International students drawn to Swedish master's programmes in IT

Blekinge Institute of Technology expects to see a doubling of its foreign student population this year, reports NyTeknik, a Swedish IT publication. Last year, 200 foreign students attended the university college; this year, around 400 are expected.

These figures represent a growing trend - foreign students are increasingly attracted to English-language master’s programmes in Sweden, especially technology oriented ones that Swedish students themselves often pass over.

Tomas Johansson, Blekinge Institute of Technology's head of the student office, told NyTeknik that the policy of attracting more foreign students is deliberate, and that as the number of available places at English-language programmes has increased, so have the numbers of foreign students. “They are very interested in electronics and IT, which Swedish students often pass over,” Johansson said.

Some of the most popular countries of origin for foreign students at Blekinge are Pakistan, Bangladesh, India, China and Nigeria. The presence of these students makes it possible to fill all the available spots, according to Johansson.The situation is similar at other universities NyTeknik talked to. The IT University of Göteborg is expecting 70 students this year. At Mid Sweden University, around 100 students will attend the institution’s 4 English-language programmes. Currently, there are no fees for foreign students, though a proposal is afoot that would introduce fees for students from outside the EU, possibly from 2008 onwards.
According to Anders Flodström, head of the Royal Institute of Technology, the switch to fees is inevitable if Swedish universities want to remain competitive internationally. His only worry is that fees will be introduced too soon, before new scholarships can be introduced to continue to attract bright students from outside the EU.

“We’ll need better marketing in the future,” Flodström told NyTeknik, because there is little doubt that one of the reasons for Sweden’s popularity as a study destination for foreign students is the current lack of fees.