Astrid Söderbergh Widding
Astrid Söderbergh Widding, President of Stockholm University. Photo: Anna-Karin Landin.
 

After the most dismal election campaign imaginable from a research and education policy perspective, we now have a government in place, a budget bill, and a Tidö Agreement that lays the foundation for the government’s policy direction.

So far, we do not know many details about the policies that are to be expected. What is clear, however, is that there is a general emphasis on quality over quantity. Minister for Education Mats Persson has spoken out in several contexts in favour of excellence and international competition in research. Research funds will be allocated on the basis of quality, and research grants will be directed to a smaller number of universities. Particular emphasis is placed on academic freedom. Doctoral education is once again in focus due to the needs of technology-heavy industry as well as articles written about the conditions for foreign doctoral students and researchers. Certain areas in particular have been identified as priorities: energy research – which is getting a special bill – defence and security research, women’s health, mental health and suicide prevention, and social action against youth crime.

In terms of education, an increased focus is to be expected on programmes which are in demand in the labour market – particularly teaching, healthcare and engineering programmes. This may come at the expense of the humanities and social sciences. The transition and retraining student finance scheme is here to stay – and there is a particular emphasis on targeting it at programmes with high labour market demand. The teaching programme is to be developed with higher admission requirements and an increased focus on subject knowledge – but the meaning of the Tidö Agreement’s concentration of subject teacher programmes to the highest ranked higher education institutions is unclear. The announced reform of social work education, with youth crime as a compulsory component, has hardly escaped anyone’s notice – politicians should not be tinkering with syllabuses. What is clear is that the Government seems to want to redirect education and research policy in many ways.

As a university it is our responsibility to carry out our fundamental mission – to provide higher education of the highest quality and to conduct internationally competitive research, for the benefit of knowledge development and society.

This article is written by Astrid Söderbergh Widding, President of Stockholm University. It appears in the section ”Words from the University’s senior management team”, where different members take turns to write about topical issues. The section appears in News for staff which is distributed to the entirety of the University staff.