Earlier this year, the University of Gävle announced that seven people within public health science would be made redundant, as the subject was to be discontinued. When the redeployment assessment process was complete, four of the seven were offered other positions at the university. The posts offered were a senior lecturer position, a lecturer post and two administrative roles. Three of those who received the offer of a new position have accepted, while a fourth, who was offered a short-term temporary administrative role, has chosen to decline.
Following negotiations between the union and the employer, four university teachers will now therefore be leaving the University. The four have notice periods of between ten and twelve months, according to Niklas Rothpfeffer, vice-chair of the local SULF association.
“I suppose you could say it is a bit of a mixed bag,” he says. “Those who are staying are no doubt delighted for their own sakes. At the same time, they perhaps feel a certain sense of guilt that they got a job themselves but the others did not.”
Given the circumstances, the union is pleased with how the process was handled, he explains.
“We had a good dialogue anyway. The employer was understanding, and I think they dealt with it in a respectful manner.”
The reason the subject of public health science is being discontinued is that the university needs to reduce its number of stand-alone courses due to an insufficient increase in its state budget allocation, explains Magnus Isaksson, head of the Faculty of Health and Occupational Studies.
“We simply do not have the revenue to keep this programme running. That is the fundamental reason. We might have the capacity, but we can only use the budget we receive from the state. That is what sets the limit,” he says.
“We simply do not have the revenue to keep this programme running.”
Applications to public health science have been, and still are, at a high level, he tells us.
“We are sad to lose the subject of public health science, which was a very good complement to our other subjects and programmes.”
At present, says Isaksson, there are no plans for further cuts in the coming years.
