Sweden’s international student numbers “recover”
A total of 33,300 incoming foreign students took classes in Sweden in 2020/21, a decrease of 16% compared with the previous year.
While the 16,950 new students were a significant decrease from the 24,400 new students the year before, the latest statistics for the autumn of 2021 indicate that the influx of international students has increased.
“The number of incoming students was largely back to the levels they had reached before the pandemic, even though they had not fully returned,” annual report The National Agency for Higher Education (UKÄ) noted.
“Above all, the group of exchange students has recovered.”
The tasks are shared by exchange students and freemover students, who are international students who complete entire courses without traveling as part of an exchange program.
The decrease in incoming new exchange students was significantly more than the decrease in freemover students, the report noted. In 2020/21, there were 11,040 incoming freemover students – a decrease of 4% (430 students) compared with the previous year.
It also found that the number of new freemovers who paid tuition fees decreased by 770 students, with 4,440 new students who paid for tuition in 2020/21.
“Above all, the group of exchange students has recovered”
“The corona pandemic also affected the number of Swedish students who traveled abroad to study,” the report continues.
The total of 16,250 Swedish international students in the academic year 2020/21 was a decrease of 28% compared with the previous year. Again, the impact on exchange students was more noticeable than freemover students. Outgoing exchange students dropped from 7,060 to 1,800, while 14,450 were freemover students.
The report says that if you count the figures for higher education, Sweden did not reach a European goal takes place in 2011 for 20% of all students completing post-secondary education to join mobility programs by 2020.
Sweden’s neighbor, Norway now has a goal to half of those who graduate in the country should have had a period of study or education abroad during their studies.
Speak at NAFSA 2022, Birgit Siebe-Herbig from DAAD in Germany described a similar purpose in DAAD 2025 strategyfor 50% of German students to gain “significant international and intercultural experience” through study abroad, virtual experiences or “internationalization at home”.
Of the total of 66,160 students who graduated in Sweden during 2020/21, 13% participated in mobility programs during the previous 12 study semesters, which was a small decrease compared with the previous year, the report stated. The average for recent years has been around 14-15%, the report added.
It also identified study areas where the largest proportion of students went abroad.
Among economics students in 2020/21, 44% studied abroad, for landscape architects 41%, architects 40%, social sciences 39% and law students 36%.
Students who applied for a degree in preschool pedagogy and nursing were at the other end of the scale, where only a fraction of the students studied abroad.
All European countries saw fewer exchange students from Sweden in 2020/21, except Denmark, Switzerland and Latvia, while the North American countries saw the largest decline, from 4,420 to 2,490.