University wants to see dramatic commitment to excellence in education

At today’s meeting, the University Board dealt with the 2009 annual report and the budget proposal for 2011-2013. Uppsala University shows a positive outcome of SEK 211 million for its 2009 operations. The improved outcome is mainly the result of an increase in the number of full-time year-round students in first- and second-level education, and of the dramatic boost in research funding. Among other reasons, the University was highly successful in competing for the government’s strategic research allocations.

“Uppsala University has done very well in its strategic research initiatives. This has led to very large allocations for robust areas like energy, life science, and Russian studies during the year,” says Vice Chancellor Anders Hallberg.

“In coming years it will be extremely important to make forceful commitments to the quality of our education, not least considering the stiffening international competition resulting from the introduction of tuition fees for third-country students.”

In its budget proposal for the government for the coming three years, the University suggests an increase in allocations for first- and second-level education totaling SEK 189 million, SEK 106 million of which from 2011 and another SEK 83 million from 2012. Above all, what is needed is a general enhancement of quality for all educational fields, and the University is proposing a 7-percent increase from 2011. In the longer term, the University wants to retain the temporary increase in the number of study places for 2010 and 2011 and to receive greater financial support from the government to meet the abolition of obligatory membership in student unions and student nations.

The University plans to get back to the government later in the year regarding further governmental funding of a full-scale national resource center for life science in collaboration with the Karolinska Institute, the Royal Institute of Technology, and Stockholm University – Science for Life Laboratory Stockholm-Uppsala.