Abstract:
Inclusion of students with special educational needs (SEN) has approximately a 50-year Swedish
Higher Education history, taking place since 1960–70s. A systematic special education support service for
students with SEN in Sweden has developed during the last two decades. During this period, educational
support for students’ services has become an integral part of the well-functioning network among several
Swedish national actors: special education services of HEIs, UHR, SPSM and Stockholm University.
Remaining autonomous in carrying out their functions, coordinators of the network universities cooperate
with other Swedish universities and develop their high-quality professionalism.
Examining the theoretical foundation engendered conceptual approaches to understanding inclusion
in HEIs from both individual and institutional perspectives. Responding to the expansion and belief in the
fundamental value of inclusion for European HE, the Swedish Council for Higher Education (UHR) initiated
the development of a new program for standardizing different aspects of the inclusion of students with SEN
in HEIs, creating NAIS and started its cross-country university functional network implementation in 2017,
linking it with 32 HEIs all over Sweden. Introduction to this study data, collected by the NAIS program, is of
great interest for the further development of university and societal knowledge about the inclusion of young
people with special educational needs in HEIs. The questions discussed and formulated in this presentation
reveal that inclusion in Swedish HE got its strong platform for further development.
