Now there are almost thirty thousand Swedish students abroad, or about as many as in a quite large university. This mobility gives us what you could call a kind of automatic quality assurance. When those thirty thousand students go abroad they of course compare the quality of given abroad to what they have experienced in Sweden. If quality in Sweden is low we will very quickly get some very strong signals from them. If they encounter new and improved ways of teaching they bring those ideas home.
Mobility also makes the process of quality assurance more important.
If the quality of education in our country is sub-standard we will not be able to attract foreign students. Students with degrees from Swedish higher education would also find it difficult to get qualified jobs abroad if the quality is lacking. I argue that far-reaching devolution of power to regions, municipalities, schools, universities, pupils and students is the best way to meet local demands and to achieve a really creative environment. When educational systems at all levels expand very quickly both in number of institutions and in number of students centralisation becomes impractical and inefficient. But devolution must in my view be combined with adequate resource levels and national quality assurance.