Sweden has a long tradition of higher education. The oldest is the University of Uppsala, which was founded in 1477, a prestigious school that ranks among the top 100 universities in the world. It boasts a Centre for Evolutionary Biology, a world-class medical hospital, and the Uppsala Biomedical Center, which focuses on medical research. Lund University, which followed nearly 200 years later in 1666, focuses on the arts with schools in humanities, theology, law, and social sciences. The University of Gothenburg, which wasn't founded until 1891, offers courses in fine arts, designs, crafts and literary composition.
The Royal Institute of Technology, the Kungliga Tekniska Högskolan, was founded in 1827. It's Sweden's first and oldest polytechnic university and one of Scandanavia's larger universities, a leading scientific institution ranked 54th in the top 100 technical schools that offers courses in civil and architectural engineering, transport and economics, and advanced studies in electrical engineering and communications technology. Originally part of Stockholm University, Linköping University is known for its medical college and its excellent programs for control theory and vehicle engineering. It's situated on the beautiful canals of Linköping and is known for having an important role in the development of computer science in Sweden.
Colleges in Sweden are considered two-year technical and vocational schools that focus on hands-on education for those wanting to enter the workforce with a focus on the service industries such as heating and air conditioning, and lower-level technical degrees in nursing and manufacturing. The Den Jydske Haandvaerkerskole is the technical college of Jutland. It focuses on carpentry, electrical engineering, refrigeration and air conditioning, and plastics processing technology. As with most colleges in Sweden, it offers two-year full-time vocational education degrees and in-service training areas. Hogskolan Dalarna, one of Sweden's many nursing schools located in Dalarna, also offers solar engineering degrees, African studies, English literature, and economics.
Sweden has a number of medical schools, including Göteborg University, Karolinska Institutet, Lund, Umea, and Uppsala. Known for innovation and government-sponsored research, these institutions are highly regarded medical facilities and offer an open learning environment that focuses on group work as opposed to the individual study. The pacemaker and dialysis machine were both developed in Swedish medical universities. These universities are also credited for assisting with the discovery of the gamma knife and helping Sweden lead the world in pharmaceutics development.