Prorektor Clas Hättestrand. Foto: Sören Andersson
Prorektor Clas Hättestrand. Foto: Sören Andersson


The active recruitment of students is, of course, a necessity and something that is absolutely central to our activities; no students – no university. But if we aim to widen participation – what are the incentives for that and how are we doing in this effort? To find the answer to these important questions, the Swedish Higher Education Authority (UKÄ) has recently carried out a thematic evaluation of higher education institutions' work with broadened recruitment.

Concerns about the quality of education are sometimes raised in connection with discussions about broadened recruitment. There is a perception that broadened recruitment can lead to the admission of students with inadequate prior knowledge, who are more unfamiliar with higher education studies and who drop out to a greater extent. This does not have to be the case. On the contrary! UKÄ shows that if we succeed in broadening recruitment, we will be able to attract better students to our education programmes. If we look at the young people entering our university, there is a clear correlation between the parents' educational background and the likelihood of applying for university studies, where many from homes where parents do not have a history of higher education choose not to continue their education despite receiving high marks in upper secondary school. If we were able to attract this category of students, we would have a higher proportion of high-performing students in our programmes than we do today, with a higher completion rate and better quality education as a result. This in itself is a compelling reason to work to broaden our recruitment efforts. But there are, of course, other important reasons; for example, to ensure each individual has an equal opportunity to access higher education, to promote democracy and representativeness, and to ensure the efficient utilisation of societal resources.

UKÄ also shows that for a few years now, students with a foreign background have not been underrepresented at the university, which is gratifying. Here, the work with broadened recruitment has yielded results and a shift has taken place. However, there are a lot of differences between the different education programmes, and there is more work to de be done. A survey that is currently underway at the university examines the composition of the student population, both in terms of foreign background and other parameters, for each individual area of education. The survey will be completed later this year and will be a valuable tool for the university to continue its work to broaden recruitment. Our success in this effort will not only benefit the university, it will benefit our students and society as a whole.

 

This article is written by Clas Hättestrand, Vice President. It appears in the section ”Words from the University’s senior management team”, where different members of the management team take turns to write about topical issues. Words from the University’s senior management team appears in every edition of News for staff which is distributed to the entirety of the University staff.