Additional costs during internships prevent many students in, among other things, nursing education from completing their studies. Politicians must look at the educational conditions if we are to be able to solve the welfare skills shortage, writes chairman Matilda Strömberg in a debate article.
Read the debate article here. For SFS, it is of fundamental importance that education should not cost money for the individual. Educating in Sweden is free of charge, but that does not necessarily mean that it is free of charge. For example, course literature can involve large costs for many. But even compulsory elements in the education that are included in obtaining a degree, such as work-based education (VFU), can involve high costs. This is often a hidden cost that some do not know in advance. In the report, we have mapped out what applies at the country's various higher education institutions, and found an inequality in how the higher education institutions replace students within and between higher education institutions. The survey shows that the most common is that the student is only partially reimbursed for expenses in connection with VFU and that more often than the VFU place, the higher education institution is responsible for the reimbursement. Guidelines for remuneration were only found in just over half of the universities surveyed.