Due to problems with so-called joy grades, the Stockholm School of Economics introduced a requirement for passing the high school test. This led to a decrease in the number of women admitted to the programs, so now the requirement is being removed.

Joy grades occur when students receive higher grades than their actual level of knowledge justifies, which may be due to pressure on teachers from parents and managers to give higher grades. This can in turn lead to an unfair situation where students who should receive lower grades are overrepresented in popular programs, making it difficult for more qualified students.

The Stockholm School of Economics tried to address this by introducing a requirement for passing the high school test with a score of at least 1.25 for the national admissions round for bachelor’s programs.

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When the Swedish Council for Higher Education, UHR, analyzed the consequences of the new eligibility requirement, it was found that it had affected diversity – the proportion of women had decreased from 39 percent to 29 percent.

Comprehensive review

The school will now conduct a comprehensive review of its admissions model, and during this process, it will remove the requirement for the high school test for bachelor’s programs from the next admissions round until the autumn term of 2026. Thus, the school’s admission principles are claimed to be more in line with other universities and colleges in Sweden.

“As an international business school, we will draw inspiration from leading institutions around the world. Our ambition is the same as always, to attract and welcome the very best students who enable us to fulfill our mission of strengthening Swedish competitiveness,” says Lars Strannegård, rector of the Stockholm School of Economics.

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