Keynote Per Zettervall: Admissions in Sweden – A story of legislation, systems and cooperation Sprekers: Per Zettervall (Swedish Council for Higher Education) Locatie: Rotonde

1. Admissions in Sweden
2014-06-03
Per Zettervall

2. HE and HEI:s in Sweden
How many are there? How big are they? Where are
they? Etc…
16/05/2013
System modernization
2

3. Some swedish facts
• 9,5 million people
• 450 000 km2
• 21 inhabitants/km2
• From north to south:1 572 km
• Towns:
̶ Stockholm 1,4 million
̶ Gothenburg 550 000
̶ Malmö 280 000

4. HEI:s in Sweden
• 55 institutions in total
• Oldest: Uppsala university (1477)
• Youngest: Linnaeus university (2010)
• Largest: Stockholm university
36 700 students
• Smallest: Gammelkroppa forest
school, 25 students
• Distance: Luleå-Malmö 1 470 km

5. • All basic and second level education financed by the government
for swedish and EEA students
• Each HEI gets paid for the amount of full time students,
enrollment and achievements
• Expensive educations get more money per student
• However, there is a maximum amount for each institution that
the government will pay for
• Hence, all institutions try to hit that exact number which effects
the number of courses available to students
Financing of HEI:s

6. Fields of cooperation UHR-HEI:s
• Virtual organizations: Efficient way of using admission experts
• Advisory groups: What funtionality to build (and what not to
build)
• Production coordination: Deadlines, planning…
• Specification of requirements: Detailed description of
functionality
• Testing: Does the new functionality work well för the HEI?
• Development: Done by ITS at University of Umeå

7. • Financing using the reversed Robin Hood-method
• MOOC:s
• Admission of international students (outside EEA)
• Expansion of vocational training
• Cooperations, thoughts of merging with others
• Fewer applicants expected up to 2020 due to demographic
reasons
Hot topics for the universities today

8. About UHR
Our tasks, our work, some figures

9. Continual development, communication and provision of a broad
range of advanced services in the form of:
• Studies and analyses
• Objective and relevant information about higher education
• Admission services
• Expertise and service on admission procedures
• Recognition of qualifications from abroad
• Opportunities for international collaboration
• Application management
The Swedish Council for Higher Education’s
areas of responsibility

10. • 225 employees
• 2013 – 823,735 applications/458,318
admissions
• Antagning.se / Universityadmissions.se
• 6 million unique hits (2013)
• studera.nu
• 3 million unique hits (2013)
• SweSAT 2012 – 133,000 registered
• 60 international programmes
About us

11. A
An introduction to the swedish admission system
and to the hottest topics of today
16/05/2013
System modernization
15

12. • ”Everyone knows that an applicant with a score of 17,25 is much
better than an applicant with a score of 17,24”
• ”The SAT test is bad at predicting how successful the student will
be”
• ”Fairness is a top priority”
• ”And so are costs”
• ”Rules should be detailed, there is no room for uncertainty”
• ”Things such as motivation, suitability and other things that can
not be desribed in figures or numbers can not be relied on”
• ”Code of conduct is important"
True (or not) about swedish admissions

13. • UHR has agreements with 37 universities
and university colleges
• The agreements are the framework for
cooperation and sharing of responsibilities
between UHR and the university.
• UHR handles seven national admissions
rounds
Relations between UHR and HEI

14. One country – Two systems

15. The history of Student Information Systems
• First version of Ladok: 1975
• Several different systems until
1993 when all converted to
Ladok
• New version ”Ladok Nouveau”
in 1999 due to Y2K
• And now, the system is rebuilt
from scratch, Ladok3

16. The history of Admission Systems
• First version in 1975
• Updates/new versions in 1991
and 1997
• Two systems, one for single
subject courses and one for
study programmes
• Since 2006, NyA handles it all

17. The NyA System
• National Admissions System
• Developed by the Swedish universities and colleges together with the
UHR
• Used by all of the largest universities and university colleges in Sweden
• Used for admission to all higher education
 Programs, single subject courses on all levels (except for doctoral
studies)

18. The NyA System – User Interfaces
Java client
 Applications
 Registering qualifications
 Administering system rules
 Admission rounds
 Scheduling automated
processess
Web application
(Teacher web)
 Lists and statistics
 View applications and
documents
Web application
(Applicant web)
 Course search and application
 Status of processing
 View credentials
NyA

19. Application
Assessment
Applicant
Notification of
results
From application to admission 3-4 months
The admission process

20. The Admission Process in NyA
The Admission Process in NyA
Course
transfer
Course
search and
application
Preparation
Automated
application
processing
Assessment
of
qualifications
Selection and
notification
Result
transfer

21. Transferring Courses to the System
• Courses from local course databases to NyA
• Setting up an admission round
• Admission round is used to administer courses and programs with
the same application period
• Setting up requirement and ranking models
The Application Process in NyA
Course
search and
application
Preparation of
applications
Automated
application
processing
Assessment
of
qualifications
Selection and
notification
Result
transfer
Course
transfer

22. Course Search and Application
• Course search on the web (www.antagning.se)
• Online application
• 99,9 % of the applications submitted electronically on
Antagning.se/Universityadmissions.se
The Application Process in NyA
Course
transfer
Preparation
Automated
application
processing
Assessment
of
qualifications
Selection and
notification
Result
transfer
Course search
and application

23. Preparation
• Qualifications transferred to NyA electronically
• Documents are scanned and digitalised
• Registering qualifications into the system
• Admission fees and exemptions
The Application Process in NyA
Course
transfer
Course
search and
application
Automated
application
processing
Assessment
of
qualifications
Selection and
notification
Result
transfer
Preparation

24. Automated Application Processing
• Automated assessment of general eligibility
• Qualifications matched with entry requirements (requirement
models)
• Automated ranking according to ranking models
The Application Process in NyA
Course
transfer
Course
search and
application
Preparation
Assessment
of
qualifications
Selection and
notification
Result
transferAutomated
application
processing

25. Assessment of Qualifications
• Manual assessment of qualifications
• Exemptions from formal requirements
• Ranking of applicants
• Local admissions officers and professors
The Application Process in NyA
Course
transfer
Course
search and
application
Preparation
Automated
application
processing
Selection and
notification
Result
transfer
Assessment of
qualifications

26. Admissions Selection and Notification
• Applicants are admitted in order of preference
• Two selection rounds
• The applicants are required to reply after the first round
The Application Process in NyA
Course
transfer
Course
search and
application
Preparation
Automated
application
processing
Assessment
of
qualifications
Result
transfer
Selection and
notification

27. Transferring the Admissions Result
• Admissions results are sent to the universities
• The results are loaded into the study documentation system (Ladok)
The Application Process in NyA
Course
transfer
Course
search and
application
Preparation
Automated
application
processing
Assessment
of
qualifications
Selection and
notification
Result transfer

28. Distributed Handling of Applications
• A central service agency (UHR)
 Scanning/digitalising documents
 Registering digital documents
 Assessing eligibility
 Contact Centre for applicants
 System operation
• The universities
 Assessment of course specific requirements
 Courses and programmes at advanced level
 Exemptions from formal requirements

29. • All applicants send their documentation to one place
 Cost efficient for the universities
 Easy process for applicants to understand and complete
 Every university can view applicant documentation at anytime
• Possible to request originals and other types of documentation
when necessary
 Suspicion of fraud
 Documents are illegible
 DVD:s, books etc
Scanning

30. • Contact Center answers questions of a general character
regarding the application process
• UHR and HEI provides a second line for telephone and mail for
applicants with questions of a more complex and personal
character
• Open 9 am to 4 pm. Until midnight on critical dates
• Always first to report if there are problems with the web site
Contact center

31. • Use all resources in a cost efficient way so that all participating
universities can better manage their time and receive a qualified
assessment of the applicants qualifications.
• One application – one admissions officer
• Agreements with 23 universities
• Sometimes problematic to get the right resources and the right
amount of them
Virtual organizations

32. Admissions Decisions
• Each university makes its own decisions regarding admissions, including
exemptions.
• The applicant submits an appeal of any admission decision to the decision-
making university.
• Legal framework
1. University law decided by the Parliament/Riksdagen
2. Higher Education Ordinance decided by the Government
3. Directives decided by the Swedish Council for Higher Education on behalf of
the Higher Education Ordinance
4. Local regulations decided by each university/university college
5. Guidelines, manuals, handbooks

33. Data exchange
School
Qualification
s database
Scholastic
Aptitude
Test
Tax Agency
Ladok
Admission
System
Ladok
Postal
Service
Study Support
Statistics Sweden

34. • Yearly, about 1,8 million € (2.2 million $) spent on further
development, new functionality
• About 4 million € (5.1 million $) spent on maintaining the system
• About 1,6 million € (2.1 million $) spent on Service Operations
• …a lot of money but costs are shared between HEI…
• …complex regulations = a complex and expensive system…
Costs for NyA…

35. • A brand new national student records system, Ladok3, is being
developed right now and discussions are ongoing what
functionality should be in which system.
• The need for (mostly foreign) applicants to attach scanned
documents to their application.
• Improvements of the application web site regarding accessibility
• New system/database for High School certificates
• Automated tests, improved logging
• System stability issues
• New regulations, more complexity added
What´s on the table right now?

36. The award winning application web
site…
It´s only a swedish award, and only in the category
”educational web sites” but nevertheless…..

38. • www.antagning.se
Demo time…

39. The scary date…

41. • Ca 50 000 applications the last hours
• The applicants browse a lot
• Different issues at CGI
• The universities are pretty ok with an
extension of the deadline
• And are somewhat reluctant to finance
further investments
• However it is not good for UHR to be
known for ”the system that breaks down
annually”
What is the problem?

42. Application management and
development

43. SCRUM

44. Sprints - Iterations
Retrospect affects planning
of future sprints through
changes in prioritizations,
requirements and new User
Stories
Teammember Product Owner
Stake holders,
Others
Sprint
Backlog
User Stories handled in the
sprint/iteration
Sprintplanning,
day 1
Sprint Demo
Retrospect
Product Backlog
3 weeks

45. Från koncept till Product Backlog
User Stories –focus on use
and usability in the
development project

46. The System Object NyA
• NyA, the system
̶ The expert client
̶ Antagning.se/Universityadmissions.se
̶ Teachers web (webbgränssnitt för sällananvändare av NyA)
̶ Interface to external systems
̶ NyA-Open (copy of the database)
̶ Beda (national certificate database)
• The process that the system supports
• Documentation regarding process and system

47. The yearly
plan
Tracks and product owners in NyA
Product Owners
Reference
group
Reference
Group
Reference
group
Backlog Backlog
Backlog
• Development is split into tracks/system parts
• Every track has its own Product Owner who is
responsible for the backlog
• Every track has a reference group with stake holders
from HEI
• The product owners and the main product owner meet
every other week in the Product Owners Forum

48. Application Management
The strategy
(3 years)
Backlog
(always)
The yearly
plan (1 year)
• Long term goals
• Prioritized areas of improvement
• Principles for prioritizing
• Definition of the tracks
• Special focus areas
• Specific development projects
Product Owners
Forum
Application council
• List of things to do
• Continous prioritization
• Development, requirements and
testing within the team
Reference
group
Application
Management
Group

49. www.uhr.se

50. Thank you!
Per Zettervall
per.zettervall@uhr.se

51. www.uhr.se