Uppsala University

Uppsala University (Swedish Uppsala universitet) is a public university in Uppsala, Sweden. The oldest university in Scandinavia, it was founded in 1477 on the initiative of the Archbishop of Uppsala Jakob Ulfsson and the Swedish Regent Sten Sture, and with a papal bull from Sixtus IV. After a turbulent period following the reformation, with some periods of virtual extinction, the university rose to some significance with the rise of Sweden as a great power and a leading Lutheran state from the end of the 16th century and was given a relative financial stability with the large donation of King Gustavus Adolphus in the early 17th century.

Life at the University

Nations and student union

All students at Uppsala University have to be member of one of the nations, corporations of students traditionally according to province of origin (not strictly upheld now, for practical reasons). The system of dividing students into nations according to origin ultimately goes back to the nations at the medieval University of Paris, but was likely introduced in Uppsala under influence of the landsmannschaften which existed at some of the German universities visited by Swedish students. In Sweden, nations exist only in Uppsala and at the University of Lund.

Related Topics:
Nation - University of Paris - Landsmannschaft - University of Lund

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The current thirteen nations all have a history stretching back to the early-to-mid 17th century, but some of them are the result of mergers of older, smaller nations that took place in the early 19th century in order to facilitate the financing of building projects. The nations were originally seen as subversive organisations promoting less virtuous aspects of student life, but in 1663 the consistory (board) of the university made membership in a nation legal, each nation being placed under the inspectorship of a professor. Somewhat later membership in a nation was made compulsory, a rule which is still in place. Since the 1960s there is a fourteenth nation, which however exists only as a legal fiction to get around the compulsory membership for those students who have for some reason chose to stand outside the historic nations.

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The Uppsala Student Union was founded in 1849 as a corporation representing all students, irrespective of nation.

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Art, music and sports

Sports play a very small role in the life of the university, compared to British and especially U.S. universities, but have existed in various forms since the early 17th century. The University is more noted for its musical traditions and has a long choral tradition. Both have partial roots in the 17th century institution of extra-curricular exercises for students from the nobility.

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The exercitiae

To ease the recruitment of students from the nobility, the university started in the 1630s to offer training in a number of exercitiae or "exercises" (Swedish: exercitier) deemed necessary for the well-rounded education of a young nobleman: riding, fencing, dance, drawing and modern languages such as French and Italian. The initiative came from Chancellor Axel Oxenstierna, who saw the value in a well-educated class of civil servants and the danger to his own class if its members would fall behind in academic education compared to those students who came from the lower estates. An "exercise yard", built for the riding and fencing exercises, was demolished in the late 19th century to give place to the new University Hall. The modern languages were made part of the regular academic curriculum in the 19th century; the surviving "exercises"http://www.uu.se/Adresser/SI371.html are:

Related Topics:
Riding - Fencing - Dance - Drawing - French - Italian - Axel Oxenstierna

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• Fencing. Arranged in collaboration with Upsala Fäktning, a private fencing club. Fencing master as of 2005 is Igor Tsikinjov, captain of the Swedish Fencing Federation
• Gymnastics and sports, located to the Art Noveau University Gymastics Hall, colloquially known as Svettis (from the Swedish word for sweat)
• Riding, arranged by the Equestrian department of the University, which has its own stables. Leaders of the activities are the Academy Stable Master and the Inspector Equitandi. Instruction is offered on various levels.
• Music. Leader of the musical activities is the director musices, who is the conductor of the Royal Academic Orchesta. See more below.
• Drawing. The university appoints an established artist as Drawing Master. As of 2005, the position is held by graphic artist Ulla Fries. Weekly Croquis lessons and other exercises, free for students and other university members, are offered in the southern tower of Uppsala Castle.

Sports

Besides the exercitiae, other sports have had a presence in Uppsala student life. The Upsala Simsällskap, "Uppsala Swimming Society", which is the oldest swimming club in the world, was founded in 1796 by the mathematician Jöns Svanberg. It had no formal connection to the university, but all its earliest members came from academic life. Svanberg even arranged a mock graduation ceremony, a simpromotion, in parody of the university ceremonies, where those who had graduated from its swimming training were awarded "degrees" of master (magister) and bachelor (kandidat). These degrees stuck, and Swedish swimming schools still use these degrees for different levels of swimming skills.

Related Topics:
Upsala Simsällskap - Jöns Svanberg

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An attempt was made in the 1870s to introduce academic rowing after the Oxbridge model. The Stockholm Nation acquired a rowing boat in 1877, soon followed by the Gothenburg Nation, and for a number of years rowing competitions were held between teams from the two nations. Although rowing never got the strong position it has at the English universities, there have in recent decades been occasional competions between rowing teams from Uppsala and from Lund University.

Related Topics:
Oxbridge - Stockholm Nation - Gothenburg Nation - Lund University

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Music

The University's Royal Academic Orchestra was founded in . Its main purpose is to play at academic ceremonies, but holds concerts on other occasions as well. Its leader has the title of director musices. The position has been held by composers such as Wilhelm Stenhammar, Hugo Alfvén and Lars-Erik Larsson. Affiliated with the University are three choirs, the mixed choir Allmänna Sången, founded in 1830, the male choir Orphei Drängar, founded in 1853, and the Academy Chamber Choir of Uppsala, founded in 1957.

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An important name in the recent history of the choirs is Eric Ericson, who was conductor of both Orphei Drängar and the Chamber Choir. In honour of Ericson, the FöreningsSparbanken endowed the Eric Ericson Chair in Choral Directing, and the Uppsala University Choral Centre was inaugurated in 2000. The centre arranges courses in choral directing.http://www.korcentrum.uu.se/historik.html#eng

Related Topics:
Eric Ericson - FöreningsSparbanken

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