On September 7, the investigator Peter Honeth handed over the Higher Education Examination Inquiry to Prime Minister Matilda Ernkrans. The inquiry was appointed a year ago in the same vein as Honeth was appointed as national coordinator to assist the University and College Council (UHR) in its work with the possibility of the test during the pandemic. Now the investigation is here and I thought I would present the biggest treats here.
But first - what is the college exam?
The test was first established in Sweden in 1977 and is a tool for predicting study ability in higher education and thus being used as a selection basis for state colleges and universities. At each test occasion, between 50 and 000 people write the university entrance examination, which since 70 consists of 000 assignments divided into eight partial examinations. The result from a university entrance exam is valid for eight years.
The university entrance examination can also be adapted to people with, for example, dyslexia or impaired vision. The number of customized samples varies between about two and three thousand annually.
In 2018, the government decided to raise the age limit for writing the university entrance exam to 18 years (if you did not start high school earlier). This change will take effect in the spring semester 2022.
The economics of the university entrance exam
Today, the fee for the university entrance examination of SEK 450 is regulated in the Higher Education Ordinance. It is nevertheless a rather strange precise wording of the regulation. One of the purposes of a fee is to prevent the loss of test participants, but the fees are also the only funding for the university entrance examination whose expenses are actually much higher than the income. Without additional funding from the state, UHR and the higher education institutions eat their capital annually to enable the test.
The inquiry proposes that the fee for the university entrance examination be increased by SEK 100, ie to SEK 550 per occasion. In the long term, we obviously want to see the fee abolished completely for those who want to write the test, but such a small adjustment can be an important piece of the puzzle to enable a safer and more rewarding admission process in the short term.
To write the university entrance examination abroad, the inquiry proposes that the fee be set at SEK 800. Today, the fee is SEK 1000 for those who write the test in Mariehamn and SEK 700 for others.
Responsibility for the implementation of the university entrance examination
The inquiry's proposal: The University and College Council. Now you who are reading may be thinking "Uh, is UHR already responsible for the university entrance exam?" but this is actually not entirely true. UHR is responsible for the test being taken and decides on the results, but it is not clear in the regulation who is actually responsible for the actual implementation. The only thing that is regulated is that the universities must implement it.
When the regular routines around the university entrance exam were demolished during the pandemic, it became unclear for the organizers, some areas of responsibility were low. The inquiry now proposes that UHR be responsible for the examination being carried out - in consultation with the higher education institutions. It may seem like a piss in the sea, but fixing unclear government assignments has probably never hurt anyone.
Age limit for the university entrance exam
The Admission Inquiry (More paths to knowledge (SOU 2017: 20)) previously argued that the age limit for writing the university entrance examination should be 19 years to send a signal to upper secondary school students that the focus should be on upper secondary education and that the university entrance examination is a selection tool for higher training. During the pandemic, the age limit for writing the university entrance examination was 19 years, but on 1 January 2022 it was adjusted to 18 years, which the inquiry recommends with reference to the fact that it can be difficult for those who wish to write the examination more than once before students take the student. SFS, on the other hand, shares the admission inquiry's view that an age limit of 19 years can reinforce the effect that the high school diploma becomes the main road in and the university entrance exam becomes a second chance.
A digitization of the university entrance examination
For almost fifteen years, the authorities have been talking about it being time to digitize the university entrance exam. It has stood still when "it was not possible at the current times". Now we hope that the University and College Council will have the resources to develop the university entrance exam for real.
A digitized university exam would increase safety, reduce costs, streamline correction time and save on an incredible number of trees. However, the time for implementation of a new digitized university entrance examination is expected to take between three and eight years…
For those interested, the entire investigation's final report is attached below.