Henna Virkkunen, the Finnish education minister, said Sweden's foreign student quota was discriminatory. Photograph: Lehtikuva / Antti Aimo-Koivisto

Henna Virkkunen (cons), the Finnish education minister, told the Finnish News Agency (STT) that Sweden's foreign student quota, introduced earlier this year, was discriminatory.

"When students are divided into different categories they are not treated equally," she added.

Prior to this spring's higher education admissions round all students regardless of nationality were on an equal footing in Sweden.

Virkkunen said the quota amounted to a violation of a Nordic agreement in which Sweden had made a commitment to apply a single set of admissions criteria to all Nordic applicants.
The agreement expires in 2012.

The Swedish government says the foreign student quota was introduced because of difficulties in comparing foreign qualifications with Swedish ones.

But Virkkunen said the real impetus behind the change was a will to prioritise Swedish applicants over foreign ones.
"Sweden wanted to try this system regardless of the opposition to it."

The National Agency for Higher Education, a Swedish watchdog, says the new admissions system breaches EU rules as well.
Under the new scheme applicants from Finland's Åland Islands as well as those having completed the international baccalaureate have access to the non-foreign student quota.

Sweden is the second most popular destination for Finnish students after Britain with about 1,000 Finns studying in Swedish universities.

STT