic Aptitude Test (34 %), academic credits 1-165 (32 %)
or - Academic credits (1-165)
Our second cycle courses are based on one of the following selection processes:
- Academic credits (30-285)
or - Overall assessment of the applicant's qualifications
Check the course description of the course in which you are interested to see what type of selection is used.
If you meet the documentation and entry requirements you will compete with the other applicants for available places. All applicants are given a merit rating. The better the merit rating, the better chance you have of being awarded a place.
Who does what?
- University Admissions reviews the general entry requirements, the documentation requirements and the English language requirements.
- The Admissions Office at KI reviews the course-specific entry requirements.
There are several different results you may find on your notification, for example admitted, deleted, reserve, not processed and conditionally admitted.
Confirming your admissions offer
You need to accept to your admissions offer to confirm your place. You reply in your user account at universityadmissions.se
If you are on the reserve list
For certain courses, KI admits a limited number of students from the reserve list. Reserve means that you are currently not admitted but that you may be admitted in case KI needs to fill the seats for the course. KI admits more students than the number of seats for the course. When an admitted student declines their admissions offer, this does not automatically lead to an offer for an applicant on the reserve list.
Official copy of your notifications results
In your account, you can find a PDF-file called ”Notification of Selection”. This document is the official copy of your admissions results. No other admissions letter will be sent to you.
You can appeal decisions regarding eligibility after you have received your official admissions results called “Notification of Selection Results”. You submit your appeal in your University Admission’s account.
Before you submit an appeal, please contact the Admissions Office at KI regarding your case.
If you need to postpone the start of your studies, you can apply for a deferral if you have a valid reason, and if applicable, meet the conditions for your admission.