The university entrance exam is intended as a second chance for those who do not have top grades from high school. It has mainly become the primary route for men to enter, as they generally have lower grades than women but perform better on the exam.
But how much difference does the university entrance exam make? The Swedish Council for Higher Education (UHR) simulated an admissions process for the fall of 2024, in which the university entrance exam selection group was removed. The effects were dramatic for a number of popular programs:
The psychology program had lost 40 percent of its male students, and the law program 30 percent. The social work program had received 27 percent fewer men, and the medical and dental programs 23 percent fewer.
Significantly more women than men were admitted to these five programs. Without the university entrance exam, this dominance would have been even greater.
More older students
However, the difference for the total of more than 300,000 admitted students was small. This is because most courses and programs lack competition.
UHR's conclusion is that the university entrance exam contributes to broadening recruitment in terms of gender and age, as it admits more people in their 30s.
There is a recent example that is in line with the conclusion, but with the opposite outcome. The Stockholm School of Economics has a majority of male students in its undergraduate programs. When the institution last fall introduced a requirement of at least 1.25 points on the university entrance exam to even qualify, the proportion of women admitted dropped from 39 to 29 percent. The school then chose to drop the requirement.
"We were genuinely surprised by the magnitude of the change," said principal Lars Strannegård to TT.
What Handels had not expected was that the women, despite good chances, refrained from taking the exam.
Women dominate
No other higher education institution has made the university entrance exam a requirement. However, it has previously been shown that the exam has a greater appeal to men who can do well than to women with the same potential.
"Some of these top-performing women probably judge that their grades are so good that they don't need to take the university entrance exam. They still have great opportunities to get into many programs," says Anders Ljungberg, head of analysis at UHR.
Women also dominate: six out of ten students are women. At the same time, the university is tasked with promoting equality and diversity. The university that chooses to allocate more places to those with university entrance exam results could – at least theoretically – increase the proportion of men and slightly older students, UHR concludes.
Of those admitted in the fall of 2024, just over 63 percent were women and just under 37 percent were men. Without the university entrance exam, the proportion of men would have been just under 36 percent, or 2,257 fewer individuals.
On individual programs, with competition for places, the change had been much greater.
Women leave upper secondary school with better grades than men. Of those who graduated in the spring of 2024, girls had an average grade point average of 15.4, boys 14.4. Girls had higher grade point averages than boys in all upper secondary programs.
In the university entrance exam, men generally perform better, both in the quantitative and verbal sections.
In the spring of 2023, the men's average score was 94.0 points (out of 160), or 0.95 standardized (out of 2.0).
The women's average score was 83.2 points, or 0.80 standardized.
The Swedish Higher Education Entrance Examination has existed since 1977 and has been taken by 1.8 million people.
Source: UHR, Swedish National Agency for Education and Umeå University
