Month: June 2016

In light of the UK’s decision to leave the European Union, the members of the Guild of European Research-Intensive Universities affirm the importance of the free movement of students and researchers across Europe. Our current societal, cultural, scientific and economic challenges can only be met through collaboration in the creation and application of knowledge. The Guild and its members stand for the free flow of ideas determined by academic freedom which must not be compromised by regulations or boundaries. And we stand for principles of inclusiveness, cultural respect and freedom of debate within our campuses and our communities. We appeal to the UK government, the European Parliament, the Commission and the European Council to ensure that any political settlement supports the free movement of ideas, open boundaries for staff and students within Europe, and uninhibited exchange of knowledge between university researchers and public and private partners wherever they may be.

Editor’s note: This statement is endorsed by the Guild of European Research-Intensive Universities, and the Presidents of its members: the University of Bologna, the University of Glasgow, the University of Göttingen, the University of Groningen, Jagiellonian University, the University of Oslo, the University of Tübingen, Uppsala University, and the University of Warwick.

Looking back at this semester, it is impressive how many things have happened at Uppsala University in just a few months. You have all contributed outstanding efforts. Thanks to all of you – skilled staff and ambitious students – the University can be an important driving force in the development of society. Our students can get a first-rate education, and in research we work together with universities and institutes around the world. No wonder we are globally recognised and ranked among the leading universities. This is something to keep in mind while you get some rest over the summer.

Conferment Ceremony in Uppsala Cathedral, May 2016. Photo: Mikael Wallerstedt

When we look back at the spring there are many different events that deserve to be mentioned.

At the beginning of the year we took a stance on the issue of national research evaluations in Sweden as suggested by the Swedish Research Council. We said no – due to matters of principle, quality and efficiency. The proposed system would undermine the higher education institutions’ ownership of quality matters, have limited value as basis for quality management and research renewal, and be a costly and inefficient system for resource distribution.

Instead we think the institutions themselves should have – and take – the responsibility for quality. We are proud that Uppsala University once again leads the way with its own quality evaluation – Quality and Renewal 2017. The evaluation will be completed next year, and this time we put particular emphasis on the processes that give rise to quality and renewal in our research environments.

Campus Gotland

The issue of dimensioning remains an important one. We are forced to continue our incremental cuts to the number of student places, which means that fewer of the motivated students who apply actually get to study. Even so, we welcomed 4,781 new students this spring and the number of students located at Campus Gotland has increased from 715 to 935 in two years. This is a great outcome, but we still have some way to go in order to reach our goal of 1,500 students in Visby.

The matter of dimensioning is also related to the challenges that Europe is currently facing. The University wants to, and can, contribute knowledge, creative solutions and innovations if we are given the right prerequisites. In today’s situation in Sweden, Uppsala University could contribute towards integrating newly-arrived refugees through targeted educational efforts and complementary teacher training.

Eva Åkesson, Peter Wallensteen and Ban Ki-moon at the Dag Hammarskjöld Lecture 2016.

Uppsala University must be internationally competitive. We work with people all over the world and are enriched when international students and researchers join us. Sadly, though, we don’t have enough scholarships to offer the non-European students who want to study here. We are pushing for both increased room for manoeuvre in internationalisation and a strong Swedish scholarship programme. While we wait for the Swedish government, we are doing what we can with the resources we have.

Those of you who read the Vice-Chancellor’s blog regularly have seen that we have travelled across the world and taken part in meetings on every continent during the spring. We do so because we know that staying in touch with our friends and alumni around the world is an important part of the equation in succeeding with our internationalisation efforts. Through international networks we make sure Uppsala University is represented in all the right forums, collaborating with those best suited in all areas.

Brazil–Sweden Excellence Seminar, 17 May 2016.

But we also have a supportive roll for all those who want to develop and grow in countries with a weaker educational tradition. All over the world, universities play an important role in the democratic work. In collaboration with the international network Scholars at Risk we try to help create a sanctuary for intellectuals when given the opportunity. In an increasingly troubled world with severe conflicts, where freedom of speech and academic freedom are under attack, these issues become all the more important.

In research, several cross-border initiatives are being prepared and launched. Medical technology, antibiotic resistance, migration, racism, and the new working life are examples of areas where our research and knowledge can make a difference. The common denominator is that several faculties and disciplinary domains are involved.

Leading such a broad and complex organisation as a university is a privilege, but has its fair share of challenges. How to best steer and lead a university is something that has been discussed in one shape or another for as long as universities have existed. Recently the discussion was revitalised by Kåre Bremer’s inquiry, which has led to many discussions and has been a good starting point when discussing leadership matters in different forums. Is our system for leadership and management transparent and easy to understand? How can we vitalise collegiality and student influence while also creating the necessary means for clear leadership at all levels of the University? Do we need to make adjustments anywhere? Mid-spring, we handed in our comments on these issues to the government.

Conferment Ceremony in Uppsala Cathedral.

But all has not been work – we have had occasion to celebrate, too. Since the new year we have held two conferment ceremonies. The winter conferment ceremony became the last to be held in the Main University Building before the renovations started. The spring conferment ceremony later took place in Uppsala Cathedral, which was at least as festive as our ceremonies in the Grand Auditorium. The conferment ceremony is such a strong and important tradition that it can survive being physically moved, even if only temporarily.

We have also had several interesting meetings and conferences on housing, trafficking, and reproductive health, among others. We have welcomed many visitors to our beautiful Uppsala University. When famous people visit us, such as UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, we receive international attention. This is great to see, but most pleasing of all is the reason they want to come here: They want to be connected with Uppsala University and the things we stand for.

Now we would like to wish everyone a great summer and hope you all come back after the holidays, eager to accomplish many great new things!

Eva Åkesson, Vice-Chancellor
Anders Malmberg, Deputy Vice-Chancellor
Katarina Bjelke, University Director
Johan Tysk, Vice-Rector of the Disciplinary Domain of Science and Technology
Stellan Sandler, Vice-Rector of the Disciplinary Domain of Medicine and Pharmacy
Torsten Svensson, Vice-Rector of the Disciplinary Domain of Humanities and Social Sciences

This is the third and last report from the SACF event in Brazil.

After the programme in the capital Brasilia, the participants went on to other activities in other Brazilian cities. A large part of Uppsala University’s delegation travelled to Belo Horizonte, where an AIMday was arranged.

The AIMday concept, which was developed at Uppsala University and first tried in 2008, has attracted widespread attention, first in Sweden, but in later years also from universities all over the world. Around 45 AIMdays have been arranged in total, almost 30 of which have been located in Uppsala, some ten at other Swedish seats of learning, and another ten in other countries. The goal of AIMday is to expose researchers to questions formulated by (in this case) companies within a specific technological field in order to stimulate both new research and new industrial collaborations.

The meeting in Belo Horizonte on that Thursday was the first time that Swedish researchers had attended an AIMday arranged outside of Sweden. Under the thematic heading of Smart Industries, the discussion revolved around aspects of automation, such as intelligent machines, self-regulating systems, self-driven cars, etc. Among the companies in attendance were Akaer, Atlas Copco, Ericsson, SAAB, Valourec, and Volvo. In order to further promote the initiation of new partnerships after the meeting, SSF contributed advance study means and Vinnova and FAPEMIG provided project funds and travel grants for researchers.

In tandem with the AIMday-sessions, the managements of KTK, Linköping University and Uppsala University met with the Vice-Chancellors and Heads of Departments at the Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais (UFMG).

Deputy Vice-Chancellor Anders Malmberg recently visited Brazil as part of the SACF, as I’m sure you have read about on this blog. Now, I thought I would bring you up to speed on what happened that week in Uppsala.

Loftier goals for gender equality

Minister Helene Hellmark Knutsson speaks of the government placing greater demands of gender equality on universities and higher education. The ratio of female professors was particularly emphasized, and she says the improvement has plateaued. Next year will see the gender equality target raised, she also tells the press. It’s worth noting that we haven’t had any specific gender equality targets from the government or the minister for 2016. As for Uppsala University, we reached our goal of 36 percent women among newly recruited professors during the period of 2012-2015. I am fully convinced that we will reach the new goal of half of all new professors being women in 2030, but I naturally hope we can reach the minister’s goal well in advance.

Drivhuset

Drivhuset held its annual meeting early in the week. Drivhuset helps students start or run companies or in other ways bring their ideas to life and it is impressive to learn about how many students Drivhuset reaches and how many companies are started by students. To many within the University, it might be important to have a reminder of the importance of including the teaching and students when one considers innovation and entrepreneurship.

Research infrastructure

Wednesday was a meeting day in Stockholm. In the morning, the headman board met – the Vice-Chancellors of the 12 major universities. We meet a couple of times per semester, and this time research infrastructure was one of the more important questions. Many people say that research has become more and more a question of funding, and this is true in certain respects. Sweden will see large investments in national research infrastructure made in the days ahead, and important work is being done prioritizing the funding allocated by the Swedish Research Council. The host universities of national facilities are taking on increasingly large responsibilities, and this is one of our arguments for demanding increased basic grants for research.

Misconduct

That afternoon I, University Director Katarina Bjelke, and Deputy University Director Per Abrahamsson participated in a hearing regarding misconduct. Professor Margaretha Fahlgren is tasked with analysing the need for a new procedure for handling matters of research misconduct. She is also to draft proposals for ensuring a clear and orderly handling of suspected misconduct. The investigation is due to be finished on 25 November. But here in Uppsala, we cannot wait for it to be completed, and to that end, we have already reviewed our guidelines to ensure better handling. The decision on these will be unveiled soon as part of an upcoming Vice-Chancellor conference.

Thank you’s and other events

It seemed to be the season of thank you’s and celebrations. Eva Ställdal, director-general of Formas, had her farewell ceremony on the Wednesday, and on Monday evening, many people including myself gathered to thank Linus Tunström for his years spent as the head of the City Theatre here in Uppsala. On Friday, we congratulated the Deputy Governor of the Swedish National Bank, Henry Ohlsson. I was fortunate enough to be able to listen to Henry earlier this week as I welcomed the participants of the Residence Meeting 2016. The following week, Chancellor Harriet Wallberg was also congratulated.

I also discussed leadership both on #Addher and within the Help programme. I try to be generous with my time for this type of requests. It is good to have the opportunity every now and then to reflect on one’s motivation and driving forces, and it is fun to share experiences from successes and stumbles. The next lecture was held on Rotary the following Monday, and I made sure to share current events within Uppsala University – of which there are always quite a lot!

The week came to an end in Stockholm, as I together with others from the SUHF expert panel on internationalisation met with Minister Helene Hellmark Knutsson to discuss study fees. The media had discussed the fees previously, as had I on this blog. It was good to meet in person, as gave us a chance to straighten out a few misunderstandings.

At a meeting in Brussels on 1 June, eight European universities signed a document forming an important new university network in Europe: The Guild of European Research-Intensive Universities. The founding universities are Glasgow and Warwick (UK), Tübingen and Göttingen (Germany), Bologna (Italy), Oslo (Norway), Groningen (the Netherlands), and Jagiellonian (Poland).

The Guild was founded with the aim of providing European research universities with a stronger voice in Brussels, but also of increasing the visibility of important research with the potential to inform European policy, as well as through benchmarking and collaborations developing the member universities’ management functions and innovation support, among other things. In addition, negotiations are in progress with another group of highly ranked European universities, with the aim of having the network encompass some 20 universities within a year. Read more about the Guild here.

Uppsala is meant to be the ninth founding member, but was unable to sign due to the fact that a Swedish university, as a government agency, is unable to join a ‘non-profit organization under Belgian Law’ without an official decision from the Swedish parliament, which normally takes up to six months. This weakens Uppsala’s prospects of helping to shape important initiatives like this one, and clearly underlines the need for increased institutional autonomy and freedom of action to be afforded to Swedish universities in one way or another. We now hope the parliament comes to a quick decision this autumn, so that we are able to participate fully when the network launches this November.

This image shows a pleased Ole Petter Otteerson, Vice-Chancellor of Oslo University and recently appointed chair of the network board, signing the document.