Stockholm University protests Swedish citizenship test role

The government formally issued Stockholm University and Gothenburg University with the order in May, following on from an earlier order given in February to the Swedish Council of Higher Education. 

But Hans Adolfsson, Vice Chancellor at Stockholm University, told the Dagens Nyheter newspaper that he considered the task outside the university's remit. 

"The Higher Education Act states that we must conduct research and teaching, so designing a citizenship test is not borne out as part of our activities. It is a purely political assignment that universities should not be involved in." 

Sweden's Migration Minister Johan Forssell is insisting that the university comply with the order to design the test, just as it is responsible for drawing up the TISUS test that assesses the Swedish language ability of university applicants. 

"Our universities are state institutions that are under the control of the government," he told the newspaper. "The reason we are changing the citizenship legislation is that there is a great need to do so. You should be able to show that you have basic knowledge of Swedish and you should know certain things. The task given is about forming a test that measures knowledge of the Swedish language and of society, and that is something that they already do today." 

But Adolfsson said that the proposed citizenship test and the TISUS test were in no way comparable. 

"It's a totally different type of test," he told DN. "That is a test of ability that relates to the core activities of the university. It is directly connected to us because it is used in acceptance to higher education. The citizenship test has no connection to and gives no eligibility to apply to university." 

Adolfsson also criticised the timeline, with the test supposed to be ready in just over a year, something he said was "far too quick" for a test with such a "decisive impact on individuals' future". 

"That means you have to produce a high quality test which has also been checked so that it is suited to everyone who has to do it." 

The task, he said, was also in conflict with the principle that the state should keep an "arm's length distance" from universities. 

"That's why it's important that the government launches an inquiry into whether universities should have another form of association."