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secondary schools and go on to higher education. Accompanying this progress, indeed requisite to its continuity, is the broad system of student financial aid, largely freed from parental means tests.
To a greater extent than in many other European countries, the university in Sweden has been attuned to the needs of the society it serves. Thus, as in North America, such practical disciplines as engineering enjoyed university level status somewhat earlier than in Europe to the south. And fully one-fifth of all research and development in Sweden is carried out at higher educational institutions.
As elsewhere in Europe, educational development in Sweden is hampered by the strains on plant and personnel resources. Having anticipated the problem somewhat earlier, however, Sweden has thus far proved more able to cope with it, and the physical plant at all levels remains the best in Europe (Figure 23). Apparently influenced to some extent by U.S. practice, the Swedish Government started in the sixties to separate teaching from research, in essence to separate the "college" from the university. New "branch universities" are coming to concern themselves almost exclusively with teaching—for the most part at the "undergraduate" level by U.S. definition. Even in the older universities, in the lower forms there is not an almost exclusive concentration on teaching. What seems to be replacing the classical European university is a system analogous to the U.S. undergraduate college and graduate university. Aiding this process are the vastly increased accessibility to upper secondary education and the inevitable easing of requirements—leaving more of the material formerly taught in the upper forms of the gymnasium to be taught in the undergraduate university or "college." In Sweden the rationale is that only in this manner can there be a maximum utilization of teaching personnel and physical plant to cope with the rapidly increasing numbers of students now being educated at higher levels.
Also, as in U.S. colleges, freedom to choose electives has become more restricted in the lower forms of the "free faculties" (see below), and the curriculum more rigidly structured. Concomitantly, the already strongly centralized system is becoming even more so—again in the interest of efficiency. As in the traditional French educational system, which had set the pace for much of Europe for over a century, such centralization made for high, uniformly imposed academic standards. Additionally, in a small country such as Sweden, it facilitates efficient evaluation and planning without impairing to any significant degree local administration and housekeeping. Local initiative affecting the content of courses or the introduction of new programs, however, tends to be discouraged, as does diversity between institutions of higher learning—both possible sources of future conflict.
The methodical, relatively successful planning and channeling of educational resources to serve the needs of the expanding economy occasionally come into conflict with social exigencies. As in the United States, there is apprehension that the system may shortly be educating through the university more young people that may constructively be absorbed into the economy. Well aware of the danger, the ubiquitous committees are attempting to devise ways to encourage the rapidly increasing number of higher education students into fields where manpower forecasts show a future need.
2. Educational system
a. Elementary and secondary education
Prior to the reform of the elementary and intermediate schools begun in 1950, attendance at the elementary school (folkskola) was compulsory for all children between the ages of 7 and 14. Upon completion of the folkskola, most of the students either went on to a vocational school or attended a 1-year continuation course with emphasis on vocational guidance, civics, and the Swedish language. A minority of selected students, after 4 or 6 years in the elementary school, went on to 5 to 4 years respectively in the intermediate school (realskola). After passing a written and oral comprehensive examination (realexanan), they were qualified to enter the 3-year secondary school (gymnasium). There were three types of gymnasia: The general gymnasium, from which more than 80% of those passing the terminal examination went on to the university or other institutions of higher learning; the technical gymnasium, from which about half the students went on to a technical institute or to a faculty of science at a university; and the commercial gymnasium, from which most graduates went to an advanced commercial institute or directly into business employment. A comprehensive terminal examination (studentexamen) to receive the gymnasium certificate was usually required for students going on to a university. Of the total number of successful candidates for the studentexamen in 1962, 82% were from the general gymnasium, 10% from the technical gymnasium, and 8% from the commercial gymnasium.
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