2004-03-30
Foundation Year within universities and university colleges: situation spring 2004
Foundation Year scope
The number of foundation year students increased somewhat for the academic year 2002/03 (3 499) compared to the previous academic year (3 287). Female percentage declined a bit, just as in the previous year, and is now 38 per cent. At least 25 Swedish universities and university colleges had some form of foundation year during the period stretching from the autumn term 2002 and up to the spring term 2004. The most popular foundation year courses related to engineering and the “open" technical/natural science foundation year where the student selects his/her specialisation choice during the year of studies. Moreover, these specialisations attracted most of those studying. Less common was the foundation year aimed at the compulsory school teacher programme and at the dental or medical training programmes. The foundation year aimed at dentists/doctors has always had scant popularity.
Changes in ordinances that became force of law on 1 January 2003 meant that universities and university colleges were entitled to arrange foundation years other than technical/natural science and they had the right to decide if they wanted to organise foundation years. As a result of this situation, the number of foundation year courses (including foundation terms) reduced from having been 62 for the 2002/03 academic year to becoming 43 for the 2003/04 academic year. The reductions are evenly spread across all major admissions. It is still too early to say if there is a corresponding reduction in the number of registered students for the 2003/004 academic year. Preliminary data from SCB (Central Bureau of Statistics) shows that at least 3 000 students had so far registered (10-03-2004) for the 2003/04 academic year.
Two institutes of higher education have foundation years other than technical and natural science. Universities and university colleges have not grasped the opportunity to arrange foundation years for all study programmes from year 2003 given the fact that there is a shortage of qualified applicants and there is a need for skilled labour on the labour market. The reasons for this have not been analysed in this report.
Several institutes of higher education are currently offering so-called "foundation terms" and "foundation courses" that are integrated with the study programmes. These courses are given to students who are not fully qualified. The effect of this is that the student is more quickly accepted for the programme aimed at by the foundation year. Moreover, there are a number of college study programmes - programmes that contain both qualifying courses and university courses - that may possibly attract potential foundation year students.
Some institutes of higher education provide foundation years entirely or partly at a distance.
Transition to institute of higher education
Transition to an institute of higher education is still at high level. About 70 per cent of the foundation year students are attending a higher education course one year after the start of the foundation year. There are fewer transitions, however, from foundation year to the compulsory school teacher programme compared to previous years. Transitions from the remaining foundation year specialisations to an institute of higher education are largely the same percentage. Generally speaking the transition to an institute of higher education is equally high for both men and women, but men prefer M.Sc. in engineering courses, B.Sc. courses in engineering or other degree technical courses to a greater extent than women do. Women, on the other hand however, choose to a greater extent natural science degree courses, teacher training courses and medical/odontological/ pharmaceutical degree courses.Most of the institutes of higher education show a transition frequency to higher education studies of between 70 and 80 percent. For some the frequency is even higher frequency; these are the University Colleges of Kristianstad and Skövde, the Linköping University, the Luleå University of Technology and the Örebro University. The University Colleges of Södertörn and Gotland as well as the Stockholm Institute of Education had a transition frequency lower than 60 per cent.
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