I’ve written a bit about the Swedish higher education system already. Now, I’d like to highlight something about my experience at Stockholm University you wouldn’t expect: the lack of Swedish students in my program.

Inspiration for this entry came to me from two sources. The first was a post by my fantastic French friend, Cyril. You can read his blog post about it here. Warning! The text is in French, but if you go to Google Translate, you actually will get a good interpretation of what he has written. Plus, you can listen to some tunes on his site! The second source is a recent article by The Local on a new governmental policy of charging tuition for international students.

There is no tuition for higher education in Sweden. Zero. Zip. Nada. Universities and other educational institutions get all of their funding from Swedish taxes. However, students are required by law to pay dues to a Student Union at their school. I think I pay about 300 SEK (or $50) every semester. Then there are text books to purchase, but that is about it as far as expenses go.

Needless to say, university students in Sweden have a pretty sweet deal. I know I do, and I greatly benefit from the tuition-free education at SU. But for the rest of Swedish society, my free education is a burden. Swedish tax payers fund my studies with little hope or expectation of every recouping the costs of my education. You see, my student residence permit is only good while I am enrolled at a university. After that, I am expected to leave the country, unless I have formed some kind of family structure with a Swede. Despite the fact that I have gotten a free education here, under current law (as a non-EU citizen) I am not allowed to enter the job market and contribute to the economy or tax base of Sweden. Instead, I’m expected to go home and work in the U.S. Sweden will practically be giving a free gift, in the form of a highly educated worker,  to the U.S. when I go home. The deal really doesn’t make much sense for the average Swede.

Moving on, let me describe the effect of this tuition-free education in Sweden. My graduate program has 21 students enrolled. Of those, only two are Swedish. There is one other student who has hinted that she has either Swedish citizenship or permanent residency. The other 18 student are all foreigners. Of those, 11 are from non-EU countries. Over half of those in my program that come from outside of the EU.

This past year, I have been able to work and study with people from all over Europe, Africa, Asia, and the Americas. I have truly enjoyed it, and have met wonderful people from all over the globe. It has been interesting to learn their points of view, all the while sharing my own. However, I think it is a shame that there are not more Swedes in the program. Granted, it is very possible that the program has some specific appeal to international students (since one of the subjects in focus is “globalization”), and so other programs may contain a higher proportion of Swedish students.

I know that it may seem hypocritical of me to decry the structural problems of the Swedish education system, and then talk positively about the effects those inadequacies have created. So be it. Just to be clear, I’d rather the problem didn’t exist. There are several proposed ways of mitigating the problem, besides charging tuition to foreign students, and one good way would be to allow foreign (non-EU) students to remain in Sweden if they have secured employment. This is something the government is currently considering.