Report 2010:10 R
Universities and higher education institutions: the National Agency's annual report for 2010
Increased international mobility
Educational levels are rising continually in the OECD countries. During the first seven years of the 21st century the proportion of the population with higher education qualifications increased on average by six percentage units in the OECD as a whole. There are, however, major variations between different countries — in Canada 48 per cent of the population had graduated from higher education in 2007 compared with 11 per cent in Turkey. The corresponding figure for Sweden was 31 per cent.
Student mobility is also increasing year after year. Globally there were three million students studying abroad in 2007, an increase of almost 60 per cent since the beginning of the century. The largest number came from China and the largest host country was the USA.
During the academic year of 2008/09 just over 24,000 Swedish students were taking courses abroad. The number has remained more or less at this level during the last decade but changes have taken place in the countries in which they choose to study. Almost 2,000 were studying in Asia in the academic year of 2008/09, which is more than twice as many as five years earlier. The number of incoming students has more than tripled during the last decade. In the academic year of 2008/09 there were almost 37,000 students from other countries in higher education in Sweden. The increase has mainly been among “freemovers" — particularly from Asia. Their numbers have increased on average by 39 per cent each year during the last decade. The major countries of origin in Asia during the academic year of 2008/09 were China, Pakistan, Iran, Bangladesh and India. From the autumn of 2011 tuition fees will be introduced in Sweden for students from countries outside the EU/EEA and Switzerland. The numbers of students from these countries will then probably decline.
Major increase in applications, admissions and new entrants
The number of applicants to higher education institution for the autumn semester of 2009 rose by almost 30 per cent compared to the autumn semester of 2008. Much of this increase is due to the record number of 19-year-olds in 2009. The business cycle and labour market conditions also played a significant role in the major increase in applications.
The number of applications for the round of admissions to international two-year master's programmes for the autumn of 2009 rose by 45 per cent compared to the previous autumn. The admissions process for international courses and programmes (mainly first and second cycle) attracted almost three times as many applications as in the autumn of 2008. The number admitted without prior study in higher education was almost 67,000 in the autumn of 2009, 30 per cent more than in the autumn semester of 2008. Of these 57 per cent were women and 43 per cent men.
During the academic year of 2008/09 the number of new entrants to higher education reached the highest level ever — 94,000 who had not previously studied at higher education institutions in Sweden began their studies. Compared to the previous academic year this was a rise of 8 per cent. The number of Swedish new entrants increased by 7 per cent to almost 70,000. Only on one previous occasion has the number of Swedish new entrants been higher — in the academic year of 2002/03 just over 70,000 Swedish students began their studies in higher education. The number of incoming new entrants rose by 12 per cent to just over 24,000, which means that incoming students now constitute more than a quarter of new entrants to higher education.
Both students whose parents lack secondary education and students with foreign backgrounds were — as earlier — underrepresented among new entrants to higher education.
The economic recession and high unemployment figures not only help to raise the number of new entrants to higher education but also mean that many students go on studying for longer when it becomes difficult to find jobs. Even though the majority of recent graduates from higher education establish themselves relatively quickly in the labour market, the economic situation plays its role in how quickly and to what extent this takes place.
More FTE's than ever before — but fewer graduating
The number of FTE's was also the highest ever in 2009 — just over 304,200, an increase of almost 23,000 FTE's or 8 per cent compared to 2008. In percentage terms the largest rise took place in the field of technology where the number of FTE's rose by 12 per cent.
The greatest increase was in programmes leading to the award of general qualifications, i.e. those that do not lead to professional qualifications, and freestanding courses — 13 and 9 per cent respectively. The number of FTE's in programmes leading to the award of professional qualifications rose by 3 per cent. The performance indicator — calculated by dividing the number of FTE's by the number of annual performance equivalents in an entire academic year — has declined from 83 per cent in the academic year of 2002/03 to 79 per cent for 2008/09. Performance indicators have declined progressively both in programmes leading to the award of general qualifications and freestanding courses during the five most recent academic years. On the other hand they have remained more or less constant for those leading to professional qualifications in the same period.
The number of qualifications awarded declined to some extent for the third year running, which can be explained for instance by the decline in the number of new entrants for several years after the academic year of 2002/03.
About 50,200 students graduated during the academic year of 2008/09 while the number of qualifications awarded totalled about 57,500. It is increasingly common for students to be awarded both a general qualification (a bachelor's or one-year or two-year master's degree) and a professional qualification on completion of the same courses. This applies in particular to health care subjects.
Women more likely to graduate than men
There are major differences between the graduation rates in different programmes leading to the award of professional qualifications, i.e. how large a proportion of the new entrants are awarded qualifications. Generally speaking graduation rates are higher in programmes that lead to certification in the health care sector than elsewhere. Bachelor's programmes in engineering have the lowest graduation rates. However, many students in this particular — and large — field complete their studies without being awarded a qualification. Graduation rates are not therefore always a good indicator of student completion rates.
Among students who discontinue their studies in a programme there certain consistent differences between men and women. One is that the men more often drop out of higher education completely while women are more likely to switch to another programme.
The average graduation rate for women is almost 20 percentage units higher than for men, which can be explained partly by the predominance of women in health science programmes with high graduation rates and also that for most qualifications women have a higher graduation rate than men.
Fewer PhD's awarded
The number of new entrants to doctoral programmes in 2009 was 3,400, which means very little change compared to 2008. The proportion coming from outside Sweden continued to be about one-third. As in previous years, about half of these beginners were women but among the Swedish new entrants the proportion of women was 53 per cent.
Almost half of all the new entrants to doctoral programmes come from Asia. Technology is the most popular field for new entrants from abroad, while medicine attracts the most new entrants from Sweden. For the first time for just over fifteen years the number of PhD's awarded in 2009 declined. During the year 2,700 PhD's were awarded and 750 licentiate degrees.
From 1 January 2010 a university college may after appraisal by the Swedish National Agency for Higher Education acquire entitlement to award a general third-cycle qualification in a given field. Entitlement to award third-cycle qualifications in disciplinary domains will no longer apply. From 1 January 2010 a new category of third-cycle qualifications in the fine, applied and performing arts was introduced.
Substantial increase in research funding
The revenues of the higher education institutions for research and third-cycle programmes amounted to almost SEK 30 billion in 2009. This is a rise of SEK 1.9 billion or 7 per cent in fixed prices compared to the previous year. Never before has there been such a large increase in revenues. Both direct state funding and the institutions' revenues from external funding agencies rose.
The major rise in research funding can largely be explained by the SEK 5 billion increase in direct state funding of over a four-year period. More than half of this increase goes directly to the higher education institutions, both because direct state funding has been raised and also through the funds for strategic research in designated fields allocated to some institutions. In addition there has been an increase in the research funding allocated by the research councils and Vinnova. These increases accounted therefore for most of the rise in research revenue at the institutions in 2009, but revenues from private and other state funding agencies rose more than in the previous year.
The EU has become more important for the research funding at higher education institutions. In 2009 the funding received from the EU totalled almost SEK 1.3 billion — a rise of 12 per cent compared to the previous year. Another small element — although one that is growing rapidly — of EU funding is made up of the amounts received from the European Research Council (ERC). In 2009 eight institutions accounted for revenues from the ERC totalling SEK 61 million.
More teachers and researchers
The major increase in first and second-cycle programmes as well as in research funding is reflected by an increase in the numbers of research and teaching staff, which grew by 5 per cent in 2009. The number of teachers and researchers totalled 25,000 expressed in whole-time equivalents in 2009. Most of the teachers and researchers were active in the social sciences, almost 5,900 whole- time equivalents. The largest increase in terms of numbers took place in medicine, followed by technology. During the last decade the proportion of women among research and teaching staff has risen from 35 to 42 per cent. The smallest proportion of women can be found, as earlier, among the professors. A gradual increase is, however, taking place and 20 per cent of the professors were women in 2009.
On average teachers and researchers devote about 40 per cent of their working hours to research and about 25 per cent to their teaching. Nearly half of the remaining 35 per cent is spent on administration.
Record economic surpluses
The higher education institutions ended up with an aggregate economic surplus of SEK 2 billion in 2009. The major rise in the number of FTE's meant that many institutions were entitled to their maximum funding allocations and were also able to use funding saved from previous years. This meant that amount received for first and second-cycle programmes were greater than the stipulated funding caps for many higher education institutions. At the same time research revenues rose without any corresponding rise in expenditure. These two factors together resulted in a historic surplus — totalling SEK 2 billion — for the higher education institutions. Together with changes in capital in the accounts of previous years the total balance carried forward amounted to SEK 7 billion. In all, the expenditure of the higher education institutions on their activities totalled SEK 52 billion and their revenues amounted to SEK 54 billion.
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