autumn 2020 sees 44% down
I dess Overview of Swedish higher education and research 2020, UKÄ noted that the 13,000 new incoming students was a “significant decrease” compared to the autumn semester 2019 and probably an effect of the coronavirus pandemic.
In 2019, approximately 8,000 students arrived outside the EU / EEA and Switzerland for the autumn term, with 4,500 arriving in the autumn term 2020. The number of new entrants from the UK decreased by more than half, from 500 in 2019, the research emphasized.
“Despite the reduction of the autumn term 2020, we do not see any clear effects of the pandemic in the data on new incoming students during the entire academic year 2019/20,” the report stated.
About 40,000 students chose to travel to Sweden for studies during the academic year 2019/20, of which a third arrived as exchange students and two thirds so-called freemover students.
Freemover students are categorized as either fee-paying or non-fee-paying students who join college programs.
Since tuition fees were introduced in 2011 for students outside the EU / EEA and Switzerland, the number of students who pay fees has gradually increased.
”[In 2019/20] The number of new incoming students was just over 24,000, which was an increase compared with the previous academic year, ”the newspaper added.
Students coming from the United States have “long been one of the countries that sent the newest students,” the report said. 2019/20 marked the second academic year in a row, the number from the country had decreased.
“Pakistan is once again among the countries that send the most new students to Sweden”
“The number of new students from Pakistan decreased significantly during the academic year 2011/12 after the introduction of tuition fees. Since then, the number has gradually increased and Pakistan is once again among the countries that send the most new students to Sweden, the report says.
The report also revealed that just over 22,000 Swedish students studied abroad in 2019/20.
“Of the first and second education in 2019/20, only 14 per cent had spent a study or education period of at least three months abroad during their studies. This is less than the 20% target set by the EU Council of Ministers in 2011.
“Sweden continues to work to achieve the goal.”