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12 • Summary
a new StRUctURe for higher education came into force on 1 July 2007. This new structure is an adaptation to the Bologna-process, which is intended to enable comparison of higher education in Europe. Programmes are divided into three levels – first level, second level and third level, with the first two corresponding to what have previously been refer-red to as bachelor’s and master’s programmes. All qualifica-tions are assigned to one of these levels. Two general qualifi-cations are awarded in the first level – University Diplomas and Bachelor’s degrees – and in the second level one-year or two-year Master’s degrees. Professional qualifications are offered in both first level and second level programmes. The introduction of the new structure was accompanied by a new credit system in which one year of full-time study cor-responds to 60 higher education credits.
During 2007 the total expenditure of the higher educa-tion institueduca-tions amounted to SEK 47 billion, which in fixed terms is a marginal decline on the previous year.
For the sector as a whole expenditure was SEK 58 billion.
This includes the costs of student finance and the central agencies in the sector. Higher education accounted for 1.9 per cent of the GDP during 2007. This proportion has de-clined somewhat during recent years, due to the strong up-swing in the economy as a whole.
number of applicants to higher education growing
After declines in applications for several years, the num-ber of applicants increased slightly during the autumn of 2007. This is largely due to an increase in applications from 19-year-olds, which can in its turn be attributed to a larger cohort in 2007 than in 2006. Some degree of caution is, however, required when making comparisons with previous years as the new structure of higher education may have had an impact on the number of applications. Interest in higher education appears to be stable. According to the questionn-aire surveys of pupils in their final year at upper-seconda-ry school conducted by Statistics Sweden about 59 per cent are planning to begin higher education within three years.
The numbers admitted have also risen since the autumn of 2006. The number of applicants with no prior higher edu-cation was almost twice as large as for the autumn of 2007.
Among the major programmes leading to the award of a professional qualification competition was greatest for those in veterinary medicine and medicine, the first with 7.2 first-choice applicants per place, the second with 6.8. There was
least competition for programmes in the natural sciences, mathematics and computer science with 1.1 first-choice app-licants per place.
Slight rise in numbers registered for the autumn semester of 2007
Since reaching its peak in 2003, the number of registered students has declined by 6 per cent. Now the decline seems to have ended and for the autumn semester of 2007 a slight increase of the student population can be seen with 322,000 individuals registered in first and second level programmes, which is an increase of 2000 compared to the autumn semes-ter of 2006. This increase is largely due to the larger number of 19–20 year-olds. Higher education is most usual for those aged 22–23. Almost 30 per cent of this age group are taking courses or programmes at higher education institutions.
Despite the rise in the number of students in the autumn semester of 2007, the total number of FTE’s (full time equi-valents) continued to decline during 2007, largely the result of the decline that took place during the first half of the year.
This is mainly due to a drop in FTE’s in the humanities, so-cial sciences and natural sciences.
Ever since the 1977 reform of higher education, when pro-grammes in the health sciences and education in which wo-men predominated were incorporated into the higher edu-cation sector, the proportion of women in undergraduate courses has been higher than the proportion of men. The proportion of women has risen progressively and in recent years totalled just over 60 per cent. Among first enrolments the proportion of women is also 60 per cent, if international students are excluded. This proportion has risen by three percentage points during the last decade.
There are major variations in gender balance depending on subject. If programmes are divided into broad subject areas, a majority of women can be found in seven of these nine areas. Men predominate in engineering and technology and there is an even gender balance in the fine, performing and creative arts.
one newly enrolled student in four comes from abroad
More and more international students are coming to Sweden to study. This includes students in Erasmus and the other ex-change programmes as well as the students known as “free movers” who have made their own arrangements to study in
Summary • 12
Sweden. The total number of students enrolled for the first time in higher education has been just over 80,000 since the academic year of 2002/03. This volume has been sustained by an increase in the number of international students. The academic year of 2002/03 saw the highest number of stu-dents living in Sweden among first-time enrolments. Since then this figure has declined by 9,200 and in 2006/07 it was 62,100.
The total number of international students studying on first and second-level programmes at Swedish higher educa-tion institueduca-tions in the academic year of 2006/07 amounted to almost 28,000. On average there has been a 13 per cent annual increase during the last decade. This development has meant that in 2006/07 the number of students coming to Sweden to study exceeded the number of Swedes travel-ling to study abroad.
decline in the number of
qualifications but at a high level
For the first time since the mid-1990s the number of qua-lifications awarded declined during the academic year of 2006/07. There was only a slight decrease, however, and a total of 58,000 qualifications were awarded during the year, of which 42,700 were the first academic qualifications awar-ded to their holders. The number of qualifications awarawar-ded has risen since the mid-1990s by 45 per cent. The influx into the labour market of academically qualified individuals has therefore risen and about 40 per cent of an annual cohort are acquiring a qualification from a higher education insti-tution.
Among the major areas, there was a decline in the award of nursing and engineering qualifications in comparison to the previous year. On the other hand, the numbers acquiring teaching qualifications rose to some extent. In recent years there has been a decline in the number of first-level quali-fications awarded in engineering. On the other hand the academic year of 2006/07 was the first since the mid 1990s in which there was a decline in the number of nursing and second-level engineering qualifications.
Two-thirds – 66 per cent – of all qualifications are awar-ded to women. This is a rise of about five percentage points since 1996/97. This means that the proportion of women awarded qualifications is higher than the proportion of wo-men in the student population as a whole, which is 60 per cent. Part of the explanation for this difference is that a lar-ger proportion of women take programmes in which student
completion is traditionally high. This applies above all to programmes in education and health sciences. Women are more frequently awarded qualifications than men, however, in other programmes as well.
firsttime enrolments in doctoral programmes just under 3,000
For the third year in succession the numbers of first-time enrolments at doctoral level are 25 per cent fewer than in the peak years of 2002 and 2003. The gender balance continues to be even, although the proportion of women declined to 46 per cent in 2007 from 48–50 per cent during the period 2001–2006. There are major variations in the gender balance in different subject areas similar to those in first and second-level programmes. Men predominate in technology and eng-ineering and in the natural sciences (74–60 per cent) while there is a predominance of women in the social sciences and medicine (56–59 per cent).
As in first and second-level programmes, the number of international admissions has risen markedly during the last decade and now amounts to 27 per cent of first-time enrol-ments to doctoral programmes.
The decline in the number of first-time enrolments has led to a reduction of the number of doctoral students. Since the autumn of 2003 there has been a decline of 15 per cent and in the autumn of 2007 there were 17,250 doctoral students actively participating in research programmes.
Doctoral students fund their studies in various ways. 55 per cent are employed on doctoral studentships, while fun-ding for the others comes from some other form of employ-ment at a higher education institution or elsewhere, from doctoral grant or scholarships. There are major differences between the various disciplines.
The number of doctorates awarded during 2007 was the highest ever with 2,800 awards. During the last five years the number of doctorates awarded has maintained this high level. The number of third level degrees awarded is more than likely to exceed the government’s target for the period of 2005–2008. At the current level of first-time enrolments, however, fewer degrees will be awarded during the years that follow.
marginal rise in resources for research Despite a small rise in resources for research, the total reve-nues of the higher education institutions during 2007
decli-130 • Summary
ned, mainly due to the reduction of the number of places in first and second-level programmes.
In 2007 the revenues of the higher education institutions for research and doctoral programmes amounted to SEK 25.4 billion. In real terms this is a marginal increase of less than one per cent since 2006, which means that the resour-ces for research remain at the same level as in 2002. Since 1997, however, an increase of SEK 4 billion can be seen, of which direct government funding accounts for SEK 1 billion and external funding for SEK 2.7 billion. In addition, reve-nues of just under SEK 400 million were not accounted for separately in 1997. This development means that the propor-tion of direct government funding has dropped from 51 to 47 per cent and that external funding therefore amounts to 53 per cent. Almost all of the increase in revenues since 1997 comes from public sources of funding.
The bulk of the external funding comes from public sour-ces such as the Research Council, Vinnova and the public re-search foundations. In 2007 public funding accounted for 82 per cent of the research funding at the higher education in-stitutions. This proportion has varied to some extent during the last decade, but in 1997 it was also 82 per cent.
As a result of the government’s resolve that from 1997 re-search resources were to be allocated to the university colle-ges as well, the share of research funding going to the older universities has declined from 98 per cent in the mid-1990s to just under 90 per cent in recent years. Four per cent of these resources are allocated to the new universities. Slightly less than three per cent go to the higher education institu-tions entitled to offer doctoral programmes in specific areas of research and just over three per cent to the other higher
education institutions. ¢