Basic eligibility: Threshold or fork in the road to higher education?

Sweden has a two-step selection process for admission to higher education. Eligibility is assessed to ensure that the candidates have the ability to take the course/programme. Selections are made based in part on other measures. The focus here is eligibility, particularly the 25:4 scheme, a measure introduced to widen access to higher education in the 1970s but since abandoned. An age of 25 and 4 years of work experience were the main criteria of basic eligibility under this scheme. This exploratory study identifies the characteristics of 25:4 applicants and compares them to applicants with other types of eligibility and comparable groups in the population. What were the characteristics of 25:4 applicants? In what ways did they differ from other applicants and from the population in general? Results illustrate the scheme’s influence, which was stronger on application patterns and weaker on the admission patterns of traditional and non-traditional applicants/students.