Björn Birgersson. Photo: Margareta Ohné.

GB's mission

On the faculty's website you can read more about GB's mission. It states that GB shall, among other things, be responsible for ‘quality assurance, follow-up and coordination of education’ and ‘prepare and pursue strategic educational issues’.  

The fact that GB is a preparatory body means that it investigates and discusses various issues and then submits proposals for decision to the Board of Science (Swedish abbreviation: ON). However, ON has delegated the chair of GB to make decisions on certain issues. 

Who is on GB?

GB consists of thirteen members: the Chair, the Vice-Chair, two members per section, a representative of the teacher training programme and two student representatives. The two members from the Biology section are Björn Birgersson from BIG and Mattias Mannervik from MBW, with Peter Hambäck from DEEP as deputy. The chairman is Alasdair Skelton from the Department of Geological Sciences and the vice-chairman is BIG's head of department Niklas Janz from Zootis. 

Björn, who is Director of Studies at BIG, has been a member of GB for more than twenty years. He emphasises that perhaps the most important thing about GB is that in the discussions you learn so much about each other's programmes and each other's expertise. It promotes co-operation within the faculty so that we have a common framework for education and uniformity between the faculty's subjects. 

Recurring topics: plans, evaluations and money

One example of items that are always on the agenda is course and programme syllabuses. These are important legal documents that govern the organisation of education, and GB has developed detailed templates for them. All proposals from departments for new or modified programmes and courses must be reviewed by GB or, in simpler cases, the GB Working Committee, before they are adopted. 

Another recurrent task is evaluation. Each main field of study is reviewed every six years in a three-step procedure. First, the responsible department writes a programme report, which is then reviewed by a group appointed by GB. Once the review team has given its opinion, GB decides whether the department needs to take any action, and if so, what action, and submits a proposal to ON, which finalises the process with its decision. Given the number of majors in the faculty, the review process is ongoing. 

It is also GB that submits proposals to ON on how the faculty's educational assignments should be distributed. In plain language, this is about how the money for education should be distributed between the faculty's departments. 

New local degree objectives 

GB also takes own initiatives. One current example is that late last spring, following a proposal from GB, ON decided to introduce four local degree objectives for the Natural Sciences. Having local degree objectives is something completely new within the faculty and they complement the general degree objectives in the Higher Education Ordinance as of HT26.

The local degree objectives focus on four areas: programming, sustainability, statistics and science. The aim of the new objectives is to ensure that all graduating students have some basic knowledge in these areas, regardless of the subject they have studied. Departments now need to plan what changes may need to be made to their programmes to enable students to meet the new objectives. 

However, the focus on scientific literacy is not new, because for many years it has been mandatory to have knowledge and insights into scientific literacy to obtain a bachelor's degree at our faculty. What is new is that it is included as a degree objective.

Special review of orientation courses

Another example of GB's initiative is the recently finalised review of orientation courses, courses that only require basic qualifications and whose main purpose is to disseminate knowledge to the general public. GB felt that orientation courses had been neglected in the regular evaluations and therefore launched a special review of them two years ago.

As a result, many departments were advised to review their orientation courses in terms of both the workload expected of students and the forms of examination.

In addition, ON decided very recently, also at the suggestion of GB, to remove the general rule that limited students from including orientation courses in the degree. Previously, a maximum of 15 credits of orientation courses could be included in the bachelor's degree and none at all in the master's degree, but this restriction has now been removed.

What does a student representative think?

Alexandra Bermhed. Photo: private.

Alexandra Bermhed is currently one of the two student representatives. This is how she describes her work in GB:

‘My mission as a student representative in GB is to defend the interests of students in matters ranging from budget and rules to new course and programme syllabuses. Sometimes it's about correcting unclear wording, sometimes it's about trying to change new regulatory documents that would mean reduced access to special pedagogical support. 

The most difficult part of the job is trying to look after the interests of all students across the Faculty of Science. Those studying maths may not have the same experiences as those studying geology. As a student on the Environmental Science programme, I have an advantage in this respect; I have taken courses in mathematics and chemistry in addition to my main focus on the environment and biology, and therefore have some extra broad experience. 

In the future, I hope we will have more time to exchange experiences and pedagogical ideas in order to develop the faculty's interdisciplinary collaborations and facilitate students' transition between different departments.’