The State of Educational Research in Sweden

The State of Educational Research in Sweden

Robert Thornberg
Department of Behavioural Sciences and Learning, Linköping University
February 2012 (Source: Vetenskapsrådet)

In Sweden there are three main financiers funding research in educational sciences: Vetenskapsrådet (VR; the Swedish Research Council), Riksbankens Jubileumsfond (RJ; Bank of Sweden Tercentrary Foundation), and FAS (the Swedish Council for Working Life and Social Research). During the period of 2005-2010, the sum of the grants amounted to SEK 1.3 billion (75% from VR; 8% from RJ, and 5% from FAS) that covered 345 projects and programs.

Most of the grants (75,4 %) were received by the older universities (Stockholm University: 22,4 %; Gothenburg University: 16,4 %; Uppsala University: 12,8 %; Linköping University: 9,3 %; Lund University: 9,3 %; Umeå University: 5,1 %).

About ten percent (9,9 %) were distributed among the younger universities (Örebro University: 5,5 %; Linné University: 2,9 %; Karlstad University: 1,1 %; Mid Sweden University: 0,4 %). 10,2 % were distributed to university colleges (“Högskolor” in Swedish; Malmö University College: 2,9 %; Jönköping University Foundation: 1,3 %; University of Borås: 1,3 %; Kristianstad University: 1,0 %; Södertörn University: 1,0 %; University of Gävle: 0,8 %; Mälardalen University: 0,7 %; Ersta Sköndal University College: 0,5 %; The Swedish School of Sport and Health Sciences: 0,5 %; Halmstad University: 0,2 %; Blekinge Institute of Technology: 0,1 %).

A lesser part of the grants (3,5 %) were distributed to professional colleges (“Fackhögskolor”) such as Karolinska Institutet (1,2 %) and others, and 1,0 % were distributed to research institutes.

The grants for research in educational sciences were during this period distributed across the disciplines according to this: Education (26,5 %), Didactics (26,4 %), Sociology (9,0 %), Other Social Sciences (7,7 %), Linguistics (6,3 %), Other humanities and Religious Studies (6,1 %), History (5,2 %), “Other Education etc.” (3,3 %), Psychology (3,1 %), Political Sciences (2,9 %), Economics (1,4 %), and other disciplines (2,1 %).

Using the categories laid down by the VR to make a classification of different areas within research in educational sciences, the funded projects were distributed according to this: 37,1 % to individual learning, 26,9 % to didactics, 19,0 % to value issues, 10,2 % to history of education, 9,1 % to effect studies, 7,9 % to professional issues, and 7,0 % to group processes (the sum is more than 100% since 45 % of the funded projects were classified to more than one category).

Current Members

in order of countries:

Armenia (ERAS)
Austria (ÖFEB)
Belarus (IE)
Belgium (VFO and ABCEduc)
Bulgaria (Candidate)
Croatia (CERA)
Cyprus (CPA and KEB-DER)
Czech Republic (CAPV)
Denmark (NERA)
Estonia (EAPS)
Finland (FERA and NERA)
France (AECSE)
Germany (DGfE)
Greece (HES)
Hungary (HERA)
Iceland (NERA)
Ireland (ESAI)
Italy (SIPED)
Kazakhstan (KERA)
Latvia (LARE)
Lithuania (LERA)
Luxemburg (LuxERA)
Malta (MERA)
Netherlands (VOR)
Norway (NERA)
Poland (PTP)
Portugal (SPCE and CIDInE)
Romania (ARCE)
Russia (RERA)
Serbia (DIOS)
Slovakia (SERS)
Slovenia (SLODRE)
Spain (AIDIPE and SEP)
Sweden (NERA)
Switzerland (SSRE)
Turkey (EAB and EARDA)
Ukraine (UERA)
United Kingdom (BERA and SERA)