The deadline for registrations expired on Wednesday with the Swedish Council for Higher Education (Universitet och högskolerådet) reporting that they'd received 390,000 applications – an increase of 9,500 compared to 2013. 

Due to the added demand for places the state body extended the deadline by a day. In the space of 24 hours they received 20,000 more applications for courses due to begin in the autumn.

As usual the universities offering degree programs in medicine, economics, law and psychology drew the most applicants.

The Karolinska Institute, a famed medical university in Solna, had the most first-hand applications (2,258) to study its medical program.

Stockholm University attracted the most first-hand applications in total with 40,200 expressing a desire to further their studies at the capital institute. Its law degree was the second most desired course for first hand applications with 2,099 prospective students.

The three universities which received the most applications in total were; University of Stockholm, Uppsala University and the University of Lund.

Applicants who wanted to study a full degree program made up 37 percent of the total, with 43 percent opting for individual courses which can be used to make up a degree.

"It is still the bigger institutions which attract the most applicants, chiefly owing that they have many of the most coveted specialist education," said Tuula Kuosmanen, head of the department for admissions and student support for the Swedish Council for Higher Education, in a statement.

In the most recent Times Higher Education ranking just one Swedish university made the top 100 list. The Karolinska Institute moved into the 51-60 bracket but both Uppsala and Lund universities dropped out of the top 100 entirely.  

TT/The Local/pr