Conditions The union has reacted to the new policy at Lund University that means employees are no longer allowed to speak at staff disciplinary board hearings. However, the employers’ association’s advice is that employees should always be permitted to have their say.
Law Employees at Lund University are no longer allowed to speak at staff disciplinary board hearings on dismissal or redundancy, nor may they respond in writing to accusations. Unions at other higher education institutions are now reacting. A compromise has been agreed in Borås.
Teaching Within the higher education sector, there has been a great deal of reflection on the subject of artificial intelligence since Chat GPT was launched. The key question so far has been about cheating.
Ethics The way the Ethical Review Act is designed leads to great waste of researchers' time and resources. There is also a danger that potentially important research is not conducted, says doctoral candidate August Danielson.
Law Lund University has revised its process for staff disciplinary board matters. The employee concerned is now not permitted to be present when the board makes a decision on dismissal or redundancy. Adam Brenthel, chair of the Saco-S local association in Lund, is critical. “Why do they need to change a process that works well?”
Doctoral students A doctoral candidate with a two-year employment contract was denied a permanent residence permit, even though the financial support requirement is for 18 months. As the Migration Agency took more than 6 months to process the application, the applicant was a few weeks short of the financial support requirement when the decision was finally made.
Profiles Mohamed Al-Sabri left his everyday life of civil war for a research scholarship in Sweden. Four years later, he is a doctoral candidate at Uppsala University and feels secure, even though the journey towards his dream of a new life is far from over.
Law A couple of hundred people gathered on Götaplatsen in Gothenburg to protest against the new Aliens Act. “The changes have created extreme uncertainty for doctoral candidates from countries outside the EU,” said Elin Malmgren, Chair of the Doctoral Candidate Section at Chalmers Student Union.
Research The Government proposes that foreign citizens with a residence permit for work be able to apply for a residence permit for doctoral studies without leaving the country.
Law Foreign researchers whose children are born in Sweden must return to their home country to apply for a residence permit for the child – a costly process in terms of both time and money. Universitetsläraren has talked to some researchers who have been affected.