All this here eddication is a sad mistake
The current government's approach to education never ceases to amaze me: just when I thought they had reached the limit, I am again reminded that stupidity has no limits. Nor, it would appear, has their desire to return to an earlier and less equal era.
Sweden has free education all the way up to doctoral degrees. In addition, there has for a long time been a reasonably good student loan system, for living costs, and a number of ways to become eligible for university studies, including the 25:4 rule - 25 years old and 4 years in the workforce qualifies you for university studies regardless of your grades, or lack thereof. There has been KomVux (municipal school for adults) which enables people who got low or no grades at school to catch up; there are the folk universities, which aim at providing various kinds of education for those not happy in or suited to standard education. There are also the free libraries, where generations of people who had no hope of formal education have become well-read, well-informed, and informally educated.
However, this pleases the current government not at all. They have removed the 25:4 rule, thus depriving a large number of people of another chance at education. They have lowered the taxes but not increased the student loan, which is now at a level where most students have to work to pay their rent. The latest suggestion is to limit student loans to four years, unless the student has a Bachelor's after those four years, or can in some other way prove that they are studying with a goal in sight. Currently, you have to take a certain number of credits to have your loan prolonged; it's unclear to me why that is not a sufficent requirement. I'm not sure I had a BA after four years, but on the other hand I now have a PhD - which I couldn't have gotten under the suggested system. I'd have run out of money.
They are also making noises about the regional universities. Well, perhaps the big universities provide better education. I doubt it. However, Sweden is full of people who want an education and are not in a position to move to one of the big universities (and to give you an example of distances, the two oldest ones are about 8 hours apart by car - this is a country of distances). There are people with a family they don't want to move, whose spouses have a steady job they don't want to and can't afford to give up, who cannot leave home for other reasons: all those people have access to a university eduction because there are so many more universities nowadays. Removing the small ones means that people will decide to do something else with their lives, not that they will move to where the education is. Not that we could handle that, anyway - I live in an old university town, and we can't provide housing for the students we already have.
In 2001, 32% of Swedes between 25 and 64 had a university eduction. 80% had secondary education (mandatory school lasts until you're 16, then there's 3 years of secondary education). Among those between 25 and 34, 37% had a university education and 91% had secondary education. We're a small country; if we want to export anything but wood, paper, and blondes, we need education. This also happens to be something we're good at - I refer you again to the opportunities for self-education provided. We invented not just dynamite, but also things like the adjustable spanner, ball bearings, and the pacemaker. We do good technical and medical research, too. One would imagine that this is something the government might want to support. And they do. Unfortunately, they don't know how.
World-class research, like worls-class sports, hinges on two things: a large base of practitioners and sufficient resources for those that will get good to get really good. One cannot pick out the future Nobel-prize winners among first-year students anymore than one can pick out the future Pelé among the 8-year-olds playing football in the street. One can decide that only those that can afford an education, or a real football, get to try for that position. Or one can provide a chance for all of them to pursue their interest, and then one will have a Nobel prize, or a World Championship, in the end.
Sweden has free education all the way up to doctoral degrees. In addition, there has for a long time been a reasonably good student loan system, for living costs, and a number of ways to become eligible for university studies, including the 25:4 rule - 25 years old and 4 years in the workforce qualifies you for university studies regardless of your grades, or lack thereof. There has been KomVux (municipal school for adults) which enables people who got low or no grades at school to catch up; there are the folk universities, which aim at providing various kinds of education for those not happy in or suited to standard education. There are also the free libraries, where generations of people who had no hope of formal education have become well-read, well-informed, and informally educated.
However, this pleases the current government not at all. They have removed the 25:4 rule, thus depriving a large number of people of another chance at education. They have lowered the taxes but not increased the student loan, which is now at a level where most students have to work to pay their rent. The latest suggestion is to limit student loans to four years, unless the student has a Bachelor's after those four years, or can in some other way prove that they are studying with a goal in sight. Currently, you have to take a certain number of credits to have your loan prolonged; it's unclear to me why that is not a sufficent requirement. I'm not sure I had a BA after four years, but on the other hand I now have a PhD - which I couldn't have gotten under the suggested system. I'd have run out of money.
They are also making noises about the regional universities. Well, perhaps the big universities provide better education. I doubt it. However, Sweden is full of people who want an education and are not in a position to move to one of the big universities (and to give you an example of distances, the two oldest ones are about 8 hours apart by car - this is a country of distances). There are people with a family they don't want to move, whose spouses have a steady job they don't want to and can't afford to give up, who cannot leave home for other reasons: all those people have access to a university eduction because there are so many more universities nowadays. Removing the small ones means that people will decide to do something else with their lives, not that they will move to where the education is. Not that we could handle that, anyway - I live in an old university town, and we can't provide housing for the students we already have.
In 2001, 32% of Swedes between 25 and 64 had a university eduction. 80% had secondary education (mandatory school lasts until you're 16, then there's 3 years of secondary education). Among those between 25 and 34, 37% had a university education and 91% had secondary education. We're a small country; if we want to export anything but wood, paper, and blondes, we need education. This also happens to be something we're good at - I refer you again to the opportunities for self-education provided. We invented not just dynamite, but also things like the adjustable spanner, ball bearings, and the pacemaker. We do good technical and medical research, too. One would imagine that this is something the government might want to support. And they do. Unfortunately, they don't know how.
World-class research, like worls-class sports, hinges on two things: a large base of practitioners and sufficient resources for those that will get good to get really good. One cannot pick out the future Nobel-prize winners among first-year students anymore than one can pick out the future Pelé among the 8-year-olds playing football in the street. One can decide that only those that can afford an education, or a real football, get to try for that position. Or one can provide a chance for all of them to pursue their interest, and then one will have a Nobel prize, or a World Championship, in the end.