Do Sweden Need Swedish Doctoral Students?

The union “Swedish Engineers” recently presented a report showing that the number of Swedish doctoral students in the field of engineering has decreased by 36 percent since 2010. The decrease applies to all fields of science, but it is particularly clear in engineering.

This is happening at a time when Europe needs a technological leap in green and climate-adapted technology. Europe must not fall behind in development. We must be at the forefront of new technology, and we must develop our expertise to create a more sustainable society.

It should be noted that it is not the total number of doctoral students at Swedish universities that has decreased, but the number of Swedish doctoral students. Swedish universities have long invested in so-called “internationalization”. They have wanted to attract foreign students, doctoral students and teachers to Sweden to increase the competence and status of our educational institutions. This has certainly been necessary in many ways.

Sweden is a small country that needs continuous contact with the major research nations. In certain subjects, such as technology and medicine, an international practice has also emerged where researchers move between different countries to build their careers. Sweden, like all other countries in the European Union, has an interest in joining this movement.

But most things in life come at a price. If you want one thing, you usually must sacrifice another. And if Sweden – and other European countries as well – are to have extensive international recruitment of research students, it will be more difficult for young Swedes to gain access to these programs. It’s pure mathematics. If 40 percent of all doctoral positions are to be filled internationally, there will be 40 percent fewer doctoral positions for young Swedes to apply for (given that the number of positions does not increase, which it may do marginally).

We may think that this is acceptable. We may even think that it is desirable. But we cannot deny that international recruitment means that it will be more difficult for potential candidates from our own population to get the positions in question.

And now the Swedish engineers’ own union, Swedish Engineers, has sounded the alarm that this is starting to become a problem.

The pressure from international applications has decreased somewhat. Sweden has become somewhat more selective when it comes to foreign students and doctoral students. But the number of Swedish doctoral students has not increased as a result. This may be partly because many Swedish undergraduate students have been told that it is so difficult to get into a doctoral program that they have never seriously considered applying for one. And that is why Sweden currently has a shrinking proportion of Swedish engineers with doctoral education.

But what about the foreign doctoral students? Can they not be useful in Sweden? The Swedish Engineers point out here that many of the foreigners who do their doctorates in Sweden leave the country after completing their education. Some of course stay and contribute expertise and manpower to Swedish universities and to the Swedish labor market, but far from all of them do so.

But there is another problem. Three out of ten doctoral students in the field of technology come from Iran, Russia or China. These are countries whose intelligence services are active in Sweden, and which are engaged in political and industrial information gathering. Is it reasonable that these people should be at Swedish universities and research institutes? Many of them are certainly honest and well-meaning individuals, but with the international situation we have today, they will have more difficulty getting jobs in Swedish industry and at Swedish research institutes. Security checks will become stricter and in the long term it may even become difficult for individuals from Russia, Iran and China to work in Sweden and the European Union at all. And then Sweden will once again have invested resources in education that the country itself cannot benefit from.

It is important to recruit top international candidates at our universities. It is important to have student exchanges and international research programs. But from a conservative European perspective, it is also important that Europe’s knowledge-based nations are concerned with maintaining competence and qualifications in their own population. Perhaps we need more thoughtfulness and moderation when it comes to the internationalization of our European universities.