Today, the government presented its budget bill for 2017. The government chooses to highlight areas such as jobs, schools and climate as particularly important. As part of that focus, a lot is being invested in universities and colleges. The two clearest investments concern more places in teacher education to strengthen the school in the long run, and increased funding for research in some areas that the government deems to be particularly important. In addition, the government is investing in graduate schools to strengthen the connection of teacher education to research. All in all, we thus see noticeable knowledge investments. But they are point efforts and the most overarching problems in higher education are left out.
The system for allocating resources to higher education contains a number of problems, something we as students see but which the government does not seem to want to feel. We see that the higher education institutions each year have worse conditions for developing pedagogy and providing high-quality education. In addition, educational grants are still largely based on students' performance, which means that the educations with the lowest quality often have the least resources to invest in getting better. If higher education is to be a force that drives societal development forward, resources cannot be constantly eroded. We need better conditions for Sweden's students to be able to take part in a quality-driven education. The least that can be required would be for the government to investigate the possibilities of developing a resource allocation system that works.
The conditions for conducting studies have not been prioritized in the budget we were presented with today. Study start support, CSN for obtaining a driving license and changed income requirements for housing allowance are promises that are promised, but how the government thinks that we as already admitted students should be given good conditions to fully focus on our education and be ready on time is not something we can see a trace of. This is in light of the fact that students' finances are on the margins and the housing allowance is not available. When it comes to students' health insurance, however, we can finally read that the government sees it as an opportunity to, after 13 years of various investigations, perhaps enable part-time sick leave for students before the end of the term. Better late than never and one of the few investments so that we can fully participate in our education.
If the Löfven government seriously wants to strengthen the school, the labor market, work with the climate and welfare, it must look at the whole. Because yes, there are problems with skills shortages in the labor market. And yes, more knowledge about climate change is needed. In general, more knowledge and more tools are needed to deal with both the challenges of tomorrow in a globalized world and the complex reality we live in today. But the government is completely wrong when it chooses to patch the holes that are currently most clearly visible. When new challenges come and change from one year to another, we must be ready with broad, general knowledge and skills that can quickly come in handy in many different contexts. Therefore, the government needs to invest in academic education. What distinguishes academic educations is precisely that they combine expertise with general skills - and general skills become A and O when it is not possible to know in advance exactly what knowledge will be needed in 5, 10 or 50 years. In this autumn's budget bill, we see no investment in higher education and thus we believe that the government will miss the target with its own investment in jobs, schools and the climate.