EDUCATION. The number of applicants to many of Sahlgrenska Academy’s programs has increased significantly this year compared to last year. First-choice applicants to our medicine, nursing and dental programs increased by over 30 percent.
The Swedish Council for Higher Education (UHR) reports that health science programs throughout the country have seen higher numbers of applicants, and the largest increase is among young people under 20. The number of applicants to higher education in this age group increased by 28 percent in Sweden compared to one year ago.
Gratifying increase
For Sahlgrenska Academy, the increase in applicants is unusually large. Almost all programs are seeing increases of between 16 and 40 percent. Vice Dean Silvana Naredi says that, while gratifying, it is not surprising.
“We had expected an increase with the country heading into a recession. The current situation also means that many graduating high school students will be unable to travel or find jobs in the way they normally would after graduation.
Many of the applicants also want to do their part to serve society, according to Annelie Hyllner, faculty head of education and internationalization at Sahlgrenska Academy’s Faculty Office.
“The epidemic has highlighted the important work that can be done with a degree in a health care profession, and I think many people are driven by a strong desire to help.”
New classes of students
The dramatic increase in applicants does not necessarily mean that the merit ratings will increase by a corresponding amount. We will find out how many credits are required for admission in the different quotas later in the summer after students on waiting lists have been admitted. But there may be an impact on the composition of this year’s student classes now that the number of first-choice applicants has increased by 35 percent in both the medical program and the nursing program, and by 32 percent to the dental program.
“We hope that the students who we admit this autumn will remain in the programs to a higher degree and that more of them will graduate. But this will become clear only in the coming years,” says Silvana Naredi.
Twice as many want to study infectious disease control
The largest percentual increase in the number of first-choice applicants, however, is for the recently started one-year master’s program in microbiology, infectious disease control and hospital hygiene, with twice as many applicants. The program will be offered in the autumn for a second time at Sahlgrenska Academy, and the number of first-choice applicants has doubled from 29 to 60. The program will admit about 35 students from the Nordic countries.
Annelie Ringblom is a lecturer and director of studies for the master’s program in microbiology, infectious disease control and hospital hygiene. In an interview with her before the end of the application period, she noted that the global spread of the coronavirus has been an eye-opener for many people on how vulnerable society is to a tiny virus.
“Many people feel a need to understand how humans and microorganisms share the same world and how we can avoid dangerous diseases,” she said in the interview with the University of Gothenburg a few weeks ago.
The number of applicants to the Biomedical Laboratory Science program has increased by just over 30 percent, but the number of first-choice applicants is at about the same level as last year.
Uncertainty for international students
Both the master’s programs in public health science specializing in health equality and in health economics saw strong growth in first-choice applicants (39 and 42 percent, respectively). The total number of applicants that want to study a master’s in global health increased by 25 percent.
“Our international master’s programs have many students from other countries and right now we do not know whether they will be able to come to Sweden to study. We are having discussions with other universities about how to handle this. So far, we have said that the initial courses in the autumn will be held as distance courses and that we will follow developments internationally,” says Silvana Naredi.
TEXT: ELIN LINDSTRÖM
