ISBN 91-85027-02-2

Who studies - and what do they think?

Progress report 7 from the Students in Sweden (StudS) project

Most students live alone but as many as two of every five were married or living with a partner, which was more frequently the case for women than men. Almost one student in five had children. This too was more common among women than men.

The proportion of students with children varied from programme to programme. The fewest students with children were to be found on the master´s programmes in engineering, the largest number on teacher training programmes.

Approximately one fifth of the students had at least one parent who had been born abroad. Eight per cent of the students had themselves been born abroad.

Students today (irrespective of their subject) have varying and in many cases “shifting" backgrounds. Many of them had previously studied at another higher education institution. One in ten had experience of studying abroad. Half of them have spent at least one year in the labour market. This means that Swedish students form a heterogeneous group in terms of their experiences of sectors of the community other than the Swedish educational system.

A majority of the students were taking programmes that they expected would lead to the award of a qualification. But there were also students who were taking a subject which they regarded as self-contained or which they believed could be used in the future to supplement a more cohesive programme. Even many of the older students were taking cohesive programmes leading up to the award of a qualification. The concept that older students merely devote their time to “recurrent education" in the form of short courses does not hold water.

The higher education system is therefore used by students for different purposes in terms of their “life plan". There are certain patterns and variations between the genders and different age groups that can be interpreted in various ways, but the variations within the age groups reveal that there are also a number of individual factors that influence students´ views of the aims and goals of their studies.

Most students are studying both because their subject interests them and because they expect their studies to lead to an interesting job. The proportion who are studying only in order to get a good job with no major interest in their subject is very small.

One finding from the survey is that there is a relatively large number of students who would rather be taking some other subject but who have encountered obstacles of various kinds - principally stringent admission requirements.

Most students live in more or less the same way as everyone else in Sweden. In the autumn of 1996 half of them were living in rented flats. About a quarter were living in their own homes. Less then a fifth of the students were living in special student accommodation (rooms or student flats). Only one or two per cent were living in the rented rooms that used to be the norm for many students. A considerably larger proportion of the male students were living in a “traditional" student manner, in a student room or at home with their parents (usually a house rather than a flat). This applied to over a third of the male students but only slightly more than a fifth of the women students. On the other hand, it was more frequent for the women to have started a family and to live with their partners in either a flat or a house of their own.

A total of 15 per cent of all students stated that alongside their studies they were also participating in courses or study groups that were not offered by their higher education institutions. This was more common among the women than the men. There was no difference in the proportion of women with or without children taking part in “extra" courses. Among the men it was more common for those with children to take part in supplementary courses as well. Students in the natural sciences and the humanities were those most frequently taking courses alongside their higher education programmes. The least ambitious students in this respect were those taking programmes in engineering.

During the autumn of 1996, two-thirds of all students regularly took part in some form of athletic activity. One in every eight participated in some cultural pursuit and about 10 per cent stated that they were involved in voluntary or political activities. An equal number were participating in student union or student association activities. Finally a total of 18 per cent reported that they devoted time to some other form of regular leisure activity.

About a third of the students in the autumn of 1996 had some form of paid employment at the same time as they were studying. Most of them only worked for a few hours a week, but there were also some with full-time jobs. Nine per cent of the entire number were employed for 40 hours or more each week, and 17 per cent were working at least half-time.

The total time devoted by full-time students to their studies, including work placement, amounted to 36 hours per week. The figure for part-time students was 17 hours per week. The differences between the total time devoted by men and women to their studies were negligible.

About 30 per cent of the students devoted more than 40 hours each week to their studies (classroom teaching and self-study). At the same time, 25 per cent of the students reported that their studies required 20 hours or less each week. The time needed obviously depends on the tempo at which they are studying. But there were major variations among students who reported that they were studying at the normal pace - 20 credit points each semester. Somewhat over 30 per cent devoted more than 40 hours each week, while 14 per cent of the women and 17 per cent of the men needed 20 hours a week or less.

The number of classroom hours varied from an average of under 8 hours a week for students in the humanities to 18 hours a week in master´s programmes in engineering. The time required for self-study was of course greatest in the areas in which there was least classroom teaching. Students in the humanities and social sciences devoted 16-17 hours a week to self-study. These figures were lower in the other disciplines (11-13 hours a week).

An overwhelming amount of self-study took place at home (on average 12 hours a week for full-time students) or at the higher education institution´s own premises (4.5 hours), divided more or less equally between its library and other facilities. Students on teacher training and health science programmes were those who, apart from classroom hours, spent the smallest proportion of their time at their institution.

In addition to the classroom teaching and self-study, the various kinds of programmes required other forms of study - laboratory sessions, group work and work placement - to varying extents.

On average, full-time students devoted 6 hours each week to leisure activities, part-time students 4 hours a week. Women spent less time than men on leisure activities. This applied to both full-time and part-time students.

More than half of the leisure time of full-time students was devoted to sport. Humanities students spent most time on cultural leisure activities, social science students were those most likely to devote their time to voluntary or political associations, students on master´s programmes in engineering most involved in the workings of the student union, while natural science students were most frequently involved in other regular leisure activities.

The students could be divided up into three groups when it came to the way in which they financed their studies:

1. Students receiving Swedish study assistance who avail themselves of both the grant and the loan elements. These constituted 60 per cent of the total number of students in the autumn of 1996.
2. Students receiving Swedish study assistance but who only take advantage of the grant element that does not have to be repaid. This applied to about one-fifth of the total number.
3. Students who receive no Swedish study assistance at all (again about one-fifth). They often pay for their studies by taking on paid employment.

The questionnaire also contained questions to probe what students thought about their own financial situation. Their responses can be summarised by saying that the amounts paid in Swedish study assistance are large enough for most students living on their own to maintain a decent standard of living. For some, primarily those living with their parents, it was more than adequate. They did not need to use the loan element that would later have to be repaid.

The major financial differences can be found between students with children and those without. More than one-third of those with children considered that they did not have enough money to maintain an acceptable standard of living and more than one-eighth felt that they could not make ends meet at all. Only three per cent of the students without children said that they did not have enough money to go round.

The report also presents the responses to a number of questions about what the respondents thought of their programmes and of their lives as students in general.

The overall impression is that from the point of view of the students the higher education institutions offer programmes with good content which along with the time spent studying offer the students a great deal. Improvements could, however, be made, in particular when it comes to the adaptation to and concern for the individual students and their situations. This applies at every level, from individual teachers to the administrative systems of the various institutions and the central agencies and perhaps ultimately to the central framework laid down for higher education.

These conclusions apply to all groups of students irrespective of their parental backgrounds. Students with parents who themselves have academic qualifications are, as a group, neither better nor worse adapted to the system itself or student life than those who come from what are often referred to as “non-traditional academic" homes.