Evaluation Through Follow-up, University of Gothenburg

The Evaluation Through Follow-up (UGU) is a large cohort-sequential research study which is used for evaluation and research about schools and education in Sweden.

UGU stands for Utvärdering Genom Uppföljning ("Evaluation Through Follow-up" in english) and is one of the largest study in Sweden in the field of education, the country's largest survey of schools. As part of the national evaluation of the school system, our study contributes with nationally representative data that can be linked to other databases. The study contains nationally representative samples of students from eleven cohorts, born between 1948 and 2010. The special thing about UGU is the longitudinal design where individuals from these cohorts are followed through the education system. The design makes it possible to both follow students through the education system and to compare cohorts from different times.

UGU-project granted SEK 34 million

UGU will contribute to a unique research project with a large programme support from the Swedish Foundation for Humanities and Social Sciences. The programme will identify factors that contribute to good learning ability throughout life and explore ways to improve learning in old age.

Learning Later in Life: From Description and Prediction

Upper Secondary School year 12 for cohort 2004

Evaluation Through Follow-up (UGU) can now present that cohort 2004 has been updated with the upper secondary school-survey. The new data is available in the cohort 2004 dataset and its codebook.

The upper secondary school survey follows up on the cohort with students born 2004 and who has previously received surveys in year 6 and 9 in primary school and in their first year of upper secondary school concerning the covid19-pandemic. About 1900 students choose to fill in the survey. The survey has been answered by the student-sample during the spring of 2023. More info regarding for example how the data looks or what questions were asked can be found here and in our codebook for cohort 2004.

Webinar: managing and gathering longitudinal data

Evaluation Through Follow-up (UGU) has collected questionnaires from students in Sweden since the 60s. The selection of students takes place in collaboration with Statistics Sweden from when they are in year 6 up to and including the last year of upper secondary school.

The students in the selection answer questions about their health, their interests, working methods in school and their personal development in various subjects. Similar questionnaires are also answered by teachers and guardians and all are collected every three years. Our most recent collection was last year and contained data from students born in 2010, their guardians and teachers. The data is then used by researchers in economics, psychology, pedagogy and political science to investigate developments in Swedish education and the labormarket.

We will hold an interactive and introductory hour (9-10 am) on September 19 on Zoom where you as doctoral students, researchers and master's students will learn more about how we collect our data.

For more information about which questions are included in our surveys, you can read more in our codebooks: https://www.gu.se/en/evaluation-through-follow-up-etf/codebooks

For inspiration from previous studies that have used UGU data, you can visit the link with our publications: https://www.gu.se/en/evaluation-through-follow-up/publicationsPlease

Do not hesitate to contact me with a return email for access to the link. The language is in English.

Thank you teachers and principals!

You play an important role for our children and young people. We in the UGU group wish you a wonderful start to the semester! How appreciated did our teachers and colleagues feel during the academic years 2010/2011 and 2016/17? Below you can see an illustration of this based on our teacher surveys. They answered taught cohort in 1998 and 2004 in 6th grade.

This is why you should take part of our data!

Evaluation Through Follow-up (UGU) follows approximately 10,000 students who are selected every six years. Our survey asks them how they perform in school, how they experience their relationships with family members, teachers and classmates, and so much more. The same individuals get the same questions after three years in school and it is this longitudinal design that makes us so unique!

Video (2:30)

UGU för forskare

More information for those who are included in the selection can be found under the following link:

Principals with classes in the sample

Teachers with students in the sample

Parents with children in the sample

Information clips for students

Thank you for contributing to the research on Swedish schools!

In educational research, one is often content to collect information about students and their education at a single point in time, such as year 6 or year 9. The longitudinal design is especially useful for those who wonder why different students take different paths through the education system or whether it matters which path you take for how it goes later in life. UGU is unique in an international perspective as these longitudinal studies follow so many individuals for such a long time. Even fewer studies follow more than one cohort. For each cohort, administrative data, questionnaires and various measures of students' study conditions and educational results are collected. Since similar data has been collected in each cohort, it is possible to compare students who grew up and went to school during different time periods. It is useful information in discussions about how school reforms or societal changes affect students' educational careers. UGU thus enables both longitudinal and cross-sectional surveys of large and nationally representative student samples.