Kvalitetssignalering genom universitetsranking - Påverkar universitetsranking de sökande till universitet och högskola?

The effect of university ranking on university applications has been subject to evaluations in several countries but in Sweden it is not as recognized. This study aims to examine whether applicants to Swedish university studies are affected by national and international university rankings. The effect of university ranking is examined on a set of applicant related variables such as the total number of applications and the grade levels of the applicants during the period 2008 to 2015. The model is estimated with fixed effects. Only two out of 35 estimates were found to be significant. However, the sizes of these estimates were found to be very small. The results suggest that the application pattern to Swedish universities is explained by something other than university rankings