Sweden's 136 folk high schools are open to anyone over 18 years of age. Established in Denmark in 1844, folk high schools were introduced to Sweden in 1968. Folk high schools can be attributed to the educational ideas of Nikolai Frederik Severin Grundtvig (1783-1872), who wanted to see education where people learned from their experiences as well as from books and where they learned to think and speak for themselves and solve problems. All folk high schools in Sweden run a general education course that is designed for adults who have not completed secondary education and that can lead directly to a university. Specialist and various short courses are also offered. Although folk high schools still reflect the concepts espoused by Grundtvig, they have been under pressure to change in response to the demands of the economic rationalist state, including funding cuts and the requirement that additional courses must be self-funding. Perhaps the greatest threat to folk high schools is the move away from a focus on community and belonging to 'a people' or 'folk' and towards the individual. Although much of what happens in adult education in Australia and Sweden is similar, adult education appears to be a much more integral part of the Swedish education system than of the Australian education system. (MN)