Great Britain is losing Swedish students – EU countries are gaining popularity – Lundagard.se

English-speaking countries are more popular with Swedish international students – however, that is changing. Great Britain and the United States top the list, but student numbers have declined since 2016. This is a new analysis based on statistics from the Central Board of Research Support (CSN).

Analysis, Prepared Utlandsstudier.se, has determined the 19 most common countries that Swedish students choose for longer studies abroad. The survey shows that the five most popular countries between 2016 and 2023 are Great Britain, the United States, Spain, Denmark and Poland. The list is produced using CSN to find out how many Swedish students are studying in different countries abroad. The numbers were then compared to determine which countries were the most popular.

Britain has been Sweden is one of the most popular countries for students looking to complete their education abroad, attracting an average of 16.7 percent of foreign students between 2016 and 2023. However, the analysis shows that fewer and fewer people are choosing to study in the UK, with an 8 per cent drop in 2023 compared to 2016. This trend is mirrored in many English-speaking countries.

The number of Swedish students in the US, Australia and New Zealand has declined. Interest was cut due to, among others, Brexit, higher living costs, higher dollar exchange rate and Covid.

“Unless there are policy changes to reduce costs for EU students, Britain will continue to fall. I can predict this with certainty as the current numbers are dominated by students who started their education during the transition period and are still studying cheaply or for free,” writes Johan Asplund, who owns and runs Utlandsstudier.se and worked on the study. . 22 years abroad, in an email to Lundagård.

Very popular The top university for Swedish students abroad is Riga Stradins in Latvia, followed by the Lithuanian University of Health Sciences in the Lithuanian city of Kaunas. Both Latvia and Lithuania have seen increases in the number of Swedish students since 2016. The analysis also shows a broad development in which more and more Swedish students choose to study in EU countries.

Several European countries, including France, Italy and Spain, have attracted more students in 2023 than in 2016. Poland is the only EU country where the number of students will decrease by almost 1.5 percent between 2016 and 2023. Mainly those who want to study in Poland are those who want to become doctors. The decline is due to Poland's choice to retain the general service (AT) requirement for medical education in the country, while Sweden chose to remove the requirement. In practice, this means that students who choose to study as a doctor in Poland must study their AT in Polish in order to obtain their doctor's license. Johan Asplund believes that this may be one of the reasons why more Swedish students choose to study in Latvia and Lithuania, as those countries primarily attract Swedish medical students and do not require AT as much as Sweden.

Norway and Denmark Sweden attracts a steady flow of students, and the most popular is Denmark. In Denmark, an average of 5.4 percent of Swedish international students choose to study each year. In Asia, Japan, South Korea and Singapore are the three most popular countries attracting 5.6 percent of students in 2023. According to Johan Asplund, statistics like these can help Swedish students find the right way to study abroad.

“Statistics show which countries have more Swedish students, so you can choose to go to a proven place where schools are tested by CSN and you have a higher chance of meeting other Swedish students at school,” writes Johan Asplund.