"It is such an advantage to be open to new ideas"

New ideas take form when people come together. Gothenburg is a city that invests heavily in being an international meeting place.

- We have so much to gain from working together, says Eva Henricsson, project manager at Göteborg & Co, a platform for collaboration in the Gothenburg region.

- In some ways the model is quite simple, it's just that a meeting has to take place, and in that meeting something happens.

Eva's focus area is Gothenburg as a knowledge city and she coordinates collaboration between the business sector, the universities and the municipality. Gothenburg's high number of university students is one of the city's strengths.

In fact every tenth resident in Gothenburg is a higher education student. And together with Chalmers, the University of Gothenburg and many of the city's companies, Göteborg & Co works hard to create good opportunities for the students that choose Gothenburg. One of these activities is Student11, which includes a kick-off greeting event at the start of the school year.

- It involves pretty much the whole city and it is a welcoming event for all new students, a way of thanking them for choosing Gothenburg.

Student11 also offers new students a wide variety of activities like for example a climbing school, museum visits and seminars. The aim is to provide meeting places where the students can get to know each other. At the same time it presents some of the social activities the city has to offer.

- You can be as you want in Gothenburg. You can choose a typical student life or choose to discover the city in other ways. It's not just a student city.

Another key area is developing contacts between students and the labour market. International students are invited to visit the region's companies, where they can see firsthand what the companies do and get a better understanding of Swedish business life.

-We always look at what we can offer; work experience, trainee positions, and mentorship. We want to ease the transition between studies and work. Because it is essential for the whole city, the whole region, that Gothenburg's students feel that they have the opportunity to stay here.

The universities' guest researchers are also given a platform to meet during the annual International Science Festival when they are invited to special Science nights.

- A Russian woman and a Finnish woman told me they met during one of these nights a couple of years ago. They are still friends today, and they said it was thanks to that night that they stayed in Gothenburg and completed their PhDs.

To organise these activities, it is essential that the different parties have a good structure for collaboration.

Gothenburg's size is an advantage in this context. It is a relatively small city, but with a big city perspective. The city also has a tradition of working together and has well-established groups of representatives from the different "worlds"; the business sector, the universities and the municipality.

- If you look at reality, it's made up of a mixture of everything; it's not divided into different entities. Therefore, it's easier to have that perspective when you're doing something; you'll have all cornerstones from the start, says Eva.

She also thinks that the combining of different worlds and having an open mind are important rewards from studying abroad.

- It's such an advantage to get other perspectives. You'll learn something new the whole time; other perspectives, knowledge and experiences. It is so important and such an advantage to be open to new ideas.