(This blog post has also been published in English, here.)
Right now, it feels incredibly good to be doing my PhD in Sweden. We are expecting our first child, and the only thing I don't have to worry about is how it will affect my postgraduate education. In Sweden, most PhD students are offered employment through their universities, and there is a requirement for admission that the entire 4-year study period is financed. In addition, there are many rights that strengthen the position of PhD students: for example, parental leave, sick leave, vacation and living wage. From a PhD student's perspective, the Swedish model, which was started in the 1998 postgraduate education reform, can be one of the best models for postgraduate education in the entire world.
However, the doctoral education system is not flawless. One of my favorite topics to discuss in the Swedish higher education system is that while the number and proportion of Swedish doctoral students reduces, so leaves a large number of foreign doctoral students defending their dissertations in Sweden shortly after the public defense. This is frankly disastrous for Sweden's future competitiveness.
There is no good data indicating why Swedish students do not want to start a postgraduate education. My guess is twofold: pathways from undergraduate and advanced education to postgraduate education are not clear for students who are just considering different career options. Furthermore, even if PhD degree provides a statistical salary premium, most people can't afford statistical future salary premiums. Instead, they prefer more stable career opportunities, better working conditions and immediate salary increases: compared to many jobs outside academia, it's something that even the world's best graduate education systems can't compete with.
The Swedish government has recently taken an interest in these systemic problems. The inquiry into better migration rights for researchers, which was published in December 2024 (which SFS briefly discussed here) aims to address shortcomings in the 2021 update of the Aliens Act. In addition, the government seems to be research proposal, which was also published in December 2024 (and is also being discussed by SFS here), point out that stronger political governance makes research more efficient and competitive. While I acknowledge their efforts to improve Sweden's doctoral education system, I am not sure whether strong political governance achieves the high goals set for Swedish research.
On a more local level, other types of issues may arise. Many foreign doctoral students face obstacles due to insufficient knowledge of the Swedish language, for example in teaching opportunities and participation in departmental activities. Individual doctoral students, regardless of background, face high levels of stress and symptoms of mental illness. These problems are being tackled by many higher education institutions in different ways, and many individual faculties and departments also have different approaches to dealing with these issues. In general, higher education institutions in Sweden are decentralized, and individual departments may have problems dealing with doctoral students' issues: do they have tools to stimulate doctoral students to learn Swedish? Do they have the right tools to resolve conflicts between a doctoral student and his or her supervisor? Do they get enough tools to balance between recruiting a doctoral student and a postdoc, that is, making an informed decision between using funds for doctoral education in the era when the number and quality of publications are what they are measured in? Although the answers differ from case to case, we discussed some of these topics in a recent Curie Talks podcast.
Regardless of these shortcomings, I can still safely say that the Swedish model of doctoral education can be one of the best models of doctoral education in the world. To ensure that it remains so, I wish that the Swedish state can give its higher education institutions confidence and that the higher education institutions can give their faculties and departments the right tools and incentives to help them achieve their strategic goals. For doctoral students, I wish them the patience to continue with their difficult studies and research and to remember how generous the system they are part of really is.
Topias Tolonen-Weckström,
Chairman, SFS Doctoral Committee, PhD student in Mathematics at Uppsala University