What happened
For the first time since 2014, young people born in Sweden go on to higher education to a greater extent than young people born abroad, according to new statistics from Statistiska centralbyrån (SCB). The shift applies to students who graduated from upper secondary school in 2021 and were followed up within five years. The decline is entirely explained by fewer men born in another country continuing to higher education, where the share fell from 63 to 57 percent in two years. The main reason according to SCB is that the proportion of men born abroad enrolled in higher education preparatory programmes plummeted from 65 percent in 2019 to 51 percent in 2021.
Our analysis
For a decade, reality has shattered the common prejudice that new Swedes do not want to invest in studies. Young people born abroad have consistently attended higher education to a greater extent than native Swedes. When that trend is now broken for young men, it is not ambition that has disappeared. It is the school system's ability to support them that has failed.
Politicians gladly talk about the importance of education while cutbacks in schools hit hardest against students who need the most support. The fact that 14 percentage points fewer young men are enrolled in higher education preparatory programmes in just two years is an alarm bell. When study and career guidance fall short and compulsory school lets go, young men are pushed away from academic professions.
Who benefits from this development? Not Sweden, which is crying out for skilled labor in healthcare, technology, and education. On the other hand, it benefits a debate that seeks to reduce young men with a foreign background to a problem rather than the country's future academics.
Explained
A higher education preparatory programme is an upper secondary programme that provides basic eligibility to apply to universities and higher education institutions. SCB's category 'born abroad' refers to people who have immigrated themselves, which is a narrower group than all new Swedes.