In 1827, the Great Fire of Turku led to the move of the faculty of medicine, together with the rest of the Royal Academy of Turku, to Helsinki. Hwasser moved, too, but he only remained in Helsinki until 1830, when he applied for a professorship in Uppsala. He returned to Uppsala in order to fight against plans to locate all medical education in Sweden at the Karolinska Institute. He would continue his vocal criticism of Karolinska for 30 years, something that made him somewhat controversial.