Official statistics on higher vocational education

Statistics Sweden has been responsible for official statistics on higher vocational education since 2018.

Statistics on applicants to higher vocational education are based on data that Statistics Sweden has collected from education providers since 2014. In the period 2014-2017, Statistics Sweden collected the survey data on behalf of the National Agency for Higher Vocational Education.

Statistics on students in higher vocational education are based on information from the Swedish National Agency for Higher Vocational Education, which in turn receives the information from the education providers. Higher vocational education is included in the statistics for 2007-2013.

Applicants

An applicant is defined by the following criteria:

• The applicant has submitted an application that includes information about the applicant's name and personal identity number (or name and date of birth).
• The applicant has submitted their application within the application period (within the ordinary or extended application period).

Net statistics of the number of applicants and the number of qualified applicants are presented. This means that once the number of applicants is reported, grouped by various education data, such as field of education or county, the number of unique applicants per study domain is counted. Persons who have applied to several study programmes in different study domains are counted once in each domain.

Admitted students who commenced their studies

The number of admitted students who commenced their studies refers to the number of persons studying three weeks after the study session began. Students who have been added during the education and those who have dropped out are included. This means that all those who have been included in at least one register of students in a programme session are included. 

Students

The number of students refers to active students in programme sessions that last at least one day during a specific period. An active student must be included in at least one study register during a specific period. 

Persons who have been active students in several programmes during a specific period are counted once for each programme session. 

Field of education

Field of education refers to the classification of programmes in the fields of education used by the Swedish National Agency for Higher Vocational Education (MYH). The fields of education are based on the SUN 2020 standard.

Courses (short programmes)

Courses refer to short programmes that can consist of courses and course packages. The courses should provide in-depth, renewed or broadened competency and can be up to six months long. See also the website of the Swedish National Agency for Higher Vocational Education for further information on short programmes. Information on applicants for and students attending short programmes is presented separately, that is, is not included in the regular higher vocational education statistics on long programmes lasting at least six months.

See www.scb.se/uf0701 for more definitions.