This morning, the government and the supporting party, the Sweden Democrats, presented their budget proposal for 2025. It is the third state budget of the mandate period and, after a period of high inflation, it is the first budget when Sweden's economy is on the road to recovery, which according to many provides greater scope for investments.
Here we have collected the budget changes that have the greatest impact on Sweden's students.
Cutbacks affect student unions
Av last year's The budget bill stated that the government wants to reduce support for student influence by SEK 20 million. The funding is taken from appropriation 2:67, which currently totals SEK 71 million, the vast majority of which relates to student influence. This year's bill also estimates a cut of SEK 20 million from 2026, and the appropriation will then remain at the same low level in 2027.
This is a betrayal of the students and risks greatly hindering the student unions' ability to carry out their statutory mission of student monitoring. SFS will work hard to stop the cuts.
The resource allocation system should be investigated
The government announces that it will appoint an inquiry into the resource allocation system. The purpose is stated to be “to develop governance towards priority areas and review the resource allocation system for education at universities and colleges in order to enable increased efficiency in the resource allocation system while safeguarding the autonomy and discretion of higher education institutions”. The inquiry will also take a closer look at government capital and submit proposals that can “improve monitoring and control of government capital”.
SFS agrees that the resource allocation system needs to be reviewed and reformed, it is something we have been working on for a long time. We would like to emphasize that the changes that need to be made are that the compensation amounts need to be increased, the performance-based part (full-year performance, HPR) is removed or reduced, and to open up to allow higher education institutions to reallocate funds between education and research. However, it is worrying if the government intends to increase the steering towards certain areas of education – this is something that we believe that higher education institutions should take responsibility for based on student demand and other needs in society. We look forward to meeting the inquiry once it has been appointed, to ensure that it is characterised by the students' perspective.
Redistribution and reduction of ceiling amounts
The government announces that there will be a redistribution of certain higher education institutions' ceiling amounts in order to "strengthen the driving forces for a high-quality educational offering to provide the labor market with the skills needed in, among other things, the STEM area". The bill therefore reduces most of the ceiling amounts, but these amounts will be distributed to certain higher education institutions at a later date. This makes it more difficult for higher education institutions to plan their operations in the long term and strengthen the quality of education.
It is not clear on what basis the redistribution is taking place. The initial reduction varies between higher education institutions. Among the state higher education institutions, only the Swedish National Defence University receives an increased allocation. The individual education provider, the Stockholm School of Economics, also receives more money to provide the business community with skills in the social sciences.
At the same time, several previous initiatives are coming to an end, which also means that resources are being reduced. In total, there is a reduction in the ceiling amounts of approximately SEK 217 million (adjusted with the government's own index), of which SEK 100 million will be distributed in the future. However, the difference means a substantial cut overall.
Increased price tags for certain courses
All remuneration is indexed to some extent to follow inflation. In this year's budget bill, this means a general increase of 3,43 percent per student. In fixed values, however, it is a decrease of approximately 1 percent, since the higher education institutions' costs are estimated to increase by approximately 4,5 percent. This is because the indexation automatically deducts 1,59 percent of the higher education institutions' personnel costs with reference to "efficiency" (the productivity deduction).
However, some educational areas will see larger changes in the compensation amounts. This applies to natural science, technology and pharmaceutical education, NTF, where the increase amounts to 5,04 percent per full-year student. This also applies to students in the humanities, theology, law and social sciences, HSTJ, where an increase of 7,97 percent per full-year performance (HPR, which corresponds to the number of completed higher education credits) is made. Even if more general increases are actually needed, this is a welcome addition!
Table 1: Change in compensation amount per full-year student (HST) and full-year performance (HPR) between 2024 and 2025.
How much the increase in HPR in the HSTJ area will be in real money depends on the throughput in each subject. In practice, the increase will be highest in law and lowest in theology.
Table 2: Change in funding per student in certain educational areas as a result of increased HPR compensation
The increase in the NTF compensation amounts can certainly be linked to the government's continued focus on STEM education. The government has already begun work on a STEM strategy, and announces in the budget bill that they also intend to establish a STEM delegation.
Research
Already in advance, government announced an investment in research and innovation that will amount to SEK 1,5 billion in 2025 and will then increase further: SEK 2,5 billion in 2026, SEK 4 billion in 2027 and just over SEK 6,5 billion in 2028. The investments will be specified in more detail in the research bill that will be presented later this year. For those curious, SFS has previously written a recording to the research bill.
The investment for 2025 will be made entirely in the form of external funds to be distributed by state research financiers. The imbalance between basic appropriations and external funds will thus be further strengthened. The budget bill increases the appropriations for the Swedish Research Council and Space Research and Space Operations linked to the research bill. The largest increase is for the Swedish Research Council, with SEK 595 million in 2025, and then SEK 995 million in 2026 and SEK 1,591 million in 2027. SFS views the investment in research positively but continues to call for a comprehensive approach to research and education, two tasks that go hand in hand.
CSN and student loans
The government will review the student aid system. The review applies to the student aid system in its entirety, with the exception of the adjustment study aid, study assistance and other minor support. The student aid system has not been reviewed since it was introduced in its current form in 2001, and the starting point for the review is that the study funds should be adapted to current and future educational and labor market needs. With the review, the government wants to streamline recruitment for studies, review the starting points for when new education programs should give the right to student aid, increase throughput and at the same time protect students' security and take into account debt.
SFS has proposed that the government review the student aid system with a holistic approach and therefore welcomes the government's initiative. In particular, questions about students' housing costs, costs linked to on-campus education, VFU, the total number of student aid weeks, and the possibility of part-time sick leave should be included in the commission's mandate.
The allocation to the Central Student Support Board, CSN, will be increased by SEK 50 million in 2025 for processing the transition study support that began to be phased in from 2023. This is done against the background that the processing of the transition study support has been criticized for taking a long time.
With the increase in the price base amount, the study funds for 2025 will increase by a total of SEK 344 per four weeks. The study grant will be increased by SEK 104 and the student loan will be increased by SEK 240. This is an automatic increase that is made every year, and thus not a special investment.
Housing allowance
Students with children and students up to the age of 29 may be entitled to housing allowance. Currently, families with children can also receive a supplementary allowance. However, the government has announced that the supplementary allowance for families with children will be phased out in 2025, which is problematic because it affects students with children who are often already struggling financially.
A welcome piece of news is that the government confirms its plans to introduce a monthly assessment of the housing allowance, instead of the current annual means test. A monthly assessment would reduce the risk of being required to repay the grant and encourage more students to apply for the grant. However, no final legislative amendment is included in the budget bill, and the government will need to come back to it later.
Reduced funding for UKÄ
The University Chancellor's Office, UKÄ, will receive reduced funding from 2025. The reason is stated to be to increase efficiency, and that the government assesses that UKÄ has the ability to carry out its tasks with slightly reduced resources. The funding will be reduced by SEK 4 million in 2025, and for 2026 and 2027 the funding is estimated to decrease by SEK 9 million each year.
Final reflection
We primarily see that the policy pursued will lead to deterioration for Sweden's students. As a small glimmer of light in the darkness, however, there are proposals for upcoming investigations that may benefit students in the long term, both in terms of educational quality and a better student finance system.
Student unions are the main guarantor of high-quality education. The government must rethink the funding of student unions. In the long run, this will benefit high-quality education, which is needed for innovation, growth and prosperity.