There are today students on business economics programs who have difficulty rounding correctly, converting decimals to percentages, and calculating fractions, which they should have learned already in elementary school, according to representatives from five Swedish universities with economic education.
The students' lacking math skills can have consequences for Sweden, they write. Already now, one can see that certain jobs related to economics are increasingly being performed by companies abroad.
To address the knowledge gap, the educators propose, among other things, political decisions that lead to a redistribution of resources. Business economics is the single largest subject within higher education in Sweden, but receives significantly lower compensation per student compared to students in natural sciences, technology, engineering, and mathematics, they write.
