Vice-Chancellor's blog

Vice-Chancellor's Council

Mon, 6 Feb 2012 14:56:08 +0100

The Vice-Chancellor's Council meets today and tomorrow in Vaxholm, for the first time this year, with the new Deputy Vice-Chancellors and deans. There are many points on the agenda: a review of matters concerning the University Board's meeting on February 15, opinions on the two inquiries into a new system of performance-related allocation of resources in research funding and the overhaul of the Swedish National Agency for Higher Education and the Swedish Agency for Higher Education Services, work on the revision of the list of leading research areas, the strengthening of ties to the jobs market within undergraduate education, the University's communications platform, the organisational placement of Stockholm Resilience Centre, the budget proposals to the Government and more.

International students

Mon, 6 Feb 2012 13:07:41 +0100

I have looked at the figures for the number of international applicants for master's programmes this autumn. Lund University, which has resolutely focused on the recruitment of international students for many years, is at the top among the nation's universities, with about 11,000 applicants, though Stockholm University has seen a gratifying increase in the number of applicants, and is now in second place with over 6,000 applicants. In relation to fee-paying students, the increase is over 50% compared to last year. I think this is mainly the result of the extensive marketing work we have conducted in several countries and at several foreign universities, including China and the USA. The greatest number of applicants are from Britain, Germany, China, Bangladesh and the United States, in that order. The most popular courses are found within the area of economics and business. We have the potential to garner even more applications and accept many more international students, but the biggest problem is, as we know, that of the shortage of student housing. Politicians are working on the issue, but now it is not simply a matter of starting new construction projects — rapid interim solutions are also required. It is unfortunate that international students who wish to come here and pay for their studies, and who have been accepted by Stockholm University, are forced to turn down their place and go home or to choose another university, simply because there is no housing.

Seychelles

Tue, 17 Jan 2012 15:50:13 +0100

I am in the Seychelles this week on a combined research and holiday trip. Research expedition in the sense that I am participating in a research group with Birgitta Bremer and others from the University's Department of Botany, concerned with collecting plant materials; holiday in the sense that this is for me a vacation. The research is about the plant migration history on the islands in the Indian Ocean. I'm back in Bloms hus on Monday while others continue to Reunion.

Tuition fees

Thu, 15 Dec 2011 15:14:55 +0100

The National Agency for Higher Education has released a new report based on a follow-up study of how things have gone with tuition fees, that is, how things went with fee-paying international students during the first term. That the number of international students is now low in relation to the total number is not good for Sweden as an international knowledge-based nation, and unfortunately entirely expected. What is surprising is the low percentage - 29% - of students who actually registered with their department after receiving an offer of a place. It seems that the main reasons are the problems with obtaining a residence permit, in relation to which the Migration Board and the Ministry for Foreign Affairs - as we know - acted in a bureaucratic and inflexible manner, together with the lack of student housing, rather than the study fees themselves. It is also strange to note that so many turned down the offer of a scholarship that eliminates the tuition fees, apparently due to the cost of living in Sweden. There needs to be many more scholarships that cover not only tuition fees but also living costs, or at least some of these.

Nobel Week

Mon, 12 Dec 2011 12:44:55 +0100

The Nobel festivities are almost over. Tomorrow is the Lucia Ball at Stockholm University and several of the Nobel Laureates usually participate each year, this year being no exception. Today, the Chemistry Laureate is visiting the Department of Materials and Environmental Chemistry, whilst the Physics Laureate visits AlbaNova, to be followed by dinner afterwards. The Economics Laureate was at dinner at Spökslottet, the Scheffler Palace, last week. Highlights this year include, of course, Tomas Tranströmer and his connection as an alumnus of Stockholm University, and the Nobel Nightcap, the big party held after the Nobel Banquet, which this year was organised by the Stockholm University Student Union. Naturally, I was there, among lots of guests including ministers and Laureates. Today I am quite tired, after the Nobel Banquet, the Nobel Nightcap and then the King's dinner at the palace on Sunday night to which university presidents/Vice-Chancellors traditionally are invited.

Södertörn

Wed, 23 Nov 2011 11:33:26 +0100

On Monday this week the Stockholm Academic Assembly convened, the Assembly is a long-standing association of Vice-Chancellors/Presidents and Administrative Directors from universities and major university colleges in Stockholm. The Assembly's chief purpose is the exchange of information between institutes of higher education. The discussion on Monday revealed how Södertörn University College is being squeezed by cutbacks in education funding and difficulties in obtaining facilities and research resources. The current higher education policy is of course that a number of colleges should be merged with larger universities. Here I would like to emphasise that this does not apply to Södertörn University College, which is one of the largest and most successful university colleges, maintaining a high standard in several areas. Södertörn University College, for example, received the right to award research degrees for all areas that they have applied for. Stockholm is growing faster than other parts of the country and the future demand for higher education in the region is great. Södertörn University College should be converted to a university with a greater number of study places and control over the research resources available in the foundations that have responsibility for supporting Södertörn.

Tuition fees

Tue, 15 Nov 2011 16:20:07 +0100

The Chairmen of the Boards of KTH Royal Institute of Technology and Gothenburg University recently highlighted (DN Debatt, Nov. 1 2011) the decline in the number of incoming students caused by the new tuition fees. It's easy to subscribe to everything in the article. This is an issue that has been raised repeatedly, both with the old government, which took a stand for the introduction of fees and with the current government that made the proposal to Parliament, which in turn implemented the system by a large majority. The message communicated in the article in DN Debatt is that the scholarship scheme must be expanded, but trade and industry should also contribute. There are companies, such as Ericsson, who understood the point of funding scholars, who in future may be of benefit to the company. More companies should follow suit. Furthermore, the Government should attend to the Migration Board's rigid rules for incoming students' visa applications, which require that students from certain countries must first visit the Swedish embassy, perhaps in a different country, in order to be fingerprinted. Finally, and perhaps most important of all, politicians have to eliminate the shortage of student housing. It is tragic to see incoming students, who have been given a place, paid their fees, bought a plane ticket, arranged a visa and travelled here, only to be forced to go back home when they discover that there is nowhere to live.

China

Tue, 15 Nov 2011 15:56:30 +0100

This autumn's official Vice-Chancellor's tour is to China. I'm here all week with a delegation of 10 people from Stockholm University. Yesterday we visited Peking University and today we visit Tsinghua University in Beijing. Our exchange agreements with Peking University is more than 30 years old, and though we do have an agreement with Tsinghua University within the field of law, we do not have a central agreement. Within our internationalisation programme, Stockholm University Academic Initiative, we have identified Tsinghua University as a potentially interesting partner and we have been extremely well received. I have held a lecture on the role of universities in a global perspective and we have had well-attended information sessions for students regarding our Master's programmes. I have also informed Chinese companies about Stockholm University, in the context of a luncheon arranged by the Swedish Chamber of Commerce. Tomorrow, we continue to the north of China and Jilin University with which we signed an agreement a couple years ago, on their initiative. This agreement has a special value because it means that we can send entire groups of students studying Chinese at Stockholm University to Jilin for a period of studies in China. The official tour ends in Shanghai with a visit to Fudan University and the Nordic Centre at this university.

The Nobel Prizes

Wed, 5 Oct 2011 16:01:30 +0200

The Nobel Prizes in medicine, physics and chemistry have been awarded. I am particularly delighted because the physics prize goes to research where Ariel Goobar and Jesper Sollerman of Stockholm University have been heavily involved in each of the two research groups whose leaders are now being awarded prizes. By measuring the brightness in certain special supernovae in distant galaxies scientists have found that these supernovae are further away than would be expected, based on what was previously assumed regarding the expansion of the universe. The conclusion is that the universe's expansion is accelerating. This in turn leads to the conclusion that there must be an unknown kind of energy, so-called dark energy, which is driving this growing expansion. This in turn opens up exciting new research fields.

Doctoral Awards Ceremony

Fri, 30 Sep 2011 16:36:20 +0200

The annual Doctoral Awards Ceremony, with accompanying banquet, will take place today in Stockholm City Hall. New doctorates and honorary doctorates will be conferred and professors installed. Prize winners and medalists will be honoured. Among this year's jubilee doctors is the University's previous Vice-Chancellor Inge Jonsson. This year, a large number of university and university college Vice-Chancellors and Presidents, including the principals from all the major universities in the country, will be attending the Awards Ceremony. More about the event can be found on the University's website.

Student housing

Fri, 23 Sep 2011 13:03:46 +0200

Today I participated, together with colleagues and students, in a roundtable discussion on student housing in Stockholm. The city councillors responsible for this matter have today written about the matter in today's Dagens Nyheter, the Swedish national daily newspaper. It is good that the question has been taken up politically — the opposition have also expressed a strong desire to do something about the problem. We need quick, temporary solutions, such as e.g. pavilions, and the student ferry with accommodation for 600 students is a good idea. The student housing shortage is not an economic problem for the universities in Stockholm - we fill our places on the whole - but it is a skills supply problem, since many excellent students choose not to come here, or worse – and this is something that occurs at the beginning of each autumn semester – they come to Stockholm from far away, even from abroad, to begin the study programme that they have been admitted to, but are forced to return home, with a negative experience of Stockholm, where they have nowhere to live. This is a major problem for Stockholm, not only for Stockholm higher education institutions.

International students

Wed, 21 Sep 2011 08:04:25 +0200

The Government is to increase the number of scholarships for students from aid countries whilst, at the same time, widening the circle beyond the limited number of countries with which Sweden has an aid agreement to include all countries classified by the OECD as aid countries. Both measures will increase the opportunities for good students to come here. Now that tuition fees are in place we need to work in many different ways to bring more international students to Sweden. They become important ambassadors for Sweden, Stockholm and Stockholm University, and some choose to stay here or to return. More grants are needed, more information and more student housing. The shortage of student housing means that many say no — in some cases they even come here but go back home again when housing can not be arranged. Stockholm cannot afford to manage its future knowledge base in this way.

Studenthuset

Thu, 1 Sep 2011 14:43:07 +0200

Building from scratch at Frescati is no trivial undertaking – it requires long term planning – but now it's time, and today I literally dug the first bucketful of soil, using an excavator, in the construction of the new student building, Studenthuset, which will be located adjacent to Södra huset, next to the A-building. It will be a fine building with rooms for Stockholm University Student Union and the university administration's Student Services. The new building will be a great asset for students: it will improve the already good contact between the University and the Student Union and provide a attractive facade and entrance to the University from the south. The building is scheduled for completion in about two years.

Influx of students

Thu, 1 Sep 2011 14:40:18 +0200

Yesterday was the big welcome day for new Swedish students. It is wonderful to see the Aula Magna packed full – and this is with only a fraction of all new students. The Swedish National Agency for Higher Education today announced a summary of the forecasts for all higher education institutes for full-time students in 2011. We have 29,000 full-time students, and that means more than 50,000 students in total, i.e. those who at least during some of the year study at Stockholm University. The change compared to 2010 is small. As before, we will not reach the University's entire budgetary ceiling - the maximum reimbursement for basic education that we can receive - though this is a deliberate plan on our part.

More on student housing

Thu, 25 Aug 2011 13:57:13 +0200

The Swedish Minister for Public Administration and Housing, Stefan Attefall said yesterday on Swedish Radio and in the Metro newspaper that students should choose not to study in Sweden's big cities, and that the government may in the future expand higher education in smaller towns rather than in big cities, because of the problems student housing. This is a fatuous proposal. A very large number of study programs in a range of important topics are available only at the major universities in Stockholm, Gothenburg, Uppsala and Lund. It is clear that politicians have to do something about the student housing situation in these cities. Promises that the issue will be resolved in the long term are no longer sufficient. Stockholm and surrounding municipalities are acting too slowly. Short term solutions must be developed, temporary accommodation must urgently be built, as was done during the great expansion of higher education in the late 1960s and the early 1970s. The Minister for Public Administration and Housing should develop proposals for how to do this instead of trying to solve the housing problem by moving students away from the major universities where a more substantial range of courses is available. A situation where a passive housing policy and stagnant housing construction industry - on a national or local level - complicates studies at the major universities is not just a problem for the individual but is ultimately a threat to the country's future skills supply.

Student housing

Tue, 16 Aug 2011 16:12:20 +0200

Soon the autumn term will begin and then, as usual, the chronic shortage of student housing will become a news story in the media. I understand that a reasonable question is whether the University can do anything about the situation, especially now that we have the right to rent out apartments to students. As stated in a report in the Swedish news today, the answer is that we can not do much, as it is the actual lack of housing that is the problem. Stockholm students' central organisation (SSCO) has, with financial support from Stockholm University and other universities in Stockholm, started a subletting agency. This is at least a new development, but the basic problem cannot be solved until the construction of new student housing really starts to accelerate. The housing shortage is perhaps the greatest threat to the necessary expansion of higher education that needs to take place in the rapidly growing Stockholm region. It is a political problem that politicians must deal with. Stockholm University would like to rent lots of student apartments if only there were some to rent out.

The past term

Mon, 4 Jul 2011 13:41:31 +0200

The first half of 2011 is over. I look back with great satisfaction at our acquisition of degree-giving powers for the new teacher education programmes, the University Board's decision on the new organisation, interesting departmental visits, and what are, for Stockholm University, highly complimentary citation analyses from NordForsk and other bodies, figures that show that the international scientific community is taking note of our research – at a level that is more than 30% above the world average. This autumn will see the start of the new teacher education programmes and the arrival of the first fee-paying international students. Nationally, there is likely to be a lot of discussion about the impact of the new tuition fees, the size and financing of undergraduate education, and, towards the end of the year, intensified discussions in the run up to the 2012 research bill. Many thanks to all our staff and faculty for their excellent work this past term.

Fee-paying students

Mon, 4 Jul 2011 13:10:14 +0200

So, the figures have arrived concerning the number of non-EU/EEA/Swiss students who have paid tuition fees or received a scholarship for the autumn term: just under 1,300 according to the National Agency for Higher Education. This is roughly as expected: a sharp decline in the number of international students, in my opinion, to the detriment of Sweden and the Swedish higher education. This is not about institutions' financing of undergraduate education but about the international position of Sweden and Swedish higher education. The government and other financiers must now, as University Chancellor Lars Haikola points out, inject more resources to build up the all too meagre scholarship programme. The most serious issue right now however is the new rules for issuing a residence permit, which the Swedish Migration Board abruptly introduced. This means that many international students have to undertake long journeys to a Swedish Embassy to arrange this before they can get here to begin their studies. In many cases they are forced to simply turn down their place and choose instead to study elsewhere. We have for example four exchange students from Peru who have to fly to Washington in the USA to arrange a residence permit before they can travel to Sweden. They aren't coming. It becomes too expensive and complicated. We have two fee-paying students from Korea who have to fly to Hong Kong and arrange a residence permit before they can travel to Sweden. They probably will not come either. There are more examples, probably from all universities in Sweden. The government must immediately do something about this catastrophic situation, and it is a matter of days: otherwise a significant number of the 1,300 fee-paying students may turn down their places, Sweden will get a bad reputation as bureaucratic and cumbersome, and the new system of tuition fees will get the worst possible start.

Graduate schools for teachers

Fri, 17 Jun 2011 16:35:32 +0200

The Swedish Research Council has decided on the allocation of grants to graduate schools for teachers and preschool teachers. Stockholm University has been awarded four of the fourteen graduate schools. We already have extensive professional development training for teachers, especially through the Teacher Education Initiative (Lärarlyftet) and this will be another major commission. I am very happy about this, because it shows a great a confidence in our education of and professional development for teachers.

Regulatory dialogue

Fri, 17 Jun 2011 16:34:29 +0200

On June 15 we had a regulatory dialogue, or budget dialogue, as it used to be called, with the Secretary of State and representatives of the Ministry of Education. The dialogue covers all sorts of issues related to the University. The order of size for undergraduate education was an important point. The government, against the background of the fact that student numbers are expected to decrease over the coming years, does not intend to expand the number of places. However, it does wish to relocate some student places between universities, and it is assumed that places can be moved from Stockholm University to other universities, on account of the fact that we do not use the full scope of our possible budget in this area. At the same the government wishes us to take more responsibility for teacher education, specifically pre-school teacher education. To the extent that there is a relocation of student places, we recommend that they are moved to KTH, as there is a need to expand technology education. Regarding research, the Secretary of State emphasized that new resources are unlikely to be allocated in the coming research bill if universities continue to save resources during 2011. As I have pointed out countless times, we must now ensure that we start to use up our substantial capital reserves during 2011. The future organization of SciLifeLab was also the subject of discussion; the organizational form must be resolved before the research bill is due, as we hope for additional resources for SciLifeLab. The Ministry has stated that individual conversations with the larger universities concerning the coming research bill will take place during the autumn, which I of course welcome.