Abstract
During 2014 and 2015, 240,000 migrants sought asylum in Sweden, and the integration of the newcomers into the labour market and society has become a heated debate since then. Higher education has become one of the means for integrating migrants with higher levels of formal education, which is a new challenge. Higher education policies in Sweden are, however, also challenged by balancing between equality and employability. We claim that these challenges are not new, but part of Swedish education policy since the 1960’s. The challenge of balancing between equality and employability also affects the way that the challenge of an ageing population is handled in educational policy. Here, there have been contradicting reforms between getting students enter higher education as early as possible as a way to benefit the national economy, and enhancing lifelong learning with special regard to mature students. In this chapter, we will discuss the challenges for higher education policies further.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Notes
- 1.
Technical, medical and theological education is provided at some of the universities, but not all. There are some special technical and medical universities as well as some university colleges for Art, Dance, Theatre Theology etc.
References
Arbetsförmedlingen [The Agency for Employment]. (2017). Arbetsförmedlingens nulägesbedömning av arbetet med snabbspår. Diarienummer Af-2017/0057012
Arbetsmarknadsdepartementet [The Ministry of Labour]. (2017). Green Paper, 2017/01238/A.
Arbetsförmedlingen [The Agency for Employment]. (2018). Förbättra genomförandet av etableringsuppdraget. Återrapport till Regeringen. Diarienummer Af-2018-0049 9433.
CSN [The Swedish Board of Student Finance]. (2018). Student Finance - Grants and Loans for Students. https://www.csn.se/languages/english.html. Accessed 17 Dec 2018.
Bell, D. (1977). On meritocracy and equality. In J. Karabel & A. H. Halsey (Eds.), Power and ideology in education (pp. 607–632). New York: Oxford University Press.
Bron-Wojciechowska, A. (1989). Workers and post-secondary education. A cross polity perspective. Uppsala: Uppsala Studies in Education 31. Acta Universitatis Upsaliensis.
Bron, A., Thunborg, C., & Edström, E. (2014). Ethnicity and class, does it matter? In F. Finnegan, B. Merrill, & C. Thunborg (Eds.), Student voices on inequalities in European higher education. Challenges for theory, policy and practice in a time of change (pp. 97–111). London: Routledge.
Brown, P., Hesketh, A., Williams, S. (2002). Employability in a knowledge-driven economy. School of social science (Working papers, series, paper 26). Wales: Cardiff University.
Carlhed, C. (2017). The social space of educational strategies: Exploring patterns of enrolment, efficiency and completion among Swedish students in undergraduate Programmes with professional qualifications. Scandinavian Journal of Educational Research, 61(5), 503–525.
Coleman, J. (1966). Equal schools or equal students? The Public Interest, 4, 70–75.
Creative Health Inquiry. (2017). Creative health: The arts for health and wellbeing. July 2017. All-Party Parliamentary Group on Arts, Health and Wellbeing. Inquiry Report.
Clarke, M. (2008). Understanding and managing employability in changing career contexts. Journal of European Training, 32(4), 258–284.
Dagens samhälle [Today’s Society]. (2017). Forskare: Utbildning måste värderas högre. [Researchers: Education must be valued higher].https://www.dagenssamhalle.se/debatt/forskare-utbildning-maste-vaerderas-hoegre-33175. Accessed 13 Nov 2017.
EMPLOY. EMPLOY – 2014-1-UK01-KA203-001842. Enhancing the Employability for Non-Traditional Students in Higher Education.http://employ.dsw.edu.pl/language/en/. Accessed 1 March 2020.
Eklund, J., & Pettersson, L. (2017) Högskola i otakt [Higher education in unbalance]. Stockholm: Dialogos.
Fejes, A. (2010). Discourses on employability: Constituting the responsible citizen. Studies in Continuing Education, 32(2), 89–102.
Finansdepartementet [Ministry of Finance]. (2011). Långtidsutredningen. [Long-term Inquiry]. Report: LU, Fi 2009:A 231.
Högskolelagen [Higher Education Act]. (1992). No 1992:1434.
Jencks, C., Smith, M., Acland, H.Bane, M.J., Cohen, D., Gintis, H., Heyns, B. and Michelson, S. (1972). Inequality. A reassessment of the effects of family and schooling in America. New York: Basic Books.
Kupisiewicz, C. (1982). Szkolnictwo w procesie przebudowy. Kierunki reform oswiatowych w krajach uprzemyslowionych 1945–1980 [Schooling in the process of restructuring. Educational reforms in the developed countries 1945–1980] Warszawa: PWN.
Migrationsverket. (2017). Verksamhets- och utgiftsprognos, oktober 2017. [Immigration Office, Activity and expenditure forecast].
Nilsson, S. (2016). Employability, employment and the establishment of higher education graduates in the labour market (pp 65–85). In M. Tomlinson & L. Holmes (Eds.), Graduate employability in context. Macmillian: Palgrave.
Promemoria. (2017, July 18). [Memorandum]. Brett deltagande i högskoleutbildning [Widening participation in higher education].
Proposition 2016/17:175. [Government proposition].
RANLHE. 135230-LLP-1-2007-1-UK-KA1-KA1SCR. Access and Retention: Experiences of Non-traditional students in Higher Education.http://www.dsw.edu.pl/fileadmin/www-ranlhe/index.html. Accessed 1 March 2020.
Regeringens skrivelse [Government letter]. 2016/17:118.
Regeringens proposition 2016/17:172. [Government proposition].
Rothwell, A., & Rothwell, F. (2016). Graduate employability: A critical oversight. In M. Tomlinson & L. Holmes (Eds.), Graduate employability in context (pp. 41–43). London: Palgrave Macmillian.
Rubenson, K. (1994). Recurrent education policy in Sweden: A moving target. International Review of Education, 40(3/5), 245–256.
SCB [Statistic Sweden]. (2010). Befolkningsstatistik [Population Statistics].
SCB [Statistic Sweden]. (2016). Sveriges framtida befolkning 2016–2060 [Sweden’s Future Population].
SCB [Statistic Sweden]. (2017). Meddelande, BE 18 SM 1601 Sveriges framtida befolkning 2016–2060 [The future population of Sweden 2016–2060]. Stockholm: Statistiska Centralbyrån.
SCB [Statistic Sweden]. (2019). Utbildningsnivån i Sverige [The Educational level in Sweden]. https://www.scb.se/hitta-statistik/sverige-i-siffror/utbildning-jobb-och-pengar/utbildningsnivan-i-sverige/. Accessed 1 March 2020.
SOU. (2015a). Högre utbildning under tjugo år. [Higher education under twenty years]. Statens offentliga utredningar nummer 70. [Official report of the Swedish government no 70] Stockholm: Wolter Kluver Sverige AB.
SOU. (2015b). Utbildning för framtidens arbetsmarknad. [Education for the Future Labour Market]. Statens offentliga utredningar, nummer 90. [Official Report of the Swedish Government no 90]Stockholm: Wolter Kluver Sverige AB.
SOU. (2017). Tillträde för nybörjare – ett öppnare och enklare system för tillträde till högskoleutbildning. [Access for entrance students – a more open and simple system for access to higher education]. Statens offentliga utredningar, nummer 20. [Official Report of the Swedish Government no 20] Stockholm: Wolter Kluver Sverige AB.
Tyler, W. (1977). The sociology of educational inequality. London: Methuen.
Thunborg, C., & Bron, A. (2012). Sweden: Higher education and lifelong learning in Sweden. In H. Schuetze & M. Slowey (Eds.), Higher education and lifelong learning in a changed world order (pp. 97–111). London: Routledge.
Thunborg, C., & Bron, A. (2018). Policies for equality and employability. Consequences for non-traditional students. In B. Merrill,, Galimberti, A, A Nizinska, & J. G. Monteagudo (Eds.), Continuity and discontinuity in learning careers: Potentials for a learning space in a learning world (pp. 125–131). Amsterdam: Brill/Sense.
UKÄ [Swedish higher education authority]. (2015). Universitet och högskolor, Årsrapport. [Universities and University Colleges, Annual Report] Stockholm.
UKÄ [Swedish higher education authority]. (2016). Universitet och högskolor: Sökande och antagna till högskoleutbildning på grundnivå och avancerad nivå, höstterminen 2016. [Higher Education: Applicants and admitted to Higher Education at First and Second Cycle Studies, Autumn Term 2016]. http://www.uka.se/download/18.5d85793915901d205f9a835/1487841857448/SM1601-sokande-och-antagna-ht-2016.pdf. Accessed 13 Nov 2017.
UKÄ [Swedish higher education authority]. (2017a). Högskolan i siffror. [Higher Education Statistics]. Stockholm.
UKÄ [Swedish higher education authority]. (2017b). Universitet och högskolor, Årsrapport. [Universities and University Colleges, Annual report]. Rapport 2017:8. Stockholm.
Utbildningsdepartementet [The Ministry of Education]. (2012). Green paper, 3 U2012/6996SAM. Stockholm.
Utbildningsdepartementet [The Ministry of Education]. (2014). Högskolans utbildningsutbud. [Educational proposition for higher education] Kommittédirektiv, diarienummer 2014:54.
Yorke, M. (2006). Employability in higher education – What it is – What it is not. York: The Higher Education Academy.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2020 Springer Nature Switzerland AG
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Thunborg, C., Bron, A. (2020). New Challenges in Higher Education Policies in Sweden. In: Slowey, M., Schuetze, H.G., Zubrzycki, T. (eds) Inequality, Innovation and Reform in Higher Education. Lifelong Learning Book Series, vol 25. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-28227-1_6
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-28227-1_6
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-030-28226-4
Online ISBN: 978-3-030-28227-1
eBook Packages: EducationEducation (R0)