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TECHNOLOGY

Swedish universities earn spots in top 100

UPDATED: Two Swedish technical universities climbed an annual ranking of the world's top schools on Tuesday while some of the country's older higher education seats dropped from last year.

Swedish universities earn spots in top 100
Sweden's Royal Institute of Technology earned a spot in the top-100. Photo: Ulf Lundin/imagebank.sweden.se

Lund in southern Sweden was ranked as Sweden's top university and came 70th overall in the QS World University Rankings, dropping from number 60 in last year's tables.

Eight Swedish universities feature in the QS rankings, and all but two either dropped or remained in the same position as last year.

The Royal Institute of Technology (Kungliga Tekniska Högskolan, KTH) climbed to 92nd place, knocking the ancient Uppsala University down to number 102 from 81 in the 2014 rankings. And Gothenburg-based Chalmers University of Technology leaped from 175th to 132nd place.

Founded in 1827, KTH is Sweden's oldest and largest technical seat of higher education and provides one third of the country's technical and engineering research at university level.

“With over 18,000 students and an international reputation for excellence, the university continues to nurture the world's brightest minds, helping to shape the future,” reads the QS description.

READ ALSO: Seven bizarre Swedish academic traditions

While Sweden was the only Nordic nation to claim two spots in the tables, honours for the highest-ranked university in the region went to the University of Copenhagen.

The Danish university came in at 69th place in the QS rankings, which compare the world’s top 800 institutions across six criteria covering research, employability, teaching and international outlook.

The highest ranking Norwegian school was the University of Oslo at number 135, while Finland's University of Helsinki was ranked the 96th best. No Icelandic universities were included. 

The number one university in the world, according to QS, is the United States' MIT, closely followed by Harvard, with Stanford and the United Kingdom's Cambridge claiming a shared third place.

The QS World University Rankings annually rate 800 universities, based on measures including academic reputation, reputation among employers, citations, mentoring and student performance. The full rankings can be viewed here.

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EDUCATION

Inquiry calls for free after-school care for 6-9 year-olds in Sweden

Children between ages 6-9 years should be allowed admittance to after-school recreation centers free of charge, according to a report submitted to Sweden’s Minister of Education Lotta Edholm (L).

Inquiry calls for free after-school care for 6-9 year-olds in Sweden

“If this reform is implemented, after-school recreation centers will be accessible to the children who may have the greatest need for the activities,” said Kerstin Andersson, who was appointed to lead a government inquiry into expanding access to after-school recreation by the former Social Democrat government. 

More than half a million primary- and middle-school-aged children spend a large part of their school days and holidays in after-school centres.

But the right to after-school care is not freely available to all children. In most municipalities, it is conditional on the parent’s occupational status of working or studying. Thus, attendance varies and is significantly lower in areas where unemployment is high and family finances weak.

In this context, the previous government formally began to inquire into expanding rights to leisure. The report was recently handed over to Sweden’s education minister, Lotta Edholm, on Monday.

Andersson proposed that after-school activities should be made available free of charge to all children between the ages of six and nine in the same way that preschool has been for children between the ages of three and five. This would mean that children whose parents are unemployed, on parental leave or long-term sick leave will no longer be excluded. 

“The biggest benefit is that after-school recreation centres will be made available to all children,” Andersson said. “Today, participation is highest in areas with very good conditions, while it is lower in sparsely populated areas and in areas with socio-economic challenges.” 

Enforcing this proposal could cause a need for about 10,200 more places in after-school centre, would cost the state just over half a billion kronor a year, and would require more adults to work in after-school centres. 

Andersson recommends recruiting staff more broadly, and not insisting that so many staff are specialised after-school activities teachers, or fritidspedagod

“The Education Act states that qualified teachers are responsible for teaching, but that other staff may participate,” Andersson said. “This is sometimes interpreted as meaning that other staff may be used, but preferably not’. We propose that recognition be given to so-called ‘other staff’, and that they should be given a clear role in the work.”

She suggested that people who have studied in the “children’s teaching and recreational programmes” at gymnasium level,  people who have studied recreational training, and social educators might be used. 

“People trained to work with children can contribute with many different skills. Right now, it might be an uncertain work situation for many who work for a few months while the employer is looking for qualified teachers”, Andersson said. 

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