This thesis investigates the relationship between national and institutional language policies reflecting on the experiences of international students and staff concerning the parallel language use of English and Swedish in Swedish universities. The goal is to investigate how language policies could be developed for international students and staff to function better in Swedish universities. The main questions aimed to be answered: “How do language policies promote and regulate the process of internationalisation while preserving the national language as a primary communication medium in Swedish universities?” and “What are international students' and staff's experiences with practices of parallel language use in Swedish Universities, and what could be improved?”. The study is linked with Ruiz's (1984) three orientations to multilingualism and Spolsky's language planning and policy frameworks: language practices, language ideologies, values, and language management (Spolsky, 2004; Spolsky, 2010). The results show that Swedish universities' language policies rely heavily on the authoritative power's (the Government of Sweden) language policy documents (e.g., the Language Act, 2009:600), which aim to protect and continue Swedish development in nationally recognised institutions. The protectionist stance towards Swedish affects the life of international students and staff at the university, especially in the administrative domain. This study's results bring forward ideas on how language planning and policy in Sweden could be developed to include international students and staff in the discussion and how language services could be enhanced so that non-Swedish speakers can operate better within the university.