Responsible unit: Office of the President

Contact: Ulf Nyman

Introduction

Stockholm University must maintain a high level of accessibility and service
towards the general public and the university’s employees and students.

Over the course of a few decades, telephony has gone from being the primary mode of distance communication to being one of several methods, such as email, online chats and video meetings.

Nevertheless, telephony continues to play a significant role, partly as it enables two-way real-time contact and partly as it is an alternative to written communication. The latter is particularly important in terms of accessibility for people with reading and writing difficulties.

The telephone policy aims to provide guidance on some general matters relating to telephony. It is targeted at the university’s managers and employees.

Contactability and telephone hours

The Administrative Procedure Act (2017:900) stipulates that an authority shall be available for contacts with private persons and inform the public about how and when they can make these contacts. Furthermore, contacts with individuals must be smooth and simple.

The need to be contactable is particularly important for certain roles or functions, both within the core organisation and administration services such as student information desks at departmental level and study and career counsellors. These roles and functions are also expected to have fixed telephone hours, in addition to being contactable during set office hours and via email and teaching platforms. The university must provide employees with telephones should their duties require.

In emergency situations, managers with direct reports may need to be contacted at short notice. Therefore, it must be possible to contact employees such as heads of departments, administrative officers and heads of units during office hours.

Contracts with telephone operators and telephone solutions

Since the fixed telephony service was phased out and replaced with MEX (mobile extension), telephone solutions vary across the university. Solutions may be determined locally, based on the needs of the organisation and staff. However, all staff telephone numbers belonging to contracts held by the university should be accessible for the university’s switchboard.

A telephone connection does not necessarily mean a fixed land line, it may also include softphone solutions, i.e. internet telephony.