I found KTH to be an extremely motivating work environment within Science. You can directly feel like you belong to something and that what you are doing will impact the society somehow. The horizontal mentality (i.e. “we are all at the same level”) was also a driving force for me to come to Stockholm.

I have been working as a PhD student for 3.5 years, and now that I am close to being finished, I feel a natural enrolment with the system. Somehow, I want to return to the country what it has given me.

How do I return it? Well, making more science and perusing more discoveries in the laboratory that could contribute to the development of Sweden as a sustainable and scientific country.

I chose to come to Stockholm for my PhD studies based on the work I am doing and the project I was joining. I had the opportunity to work on a specific project with my current supervisor, and that was the driver for coming to KTH and Stockholm. Secondary, but also helpful in making the decision, is the way PhD students are treated here – as a sort of hybrid between students and staff.

Given where I am in my life, that was a perfect combination for me. A constant discussion my partner and I have is – will we/do we want to stay in Stockholm/Sweden beyond my PhD studies? To be honest, we had absolutely no plans to stay here after I finished when we first decided to come.

But living here has presented positives that have us now considering it, despite some negatives. Stockholm is an excellent place to live, especially if you find the right job. But I think we’ll have to wait a bit longer before knowing if it’s the right place for us.

I did my MSc studies in Lund, and that’s where I met my husband (who is from Greece). We both really appreciated the Swedish culture and way of life. There is a high level of respect for other people, for public spaces, and for nature.

We always thought that it would be nice to come back to Sweden if we got the chance. Then, I applied for two different PhD positions in a project about how to organize a post-growth economy. It was exactly the kind of research I was already working on and wanted to continue. One position was in France and the other in Stockholm.

When I was offered the position in Stockholm, it was an easy decision to make. So, a combination of factors played a role. We are planning on staying in Stockholm after my studies. We have fallen in love with this city.

I chose Stockholm because I heard good reviews about Swedish universities from my classmates who were already started studying in Sweden at that time. After finishing my bachelor’s degree in Iran, I was very interested in studying abroad. I applied for some other countries as well but everything went very fast and smooth for my Master program application at Stockholm University. So I came to Stockholm to do a Master.

In the last year of my Master’s, I got very interested in the project I was working on. So, I applied for the open PhD position in the same group and was lucky to get it. After my studies, I already had found a very good picture of Sweden, people, equality in society which felt like I found a better home with more opportunities for women to grow. I met my fiancé here who also did his PhD in Sweden and was interested in staying here. I found a job after 1 year finishing PhD. So, all these reasons made me stay here.