Sweden

Sweden for VISCED by Mats Öström

For general and university-related material see Sweden

Experts situated in Sweden

• Mats Öström Ross Tensta Gymnasium
• Seth Norberg Skolverket

Education in Sweden

Source: Skolverket

The Swedish education system consists of pre-school, school and adult education. They are a part of a goal guided system where:

• parliament and the government sets national goals and guidelines, for example, school laws and curriculum
• municipalities and other school owners allocates resources and organizes activities based on local conditions so that national goals and requirements can be met
• schools accordingly choose an approach that suits them.

Skolverket monitors, evaluates and reviews the pre-school, school and adult education. Skolverket also produces curriculum, grading criteria and general guidelines and more.

Costs 2009 (Source: Skolverket)

Total cost billion SEK

• Pre-school: 50,6
• Leisure-time center 11,9
• Compulsory school 77,4
• Comp. intellectual disabilities 4,3
• Upper secondary 37,1
• Upper sec for intellectual disabilities 2,7
• Upper sec for adults 3,7
• Swedish for immigrants 1,5

Cost per student

• Pre-school: 114000
• Leisure-time center 33900
• Compulsory school 83000
• Comp. intellectual disabilities 367400
• Upper secondary 90400
• Upper sec for intellectual disabilities 288600
• Upper sec for adults 44000
• Swedish for immigrants 35200

Total school budget SEK 189,2 billions (2009) Total children/pupils 1 408 005 (2010-2011) Total number of schools 10 516 (2010-2011)

Schools in Sweden

The Swedish School system in Flash graphics

Source: The Swedish School system in Flash graphics

Pre-School

Pre-school is a pedagogical group activity for children aged from 1 year until they start school. Children start pre-school at different ages and attend for varying numbers of hours a week.

The job of the pre-school is to provide a platform for lifelong learning. It is to support families in their responsibility for their children's upbringing, development and growth. It is also to be organised so that it enables parents to work or study.

Pre-school combines child care with pedagogical work in an activity that takes day-long responsibility for the whole child. There is great scope for play and creativity as well as for the child's own exploration. Pre-school is to be a fun, secure, learning experience for all the children who attend.

Pre-schools are open all year round. Daily opening hours are adapted to suit the work or studies of parents and the needs of the children.

Pre-school class

The pre-school class is non-compulsory education designed to stimulate each child's development and learning, and provide a platform for their future schooling.

The pre-school class combines the pedagogical methods of the pre-school with those of compulsory school. An important objective is that the pre-school class, compulsory school and leisure-time centre are to be more closely linked. The activities are to be stimulated by the encounter between differing pedagogical traditions.

Compulsory school

Compulsory school is a nine-year compulsory type of school. It is composed of 9 school years and each school year consists of a fall and spring semester.

Upper secondary school

Upper secondary is free, non-compulsory schooling that young people can choose after completing compulsory school. Upper secondary consists of national programmes, specially designed programmes and individual programmes.

There are a total of 17 national upper secondary programmes. Each programme lasts for 3 years and consists of core subjects, programme-specific subjects, optional courses and project work.

Each national upper secondary programme comprises:

• Eight core subjects; English, artistic activities, physical education and health, mathematics, natural science, social studies, Swedish or Swedish as a second language, and religious studies.
• A number of programme-specific subjects which are particular to the selected programme.
• A special project.
• Work-place training in the vocationally-oriented programmes.

The various upper secondary programmes can be seen as preparation for further studies, vocationally-oriented, or a combination of the two.

Further and Higher education

Folk high schools There are 148 folk high schools - independent adult education colleges - in Sweden. Each folk high school decides independently what courses it provides, and freely designs its teaching. This means that courses can be quite different from each other.

There are several types of course: year-long courses, short courses, summer courses or distance courses. Long courses are of the following types:

1. one General courses, which are an alternative to municipal adult education. They correspond to, and provide the same eligibility as, compulsory comprehensive school or upper secondary school.
2. Special courses can be oriented towards:

• • specific areas of interest (such as music, art, the environment, international)
  • professions (such as youth recreation leader, treatment assistant, sign language interpreter)
  • groups (e.g. people with various disabilities, immigrants)

Information on the range of courses is available at the folk high schools' joint website administered by the Folk High Schools Information Service at Folkhogskola.nu

Universities in Sweden

SourceSweden ranks highly according to several of the indicators used in the OECD:

• Funding: Sweden devotes 1.7% of GDP to higher education and research, half of which goes towards research and third cycle (doctoral) programmes.
• Expansion: Between 1995 and 2005, the number of students in higher education rose by about 50%. In 2010, there were 433,000 students enrolled in first (undergraduate) and second (Master's) cycle programmes.
• Well-educated population: 30% of the Swedish population between 30 and 64 years has taken a minimum of 120 higher education credits, equivalent to two years of full-time study.
• Disciplines: Sweden awards a high proportion of qualifications in medicine and health sciences.
• Third cycle (doctoral) studies: Sweden awards a high number of doctorates: 2.7% in relation to the size of a typical age cohort.

Total costs for higher level of education: 54498201000 SEK (Source: Högskoleverket)

Source: Högskoleverket In Sweden there are 47 universities and colleges who may issue a Swedish degrees.35 of these are public. 26 educational institutions authorized to award degrees at first, second and third levels, the other has only authorized to award degrees at the undergraduate and graduate levels. Moreover, there are five individual trainers who only has a degree in psychotherapy condition (not on map). Map of all universities and colleges Some universities are known as private education, that colleges run by non-state actors, such as the foundations or associations. The government has given them the right to grant degrees under the Swedish degree structure. Some examples are Chalmers University of Technology, Stockholm School of Economics and Jönköping University, all of which have a wide range of training courses and also has the right to award degrees at the doctoral level. Other private education can only give degrees in a particular area, such as Beckman's College of Design and Örebro Theological Seminary.

List of all universitis and colleges

• Karlstads universitet

• Karolinska institutet

• Luleå tekniska universitet

• Lunds universitet

• Malmö högskola

• Mittuniversitetet

• Stockholms universitet

• Sveriges lantbruksuniversitet

• Umeå universitet

• Uppsala universitet

• Örebro universitet

Colleges in Sweden

Source: Högskoleverket In Sweden there are 47 universities and colleges who may issue a Swedish degrees.35 of these are public. 26 educational institutions authorized to award degrees at first, second and third levels, the other has only authorized to award degrees at the undergraduate and graduate levels. Moreover, there are five individual trainers who only has a degree in psychotherapy condition (not on map). Map of all universities and colleges Some universities are known as private education, that colleges run by non-state actors, such as the foundations or associations. The government has given them the right to grant degrees under the Swedish degree structure. Some examples are Chalmers University of Technology, Stockholm School of Economics and Jönköping University, all of which have a wide range of training courses and also has the right to award degrees at the doctoral level. Other private education can only give degrees in a particular area, such as Beckman's College of Design and Örebro Theological Seminary.

• Beckmans designhögskola

• Blekinge tekniska högskola

• Center för Cognitiv Psykoterapi och Utbildning i Göteborg AB

• Chalmers tekniska högskola

• Dans- och cirkushögskolan

• Ericastiftelsen

• Ersta Sköndal högskola

• Förbundet S:t Lukas utbildningsinstitut

• Försvarshögskolan

• Gammelkroppa skogsskola

• Gymnastik- och idrottshögskolan

• Handelshögskolan i Stockholm

• Högskolan Dalarna

• Högskolan i Borås

• Högskolan i Gävle

• Högskolan i Halmstad

• Högskolan i Jönköping

• Högskolan i Skövde

• Högskolan Kristianstad

• Högskolan på Gotland

• Högskolan Väst

• Johannelunds teologiska högskola

• Konstfack

• Kungl. Konsthögskolan

• Kungl. Musikhögskolan i Stockholm

• Kungl. Tekniska högskolan (KTH)

• Mälardalens högskola

• Newmaninstitutet

• Operahögskolan i Stockholm

• Röda Korsets högskola

• Sophiahemmet högskola

• Stockholms Akademi för Psykoterapiutbildning

• Stockholms dramatiska högskola

• Stockholms Musikpedagogiska Institut

• Svenska Institutet för kognitiv psykoterapi

• Södertörns högskola

• Teologiska Högskolan, Stockholm

• Örebro Teologiska Högskola

Administration and finance

All schools in Sweden are free except for non Swedish residential students at the universities. The compulsory schools are not allowed to charge the pupils for anything extra and the upper secondary can charge a small fee sometimes, but not on a regular basis. At the universities all material and literature are financed by the student, but there are no fees for studying.

Schools

The schools are financed by the municipalities based on the number of pupils they have. Public and private schools get the same. The municipality gives the money to the schools and they can use them in the way they thinks is the best way to meet the standards from the national government.

Post-secondary

The universities and colleges are financed by the state and based on the number of students during a year.

Quality assurance

Skolinspektionen controls that pre-schools, schools and adult education follows the laws and makes sure they maintain good quality. It is the task of Högskoleverket (Swedish National Agency for Higher Education) to review the quality of higher education. This work includes:

• Evaluating subject areas (main fields of study) and study programmes
• Granting degree awarding powers

’’’Purpose of quality assurance’’’

• Individual students have the right to demand that their course or study programme is of a high standard.
• Employers in the public, private and voluntary sectors have a need for highly trained graduates.
• The general public is entitled to be assured that high levels of taxation result in high standards.
• In a global world, Swedish higher education must retain a high standard.

’’’European perspective’’’

The Swedish National Agency for Higher Education's quality assurance policy has been developed in accordance with the European Network for Quality Assurance's (ENQA)

ICT in education initiatives

Virtual initiatives in schools

There are at least 3 virtual upper secondary schools in Sweden:

• Värmdö Distans
• Korrenspondensgymnasiet i Torsås (in Swedish)
• Hyper Island (in English)

References

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