The Swedish National Union of Students comments on Dick Harrison's column "Commitment and placards will soon end up in the dump" in SvD Kultur (27 September 2016).
No, Dick Harrison, Sweden's student unions still do not work to lower requirements or make it easier to get high grades. On the contrary, the student movement is the most stubborn voice for a changed resource allocation system and increased quality work for the country's educations.
We believe that the current compensation system for education where full compensation is paid only when the student has completed the course is directly disadvantageous for those educations that have a great need for resources to improve courses. Rather, the resource allocation system should be based on participation, that which actually affects teaching. We also believe that there is an unfair allocation of resources between different subject areas, which among other things leads to too few contact hours between students and teachers in the humanities, social sciences, theology and law.
We want to study educations with good pedagogical approaches that give us good conditions to pass examinations and that contribute to lifelong learning. But instead of investing in improvements, many educations that would need financial resources for development get reduced resources over time. We think that is wrong. This creates poor conditions for consistently high quality of the country's educations.
However, we share your view that higher education still benefits those students who have highly educated parents. Unfortunately, this is the reality today. The skewed recruitment to the university continues due to the fact that the conditions for studies are not good enough to enable education for all groups in society: The study grant is too low to cover the cost of living and there is an acute housing shortage in almost all study places. Without basic conditions, such as income and housing, higher education in practice becomes an impossible alternative for those who lack their own financial means and contacts.
If you were involved in higher education policy, you would see that the interest in issues related to higher education - education and training - was strong and broad both before and after you "took the magazine out of your mouth". The commitment is there. And Sweden's students or student unions are still not the ones to fire on if you want to change higher education.
Fight with us, not against us, and direct the commitment towards those who are responsible for the systematic and financial conditions that affect the quality-driven education. Together, we can contribute to changing the current resource allocation system. Together, we can ensure that higher education becomes a real opportunity for everyone and that the education is of the highest quality. Together we can move the knowledge society forward.
Let us influence policy and focus on quality and access to education. Today's resource allocation system may well end up in the dump. After all, it's been from 1993.