2003-04-09

Swedish recognition? Supplementary courses for foreign academics

The National Agency for Higher Education was able to ascertain that approximately 1,600 students had been enrolled on supplementary courses offered by higher education institutions to foreign academics in the years concerned. The largest group of students were either supplementing a foreign degree with teacher training courses or taking qualifying courses in order to acquire degrees in nursing or state registration as nurses. There were also students taking programmes in Swedish, often in order to gain a TISUS qualification that would entitle them to continue to study in higher education or to take the test in Swedish for the health service arranged by the National Board of Health and Welfare. In addition, foreign academics were also studying to acquire certification to practise in Sweden as physicians, veterinary surgeons or psychologists.

The survey also showed that the higher education institutions played a very minor role in initiating supplementary courses. Course of this kind for holders of foreign degrees are primarily arranged as commissioned courses. The numbers of students taking these courses were also small. However, there are examples of institutions that have arranged “entrances" to higher education specifically with foreign academics in mind. These are nevertheless exceptions. The majority of commissions come from the Labour Market Board and the County Labour Boards, sometimes in collaboration with the County Administrative Boards and local authorities. The European Social Fund is one of a number of other actors who provide funding for some programmes. The Labour Market Board and the County Labour Boards are implementing a programme addressed specifically to foreign academics but the vast majority of these programmes are not found within higher education.

For the students in this survey, supplementary courses have to a large extent provided the recognition they required for employment in Sweden. Of those who completed the courses satisfactorily, 84 per cent have found work and nearly half of them have been offered permanent employment. The attitudes of the students to the programmes are generally positive. At the same time the National Agency points out that these supplementary programmes have a tendency to go on for a long time.

The National Agency has also conducted a survey of the research that has been carried out into the situation on the labour market for immigrants in Sweden and for those holding foreign degrees. The literature reveals, for instance, that individuals with a foreign background, even second generation immigrants, have greater difficulties in gaining a footing in the labour market than those born in Sweden.

The Swedish community/labour market is not capable of taking advantage of the skills that these highly trained immigrants bring with them. Here, higher education in Sweden could perhaps serve as a resource to enable this gap to be closed (rather than bridged) and thus help holders of foreign degrees to avoid the discrimination experienced by immigrant job-applicants that is such a major problem in the Swedish labour market.