2007:43 R
Evaluation of initiatives to broaden recruitment to universities and university colleges — a consolidated picture
The Swedish National Agency for Higher Education, commissioned by the Government, has evaluated initiatives to broaden recruitment to undergraduate education at university colleges and universities. The results of the evaluation are reported in this summary report, and also in descriptions and assessments of initiatives at each individual institution. The descriptions per institution are intended also to serve as an experience exchange.
The Swedish National Agency for Higher Education´s central basis for the assessments has been that broadened recruitment — and broadened throughput — is a quality aspect of higher education. Such a change would enable not just a greater variety of perspectives and experiences in education, but would also allow institutions really to recruit the students that were best suited, irrespective of background.
We have used the definition of broadened recruitment described in the Government bill entitled Den öppna högskolan, which is increased recruitment of socially and ethnically under-represented groups. We have also, in the main, judged those measures that the bill highlights as important for achieving broadened recruitment.
It is the Swedish National Agency for Higher Education´s hope that this evaluation will form the basis for the institutions´ continued initiatives to achieve broadened recruitment and diversity in higher education. For this reason, we have also outlined future prospects and conditions.
Much has been done by the higher education institutions since 2002, when they were instructed to work actively to promote but also to broaden recruitment. Most university colleges and universities also have visions for continuing to pursue these initiatives in the longer perspective. However, for the last five-year period, few of the institutions can show results in the form of actually broadened recruitment. We note that students with a different background are still very unevenly distributed across different types of institutions and programmes. Additionally, the number of applications to higher education has diminished in the last two years, and reduction in uneven recruitment, which had been going on for some time, has come to a halt.
The Swedish National Agency for Higher Education´s central basis for the assessments has been that broadened recruitment — and broadened throughput — is a quality aspect of higher education. Such a change would enable not just a greater variety of perspectives and experiences in education, but would also allow institutions really to recruit the students that were best suited, irrespective of background.
We have used the definition of broadened recruitment described in the Government bill entitled Den öppna högskolan, which is increased recruitment of socially and ethnically under-represented groups. We have also, in the main, judged those measures that the bill highlights as important for achieving broadened recruitment.
It is the Swedish National Agency for Higher Education´s hope that this evaluation will form the basis for the institutions´ continued initiatives to achieve broadened recruitment and diversity in higher education. For this reason, we have also outlined future prospects and conditions.
The Swedish National Agency for Higher Education´s assessments
Much has been done by the higher education institutions since 2002, when they were instructed to work actively to promote but also to broaden recruitment. Most university colleges and universities also have visions for continuing to pursue these initiatives in the longer perspective. However, for the last five-year period, few of the institutions can show results in the form of actually broadened recruitment. We note that students with a different background are still very unevenly distributed across different types of institutions and programmes. Additionally, the number of applications to higher education has diminished in the last two years, and reduction in uneven recruitment, which had been going on for some time, has come to a halt.
This does not mean, however, that the institutions´ initiatives can be dismissed as having had no effect. The broadening of recruitment is an undertaking which must be done in the longer term, and possible effects may be several years in coming. Furthermore, recruitment is very dependent on developments in the outside world. What is needed, above all, for the longer perspective is a clearly staked-out road to a change in traditional recruitment patterns. Even if such visions exist at most institutions, the Swedish National Agency for Higher Education notes that there remains quite a lot of work to do on the road to increased social diversity in Swedish higher education. The following are what we regard as the central points for the work from here onwards:
- Well-developed reviews and evaluations are needed, both of recruitment activities and of students´ results and experiences. This is to allow for the further development of programmes in order to be able to take care of different groups´ needs, and also to improve information about what programmes can lead to. Clear, informative descriptions of how previous students have made use of their education could make it easier to recruit individuals who are uncertain about their choice of higher education and who therefore need clear goals for their prospective studies.
- All programmes need a clear labour market relevance and further measures for good employability. Programmes with clear links to labour market needs recruit higher shares of students from under-represented groups. This is not to say that the recipe for broadened recruitment is to offer more short vocational training programmes under the umbrella of higher education. The road to real diversity, instead, is to reinforce the connection with working life right across the spectrum of higher education. Truly increasing diversity brings greater social breadth in all programmes, instead of a system with — in simplified terms — different education programmes for different groups.
- In order for higher education to be turned into everyone´s affair, broader cooperation is also needed between education providers at different levels. The basis for such cooperation probably has to be joint mission to promote diversity in higher education. This should also be done as part of a vision about what can be achieved. And such a vision should not be about getting as many people as possible to study at university colleges and universities, but instead about allowing everyone to find their way to the education that matches their own interests, capacities and future plans. Regardless of their background.
- The Swedish National Agency for Higher Education proposes that the general instruction to broaden recruitment be replaced with a diversity goal, to be defined for each higher education institution. Since social diversity is unevenly distributed across the country, it is reasonable to have different goals for diversity at different institutions, depending on the local picture. In general, however, the goals should be more directed towards throughput and participation than towards recruitment alone. The Swedish National Agency for Higher Education´s proposal carries the implicit assumption that the higher education institutions will be involved in the discussions on how to frame their respective diversity goals.
Last updated: 2007-11-23
Contact person: Thomas Furusten, e-mail: forename.surname@hsv.se
Contact person: Thomas Furusten, e-mail: forename.surname@hsv.se
Print
Swedish National Agency for Higher Education Visting address: Luntmakargatan 13 Box 7851, 103 99 Stockholm
Phone: 08-563 085 00 Fax: 08-563 085 50 Email: hsv@hsv.se
Phone: 08-563 085 00 Fax: 08-563 085 50 Email: hsv@hsv.se
