Study abroad numbers fall by 27% over a 10-year period

The number of Swedish students studying abroad in 2023-24 with support from the Swedish Board of Student Finance (CSN), the government agency that manages Swedish student grants and loans, has fallen by 27% in the last 10 years, fuelling long-standing concerns about the low numbers of Swedish students who choose to study abroad compared with their European counterparts.

According to recent CSN figures, study abroad student numbers reached a peak of 30,000 in 2014-15 but fell to 22,000 in 2023-24.

For those that do go abroad, Europe is still the main destination, receiving half of the total number currently abroad, while the United States and Australia have seen a massive 56% decline in numbers since 2013-14, according to CSN.

Nevertheless, the US and the United Kingdom remain the two most popular receiving countries, with the US receiving 3,030 and the UK 1,926 students, according to CSN figures.

With 962 students, Riga Stradins University in Latvia proved to be the most popular institution for Swedish students abroad, up from 447 students in 2018-19 – an increase of 115%.

While the number of Swedish students abroad in 2023-24 was at the same level as the year before, the figures are significantly lower compared with the years before the COVID-19 pandemic.

“During the pandemic the number of students abroad fell strongly while the number studying in Sweden has increased. Since then the number of students abroad has increased somewhat, but not to the levels before the pandemic,” said CSN analyst Malin Lundquist.

“Europe has seen lower decreases than other continents. Compared to the years before the pandemic Europe has seen reductions of 3%, while the other continents have seen reductions of more than 50%.

“Fewer students are seeking to go to the US and Australia. Ten years ago 7,700 students went to these two countries while there were only 3,400 last year, a 56% reduction,” Lundquist said.

Medicine in Latvia and Lithuania

The interest in studying medicine in the Baltic countries has increased significantly with the number of Swedish medical students in Latvia and Lithuania doubling over the last five years. At the same time the number of medical students in Poland has halved.

In total 2,400 individuals were studying medicine, mainly to become doctors with Swedish support from CSN, in 2023-24.

Lundquist said Poland used to be the most popular country among those studying medicine abroad.

She said the reason for this decline is the requirement in Sweden that doctors trained in Poland undergo public service (AT – allmäntjänstgöring) before getting authorisation. “Therefore, more are selecting medical studies in Latvia and Lithuania,” Lundquist noted.

In 2023-24, with 993 students from Sweden the most common study destination abroad was the Latvian capital of Riga which, the year before, shared first place with London.

The next most popular cities were Copenhagen (716), London (681), Dublin (506), Kaunas, Lithuania (456), Paris (433), Milan (419), Amsterdam (352), Barcelona (331) and Singapore (293).

The 10 most popular institutions in 2023-24 received 3,192 students compared to 2,653 students in 2018-19, an increase of 20%.

Most Swedish students abroad are ‘free-movers’, which means they found their study place abroad on their own. The two most popular areas of study among the free-movers are business administration, commerce and administration and medicine. Other popular studies include ICT, psychology and music, dance and drama.

The 10 most popular countries are: US (3,030), UK (1,926), Spain (1,452, France (1,198), The Netherlands (1,113), Italy (1,106), Denmark (1,031), Latvia (995), Poland (912) and Germany (864).

The 10 most popular countries for studies in medicine are: Latvia (877), Poland (511), Lithuania (303), Romania (214), Bulgaria (140), Denmark (75), Slovakia (63), Czech Republic (37), Hungary (29), and the UK (24).

In 2013 the 10 most popular institutions were in the US and Singapore (two each) and one each in Latvia, Poland, Denmark, Lithuania, the UK and Poland.

In 2023 the 10 most popular institutions were in Latvia, Lithuania, Denmark, Ireland, the Netherlands, Poland, US, Italy, Singapore and Switzerland.

After Riga Stradins University in Latvia (962), these included the Lithuanian University of Health Sciences (452), Copenhagen Business School in Denmark (394), Code Institute in Ireland (340), the University of Amsterdam in The Netherlands (203, the Medical University of Gdansk, Poland (194), Santa Monica College in the US (194), the Polytechnic University of Milan in Italy (171), National University of Singapore (158) and the Culinary Arts Academy in Switzerland (124).

Shifting trends

Anders Åkerlund, managing director of Avista, a commercial agent for Swedish students wanting to go abroad, told ICEF Monitor in an interview on YouTube that in his experience Swedish students want to do many different things when selecting a study abroad destination.

Åkerlund said in Europe and in the Mediterranean countries Swedish students preferred to attend an institution close to the sea, but otherwise their preference often is for large and well-known cities like London, Paris, Berlin and others.

According to a study in 2020 by Per A Nilsson and Thomas Blom there has been a steep increase in Swedish students going to Asian countries. The authors argue that this suggests that Swedish outbound students prefer to study in English-speaking countries or where the courses are taught predominantly in English.

“Countries like the USA and the UK have been top destinations for decades, but have lost some of their attractiveness among outbound Swedish students. However, growth is noticeable among Swedes studying in Asia. Most HEIs [higher education institutions] in Asia offer many courses taught in English.

“The number of Swedish students studying in Asia has grown by approximately 500 percent, starting at 400 students during the 2001 to 2002 academic year and growing to 2,322 two decades later, amounting to approximately 10 percent of Swedish outbound students (CSN, 2019),” the authors note.

Impact of international rankings

Mikael Börjesson, professor in the sociology of education, and director of the Higher Education and Research as Objects of Study (HERO) research centre at Uppsala University, described the rise of Swedish students in Asian countries as “very interesting”.

“Pablo Lillo Cea noticed in his dissertation in the sociology of education a rise of Asian countries in international rankings of universities over the last decade.

“We argue in a recent article that there is an interesting overlap between rankings and international student flows, and it is therefore not surprising to see increasing numbers of students looking East,” Börjesson told University World News.

“The decline in students particularly in Spain and France can be explained by a change in regulations in 2015 allowing only a limited number of language courses to be eligible for grants and loans for studying abroad,” he said.

Professor Linus Salö, professor of bilingualism at Stockholm University and affiliated with the HERO centre, told University World News that issues linked to language skills play a role in these dynamics.

“The UK, the US and other Anglophone destinations have long been popular spots for English-worshipping Swedes. But then with Brexit and increased costs of living in many of these countries, destinations such as Spain, France, Italy and the Netherlands have grown in popularity.

“This is probably not an indicator of multilingualism being on the rise but rather owes to the fact that English medium instruction is increasingly offered in such countries, combined with the fact that they are more affordable,” he said.

Demand for local language competence can also have a direct impact on student mobility trends, Salö said.

“Poland used to be a popular study abroad destination among Swedish medical doctor students. But recently, Polish language skills have been deemed to be increasingly required in order to complete the training and receive the certificate, and with that change Latvia and Lithuania have stood out as better alternatives,” he said.

European comparisons

Reacting to the latest CSN figures, Cecilia Borglin, secretary general of Swedes Worldwide (SVIV), a non-profit organisation representing Swedes abroad, said it was concerning that fewer Swedish students are choosing to study abroad.

“International experience and skills, as well as language proficiency, are not only valuable on an individual level but also provide significant benefits to Swedish businesses and society at large. Therefore, it is crucial to address any barriers that may prevent students from pursuing education abroad,” she told University World News.

Earlier this year the European Council accepted a recommendation that will see at least 23% of higher education graduates have a learning mobility experience by 2030.

This target represents a challenge for Sweden.

A joint SVIV and Swedish international Students and Alumni (SISA) report published in 2020 put the proportion of Swedish graduates in 2019 who had studied abroad at only 15%.

“Our neighbouring countries are succeeding much better: in Finland every fourth student goes abroad (24%), and in Germany every third (33%). It is in particular discouraging that in Sweden this proportion has been unchanged since 2002,” the report noted.

Concerned to boost the number of students abroad, the Swedish government instituted an inquiry into internationalisation in 2017 which proposed an increase in the proportion of students going abroad from 15% to 25% in 2025.

However, in a op-ed in Göteborgs-Posten in December 2020, Louise Svanberg from SVIV and Adrian Stymne from SISA said those plans had since “gathered dust” and called for renewed actions by authorities, arguing that only six universities were sending 20% or more of their students abroad while 11 higher education institutions were sending less than 10%.

More analysis

Lena Adamson, associate professor of psychology at Stockholm University, confirmed that Sweden had been “far from [the European Union] targets even before the pandemic”.

“My belief is that a thorough analysis in different student groups needs to be done,” she told University World News.

“We need to better understand why students choose not to take the opportunity to study abroad, considering that today’s student generations are considerably more ‘internationalised’ in contexts outside the educational setting than previous generations.

“According to my own experiences, both with students from Sweden and other European countries, many would like more short-term mobility opportunities rather than spending a whole semester abroad for instance. This of course refers especially to mature students with a family situation.

“Also, many feel uncertain of their language proficiencies and may need active boosting opportunities to feel better equipped for a study experience rather than just a holiday.

“In addition, if students were offered opportunities [and] encouraged, to go in pairs my guess is that more would feel confident to take the step outside of the national border,” she noted.

Leisure and fun

University World News asked Professor Per A Nilsson at Umeå University who has conducted research on students international student mobility patterns how he viewed the sudden interest of Swedish students in studying at the Code Institute in Ireland and at the Culinary Arts Academy in Switzerland.

Nilsson said: “I do not know so much about the Code Institute in Ireland. Therefore, it is difficult to speculate. I would think that [interest in] the Culinary Arts Institute in Switzerland is due to marketing and that the students’ perception is leisure and fun.

“We have seen this when students choose to study in California at places such as Santa Barbara and Santa Monica and receive a ‘diploma’, which is a degree with a limited use in a Swedish context.”