Category: Uncategorized (Page 30 of 34)

The annual network meeting took place in Göttingen today. U4 is a relatively small, focused university network with four higher education institutions: the universities of Groningen, Ghent, Göttingen and Uppsala. Our cooperation takes place mainly in five academic clusters:

• Humanities (host: Ghent)
• Medicine and Pharmacy (host: Groningen)
• Science and Technology (host: Uppsala)
• Social Sciences, Economics and Law (host: Göttingen)
• Institutional Management

After listening to reports from all the clusters and from the student representatives, I can state that activities in the network have both expanded and been broadened. There are summer and winter courses, workshops, joint degrees, conferences, leadership programmes, benchmarking and various administrative processes. Uppsala University will host the next joint meeting for the whole network on 15–16 November 2015, but before that several workshops and cluster meetings a be held. There are also options to apply for funding of stays in Göttingen and to start new contacts in the network. If you have any queries or thoughts about how you can use this network, please get in touch with Oskar Pettersson, our contact and coordinator for U4. On the trip, as well as myself and Oskar, were Kay Svensson, Johan Tysk, Caisa Lycken, Lars Magnusson and Mats Larhed.

A framework agreement on future cooperation for PhD education is signed.

Two outstanding mathematicians: Gauss and Tysk.

On 14 November, 25 new professors were installed in office. We had a solemn ceremony in the Grand Auditorium of the University Main Building, followed by a fine banquet at Uppsala Castle. All the professors gave brief lectures in the course of three days, attended as usual by many people who were eager to hear what they had to say.

In conjunction with the Inauguration, we paid tribute to this year’s recipients of the Distinguished Teaching Awards for 2014 and also the winner of the innovation prize known as Hjärnäpplet (‘the Brain Apple’).

Once again, congratulations to all the professors and prize-winners — we are impressed!

We have also had the 2014 Anders Wall Lecture in the Grand Auditorium, on 19 November. This was attended by students and business leaders, along with others who were curious and wanted to experience inspiring lectures, musical entertainment and the award of Student of the Year, which went to Vanja Eriksson: congratulations!

The University arranges the Anders Wall Lectures jointly with the Anders Wall Professor of Entrepreneurship Foundation and the Entrepreneurs Academy, a student organisation. This annual lecture in entrepreneurship has become Sweden’s biggest meeting between students and the Swedish business sector. This year marks the 11th anniversary of the Anders Wall Lecture, and Fredrik Lindström moderated the event.

There’s a lot going on. Both Anders and I have been travelling recently, with no time to keep writing our usual blog posts. But we’re now going to summarise a few highlights of the past few weeks. The visits to Campus Gotland have been commented on in separate blogs.

In the past week, we’ve had domain reviews with the management of all three disciplinary domains. The discussions during the retreats for the management staff and deans continued at the reviews, and touched on the broad notion of university and its meaning. What are the forms required to make best use of the strengths of the wide-ranging, complete international research university? The domains can prepare documentation for discussing a few priority issues that are advantageous to pursue jointly. Discussions were also held on developing our collaboration, nationally and internationally. Development in terms of volume and quality in education and research, as well as internationalisation and skills provision, were self-evident themes. Discussions in the course of the domain reviews were structured on the basis of the following questions:

• How should we deal with the strategic initiatives in the University’s operational plan for 2015 at domain and faculty level?
• What strategic issues exist at domain and faculty level?
• What strategic issues need addressing in the University’s operational planning for 2016?
• What should we pinpoint for the Government in the budget documentation for 2016–18?

The Dag Hammar­skjöld Lecture was well attended. This time, Helen Clark, the Director of UNDP and former Prime Minister of New Zealand, came to give the lecture in the Grand Auditorium. It was resonant and interesting. Fifty-three years after his death, Dag Hammarskjöld remains an inspiration.

The Taipei Mission came to visit, and we discussed collaboration between universities in Taiwan and ourselves. We already have collaboration agreements, covering both education and research, with outstanding universities in the island nation. We talked about how we can intensify the existing collaboration projects and develop them further.

On Saturday I travelled to Vietnam, one purpose being to open our new office in Hanoi. The aim of our internationalisation efforts is to strengthen our position in Asia. The University already has several joint projects under way in, for example, business studies, women’s and children’s health, and government. Since 2009 we have implemented a Master’s Programme in Public Management (contract education) seven times. Vietnam is a country where, historically, Sweden has a unique position and where we see interesting opportunities for developing new collaborations. Earlier this year, we signed an agreement with Vietnam International Education Development (VIED), which funds Vietnamese students’ education abroad. In conjunction with the visit, the Lotus+ (Linking organisations through university synergies) project, part of the EU Erasmus Mundus programme, had its kick-off in Hanoi. This programme, coordinated by Uppsala University, has 20 partners and a budget of some SEK 30 million in scholarship funding to use for mobility at Bachelor’s, Master’s and postgraduate level (first-, second- and third-cycle education), and also for postdoctoral students and staff.

The official opening in Hanoi.

Yesterday we welcomed new students from across the world to Uppsala University, in the University Main Building. Student nations (that’s what we call our student clubs), student unions and other organisations presented themselves, and the newly arrived students were given a taste of all that Uppsala has to offer.

More and more international students choose to come here, partly thanks to the scholarships we have to offer through generous donations by Anders Wall, the President’s Club of Uppsala University, Rotary and other foundations. Students are also granted scholarships through IPK and Erasmus Mundus. But more scholarships are needed going forward.

This week I will be welcoming new students to Uppsala University. This is one of the Vice-Chancellor’s most inspiring tasks, and perhaps one of the most important.

This morning I welcomed students in science and technology. When talking to them, I was reminded again that many are having real difficulties finding somewhere to live, and for some the situation has become desperate.

So, I would like to ask everyone who works at the University to rent out a room, if at all possible.

Last year I had a student living with me for two months and I can strongly recommend it. It was fun, and I also got to hear how a student experiences their first few weeks in Uppsala.

Get in touch with studentboet.se if you have a room to spare. If you have any questions, send them to bostad@us.uu.se. Studentboet.se is a collaborative effort between Uppsala University, Uppsala Student Union, the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences and the city of Uppsala.

At Uppsala University – Campus Gotland there is a housing guarantee at the beginning of the semester, but here too there is a need for more student housing. Anyone who has a home to rent out in Visby can contact the local student union Rindi, tel. 0498-10 84 90 or e-mail boende@rindi.com.

On Wednesday we will be welcoming international students in the University Main Building. On Friday we have the Welcome Reception for Swedish students, and on Monday there’s the welcome reception at Campus Gotland.

We’re very happy to see so many students wanting to come to Uppsala University and contribute to a living and lively university. Many researchers, both from within Sweden and from abroad, are also joining us. This makes it all the more satisfying to be able to officially open the new housing for guest researchers at Lagerkransen in the coming days. It is the old department building for limnology at Norbyvägen 20 that has been remade into 46 brand-new flats. A great location at the heart of the university area, close to the Evolutionary Biology Centre, Blåsenhus and the Botanical Garden.

Let’s all do our best to welcome our new arrivals – both students and researchers. Both in Uppsala and on Gotland.

This morning, the festivities related to the degree conferment celebration started at 7 am with a salute from the castle. 38 shots were fired, they represents the number of participating faculties and jubilee doctors at today’s celebration.

An hour later the bells started ringing in the cathedral. The ringing lasted for ten minutes, and probably awakened all the residents in Uppsala who had managed to fall asleep again after the cannon salute.

At today’s ceremony in the university hall, we are celebrating 136 new PhDs and 29 jubilee doctors. It is wonderful that so many jubilee doctors are present; they are almost twice as many as last year. Later in the evening the festivities continue with a banquet at Uppsala Castle.

Today May 22, we received a delegation from Hallym University, South Korea in conjunction with the Sixth Uppsala-Hallym symposium on ”Stem Cells and Regenerative Medicine” where a number of world-leading researchers will present. For all of you that have the possibility, I can really recommend the symposium tomorrow May 23 at the Rudbeck Laboratory .

Uppsala University is a modern global university and it is so rewarding to see how our researchers take on and develop opportunities for international research cooperation. Thanks to the help of many colleagues, including our former Vice-Chancellor Prof. Anders Hallberg and Prof. Kjell Öberg, I am confident that our relation with Hallym University will continue to develop.

During the luncheon, I had a very fruitful discussion with Prof. Yong-Sun Kim about our cooperation and I am very glad to know that also a student exchange agreement within the Faculty of Medicine will come in place.

Yesterday was a very interesting day at work. In the morning, we discussed politics with Stefan Löfven, the leader of the Social Democratic party, Ardalan Shekarabi, Member of Parliament and Vivianne Macdisi, County Commissioner. They sought to discuss the university’s role in the knowledge region of Uppsala, how does the university spur innovations and new technologies in the sector of life sciences, and how do we collaborate with business and society? We raised questions about education, internationalization, resource allocation and evaluation methods, among other things. The time was limited, as it often is when many have much to say, and the meeting ended with the call to continue at a future meeting.

We then met the Indian ambassador Banashri Bose Harrison at the inauguration ceremony of a bust of Rabindranath Tagore at the English Park campus. Rabindranath Tagore won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1913, and was the first non- European who was awarded the prize. During the afternoon there were three lectures about his life and his relationship with Sweden organized by the Forum for South Asian Studies at the Department of Linguistics and Philology.

The rest of the week has many things to offer, for example the Include-conference on Thursday and a visit by the university management from Lund University on Friday. An exciting and eventful week, just as it should be early in May!

Banashri Bose Harrison and Eva Åkesson.

Now we have celebrated the arrival of the spring in Uppsala, even though the spring weather temporarily receded (but the snow seems to melt away quickly). It was an eventful day with many activities on the agenda; student floats running the Fyris River, herring lunch, the donning of the caps at Carolina Rediviva, visits to several student clubs and dinner at Uppsala Castle. In the evening we listened to Curator curatorum Kristina Melin’s spring speech.

Today, on May 1, it is time for spring dinners at different nations. We wish you all a happy spring!

Yesterday a well-attended alumni lecture was organized with Petra Einarsson, last year’s “Alumnus of the Year”at Uppsala University. Petra Einarsson is CEO of Sandvik Materials Technology, and talked on the topic “You can do so much more than you think”. It was an inspiring lecture on several aspects of leadership, with many wise thoughts and personal views.

Learn more about our alumni network.

Petra Einarsson, Eva Åkesson and Arne Sjöblom. Photo: Mikael Wallerstedt.