How do the Social Democrats, the Left Party, the Center Party and the Green Party's higher education policy differ from the government's? Last week, four Riksdag parties submitted their budget proposals for 2024. These "shadow budgets" are a response to the autumn budget proposal that the government together with the Sweden Democrats presented at the end of September. SFS has previously commented the government's budget bill. Now is the time to review the opposition's university policy. We have focused on expenditure area 15 Student support and expenditure area 16 Education.
The Social Democrats
The Social Democrats are the only opposition party that accepts the government's cuts to education grants totaling SEK 420 million. However, they want to restore the support for development research that the government has withdrawn this year, which corresponds to SEK 180 million. They want to push to SEK 20 million more than the government so that CSN can handle more cases. They also propose a smaller investment in teacher training, of a total of SEK 5 million for Teach for Sweden, an educational effort for unauthorized teachers to learn their qualifications while they work.
The Social Democrats also clearly distance themselves from the government's plans to reduce support for student influence through the student unions from 2026 onwards.
Vänsterpartiet
The Left Party wants to push to SEK 325 million for education at basic level and advanced level. The stated purpose is to strengthen quality, but the sum does not cover the government's cuts of SEK 420 million. At the same time, the Left Party proposes an addition of SEK 500 million for research and education at postgraduate level, which is a real increase compared to the government's proposal.
The Left Party proposes to strengthen funding for the student unions by SEK 30 million as early as 2024, which is requested by many student unions. They also propose that the interest rate on student loans be lowered.
Center Party
The Center Party rejects the government's proposal for a saving of 0,5% in the entire state administration, and wants to push to SEK 150 million so that more people with other professional backgrounds can study for teaching qualifications. All in all, this means SEK 310 million more for education at basic and advanced level, as well as SEK 95 million for research. The sum does not cover the government's total cuts in the form of savings and efficiency requirements compared to 2023.
The Center Party also wants to increase the financing of the transition support by SEK 1 billion. The center party wants to phase out the free amount, which is expected to cost SEK 10 million in 2024 and then increase.
Since the shadow budget only refers to 2024, it is not clear what the Center Party thinks about the government's proposal to lower the grants for student influence from 2026.
The Green Party
The Green Party also rejects the government's proposal for a 0,5% saving in the entire state administration. This would mean that the grants increase by SEK 243 million compared to the government's proposal. This money is distributed between research and higher education, of which SEK 160 million refers to education at basic and advanced level. The Green Party also wants to push to 50 million kroner for efforts in teacher training and 10 million kroner for pedagogical training for the cultural school. The Green Party also wants to push to SEK 20 million for the medical education at Örebro University. Nor is the Green Party's contribution enough to cover the government's total cuts in the form of savings and efficiency requirements compared to 2023.
The Green Party wants to increase the contribution part of the student aid by SEK 300 per month.
As in the Center Party's shadow budget, it is not clear what the Green Party thinks about the government's proposal to reduce funding for student influence from 2026. This is because the shadow budget only refers to 2024.
Summary
Three out of four opposition parties, the Left Party, the Center Party and the Green Party, propose higher funding for higher education and research than the government did in its budget. However, it is noteworthy that no opposition party wants to strengthen the funding for higher education compared to what the funding is at today, considering how great the needs for quality increases are.
All opposition parties thus seem to fully or partially accept the government's proposals for savings and/or efficiency requirements. The Left Party is the only party that proposes an increase in total grants to universities and colleges, but this is mainly due to an addition of SEK 500 million to research and education at postgraduate level.
It is also worth noting that several opposition parties criticized the government's decision to withdraw the funds for development research in the middle of the year 2023, but that, despite this, it is only the Social Democrats who want to restore the funds.
As a student organization that represents student unions, SFS is of course happy that two opposition parties, S and V, are protesting against the government's proposal to lower funding for student influence from the year 2026. We hope that the Center Party and the Green Party will also take a clearer position.