Five ESES years are now completed: 1999/2000, 2000/1, 2001/2, 2002/3, 2003/4. Class size has grown from 7 to 26. We have 90 qualified applications for 2004/5 and expect a full group of 26 students to start on 18August 2004.

In spite of its name, about half of the students have come from countries outside Europe. Previous ESES students have come from 23 countries in 4 continents: China, Dominican Republic, Eritrea, Etiopia, Finland, France, Germany, Hungary, India, Indonesia, Italy, Jamaica, Mexico, Nepal, Netherlands, Nigeria, Pakistan, Spain, Sweden, Syria, Tanzania, Turkey, and USA. Thus, the program attracts as many students from countries outside Europe as Europeans, especially from developing countries. The course language — English — isa problem for some students. Several students may have good grades in their previous exam, but lack ability to experiment, training in doing creative thinking, or both. Swedish winter weather and lack of sunshine are other obstacles. In spite of this, the majority of the students manage all tasks, and some do it really well.

From the start 1999, we have arranged with a special student room in SERC, equipped with a number of computers. Students have access to this room 24 hours per day, 7 days perweek. During normal working hours, they also have access to SERC’s Pleijel Library, with hundreds of reference books and many journals. The proximity between ESES students and SERC researchers is generally appreciated by both the staffand the students.

Most students like our choices of rather theoretical textbooks, but some complain about too much theory and too much physics. They may be partly right, but we try to convince them that education at master’s level is not the same thing as in-service training of plumbers or electrical technicians. We believe that experimental and computer experience is important, and ESES students agree — at least after some time experiencing both. Students with very little computer experience may encounter initial problems, but they improve quickly (especially when they learn that they can chat nightly with friends on the other side of the earth free of charge on their student computers). Some also take the optional TRNSYS unit, learning how to utilize this simulation program.

The most important experience for us so far is that most graduated ESES students have gotjobs in industries and research institutions, or have been admitted to graduate schools, in their home country or elsewhere.