Author: The Vice-Chancellor’s Blog (Page 5 of 6)

Last week began with a meeting with the University Board. As the University Main Building is currently under renovation, the Board instead came together in the Gustavianum, the oldest University building still in use, which over the years has served as everything from student accommodation, University library and the seat of various departments to the museums of today. Museum Gustavianum is an asset to education and research, as well as a meeting place between society, art and science. Last year, there were more than 80 000 visitors. Our sincere thanks to University curator Mikael Ahlund for a fantastic presentation!

The February meeting is always brimming with formal matters: annual report, budget figures, internal governance and control, and planning for the internal audit.

The annual report for 2015 tells of yet another good year for Uppsala University. We are attracting more research funding, reaching our goals for the proportion of women among the new professors (36%), the demand for our educational offerings is still high, and although our total number of enrolments has continued to decline slightly, the number of campus students on Gotland keeps increasing.

However, we refuse to grow complacent, instead pressing on with further development work – on research, education and collaboration. Some of our planned activities for the future are presented in the budget figures we submit to the government. Several of the items on this year’s version are familiar from the input on the upcoming research bill we submitted back in autumn. Increased dimensioning is a quality issue. A broad, full-scale university requires a certain volume of students if it is to retain the quality of its breadth. Increased direct funding for research is another core issue.

As last Monday was the deadline to submit the annual report and budget figures to the government, a group of couriers left for the Ministry of Education and Research in Stockholm immediately following the meeting to personally deliver the documents. Producing annual reports and budget figures is an ambitious undertaking involving many people within the University, within the Departments, within the Faculties, in Faculty Offices and within the University Administration, often under challenging time constraints. I would like to thank everyone for their good work and good cooperation.

At Uppsala University, we have a tradition of strong student representation and active student participation. The question of the standing of the students’ unions was decided on 23 February. The outcome means that the University will have six students’ unions for the coming three years. This places great demands on the coordination and cooperation of the unions. Of course, we hope and believe that our talented and hard-working students will handle it brilliantly. For our part, we shall do everything we can to make things easier for them.

Many of the University’s issues of development are connected to the academic management. The evaluation Utvecklad ledning av universitet och högskolor (approx. ‘Developed governance of universities and university colleges’) was first addressed by the University Board as early as December last year, for information and initial discussions. The evaluation has since been referred for consideration internally within the University. At the meeting, the University Board ratified the University’s statement re: the final statement of the Management Evaluation. The important discussion of leadership and governance is already ongoing within the University, and is sure to continue for some time. This week, the assessor Kåre Bremer visited the management meeting, and the management evaluation will also be one of the issues discussed at the dean meeting this spring.

Matariki (‘The Seven Sisters’) is a network of seven universities gathered around the vision of ‘partnering for a better world’. The initiative was taken by the University of Otaga, New Zeeland, and after a careful selection process, six additional seats of learning were tied to the network: Dartmouth, Queens, Durham, Tübingen, Uppsala and Western Australia.

The Matariki network was founded in 2011, and as the Executive Board met at Otago University, a new MoU was signed. The meeting also saw future strategies and priorities discussed. The presentation shows that we are a strong, vital network with many activities within shared research areas, and seven different workshops are already being planned for 2016.

Uppsala University has through Isak Stoddard and in cooperation with Otago taken an appreciated initiative for ‘Global Citizenship Programme’, and there will be a workshop on this theme held in Uppsala in April. Our initiative of the Matariki Fellows is particularly popular, and several of the other universities are set to follow. In 2016, six researchers/lecturers from UU will visit a partner university for 3-6 months. A new Vice Chairman was appointed, Philip Hanlon from Dartmouth. As Chairperson, I am grateful to have an engaged Vice Chairman to cooperate with.

The Matariki network arranged a joint Auckland alumni function before the meeting in Dunedin. It was highly appreciated by our alumni, who also appreciated the opportunity to get in touch with alumni from other Matariki Universities, yet another example of how we can synergise with one another.

It will be a while before we, the Vice-Chancellors, meet again in this constellation. The next meet will take place in autumn 2017 in Dartmouth, but we hold video and telephone conferences every semester to continuously develop our cooperation. When working with groups spread all over the globe, it is important to make use of technology in order to cut down on international flights. After our merger with Gotland, we are considerably more well-equipped and experienced in the use of video equipment for remote meetings.

The journey home was a long trip with ample time for reflections and planning the coming week. This week will involve a meeting with the unions, discussions with the senate about the University Management evaluation, and a meeting with Ann Fust to discuss the career investigation. Aside from regular weekly meetings with the Management Council, we are also meeting with the Humanities and Social Sciences deans and I hope to be able to make it to the 10 year anniversary of the new medicine program.

I have been thinking quite a bit about the recent writings in the press lately on about quality in education, dimensioning and exam resits. My fellow Vice-Chancellors, Astrid Söderbergh Widding (Stockholm University) and Torbjörn von Schantz (Lund University) have written good posts about this on their blogs. I fully agree that active student participation and strong student influence is no threat to the quality of the education, but actually contributes to strengthening it! Exam resits, proportioning and the allocation of resources are questions that can be discussed for a long time. We and several others have highlighted the weaknesses of the resource allocation system that exists today and that has existed since the early 90’s. The old system hasn’t yielded any dramatic changes in quality lately, but there are other good reasons for a thorough overhaul, as we have stated many times before. And the main issue is not the demand for throughput, but the long-term devaluation of price tags.

More or fewer students? Who should have the right to higher education in society? Uppsala University has been reducing the amount of students for several years now. The reduction is partially masked by the addition of Gotland’s students when looking at the total figures. The reductions will continue in the future as we have seen our task reduced over the last few years and still maintain a certain amount of overproduction, that is, we educate more students than are being replaced within the framework number established by the state. We can already hear strong claims from within the University that the cutbacks are having negative effects. Freestanding courses grow fewer, our educational offerings more limited, and lifelong learning is threatened. Within the Disciplinary Domain of Science and Technology, there is both the desire and the capacity to create new educational programmes requested by students and employers.

Uppsala is and shall remain a research university – today, research corresponds to about 70 % of our budget. At the same time, I am a strong supporter of our Mission and Core Values, which are further asserted in the Magna Charta. Education and research go together, they are fundamental parts of the definition of a University to me. With several years of reduced admissions, and so many motivated students that are unable to secure a spot at out University, my conclusion is this: we need more, not fewer students.

The Winter Conferment Ceremony was held last Friday. 76 new PhDs and 18 honorary doctors were bestowed wreaths and hats, and nine additional awardees received medals and honours.

The Vice-Chancellor, Eva Åkesson, held a speech in the Grand Auditorium in front of an audience that among others included Helene Hellmark Knutsson, the Swedish Minister for Research and Higher Education. Eva Åkesson took the opportunity to announce Uppsala University’s expectations and demands for the upcoming research bill. Read the Vice-Chancellor’s speech here (mostly in Swedish). A video of the entire Conferment Ceremony is also available to view.

Furthermore, the former Deputy Vice-Chancellor Lena Marcusson held a highly appreciated speech at the Conferment Banquet, where she, as one of the recipients of the Rudbeck Medal, spoke on behalf of all the awardees.

The Conferment Ceremony was the last formal event to be held in the University Main Building for some time. Now, an extensive but careful renovation process begins. The Main Building is set to open again in autumn 2017.

At the start of every semester, the Vice-Chancellor’s Management Council gathers for a seminar lunch to lunch. It is an opportunity to have in-depth discussions and together reflect on pressing questions of future strategic importance.

We began by discussing Campus Gotland. About a year ago, the Management Council held a meeting in Visby. That meeting resulted in the decision to move the evaluation of the merger ahead of schedule – the evaluation that Lars Haikola and Lars Burstedt would subsequently deliver in December 2015, which is currently referred to the disciplinary domains and faculties for consideration. The amount of campus students on Gotland has grown from 715 to 935 in two years. This is a good result, but we still have some ways left to the target of 1,500 students in Visby. The discussion revolved around how Uppsala University will make the goals and visions for Campus Gotland a reality, and how the recommendations of the evaluation are to be put into practice in the Action Plan of 2017.

Afterwards, we had a session with Peter Honeth, who was state secretary of the Swedish Ministry of Education and Research for the eight years of Alliance governance. Prior to that, Peter was the University Director of Lund University for many years. His broad experience of research and university issues is unique. For around two hours, he generously shared his experiences from his time in the Swedish Government Offices. It was both interesting and instructive to hear about the political process behind research and education policies, the negotiations between departments, the relationship between politicians and civil servants. The entire Management Council was granted more insight into the conditions of politics. Naturally, there was also some discussion about, for instance, the question of autonomy during the session.

During dinner and the rest of the evening we also delved into the new proposed regional division set to be presented by the evaluator appointed by the government, Barbro Holmberg. This is a multifaceted issue. A particularly important aspect to us is the consequences for the Uppsala University Hospital, and the research and education conducted at our Faculty of Medicine. The University maintains close ties to the Uppsala Regional Council, Uppsala University Hospital, the Uppsala County Council, and other involved actors.

The Tuesday was dedicated to two major questions: governance, on one hand, and recruitment of professors, on the other. It turned out to be a reflective discussion that mirrored the diversity that exists in the University, but also the universal and common questions. How do we prepare and decide on policies at different levels? What decisions are made where? Are there informal preparation forms in addition the formal ones? Is our governance system transparent and easy to grasp? How to ensure students and new members of staff are aware of their ability to influence our decision making? Is there cause to revise the rules of procedure? In parts of this discussion, Kåre Bremer’s evaluation can serve as a foundation. The discussions of both governance questions and recruitment will surely continue, most immediately in the Academic Senate, in management and dean meetings, etc. Both governance and recruitment are strategic processes meant to forge strong research environments, and will directly and indirectly be assessed in the new research evaluation, Q&R17.

In accordance with tradition, the Vice-Chancellors of universities and university colleges gathered for 24 hours in January in Steningevik to meet with the Swedish Minister for Higher Education and Research. Minister Helene Hellmark Knutsson introduced her new State Secretary Karin Röding, Anders Lönn’s successor. Karin Röding is familiar to many of us, her most recent appointment was as the Vice-Chancellor of Mälardalen University. In her introduction, the minister spoke about the national situation, and the challenges the Swedish government is facing, with 160 000 refugees arriving last year. The amount of children (under the age of 18) in Sweden is expected to grow by half a million in the coming five years. In comparison, the current total is two million. This places great demands on schools, and the shortage of qualified teachers is expected to grow even larger. Some measures are being implemented, but they are highly unlikely to be sufficient. I think this should be cause for a thorough and long-term discussion of the dimensioning of higher education. As I have said many times before, Uppsala University has the capacity to provide education for many more motivated and engaged students, as long as we are given the task and the required resources.

The minister emphasised the importance of the ongoing validation work and praised several upcoming initiatives, but also called for more creativity, and welcomed further suggestions and initiatives. Uppsala University participates in several projects, and we have appointed a coordinator to handle proposals and coordinate our efforts with other government agencies.

The upcoming research bill scheduled for October was also addressed by the minister. She particularly raised the idea of including more research in teacher education, and mentioned Skola-ALF, a proposal we helped draft. Other emphasised questions included career paths, internationalisation and equality of opportunity. Yet few practical suggestions were put forth.

The minister considers the admission system to be too multifaceted, and there I fully agree. The government is considering launching an evaluation of the admission system, which has grown far too convoluted and complex. The new system is supposed to be simple and easy to grasp, in order to increase the throughput and ensure that applicants have the required prior knowledge, but there was no word on when the evaluation is expected to begin.

As we now have initiated the Q&R 17, I was naturally interested to learn the minister’s view of Fokus — the Swedish Research Council’s proposed national evaluation system. A proposal that Uppsala University has firmly rejected. She said that they want to avoid an unwieldy system, and that they would prefer to have a broad outline of the general direction we are headed under our current policies rather than detailed information. If so, I am fully convinced that Fokus is the wrong tool for the task.

The rest of the Vice-Chancellor meeting involved a heads-up from UKÄ on upcoming events, MOOCs (there will be a report soon), and internationalisation.

As we find ourselves back at the University, we hope you had a pleasant and relaxing holiday season with your loved ones, and that it feels good to return to work.

One of the first decisions of the year was Uppsala University’s response to the FOKUS referral, the proposed national research evaluation in Sweden. Our response is a clear no to this evaluation, for reasons of principle, quality and efficiency. The system would undermine the autonomy of Swedish universities in quality issues, and be of limited value as a basis for quality work and research renewal, as well as a costly and inefficient system for resource allocation.

SUHF’s (The Association of Swedish Higher Education) group of experts for questions of internationalisation, which counts Eva among their ranks, has held several all-day meetings. The chief issues discussed by the group are those of migration and scholarships, as well as the need for rule changes that provide increased autonomy to public universities. The group discusses obstacles to establishing campuses abroad. It is a good thing that SUHF has appointed this group; these issues are not new, and it is high time that they be dealt with in a conclusive manner.

Anders travelled to Gotland to participate in a conference that approximately translates to ‘92 opportunities for all of Gotland to grow’. The 92 opportunities refer to the number of parishes on the island. The theme was growth, with a focus on beneficial collaborations. Anders spoke of the role of the University in the growth of regions. 300 people showed up for what turned out to be an inspiring day. It is thrilling to see that Uppsala University has found a second home region, with a unique set of challenges.

As a wrap up to last week, the University gave 4781 new students a warm welcome and hopefully a good start to their studies here. The beginning of each semester always causes a surge in the demand for housing. If you have accommodation or a spare room to sublet, please do so. Although the demand is usually somewhat smaller in the spring semester than in the autumn, every little bit helps.

One of the groups interested in helping us in various ways is the Friends of Uppsala University. We are pleased to report that the Friends are growing more numerous. At the annual Vice-Chancellor meeting with the Friends, we were treated to fantastic research presentations by Mia Philipsson, Isak Svensson and Maria Tenje. Become a member today!

I can still hear the music that was playing outside as the University Building filled up with new students last Monday and Wednesday, as part of the welcoming process for international students. Yesterday, the new students at Campus Gotland received the same warm welcome. This is one of my most enjoyable tasks as Vice-Chancellor – meeting the first year students and getting to welcome them all to their first term. I believe I speak for everyone when I say that the city comes alive at the crack of a new term.

On 28 August, we received a delegation from Korea, which included visits to the BMC and the Ångström Laboratory. Some of the delegates had participated in the seminar held in Korea this spring – the Swedish Academic Collaboration Forum (SACF). It’s good to see our international relations bearing fruit and our collaborations being deepened. The SACF is set to continue this autumn, with seminars being arranged in Shanghai and Singapore.

Eva also found the time to meet with the employees of the libraries during their conference day this Thursday, informing them of current events at the University. Our library is an integral part of our University, and the work there is more varied and multifaceted than is commonly thought. Libraries are changing, with e-media and digitalisation, and there is a constant process of adaptation that is both inspiring and challenging.

Now, it’s time to enjoy the last days of summer!

In Mission & Core Values, we state that Uppsala University is meant to be a local, national and international meeting place for knowledge, culture and critical dialogue. A very apt description of this first week of June.

The state visit from India this Tuesday once again proved that Uppsala University is a player on the global stage. The Grand Auditorium was at maximum capacity as a large delegation headed by the president of India arrived at the University Main Building. H.E. the President was accompanied to Uppsala by two members of the Swedish Royal Family, H.R.H Crown Princess Victoria and H.R.H Prince Daniel. The audience members were entertained by the Uppsala Indian Choir and the mixed choir Allmänna Sången while the guests of honour were received in the Chancellor’s Room. Our procession entered the Grand Auditorium accompanied by organ music performed by the organist Andrew Canning, and Eva opened the proceedings by offering a formal greeting. After this, the Swedish Minister of Foreign Affairs Margot Wallström gave a speech, introducing President H.E. Pranab Mukherjee. The president spoke of how a lasting peace must be built on mutual respect. Watch the speech here.

Meanwhile, the Uppsala Health Summit was in full swing, drawing close to 200 experts, policy makers and researchers from every part of the world to discuss antibiotics resistance and future measures. During the conference, we announced that the University will be establishing an interdisciplinary center that will double as a knowledge resource at the local, national and international level – the Uppsala Antibiotics Centre.

At the Wednesday ceremony for the international Master’s students, the University was represented by Göran Alderborn, dean of the Department of Pharmacy. The turnout was large. Between 700 and 800 people had come to the University Main Building. Several of the students had relatives visiting from abroad, and for the first time we had Master’s students from Campus Gotland joining the ceremony.

And on Wednesday and Thursday, representatives of the approximately 20 South-African and European universities making up the INSPIRE project met in the University Main Building. Innovation and entrepreneurship are central to the exchange program INSPIRE, which funds scholarships for student and research exchange between eight European and ten South-African universities. As part of the project, all scholarship holders will be offered a tailored education in innovation and entrepreneurship, and UU Innovation will lead the planning of the course content. In total, the project involves upwards of a hundred people, with the majority being South-African students and researchers visiting Europe. The first round of exchanges to Uppsala University will consist of thirteen scholarship holders, a mixture of Master students, doctorates and post-docs, as well as two staff members on exchange.

‘Learning Together for Change’ is an ongoing conference in Arusha, Tanzania, at the Nelson Mandela African Institution of Science and Technology. Eva is attending the conference together with Daniel Stattin and Peter Sundin from Uppsala. 15 Swedish universities are represented, and there are participants from 14 different African countries, in total some 200 participants form three days. The conference is an initiative of the Association of Swedish Higher Education (SUHF) and the International Association of Universities (IAU) and is one way of contributing to UNESCO’s project ‘Education for all’. During the conference we discuss how we can work towards education being a right for all, with particular focus on teacher education. The official opening was grand, with Eva welcoming everyone on behalf of the SUHF. The Vice President of Tanzania, Mohamed Ghariv Bilal and the Minister for Communication, Science and Technology, Makame Mbarwa, both held opening talks. Sweden’s ambassador in Tanzania, Lennart Hjelmåker, gave an appreciated talk. This was followed by intense workshops in the following days, interesting discussions and exchange of ideas between participants. We learn a lot together. The conclusions from the conference are documented and will be forwarded to the UNESCO World Education Forum in Incheon, Korea. 19–22 May 2015.

The European University Association (EUA) took the initiative to hold a moment of silence at Europe’s universities on Monday 27 April, 12:00 noon. The moment of silence was held to condemn all forms of violence against schools and universities, and to honour the victims of the terror attack on Garissa University College in Kenya, 2 April, when 147 people were killed and 79 injured.

The EUA emphasizes that all forms of violence or attacks on educational institutions go against the universities’ fundamental values of freedom of thought and speech, tolerance and autonomy. It undermines young people’s ambitions and basic rights to education and being able to contribute to the development in their country, the greater society and the world. The EUA therefore encouraged all European universities as well as in other parts of the world to unite in condemning all forms of violence against education.

A moment of silence was held yesterday in several places at Uppsala University, as well as at the conference here in Arusha.

After Korea we travelled on to Hong Kong where Pirkko Tamsen and Kay Svensson were already waiting for us. In the Special Administrative Region of Hong Kong we had four educational and rewarding days with visits to universities, Science Parks, different organizations, alumni events and many meetings with creative exchange. We have had the opportunity to learn more about the development in a dynamic and interesting part of Asia. Hong Kong with its seven million inhabitants has three universities ranked among the top 50 in the world. Uppsala University has student exchanges and research cooperation with all three and with another two universities in Hong Kong. This is an impressively international environment with high ambitions, including interest in developing the cooperation with Uppsala in several areas including joint programmes. There is also great interest in innovation, and we sparked great curiosity when we talked about how the Swedish model works and how successful it is. Here too we saw opportunities for continued connections which can contribute to mutual development.

Our first day (Wednesday) started with a run through of the programme. Then we set off to the Department of Justice to learn about Hong Kong’s legal system – Basic Law. The next stop that day was the University of Hong Kong. We were well received and we have active student exchange since the nineties. We noticed a certain concern for the future roll of Hong Kong.

The next day began with a breakfast meeting together with the Swedish Chamber of Commerce. We had many questions we wanted to discuss so time passed (too) quickly. On to the Patent Office where we learned about intellectual property rights in Hong Kong. At our next stop we were introduced to Hong Kong’s innovation policy by Mr Tsang. Lunch was spent learning about foreign policy together with Mr Lo, deputy secretary for education, and Mr Lau, principal assistant secretary. Concerns over demography and decreasing student numbers possibly causing lowered quality popped up several times in our conversation. In the evening we met General Consul Jörgen Halldin and Amanda Weinstock. It was good to get an account from Swedes on location who know Hong Kong.

Friday morning was spent at Hong Kong Science Park, first at the Hong Kong Applied Science and Technology Research Institute (ASTRI) and then at the Hong Kong Science and Technology Parks (HKSTP). A great openness and will to cooperate characterized our meetings. Here there was great curiosity about Sweden and perhaps interesting opportunities for some of Uppsala’s many skilled researchers and innovators who would like to enter the Asian market. This is also where Karolinska Institutet will base their activities on regenerative medicine, funded by a large donation of SEK 350 million. Our hosts also invited Uppsala researchers to take part in collaborations. Another area that is being pushed is the development of robots for many different areas of application.

In the afternoon we learned about fighting corruption at a visit to the ICAC – the Independent Commission Against Corruption. They had a great display of all the most spectacular corruption cases they had managed to untangle. Everything from bribes to dodgy construction work and smuggling, Mrs Au Yeung proudly showed us around and told us about all those who had been caught. The day ended with a visit to the Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK) and a meeting with Vice-Chancellor Sung. Here we also have student exchange since the nineties, but the ambition is to increase the numbers travelling in both directions as well as organizing teacher exchanges.

All meetings contained great presentations and gave us many leads to follow up on, but the crescendo was of our own doing. On the Friday evening, Anna Reibring together with the Alumni Office in Uppsala had prepared a first meeting for alumni and friends of Uppsala University in Hong Kong. Lars Nittve talked about his exciting work of creating M+, a brand new museum in Hong Kong. The event was rounded off with a mini Walpurgis celebration, with cardboard student caps and student songs. Thomas Fredengren was also helping out on location. Next week there will be alumni events across the globe in connection with Walpurgis Eve. It is great to see our alumni activities really picking up some steam! It was great to meet our alumni as well as exchange students in Hong Kong and hearing about their experiences.

On the Saturday we had the privilege of attending the fourth Nobel Laureates Symposium on Global Sustainability. Some great lectures and there is hope for the future, but it requires both individuals and politicians to step up to the challenge going forward. The rest of the day was spent packing and preparing for the journey home (Pirkko and Kay). Eva will continue her travels and the next stop will be Arusha in Tanzania. More about that in an upcoming blog post.