Discrimination Act

The Discrimination Act protects against, among other things, discrimination against students at Swedish universities and colleges related to:

• sex
• gender identity and expression
• ethnicity
• religion or belief
• disability
• sexual orientation
• age

The Discrimination Act states that no student should be disadvantaged when applying for or attending higher education, such as colleges and universities. Colleges and universities must therefore work actively to ensure that all students have the same rights and conditions. In other words, it is a legal requirement that the premises, pedagogy (teaching and course literature), and other information must be accessible and usable for students. The Discrimination Act states:

Employers and employees are to cooperate on active measures to bring about equal rights and opportunities in working life regardless of sex, ethnicity, religion or other belief, and in particular to combat discrimination in working life on such grounds.

Assessment of student performance

The regulation itself is a means of combating discrimination, and the Discrimination Act prohibits discrimination in grading, assessment, and the like. What is required here in terms of active measures is to ensure, at a general level, that course syllabuses and other assessment rules do not risk reducing opportunities for any group. It is also a matter of the education provider investigating whether, in the practical work and application of the rules, there is a risk that assessments of students' academic performance may be influenced, consciously or unconsciously, by factors related to any ground of discrimination.