Are Immigrants choosing other Universities than Natives? - comparing the composition of students at Lund and Malmö University

Abstract: Abstract The purpose with this study is to look into whether there is a difference in the reputa-tion/status of the university immigrants and native Swedes choose. The composition of stu-dents at two universities is compared, Malmö University and Lund University. The objective is to investigate whether there are more immigrants, first- and/or second generation, studying at Malmö University compared to Lund University. Several different control variables are used to control for possible pre-market differences between the two groups in order to see if there are differences in the choice of university and whether those differences can be explained. To collect data questionnaire was handed out at lectures and eight different programs that are taught at both universities, i.e. 16 programs in total, are included in the study. A large sample of totally 851 observations was collected for the study. To analyze the data a linear probability model was used. The main finding of this thesis is that the difference between Lund University and Malmö University for first generation immigrants cannot be explained. For second generation immigrants, the gap between Lund and Malmö University seems to be explained mostly by the minimum grades of admission, but also parents’ education, living in home municipality and the share of pupils with parents with foreign background in compulsory school seems to have some impact on the probability that a student at Lund University is an immigrant.