Response to interpellation 2025/26:60 on the number of places in higher education
Translated from Swedish by AI; the translation may contain errors. The Swedish text is the original.
Summary AI, written in advance
1 L prioritizes high quality within higher education through increased compensation amounts 1. 2 L argues that educational places are not a labor market policy measure and that the demand for academics is decreasing 2. 3 L emphasizes that the government is investing in the university college and that state grants to komvux are not being cut without the municipalities receiving better conditions 3. 4 L argues that one cannot expand higher education places without promoting quality 4 and that S has for many years expanded without providing funds for quality 4. 5 S argues that the government is cutting places in the folk high school and the academy despite a record number of applicants 5. 6 S claims that the government is making draconian cuts to komvux and that S has put more money into the university college than the government 6. 7 S argues that the government is lowering the grant to komvux by almost 700 million kronor 7. 7 S believes that higher education leads to jobs and that the government should prioritize educational places that lead to jobs 7.
Written by AI in advance and may contain errors. The numbers lead to the speech a statement builds on; check against the text below.
Gymnasie-, högskole- och forskningsministern Lotta Edholm (L)
Mr. Speaker! Linus Sköld has asked me what further measures I intend to take to reduce the number of educational places in the coming years and whether I intend to take any measures so that the workforce will be better prepared for working life when the economy turns.
To strengthen the conditions for high quality in education and educational offerings, the government continues to prioritize increased compensation amounts for several educational areas within higher education. It is an important signal that high quality shall be in focus. The government's quality initiatives within the educational areas of nature and technology and humanities, society, law and theology create conditions for high quality within the educations that are largest within higher education. This means that nearly three quarters of the students receive a share of the quality initiatives.
It is important that the increased resources per student can be converted into, among other things, increased teacher-led time to promote students' learning and understanding. This gives students better conditions to understand complex relationships, reflect critically, and achieve deeper knowledge within their subject. To safeguard a high quality within the music field, the government now proposes in the budget bill for 2026 that the compensation amount for this area also be increased.
The government's implemented and proposed quality initiatives through increased compensation per student have been partially financed by redistributing funds between higher education institutions. This has meant that some institutions have had their ceiling amounts reduced. It is up to the institutions to decide how many students they admit and into which programs, which means that this change may look different at different institutions.
It is important to emphasize that it is not only the number of educational places that is of importance, but also the quality of the education and its orientation. The purpose of the redistribution is to strengthen the drivers for an educational offering of high quality. The workforce is only better equipped for working life when the economy turns if both the educations maintain high quality and the orientation meets the demands of working life.
Linus Sköld's question concerns the number of places in higher education. Both the university college (yrkeshögskolan) and the university (högskolan) meet the demand for post-secondary educated labor. Both forms of education are relevant in this context.
In the budget bill for 2026, the government proposes a continued permanent expansion of places within the university colleges (yrkeshögskolan). During the current parliamentary term, the government has invested in a successive expansion of the university colleges, and in the budget for 2026, the government proposes an additional 900 million kronor during the period 2026–2028, which corresponds to approximately 12,000 new annual places.
When it comes to the folk high schools, temporary funds were added to the folk high schools in stages during the pandemic. Since these funds were precisely temporary, they subsequently ceased. On the other hand, from and including 2024, 100 million kronor have been added to the folk high schools permanently, and support for the folk high schools has therefore not been cut.
Linus Sköld (S)
Mr. Speaker! As Lotta Edholm very rightly pointed out in her response, my interpellation primarily concerned educational places in the academy. In a subordinate clause, I mentioned some other forms of education for adults, including the folk high schools. Then Lotta Edholm could not help herself and was forced to stretch the truth when it comes to the folk high schools.
I will therefore begin where Lotta Edholm finished and correct an important inaccuracy in her answer. Lotta Edholm says that the government has not cut the places in the folk high schools. That is not true. The year that the folk high schools received the permanent reinforcement of 100 million, the number of annual study places in the folk high schools decreased by over 4,000. It is therefore a reduction of 7.3 percent of the number of those who study at a folk high school. It is completely incomprehensible to me to claim that this is not a cut.
Let us move on to higher education, which is what the debate was actually supposed to be about. In the autumn admissions, 411,000 people applied for places in higher education. That is a record. The number of education places – the educational supply, both in terms of the number of courses available to apply for and in terms of how many were ultimately admitted – decreased in the autumn.
Only a few weeks ago, the application period for the spring semester ended, and UHÄ has already presented the statistics. It is a record again; this many have not applied for a place in higher education in a spring semester since 2009, that is, since there was a financial crisis in Sweden.
We have a recession in the country. Companies are going bankrupt on a scale and in a way that the government completely ignores. Sweden has a growth that is at the bottom of Europe and an unemployment rate that is soaring. We have 100,000 more unemployed now than when Lotta Edholm took her previous ministerial post as school minister, as it was called then.
The government's labor market policy can be summarized as phasing out all labor market policy and making those who are unemployed poorer.
Lotta Edholm's representative declared in 2024 a reorganization of the government's education policy. The government was to prioritize education that leads to jobs, and there would be fewer hobby-oriented courses in the academy.
According to the statistics for the spring semester's admissions, the number of applicants to the nursing program increases by 18 percent. At the same time, three nursing programs are being discontinued, despite the fact that the number of applicants is increasing by 18 percent.
Therefore, my question to Lotta Edholm is simple: Does Lotta Edholm think that nursing educations are educations of a hobbyist nature?
Gymnasie-, högskole- och forskningsministern Lotta Edholm (L)
Mr. Speaker! No, I am not concerned that the number of places in higher education is decreasing slightly. Higher education should not be a labor market policy measure. People who are unemployed must receive an education at the level that leads to jobs.
What we are now seeing in Western Europe is a development where the general demand for academically educated personnel is actually decreasing. There are many reasons for that. On the other hand, we have a strong demand for vocationally trained people in Sweden. It is clear that these issues are connected. If one believes that one solves unemployment by having people take courses that they otherwise would not have taken, I think one is shooting oneself in the foot. One also deceives young people into taking on student loans and a long academic education that then does not lead to jobs.
I mean that there is a danger in doing what the Social Democrats did previously: to expand the number of places very significantly but at the same time not provide funds to increase the quality of the educations. One must do both if one does such a substantial expansion. What the government is doing now is to invest in increasing the quality in the higher educations we already have but also to invest heavily in the university colleges. We have today enormous shortages of vocationally trained staff.
The solution to this cannot be to constantly only increase the number of places without simultaneously increasing the quality. This is what both educational institutions and students have complained about in recent years. One gets, for example, fewer and fewer teaching hours. Many who teach in higher education feel that they are insufficient.
It is also about the fact that very many students today come to our higher education institutions without sufficient knowledge. The generation that now leaves primary school without being able to read and write properly and who then go through upper secondary school without acquiring sufficient knowledge are now coming to higher education.
It is not reasonable that we simply continue to expand and expand if we do not simultaneously provide resources to increase the quality. Now the government is providing resources to significantly increase the quality in a way that did not happen during the Social Democratic years. I am not ashamed of that at all, but I think it is good. At the same time, we are expanding the university colleges significantly, because that is also an important way to give people better education.
Linus Sköld (S)
Mr. Speaker! Once again, Lotta Edholm is stretching the truth. The government is not adding resources. The government is lowering the ceiling, that is to say, it is cutting the amount of money the educational institutions can spend and the number of people they can take in. The government does this to finance a small increase in the price tags.
We Social Democrats have not opposed the increase in the price tags, and Lotta Edholm knows that very well. We embrace it, and we think it is important with quality enhancements in higher education. But it cannot happen at the expense of the number of educational places in a labor market situation where what people need most of all is precisely access to educational places. One cannot cut thousands of places when we have a record number of applicants.
Lotta Edholm speaks warmly about the vocational college. Yes, it is important – we Social Democrats have no other opinion. We have allocated more money than the government in every budget to the vocational college. We have the same opinion as the government: the vocational college fulfills a very important function for the education of the Swedish workforce. But it is a very small piece of the puzzle compared to komvux, which the government is making draconian cuts to, and compared to the academy, where the government is making large reductions.
In times of recession when unemployment rises, people will seek out education to strengthen their position on the labor market. That is perfectly reasonable. The Swedish model works such that when the economy goes down, the state must invest. The public sector must compensate for the decline, and one of the smartest things one can do is to invest in education, because then the workforce will return when the economy turns and have stronger competence than they had when the economy began to decline.
I believe that we should build this country's competitiveness on competence. Lotta Edholm represents a government that thinks we should build the country's competitiveness on low wages and poor working conditions. That is the difference between us. That is why Lotta Edholm does not think that one should have access to higher education. That is why Lotta Edholm does not think that there needs to be an active labor market policy. It is enough to make the unemployed poor. Then, what holds up the wage levels decreases, and one can get cheap labor to build our competitiveness with.
It is much better for the country's prosperity and for a strong cohesion if we can build our competitiveness on high competence and a high level of knowledge. But since Lotta Edholm is now standing here and saying that the number of educational places in the academy is too many and that it is therefore important that we reduce them, she is welcome to answer my original question: What additional measures does Lotta Edholm intend to take to reduce the number of educational places?
Gymnasie-, högskole- och forskningsministern Lotta Edholm (L)
Mr. Speaker! I believe we are in complete agreement that the workforce must constantly be given access to education. For example, a very important discussion is currently being held on how people who already have a high level of education can be given access to, for example, shorter courses that can improve their opportunities in working life. A civil engineer might need a shorter course on AI, green transition, or whatever it is. It is incredibly important.
At the same time, it is important to point out that we have a decreased demand for academics in general. Over the last two years, we have seen a unique increase in the number of unemployed academics, and I mean that we must take that into account when it comes to educational needs. Educating academics in general is then not the most obvious thing to do.
Linus Sköld says that we are cutting back on komvux, and then I guess he means the state grants to komvux. We are not cutting those down. On the other hand, it is the case that half of the state grants to komvux go to waste every year, which probably is due to the municipalities thinking that these state grants are difficult to apply for, that they are not suitable for the educations they have, and so on. Therefore, we are now raising the compensation levels in the state grant to the municipalities by an average of 20 percent. It will be slightly different depending on which occupations it concerns.
We are also now preparing to give the municipalities somewhat more long-term conditions. Today, one receives money over two years, and we are preparing a proposal which means that one should be able to receive them over three years so that these funds, i.e., approximately half of the state grant, will no longer burn away. It is no use putting more money into the state grant if one does not simultaneously ensure that the municipalities can actually utilize it.
I am glad that Linus Sköld thinks it is important to expand the vocational college. We shall continue with that. We are making historical investments in that area as well, because it is an education that actually leads to jobs.
We have increasing unemployment among academics. To then believe that if one simply expands higher education at our universities it will lead to jobs is to shoot oneself in the foot.
Linus Sköld (S)
Mr. Speaker! I will begin by exposing yet another of Lotta Edholm's false claims based on her own budget. I will read the figures aloud: The 2025 appropriation for the state's support to komvux was approximately 4,356 million. The 2026 appropriation is proposed to be 3,712 million. Even if only half of the money were to be spent, this is still a reduction of 350 million. The nominal reduction is therefore almost 700 million.
You cannot call that anything other than a cut. If only half of the money is spent, it is also strange that the outcome for 2024 is reported as 4.2 billion. Lotta Edholm continues to stretch the truth. I find that very troubling.
It is the same thing regarding the claim that higher education does not lead to jobs. The report that I referred to at the beginning regarding the application statistics for the spring semester's courses shows more applicants to all the reported vocational degree programs, all of which have a shortage situation over the coming five-year period: occupational therapist, biomedical analyst, physiotherapist, engineering degree, doctor, psychologist, pharmacist, nurse, social worker, dental hygienist, dentist, and vocational teacher. The application pressure is increasing most for the nursing program, while at the same time three educational providers are closing down.
Will nurses be unemployed after completing their education? If Lotta Edholm thinks so, she is making a completely different assessment than her own agencies do. We cannot lump this together. The government was to prioritize training places that lead to jobs. How is that going?
Gymnasie-, högskole- och forskningsministern Lotta Edholm (L)
Mr. Speaker! As Linus Sköld surely knows, we do not decide exactly how many places there should be at colleges and universities. My only point in this is that we cannot continue to just expand the number of higher education places without simultaneously promoting quality.
When I read the Social Democrats' budget reservation, I note that the word quality does not appear in the text at all. That is because the Social Democrats have, for many years, expanded and expanded without simultaneously providing money to maintain the quality in education.
Vocational colleges are another matter. We know that 85 percent of those who attend vocational colleges get jobs. This depends to a very large extent on the construction, that is to say that the educations take place in close cooperation with the industries. This naturally leads to it being educations that are in demand by the labor market, and I am glad that the Social Democrats now think that this is a good idea and a good education. We now have a large pilot project underway to ensure that a part of these ideas on how one works are transferred to komvux.
When it comes to the state grants to komvux, almost 50 percent of them are frozen, and there are various reasons for that. Linus Sköld could perhaps go home to his Social Democratic municipal council friends and ask why these funds are not being utilized. We are now going to make it easier and also raise the compensation levels by an average of 20 percent, which I believe will facilitate things.
Source: The Swedish Parliament. The speeches come from the open data of the Riksdag, translated into English by AI, which may contain errors.