Applicants and students in higher vocational education 2021
The number of applicants to higher vocational education continues to increase
Statistical news from Statistics Sweden 2022-03-24 8.00
The number of applicants to higher vocational education continued to increase in 2021. There were 71 100 qualified applicants, which is an increase of 2 percent. The number of admitted students who commenced their studies decreased, by 9 percent, to 32 900 admitted students. There were 86 000 students in higher vocational education in total, which is more than any other year.
Higher vocational education is a post-secondary form of education that is essential for skills supply in Sweden and has therefore been expanded in recent years. This is statistics on applicants to higher vocational education and students in a higher vocational education.
The number of applicants to higher vocational education continued to increase. There were 71 100 qualified applicants to programmes starting in 2021, which is about 2 percent more than in the previous year. There were 2.2 qualified applicants for each place. The number of places was fewer in 2021 than in 2020.
The number of applicants per place to higher vocational programmes varies between different fields of education. As in the previous year, the number of applicants per place was highest for programmes focused on Law, which has relatively few places in programmes in this field. Other fields of education with high number of applicants were Economics, administration and sales and Journalism and information. The number of applicants was lowest to programmes in Computers/IT and Technology and manufacturing. There were 23 000 qualified applicants to Economics, administration and sales, which was the overall largest field of education.
Decrease in the number of admitted students who commenced studies
In 2021, there were 32 900 admitted students who commenced their studies, which is 9 percent less than in 2020. The decrease was about the same for women and men. The number of places also decreased by 9 percent
Among the larger fields of education, Economics, administration and sales decreased by 20 percent followed by Civil and structural engineering which decreased by 16 percent. Computers/IT and Technology and manufacturing services both decreased by 6 and 5 percent, respectively. Health and medical care and social services increased by 1 percent.
Of the smaller fields of education, Agriculture, veterinary medicine, forestry and fisheries increased by 18 percent. Security services decreased by 34 percent.
The share of women, which over time has been larger than the share of men, was 53 percent of the admitted students who commenced their studies.
Distance learning increase
The proportion of students admitted in distance learning programmes increased from 31 percent to 34 percent. In total, there were 11 200 students admitted to distance learning programmes, compared with 21 700 to traditional programmes. Among women, 39 percent attended distance learning compared with men, for whom the corresponding share is 28 percent.
The fields of education with the largest share of distance learning were Security services at 78 percent, followed by Health and medical care and social services at 69 percent.
More students than ever
The large increase of admitted students who commenced their studies previous year, resulted in 86 000 students in 2021. Women increased by 9 percent and men by 12 percent, which in total means a ten percent increase in students. The largest field of education is still Economics, administration and sales although the difference to the other large fields of education has decreased.
Definitions and explanations
Official statistics on higher vocational education
Statistics Sweden has been responsible for official statistics on higher vocational education since 2018.
Statistics on applicants to higher vocational education are based on data that Statistics Sweden has collected from education providers since 2014. In the period 2014-2017, Statistics Sweden collected the survey data on behalf of the National Agency for Higher Vocational Education.
Statistics on students in higher vocational education are based on information from the Swedish National Agency for Higher Vocational Education, which in turn receives the information from the education providers. Higher vocational education is included in the statistics for 2007-2013.
Statistics on short programmes are not included. Short programmes refer to programmes that can consist of courses and course packages. For more information see Higher Vocational Education.
Applicants
An applicant is defined by the following criteria:
- The applicant has submitted an application that includes information about the applicant's name and personal identity number (or name and date of birth).
- The applicant has submitted their application within the application period (within the ordinary or extended application period).
Net statistics of the number of applicants and the number of qualified applicants are presented. This means that once the number of applicants is reported, grouped by various education data, such as field of education or county, the number of unique applicants per study domain is counted. Persons who have applied to several study programmes in different study domains are counted once in each domain.
Admitted students who commenced their studies
The number of admitted students who commenced their studies refers to the number of persons studying three weeks after the study session began. Students who have been added during the course of the education and those who have dropped out are included. This means that all those who have been included in at least one register of students in a programme session are included.
Students
The number of students refers to active students in programme sessions that last at least one day during a specific period. An active student must be included in at least one study register during a specific period.
Persons who have been active students in several programmes during a specific period are counted once for each programme session.
Field of education
Field of education refers to the classification of programmes in the fields of education used by the Swedish National Agency for Higher Vocational Education (MYH). The fields of education are based on the SUN 2000 standard.
Short programmes
Short programmes refer to programmes that can consist of courses and course packages. The programmes should provide in-depth, renewed or broadened competency and can be up to six months long. See also the website of the Swedish National Agency for Higher Vocational Education for further information on short programmes. Information on applicants for and students attending short programmes is presented separately, that is, is not included in the regular higher vocational education statistics on long programmes lasting at least six months.
See Higher Vocational Education for more definitions.
Next publishing will be
Statistics on graduates in 2021 are scheduled for publication in November 2022 together with updated information on applicants and students.
Statistical Database
More information is available in the Statistical Database
Feel free to use the facts from this statistical news but remember to state Source: Statistics Sweden.