Author: Vice-Chancellor’s Blog (Page 17 of 24)

(Original Swedish post published 2 September.)

The semester is under way in earnest and our freshers have been properly welcomed to Campus Gotland and Uppsala. It’s always fun every year to welcome our new students, who come to us full of expectation from all over the world.

We have received many visits this week. On Wednesday, Uppsala University was on the programme for the annual ambassadors’ week held by the Ministry for Foreign Affairs: ambassadors who will be posted all over the world had a chance to learn about what’s going on in Uppsala. Our University has benefited greatly from the help of Swedish ambassadors in many countries. We have received help with venues and contacts when organising alumni meetings. Seminars have been well attended thanks to targeted marketing by the embassies. Right now we’re preparing an event on 26 October in Washington DC. The purpose is to promote Swedish universities and show how world-class they are. The event also aims to maintain dialogue with US counterparts so as to foster long-term network-building. The target group includes American researchers and research funding actors as well as other stakeholders in research and higher education. This is a joint event with four other universities, the Swedish Research Council and the Embassy of Sweden in Washington.

On Thursday we had a visit from Zhejiang Province in China, which has a twinning agreement with Uppsala. I took part in the lunch at Uppsala Castle, where the news of the proposed upgrade to a quadruple-track railway between Stockholm and Uppsala further raised our spirits. And on Friday, Vietnamese Minister of Education and Training Professor Phung visited Uppsala University at the head of a 70-strong delegation. Five MoUs were signed during the visit, with various universities. For some time now, we have had an office in Vietnam and Anna-Klara Lindeborg is Uppsala University’s representative on the ground to further promote cooperation and forge contacts.

During the week, a group from the United States who are interested in runes made a tour of Uppland. I met the party at Carolina Rediviva, when Professor Henrik Williams guided us with enthusiasm among fantastic works about runes.

As if this wasn’t enough, the Segerstedt Building was officially opened on Friday with a ceremony, fanfare and open house with guided tours for staff. On Culture Night, the building will be open to the general public. I broke the ground for the new building three years ago this October, and now it’s ready and opened. But the plans date all the way back to 2008. My hope is that this building will facilitate better cooperation in the University. The administration must provide the best possible support for the core activities, and we intend this support to be efficient and effective, responsive and professional, in an open and welcoming building at the heart of the University.

The administration’s new workplace has been named the Segerstedt Building. Torgny Torgnysson Segerstedt was an undergraduate and PhD student at Lund University, but became professor and later vice-chancellor at Uppsala University. Torgny Segerstedt dedicated his entire career to higher education and research. He ended his career at the time of the University’s 500th anniversary in 1977. His period as vice-chancellor coincided with an eventful and expansive time in the University’s history. I think it was excellent to name the building after him.

Many thanks to all of you who have contributed in one way or another!

Uppsala is reawakening from its summer slumbers as the city fills up again with students. Tomorrow I will welcome the first-year students in the newly renovated University Main Building. Yesterday Anders welcomed our record number of international students there, in a packed Grand Auditorium. On Monday it will be time to welcome the students at Campus Gotland. The housing situation is always a bit tricky at the start of term, and I am grateful to everyone who has heeded our appeal to rent out a room for a short or longer period.

Work is in full swing, with meetings here in Uppsala and in Stockholm. I have met my Stockholm colleagues in the Stockholm–Uppsala University Network (SUUN) and had meetings to discuss SciLifeLab. Next week several international visitors are coming from China, Vietnam and the United States. Now it feels as if we’ve got going again properly after our summer break. One thing that makes the beginning of this term feel extra special is our move to the Segerstedt Building. The local paper UNT has run several reports on the move this past week and as I said in the interview there, I’m particularly pleased that being in the new building will give me a chance to meet many more colleagues and students every day. Next week, on Friday 1 September, we are having an official opening ceremony to which everyone in the University is invited – an opportunity to open our new home to our colleagues in the faculties and departments. On Culture Night on 9 September, the Segerstedt Building will be open to the general public. Our vision is and has been a building where we can work together, a welcoming building, a building for meetings, support and service, for education and research at our world-leading University. I bid you a warm welcome!

(Original Swedish post published 20 June.)

Uppsala University has a new University Board, which took office on 1 May. Today we had our first meeting in the Thunberg Lecture Hall at the Swedish Collegium for Advanced Study (SCAS) in the Botanical Garden, lovely in its early summer beauty.

The new members were given a crash course on Uppsala University and the role and responsibilities of the University Board, ranging from the Higher Education Act and Ordinance to internal audit and a presentation of the students’ unions. So then they were well set to tackle the day’s business. Before the meeting, Björn Wittrock gave a brief presentation on SCAS and the beautiful room in which we were sitting. After that, the new chair of the University Board, Gudmund Hernes, opened the meeting. He was formerly minister for education and minister for health in Norway and told us about his earliest encounters with Uppsala University, dating all the way back to 1948. He also gave brief reflections on the role of universities in society, the challenges we face as a university and the responsibilities of the University Board. The new external members are Dr Henrik Berggren, historian and writer, Sylvia Schwaag Serger from the Swedish Agency for Innovation Systems (Vinnova), Ulla Achrén from Åbo Akademi University and Elisabeth Dahlin from the Red Cross.  The new faculty representatives are Shirin Ahlbäck Öberg, Roland Roberts and Lisa Ekselius. The students are represented by Caisa Lycken, Jakob Ekengard, Adam Sabir and the alternates Fredrik Hultman and Emelie De Geer. Members of the ‘old’ Board who are continuing are external members Johan Wall, Gunnar Svedberg and Uli Hacksell, and faculty representative Sven Widmalm. It’s good to have a mix of continuity and renewal.

As usual, I began by giving the Vice-Chancellor’s report for June (Swedish) on recent developments at the University. You can read the report here (in Swedish). The meeting today also included some formal decisions, such as appointing members of the Council of Trustees and the audit committee, and appointing a vice-chair of the Board. Gunnar Svedberg will continue as vice-chair until 31 December 2017.

The Adviser to the Vice-Chancellor on Internationalisation, Leif Kirsebom, presented a follow-up report on the programme for internationalisation. The University Board noted that the University is on the right track. We had a good discussion which we will have reason to take up again on many future occasions. At the June meeting, the operational plan is adopted and the focus remains on quality and skills supply. For the first time, the operational plan has a three-year perspective, covering 2018–2020. This enables the disciplinary domains and departments to make long-term plans. Read more in the press release.

Last year, Uppsala University adopted new procedures for handling alleged misconduct in research. Ethical issues, the integrity of research, and misconduct are issues that affect confidence in the University and in science. Erik Lempert chairs the University’s Board for investigation of misconduct in research. He talked about how such allegations are handled at Uppsala University. The University Board also approved a reorganisation of the Uppsala Centre for Russian and Eurasian Studies, establishing a Department of Russian and Eurasian Studies. We also had a short visit from County Governor Göran Enander, who presented himself and the programme Forskarna på slottet (Researchers at the Castle).

The meeting proper ended with the chair thanking our students for the time and effort they have devoted to the University Board. The day continued with a tour of the University on which the Board met our three vice-rectors and saw some of the University’s campus areas – the English Park Campus, SciLifeLab/Navet at Uppsala Biomedical Centre and finally the Ångström Laboratory. We have a committed and competent Board with an important role, which they take seriously, and I look forward with confidence to our continued good cooperation in the autumn.

(Original Swedish post.)

Yesterday I signed an agreement on cooperation – Lärosäten Öst (Higher Education Institutions East). The participants are Uppsala University, the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, Örebro University, Dalarna University, the University of Gävle and Mälardalen University.

Signing of the agreement on Lärosäten Öst

When a regional reorganisation of Sweden was under discussion a year or two ago, we vice-chancellors in the proposed new region began to talk about enhanced cooperation. They were good discussions and a number of constructive ideas for enhanced cooperation came up. The regional reorganisation is now on ice, but the cooperation will continue.

In many respects, it’s a matter of continuing to build on what we already have. For instance, in research we have clinical research centres in several towns in the region. We cooperate on placements in many of our degree programmes, not least teacher education and specialist nursing programmes. Uppsala University Innovation has engaged in cooperation with both the University of Gävle and Dalarna University for several years. By cooperating, we higher education institutions take greater joint responsibility for ensuring that certain programmes that are in demand on the labour market are always offered in our region.

Uppsala University already cooperates with the Stockholm universities in several areas, but that is no obstacle to taking greater responsibility in our region. The one does not exclude the other – quite the contrary. Nor do I believe there is a contradiction between local and global. A more explicit regional rootedness can strengthen our international position.

We also intend to increase collaboration on the administrative side around certain expert and support functions. A network doesn’t carry on of its own accord, nor does it exist just for the sake of it. I believe in cooperation – together we can do more than we do separately. Now ideas and ambitions will take real shape and offer new opportunities for students, staff, businesses and organisations in our region.

Peter Högberg, Vice-Chancellor of the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, signs the agreement

(Original Swedish post published 10 June.)

The weeks speed by and with the graduation ceremonies past, the semester is nearing its end. But there’s still plenty going on at the University and summer holidays will have to wait until after Almedalen Week in July. We have a busy programme at Campus Gotland that week. Do take a look at the programme (in Swedish) – even if you’re not there, you will be able to follow many of our seminars online.

Last week I participated in the Hamburg Transnational University Leaders Council. About fifty of us heads of universities from around the world were there to spend a few days discussing Differentiation in the post-secondary sector: A response to massification, competition, and the emergence of the global knowledge economy. The discussion started out from a number of country analyses, which were presented in a report, and presentations from six different countries. It’s valuable to take stock of the international environment and gain insight into the education systems in Russia, India, Chile, Australia, Ghana, France from colleagues in this way. While some challenges are shared, the systems are also completely different in many respects. On the second day we divided into workshops – I chaired “Differentiated access to meet mixed goals in post-secondary systems”, with participants from Italy, Colombia, Nigeria, Russia, Japan and Korea. The session “Safeguarding Academic Freedom in a Changing World” revealed many differences in our views of academic freedom – even if we all value it highly and are prepared to defend it. The topic “Universities and the Global Crisis of Democracy” generated at least as lively a debate.

Rector Ignatieff from the Central European University, Hungary, speaking on academic freedom

On Friday I travelled from Hamburg to Oslo to participate in the annual conference of the Nordic Institute for Studies in Innovation, Research and Education, which debated the question of whether measurement is the way to higher quality. I contributed by talking about our experience from our ongoing research evaluation Q&R17 and our view of proposals to allocate basic government appropriations for higher education on the basis of external collaboration. My impression is that there is a more healthily critical and reflective discussion on eva luation in Norway, among all parties concerned, than we have in Sweden. In Oslo I also took the opportunity to meet our new chair Gudmund Hernes for discussions ahead of the University Board meeting on 20 June, when we will welcome several new members.

(Original Swedish post published 2 June.)

The Guild of European Research-Intensive Universities, or the Guild, as we often call it, is a European university network that was established a year ago to give the university sector a stronger voice in Europe. At the end of the week, some of us from Uppsala University participated in the Guild Forum: Universities, Research and the Future of Europe in Brussels. There were panel debates with interesting discussions on challenges and opportunities for the next framework programme (FP9) – what approach should be taken to excellence and wider participation respectively, what are the major future challenges for Europe, can the programmes be simplified, and can we be more open to the world? I (Eva) took part in a panel debate on Research, Innovation and the Citizen: The Added Value of the EU.

In the Guild Workshops section, I chose the topic: Challenges for Europe’s sustainable development: translating the UN’s sustainable development goals into priorities for European research. Creative and inspiring discussions that encouraged all participants to think about these issues in new ways. The announcement by the US President later that evening that the United States was leaving the climate agreement gave an extra edge to our discussions.

Dinner speaker Jean-Pierre Bourguignon, President of the European Research Council

The next day it was time for the General Assembly, the meeting of university heads. First we had a visit from Kurt Vandenberghe, who works at the European Commission as Director for Policy Development and Coordination at DG Research and Innovation. We had an open and productive discussion that helped the network move forward in our work in Brussels. During the meeting, the University of Bern was elected as a member, so now there are nineteen universities in the Guild. We approved a position paper on FP9. Many bodies get actively involved and submit these types of documents – the Association of Swedish Higher Education has also formulated positions ahead of the next framework programme.

New Board of Directors: Eva Åkesson, Vincent Blondel, Volli Kalm (Anton Muscatelli absent)

A new Board of Directors was elected for the next three-year period and I was entrusted with the position of Vice-Chair. The new Chair is Vincent Blondel, Rector of the University of Louvain, who succeeds Ole Petter Ottersen (University of Oslo). Ole Petter resigned from the post as he is taking over as Vice-Chancellor of Karolinska Institutet on 1 August. Now it feels as if the Guild is really taking off, we have real commitment among the members and a well-organised office in place in Brussels. It is up to us in Uppsala University how we want to use all the opportunities that this network gives us in the European arena in future.

Thank you presentation to Ole Petter Ottersen

For two intensive and (at first) terribly chilly weeks in May, the University played host to more than 130 colleagues from about 20 different countries when the Q&R panels came to make their site visits. Each of the 19 panels spent five days in Uppsala to experience our research environments and talk with their representatives.

Quality and Renewal 2017 (Q&R17) focuses on evaluating conditions and processes for excellent research rather than research results as such, and it was exciting to see how this concept would work out in real life. After feedback from the panel chairs at the end of each week of visits, we feel we can say that on the whole, it’s worked out very well. The panels seem to have understood their role and their task in this evaluation. They were impressed by the quality of the self-evaluations they had seen and the openness they experienced when they visited the departments.

And judging by the oral feedback we received from the chairs, there’s no doubt our ‘critical friends’ have made a number of observations that will lead to improvement measures. Career systems, the capacity for strategic renewal and the link between research and education (and, where relevant, clinical activities) are areas in which the potential for improvement is repeatedly underlined.

Now the panels’ reports will begin to arrive – they’re due by 15 June – and after that perhaps the most important phase for us at Uppsala University will begin. Where the Q&R project is concerned, it’s time to put together a final report in which the panel reports are supplemented by broad analyses of the questionnaire that was carried out last autumn, summary descriptions of the bibliometric analyses and, not least, the project management’s overall observations and conclusions on the whole process.

For everyone else – heads of department, deans, vice-rectors and the Vice-Chancellor, together with the relevant boards, committees and other collegial bodies – it will then be time to turn the panels’ conclusions and recommendations into practical measures. Only then will Q&R17 really have an impact on research quality and renewal at Uppsala University.

(Original Swedish post.)

Uppsala is delightful at this time of year and today at last it was time for the Spring Conferment Ceremony.

The conferment ceremony does not go unnoticed in this city. The celebrations began as early as 07:00, with a cannon salute from Uppsala Castle carried out by Jämtlands fältartilleri, as tradition dictates. At 08:00, the great cathedral bell rang out in honour of the University and all the new doctors.

After the temporary move to the cathedral, we were at last back in the University Main Building for the grand ceremony. Even though the renovation is not quite finished, the scaffolding is still there and it smells a little newly painted, it felt wonderful to be ‘home’ for the conferment ceremony. The floor was polished, the pots full of flowers, everything was nearly back to normal. Many people had lent a hand with cleaning and fixing things up so that we could hold the ceremony in the Main Building. It’s almost exactly 130 years since the building was inaugurated. The official reopening is not until the autumn, when the University reaches the age of 540, on 6–7 October.

The ceremony in the Grand Auditorium began with a procession led proudly by the massed flags of all the Uppsala nations and students’ unions, accompanied by the Royal Academic Orchestra. Today we were able to confer doctor’s degrees on 130 new doctors from eight of the University’s nine faculties. Impressive!

The Vice-Chancellor’s welcome speech pays tribute to our doctors and jubilee doctors and describes current developments at the University. You can read the speech here. The Faculty of Medicine’s degree conferrer, Professor Ulf Landegren, then gave a lecture on the topic of molecular tools for health assessments.

Those who received their doctorate fifty years ago are known as jubilee doctors. This year 39 of them chose to take part in the conferment ceremony. The President of the Uppsala Student Union, Daniel Simmons, gave a speech paying tribute to them. The jubilee doctors’ speech was delivered by Leif Lewin, Professor Emeritus of Government. As usual, the music during the ceremony was brilliantly performed by our own Royal Academic Orchestra conducted by Director Musices, Professor Stefan Karpe.

Our ceremonies are an image of our University, bringing together education and research, young and old, our future and our history. You can read more about the ceremony, our new doctors and jubilee doctors in the conferment ceremony book (in Swedish). There you will also find an essay by Professor Tore Frängsmyr on Uppsala University’s first professor of the history of science and ideas, the humanist Johan Nordström.

After a few hours in the Grand Auditorium, it was pleasant to mingle in more relaxed style at the receptions at the Faculty of Law and the Faculty of Theology. Now it will soon be time for the banquet at the Castle, with more than 700 guests dressed to the nines. There’ll be more speeches, good food, more music and dancing, far into the bright spring night.

(Original Swedish post published 16 May.)

A day’s work as Vice-Chancellor of Uppsala University can contain a lot of variation and today was a case in point. In a moment I’m off to V-dala for dinner with this week’s Q&R17 panelists. The second week is in full progress, with 9 more panels and 66 experts from 13 countries.

This morning, at the usual weekly Vice-Chancellor’s decision-making session, I decided on this year’s winners of the Distinguished Teaching Award. Patience – the press release will go out tomorrow and their identity will be officially announced then. I also approved support from the Vice-Chancellor’s strategic funds for Uppsala Antibiotic Center, which added extra interest to the article in today’s edition of the local newspaper UNT about school pupils who have produced a magazine, Resistens (article in Swedish), about the very topic of antibiotic resistance. The plan for gender mainstreaming was also adopted. It contains the following areas for action:

1. Skills development at managerial level
2. Content and design of educational programmes
3. University-wide governance documents
4. Recruitment and skills supply
5. Internal distribution of resources

After that, it was off to Ångström and the inauguration of SwedNess, a graduate school in neutron scattering supported by the Swedish Foundation for Strategic Research. Uppsala University is coordinator but it is a cooperative undertaking also involving the Royal Institute of Technology, Chalmers, Linköping University, Lund University and Stockholm University. Twenty doctoral students will be recruited to build up expertise in Sweden for the European Spallation Source (ESS). It’s positive and important that we can cooperate on this graduate school. Thank you, Swedish Foundation for Strategic Research!

The next stop was Gustavianum, where the National Centre for Knowledge on Men’s Violence Against Women launched the report on the Uppsala model, in which research, education and clinical work combine to provide vulnerable women with the support and help they need.

At short notice, we learned that the former president of South Africa, Thabo Mbeki, was visiting Uppsala today, we managed to squeeze in a half-hour talk this afternoon before I went on to the annual meeting of Drivhuset. There’s no chance of boredom in this job, on the countrary, every day is full of interesting meetings and discussions and I’m constantly full of admiration and respect for the work being done and commitment displayed at our University. It’s easy to feel proud as Vice-Chancellor.

(Original Swedish post.)

On Wednesday, the entire University management (apart from Torsten, who had other commitments) visited Skåne for a joint meeting with the management of Lund University. We shared experiences of managing agency capital, compensation for language programmes, storing of research data and financing of facilities. We compared our impressions of the terms of reference for Agneta Bladh’s inquiry on internationalisation and Pam Fredman’s inquiry on governance and resource allocation, and we discussed the funding of national infrastructure resources, in particular Max IV and the Swedish National Infrastructure for Computing (ANIC).

These regular meetings are valuable. It is important that Sweden’s two largest and broadest research universities maintain a dialogue and develop a common view on fundamental research and education policy issues. Our thanks to Torbjörn von Schantz, Eva Wiberg and others at Lund for their hospitality and for a productive time together!

Before travelling back to Uppsala, we found itme for a short visit to the Museum of Artistic Process and Public Art, very interesting and inspiring.