Selection

Selection for courses and programmes at bachelor's level

Applicants for bachelor’s studies are placed into one or more selection groups after their merit rating has been calculated. For example, if you've taken the Swedish Scholastic Aptitude Test (högskoleprovet) and have submitted grades from your upper secondary education (most students do), you'll be placed in more than one group. Being in more than one group gives you a better chance of being admitted when places on your course or programme are awarded.

There are three main selection groups:

• one for applicants who compete based on grades
• one for applicants who compete based on their result in the högskoleprovet
• a group for which the university or university college decides the rules for selection

During selection, at least 1/3 of the places must go be awarded based on grades, and at least a further 1/3 must be awarded based on results from the högskoleprovet (Swedish Scholastic Aptitude Test). Universities can decide how they wish to award up to 1/3 of the places available, for example through interviews or portfolios.

Sub-groups in the grades selection group

The grades selection group is divided into three groups: Betygsgrupp I (grades group I) ”BI”, betygsgrupp II (grades group II) ”BII” and folkhögskolegruppen (folk high school group) ”BF”. 

Grades group I (BI), often called the direct group, consists of applicants who meet the entry requirements for their course or programme with their foreign upper secondary qualifications. Applicants who have taken supplementary qualifications (in Swedish, English and/or mathematics) to meet general entry requirements also compete in BI. 

Grades group II (BII) consists of students who have taken supplementary courses at komvux (adult education) in order to meet specific entry requirements, or to raise their merit rating.

Selection after folk high school

Grades group BF consists of applicants who have studied at a folk high school.

Högskoleprovet (Swedish Scholastic Aptitude Test or SweSAT)

If you take the SweSAT, you'll be placed in a special selection group for everyone with a valid test result. You can also compete in the grades groups, depending on what type of grades you have.

The SweSAT does not give you eligibility for higher education studies, but it does give you a better chance to be offered a place if you are eligible. For some courses and programmes, the SweSAT is required.

Read more about the SweSAT (Högskoleprovet)

Applicants with the same qualifications

Each selection group has a certain number of places to award. If two or more applicants in the grades group have exactly the same qualifications, the university can use tests (for example högskoleprovet), interviews or a lottery to separate applicants.

If two or more applicants have the same result in the högskoleprovet, places are awarded by another type of test, an interview or a lottery.

Will I be offered a place?

It’s impossible to predict if an applicant will be offered a place. There are several factors that contribute to a person’s chances in any semester, including how many have applied for the course or programme and the merit ratings of those applicants. In general, the better merit rating you, have the better chance you have of being offered a place on the course or programme you’ve applied for.

Check previous years’ statistics

You can get an idea of what merit rating is usually required for a course or programme by consulting the statistics database. You can find it at the website of the Swedish Council for Higher Education. This database is only available in Swedish.

Find statistics at the statistics database at uhr.se (in Swedish)

Selection to courses and programmes at the master's level

For master's admission, universities decide what the criteria are when assigning a merit rating. Examples of what may be considered are:

• Number of previous university credits
• Previous grades
• Other requested documentation, such as essays and motivation letters.

Always check the course/programme page

For information about what the criteria are for the course or programme you've applied for, see the course or programme’s description page on the university's website. You can access this page from the search results at Universityadmissions.se.

Find out more

A guidance counsellor can always help you with your questions. You can find one at upper secondary schools, adult education centres, folk high schools and universities. It doesn’t matter if you’re not yet a student, or if you’re not even thinking about studying at any of these locations. A guidance counsellor will help you with your questions.