Non-EU students drop Swedish unis as fees bite

Enrollment of non-European students in Swedish universities decline drastically following the introduction of tuition fees last year, with engineering students from Asia being among those most affected by the change, a new analysis has found.An analysis of Swedish university admissions statistics by the Swedish National Agency for Higher Education (Högskolverket) found that the total number of new foreign student enrollments dropped by a third between 2010 and 2011.

The drop in foreign student enrollment from 22,100 to 14 700, which has been documented previously, corresponds with the introduction of tuition fees for the autumn 2011 term for students from outside the EU/EES.

Much of the decline, however, consisted of "freemovers" – students who choose to come to Sweden on their own accord, rather than as part of an organized exchange programme – from non-European countries.

"Nearly the entire drop can be attributed to fewer freemovers choosing to study in Sweden," the agency's Torbjörn Lindqvist told The Local.

"China accounts for the largest drop in terms of the number of students enrolling, but in terms of percentages, some countries have seen their enrollments almost disappear completely."

Overall, the analysis found a 79 percent decline in the number of non-European students following the introduction of tuition fees (...)