Politics The new Minister for Education, Mats Persson of the Liberal Party, has announced that the new government will implement "major reforms" in higher education and research.

Politics The new Minister for Education, Mats Persson of the Liberal Party, has announced that the new government will implement "major reforms" in higher education and research.
International Since the outbreak of war in February, Ukrainian researchers have been forced to flee abroad in order to continue their work. Several higher education institutions in Sweden have welcomed them, in different ways and with different types of funding. How research – in Sweden, Ukraine and internationally – will be impacted by the war remains to be seen.
Funding The number of fee-paying international students continued to increase during the pandemic, and higher education institutions' income from paying students is also increasing. Total income from tuition fees is now SEK 963 million.
Education A report from the Swedish Migration Agency warns of abuse of student visas. Higher education institutions are seen as having incentives to accept students without setting high entrance requirements in order to bring in tuition fees. There was a mixed response to the report among the institutions examined in the report.
Funding Lotteries for the allocation of research funding have been tested in several countries. In Sweden, using a lottery system would save resources and increase equality, says researcher Lambros Roumbanis. Financiers that Universitetsläraren has spoken to are sceptical.
Politics What investments do the political parties want to make in higher education and research? What do they wish to prioritise? Ahead of the parliamentary election this autumn, Universitetsläraren has examined the policies of the eight parliamentary parties and interviewed each party’s higher education spokesperson.
Conditions The cost of buying out staff with severance pay at higher education institutions has increased sharply: by SEK 30 million in seven years. Karolinska Institutet and Malmö University have seen the biggest increases in costs.
Work environment University teachers and researchers constitute a highly educated precariat and employment conditions in higher education a gig economy. These are the findings of a new report from SULF.
Funding Since no government is ever going to do anything about uncertain employment conditions for researchers, the hope is that higher education institutions will take responsibility for creating stability, regardless of the funding system. That is the conclusion drawn by SULF in a new report presented today.
Research The vision is that open research data will lead to better research quality and more efficient science. But at an online seminar on open research data, insights into potential difficulties seemed to dominate.