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Of: TT
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Photo: Fredrik Persson / TT
The chances that 19-year-olds will be able to study at Uppsala University (with Carolina Rediviva University Library, pictured) or any other university have not diminished. Stock Photography.
Despite the cancellation of the college entrance exam this spring, it didn’t get any more difficult to get admitted to college this fall. The 19-year-olds, who came straight from high school, even appear to have fared better in the competition compared to fall 2019.
The Swedish Council of Universities and Colleges (UHR) has analyzed the effects of canceling spring exams for infection control reasons. It was feared that the missed opportunity of the test would especially affect younger applicants who had never written the test before and therefore could not use a previous result.
Same opportunity
But it did not happen. It is true that the proportion of applicants who had a college entrance examination result to compete, and especially among those who came directly from upper secondary school, decreased compared to 2019. But the cancellation of the exam was offset somewhat measured by the increase in the number of study places. More were adopted in this way and, above all, the number of 19-year-olds admitted increased.
But the size of the cohorts can vary from year to year, as can the search interest. Therefore, UHR has examined the proportion admitted in different age groups in the fall of 2019 and the fall of 2020. The results show that the possibility of a study place has practically not changed in all age categories.
Doctor and lawyer
For several of the most in-demand trainings, 19-year-olds performed the same or better in competition with older applicants this fall compared to 2019. This applies to vocational training for doctors, nurses, civil engineers, lawyers, psychologists and subject teachers.
The explanation is that younger applicants have better grades in high school than older ones. From experience, it is known that the most motivated and deserving students in each cohort move from high school to college fairly immediately. Therefore, it is unusual for people with high scores to wait until the age of 25 or 30 before applying to college.
UHR emphasizes that the results apply at the group level. So while the failed test generally had little effect on the likelihood of admission, there are people who have been pinched. This applies especially to those who do not have such good grades and had proposed to write the university entrance exam to be able to access higher education that way.
But these people belong to all age groups and seek a different education, so they have not been discernible in the UHR analysis.
Second opportunity
And even if the effects were small this fall admission, it doesn’t mean the college entrance exam has become superfluous, explains department head Tuula Kuosmanen at UHR.
– It is a second chance for those who are not competitive with their high school grades. And even if 75 to 80 percent of all schools do not have a selection, but all eligible people enter, many tend to apply to the highly rated schools. So from an individual perspective, testing is important, he says.
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