Altogether there are about forty institutions of higher education in Sweden, operated mainly by the state and providing free instruction. Schools are run by municipalities and provide free instruction, books and lunches. A separate municipal adult education system enables adults with inadequate schooling to reach the same level of education as young people. Private, government-subsidised adult education associations arrange study circles for more than 2.5 million course participants a year.

1997 European Union documentation gives the population for Sweden as 8,745,109.

The gross domestic product per capita is 22,283 and the workforce is broken down thus: 3% agriculture, 29% industry and 68% services.

Population	8,745,109
GDP per head	22,283

During the last thirty years the Swedish upper secondary education has moved from a dual school system to a comprehensive school followed by an academically and vocationally integrated upper secondary school. Specialised programmes have been replaced by a broad-based education that is believed to ensure better transition both to working life and to further education. Local authorities and the schools themselves now decide how to implement the curricula and allocate money.

The National Agency for Education (NAE) has replaced the former National Board of Education and the Regional Boards of Education. The main tasks of the new national authority involve national monitoring, developing and evaluating the educational system, supervision and inspection, and research and statistical follow-up. NAE has a central division in Stockholm and eleven regional divisions. Local authorities evaluate the development of local schools.

All 16 to 19-year-olds are offered a three-year upper secondary education that comprises sixteen national programmes or individually designed programmes. Each national programme is made up a core subjects, foundation subjects and optional courses. Eight common core subjects are compulsory to all students. It is possible to construct programmes specially adjusted to local conditions but such special programmes, too, must include the eight core subjects. Individualised programmes are offered in the form of school-based or apprenticeship training. Although a programme may be adapted to an individual student's needs, its contents must correspond to the three-year national upper secondary education.

The Swedish system of student assessment is going through a transitional phase as norm-referenced assessment is giving way to criterion-referenced assessment, first introduced in 1994. In addition, Swedish, English and Mathematics are also assessed by national tests twice a year.

On the secondary and upper secondary levels two National institutes for distance education were founded, one in the northern part of Sweden and one in the south.

On the tertiary level Sweden, during the 1970s, chose not to build a large-scale solution for distance education as in many other countries. Instead an extremely decentralised system was created. The responsibility for carrying out distance education rested with the individual university departments, which at the same time organised traditional forms of university education.

The National Broadcasting Company got a special assignment to arrange distance education courses for popular education. It had been active with the production of education programs since the 1940s and this was added to their earlier tasks.

In companies distance education was and still is rare. In a survey made during 1992 among the 250 largest companies in Sweden approximately 30% claimed they had experiences of distance education.The design of the courses though, applied at that time, used very little of modern technology.

Throughout the last decade questions around information technology and distance education have been heavily focused in Sweden. Large investments in infrastructure and developmental work have been done. Governmental committees have surveyed the field and put forward different suggestions for action. As one of the consequences of that Sweden, together with New Zealand, the United States and Switzerland, is spending most money on investments in information technology (for Sweden=2.5% of GNP) that has lead to one of the highest PC and Internet densities in the world. Approximately 60% of the population in the age group 16-64 are using, or have been using, a computer. During these ten years the number of persons with formal training in the use of information technology has tripled.

The overall technical standard in schools is very high but access to computers varies a lot between schools. On the whole there are 19 students per computer on the primary and secondary levels. On the upper secondary level there are 8 students per computer In rural areas the amount of computers is higher than in the major cities.

There are no reliable statistics on the use of computers in Swedish higher education. It probably varies to a large extent between disciplines and sites. At some of the institutions for higher education 100% of the teachers/researchers and the students have access to these facilities. The impression is that very soon that will be the normal case.

The Telematic infrastructure is, compared to other European countries, well developed. The national PTT (Telia) has been transformed from a public organisation into a company, although still publicly owned. The telematic sphere is open for competition. As a consequence of that, foreign telematic infrastructure providers and Swedish companies and organisations now are co-operating. Competition is also visible in the domestic area by different physical networks. An example of that is the co-operation between the company Tele2 and "Banverket" (the national authority dealing with the railway infrastructure). Optical fibres are put in the railway embankment. Another example is the area of mobile/cellular telephones where three different companies compete in the strategic GSM-market.

ISDN connections are available at most places in the country but have not yet received a major breakthrough in the number of installations. The institutions for higher education in Sweden use a powerful backbone between universities with leased lines operating at 32MB. That co-operation is called SUNET (Swedish University Network) and it is a part of the international co-operation on educational communication.

Video conferencing in video conferencing studios has been in regular use for almost ten years and the number of studios is steadily increasing. From the beginning, the studios were connected to the international 2 Mb video-conferencing system, operated by the national PTT, but studios of today normally use ISDN-connections, form 1x 64 Kb up to 6 x 64 Kb.

Approximately 95% of the students today continue from the secondary to the upper secondary level. The different programmes and courses in higher education have quotas. During the last five years there has been an increase of the student uptake of 30%. The ambitions of the Ministry of Education is that, in the near future, 50% of all Swedes shall have entered some kind of higher education before the age of 28. Consequently the expectations are very high. Distance education and information technology are pointed at as major routes to fulfil these expectations.

The decisions during the 70's about the tertiary level led to a markedly small-scale type of distance education with, as a rule, a maximum of 30 students in each course. In the beginning of the 90's approximately 800 courses were arranged and labelled "distance education courses". However, a majority of these courses had either no distance education at all, but were just a combination of pure self-study and compressed face-to-face lectures etc., most often on weekends, or were courses of this kind with some distance education elements - eg, a rudimentary study guide and a few contacts at a distance via post/fax and/or telephone.

No doubt, this confusion was - to a great extent - due to the extremely decentralised and small-scale organisation of Swedish university distance education. The state of the art was not at all up to the limits expected by the policy-makers and small changes over the years were made.

In the academic year 1994/95 the number of students following a distance education course was 25,800, which was an increase of 60% over a couple of years previously.

The actions taken for improving the distance education field can be described as three steps, each of which was or is a trial of alternative strategies.

In the late 80s the Government made a first attempt by concentrating the efforts on tertiary level. A development programme at the University of Umeå was supported. The overarching purpose was to contribute to rural development in the northern area of the country. By developing expertise in distance education the University of Umeå could also be a front-runner and the main actor in the field.

A second step was taken by the Government through making resources available to stimulate co-operation between the universities. By gathering expertise from different institutional bodies and bringing a diversity of stakeholder perspectives together, new and more potent organisers of distance education could grow. This has brought about the establishment of a number of university consortia with the purpose of developing distance education in joint projects. In the first established consortia departments from different universities now have been co-operating for three years.

A third step was taken via the Commission on Distance Methods within Education. The Minister of Education appointed the Commission during 1995 with the assignment of outlining strategies for distance education policy. The task involves all systems for adult education and will also take into account possible alterations in the role of the Educational Broadcasting Company.

The work within the Commission will be heavily based on empirical data and it has therefore large economical resources. The Commission has launched 100developmental projects spread over the educational systems. The projects will test different forms of teaching and learning organisations, ways of implementing new educational tools, eventual clashes between regulations in traditional educational tools, eventual clashes between regulations in traditional educational systems and distance education, etc. The Commission will report to the Minister during the Spring of 1998.

Government distance training provision

Proprietary distance training provision

Distance teaching university

University level distance education

Statens Skola for Vuxna Harnosand (SSVH)

This college provides learning opportunities for adults through distance education. Periods of one week's intensive study at SSVH alternative with periods of study at home.

The type of education offered at SSVH is especially attractive for those who:

• need only one or a few subjects to be fully qualified for university studies
• prefer to determine their own pace of study
• have difficulty in committing themselves to a full time course for a whole term
• want to concentrate on one subject at a time.

• shift work of various kinds
• long distance to other forms of adult education
• need to be at home for the support of dependants
• handicap - SSVH has special equipment to help the disabled including those handicapped by deafness.

The school also offers a range of vocational training courses in areas such as engineering, management and the leisure industry.

Supervised self-tuition: SSVH co-operates with municipal adult education. Students who wish to study on their own can get support from a tutor at their local school, while the teaching materials are supplied by SSVH.

Correspondence courses: This method of study is available for those who have no possibility of taking part in the weeks at SSVH. Teaching takes place by letters and students organise their own studies. The study is followed by oral and written examinations.

Multi-media learning materials are used - workbooks, audio and video cassettes, fax, e-mail and video conferencing.

Norköping and Härnösand

Armed forces

Other providers

KomVux (adult education administered by the local authorities) has shown a growing interest in distance education as a supplement to its normal face-to-face teaching. The same applies to the folk colleges and the adult educational associations. This is also true about the national trade unions, various religious denominations and other non-profit organisations.

With the possible exception of the Armed Forces most of these organisations are still operating their distance education and training activities on a small experimental scale. All the five last-mentioned categories of organisers do probably not enrol, so far, more than about 5.000 new students annually.

Liber-Hermods (formerly Hermods) in Malmö, founded in 1898, is the oldest organisation for distance education in Sweden. It offers a wide variety of courses in many subjects for varying purposes.

The NTI School in Stockholm, founded in the sixties, is specialised in technical subjects, especially electronics. Other small institutes of a correspondence school type specialise in art, music, creative writing etc. Approximately 12.000 new students enrol annually. Since these organisations are non-public and non-subsidised, the students (or their employers) have to pay a fee varying from nearly 1.000 Swedish crowns for a short single subject course to about 25.000 for a course equivalent of one year's full time study.

The Swedish Educational Broadcasting Company (UR) is a public service company which produces educational radio and television programmes (often accompanied by books) for pre-schools, schools, universities, colleges and general adult education.

Since 1981, UR has provided students with a number of broad, separate university and college distance courses (eg. humanities, languages, science) on a lower academic level. Courses are distributed nation-wide.

Development, production and realisation of courses is based on a system of close co-operation between UR and universities and colleges throughout the country.

Post secondary distance education is characterised by a highly decentralised system. Institutional structures, production and delivery systems vary from university to university. Each department engaged in distance education is independently responsible for the course programme and for media and methods used. There is no central control of distance education and nor does the individual university impose any restrictions on the liberty of the individual department to organise its distance teaching. Distance teaching forms an integral part of departmental activities and as such a 'distance teacher' usually has 'conventional' teaching duties as well.

Distance education is dominated by separate courses, although a few full length study programmes are offered in this form. A degree programme can combine traditional on campus courses and distance education courses.

In the early seventies an animated discussion emerged about the structure of Swedish university-level distance education, which was, at that time, at an experimental stage. There were proponents of a centralised Open University model, as well as of an opposite decentralised model and also of a third one, between the two extremes.

Before this issue was settled the whole Swedish university system was reorganised in the mid-seventies, in a direction toward decentralisation. It was considered natural that this should include also Swedish distance education at university level. Therefore no open university was created. Instead the opposite, decentralised model was introduced, under the influence of impressions from Australian university-level distance education at that time. It was believed that this small-scale model is better suited for academic study, because it is more flexible and provides better opportunities for the free exchange of ideas between tutor and students (Dahllöf 1977).

The decentralisation implies that the responsibility for arranging distance education lies with each individual university department, which at the same time organises face-to-face forms of university courses (Willén 1981).

There are more than 50 universities, institutes of technology, schools of education, university colleges of health and caring sciences. A lot of departments of these universities offer distance education. These courses are most often comparatively short, from an equivalent of five weeks full-time study to one-semester courses. They are normally arranged on a small-scale, with 15 to 30 students of each course.

All Swedish regular university education, including distance education, is free of charge. The Swedish Educational Broadcast offers a few special courses at a distance, in co-operation with the universities. For these courses students have to pay a minor fee.

Swedish Consortium for Distance Education (SCDE)

In the Swedish Consortium for Distance Education (SCDE) six Swedish universities co-operate: the universities of Lund, Linköping, Umeå and Uppsala, the Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm and the University College of Växjö.

SCDE is primarily pooling resources from the member institutions for enhancing course development and professional development as regards distance education. A second task is marketing and information about distance education programmes and courses. The six SCDE universities are all members of the EuroStudyCentre Network. A third task is to maintain and develop international contacts and joint ventures.

The member institutions are responsible for the organisation and delivery of educational programmes and courses.

The Umeå University,

Situated in the north of Sweden, is a pioneer among Swedish distance teaching universities, formally offering it's first distance course in 1973. It is recognised that the university's regional responsibility for further education and training are to be realized through the open distance learning-concept. All faculties at the university are involved in ODL, more or less in traditional dual-mode within the northern region, but ICT-based courses are being developed and offered nationally and internationally in a growing supply.

In order to enhance Open Distance Learning (ODL), the University has established two co-operating units:

• The University Extensions (UnivEx), which has the over-all responsibility for information, marketing and organisation, as well as the contact networks internally and externally as regards ODL of different modes.
• The Centre for Educational Technology (CET), which is responsible for development work and research in the fields of ODL, including in-service training of the University staff in ODL, multimedia, CBT etc.

The principal teaching medium is still printed materials - study guides and textbooks - but Internet and WWW is increasingly popular as medium for course distribution, communication etc. Other media used are videoconferencing (ISDN), videocassettes/TV and audiocassettes.

Local study centres are provided with ICT to respond: videoconferencing and computer conferencing. In some courses local tutors are employed, in others, all tutoring is provided by the university departments. Public libraries are equipped with computers and connected to the universities libraries through 2mb-net.

Most of ODL courses still require meetings for lecturing, tutoring and laboratory sessions, averaging three times per half year.

Approximately 5,000 students per academic year are registered as ODL learners. Their average age is 35-36 and most of them are female. All ODL courses are part-time courses and the year 1997/98 about 180 courses are offered for part-time

study.

Uppsala University

This is the oldest university in Scandinavia, founded in 1477. There are seven faculties, those of Theology, Law, Medicine, Pharmacy, Arts, Social Sciences and Science/Technology, and a Division for Education and Teaching Professions. The University is located in Uppsala, 70 km north of Stockholm.

Distance education has been an integrated part of the undergraduate education since the distance courses started in the early 1970s. All faculties are involved. The University currently offers some 100 separate distance taught courses and a few study programmes. A special feature of the Uppsala University is the international distance education programme, aimed at Swedes living abroad. These courses are mainly correspondence courses and students sit examinations at Swedish embassies all over the world.

Distance learning initiatives fit in the general mission of the University to be a competitive and leading university with recruitment of students from the whole country and from other countries, and with emphasis on advanced further and continuing education as well as similar forms of recurrent education.

Applicants must hold the secondary school certificate or foreign equivalent and possess a good knowledge of Swedish. Special rules apply to those over 25 years of age who have worked more than four years. A numerus clausus applies to all programmes and courses.

The principal teaching medium is printed material such as study guides, written assignments, reading instructions, study or review questions, etc. Other media include videoconferencing, video and audio cassettes, computers - conferencing and the use of e-mail, local study centres and full tutorial support. Internet is becoming more popular as a medium for course distribution and communication.

Most distance courses require meetings for lectures, tutoring and lab-sessions, average three times per half-year.

Communication centres with facilities for video and computer conferencing are being established. An IT support department has been created with the specific task to support the University.

More than 4,000 students per year are registered for distance courses, representing 1,200 annual full-time equivalents. The international distance courses enrol more than 500 Swedes living abroad.

During the major part of this century, adult education, in various forms, has played an important role in the Swedish educational system. Up to the end of the 60s, a small number of large correspondence schools were among the most vital actors on this scene. Round the middle of the 60s, Sweden probably had the largest number of distance students in proportion to its total number of inhabitants.

However, in the late 60s, through a Parliament act, practically all forms of adult education in Sweden were made free of charge or highly subsidised. Adult education colleges were set up all over the country and the correspondence colleges had a very hard task to meet the competition.

As has been shown the development of distance education has been thorough and well organised. The high technological aptitude of the population undoubtedly has had an influence in this and will have consequences with the advent of the WWW as a didactic medium.

1995

1996

1997