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EDUCATION

Where to find Swedish students abroad: top universities revealed

International students flock to Sweden every year, but plenty of Swedes also go abroad to study at schools and universities around the world – let's take a look at where Swedish students go.

Where to find Swedish students abroad: top universities revealed
Thousands of Swedes study abroad every year. Photo: Bertil Ericson/TT

Last year a total of 26,100 Swedes received funding from CSN (the Swedish government agency that approves student finance and loans) to study abroad – the smallest number in nine years.

The number of Swedes studying abroad has fluctuated between 24,500 and 29,700 since the turn of the millennium. It peaked in 2014/15 and has been on a steady downward curve since. This is likely a result of there simply being fewer people of school-leaving age, according to CSN.

Almost 7,000 were exchange students – people enrolled at a Swedish university who spend part of their degree abroad. But the majority – around 16,700 – were so-called free movers who applied for a course at a foreign university on their own initiative, instead of staying at home in Sweden.

READ ALSO: A third of young Swedes have studied abroad

The most popular destination among Swedish students is the United States, followed by the United Kingdom and Australia. On a city level, London hosts the largest number of Swedish students.

The top university was Riga Stradins University in Latvia followed by Poland's Medical University of Gdansk. They both attracted around 400 Swedish medical students each last year.

Next on the list were Copenhagen Business School and Santa Monica College and Santa Barbara City College in the US.

”When we do surveys, foreign students usually say that they make their choice based on where their preferred education is. Then there is also a number who wants to get out and do something else, and perhaps choose based on climate or something else,” CSN's Carl-Johan Stolt told TT.

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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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