IB – International Baccalaureate
The International Baccalaureate Diploma Programme is a higher education preparatory programme with an internationally recognised degree. The programme is taught in English.
The IB is also available as the IB Career-Related Programme. This is a vocational programme that combines academic courses from the IB Diploma Programme with practical courses in various fields.
There are IB schools in 159 countries. The content and quality of the programme is guaranteed by an independent organisation, the International Baccalaureate (IB), which has its headquarters in Switzerland and a programme development and examination centre in Cardiff, UK.
The programme is taught in English. As the IB programme is a 2-year programme, Swedish schools offer a preparatory year (Year 1 of upper secondary school) with Swedish national courses, but with English as the language of instruction. The courses during the preparatory year are taken from the course offering of the Natural Science and the Social Science Programme, and may vary slightly between different IB schools.
During the two IB years, pupils choose six courses from the IB's international curriculum, three courses of 150 hours and three of 240 hours. One of the courses is always the pupil's mother tongue. The IB also has a core Theory of Knowledge (TOK) course of 100 hours, a specialised project and a requirement to complete “CAS activities” with a focus on community service.
International Baccalaureate holders can also apply for higher education programmes in Sweden. You can read about the prerequisites, how grades are counted and which selection group you will compete in on the Swedish Council for Higher Education's (UHR) website, antagning.se.
Qualification for higher education from the IB, antagning.se
More information on the International Baccalaureate's website