Uppsala University sums up 2010

In 2010 Uppsala University had 22 695 full-year students, which corresponds to about 42 000 individuals, more than ever before.  For job-market reasons, the government has allocated the University extra study places for 2010 and 2011. Among these places, 600 have been distributed to the Disciplinary Domain for Arts and Social Sciences to be used for a doubling of the law program, among other things, and more than 200 places have been used for master programs in science and technology.

“We made extra commitments owing to the job market, and we hope will be able to keep the places in the long term as well,” says Vice Chancellor Anders Hallberg.

The number of full-year students in contract education has increased, with the largest commission coming from the Swedish National Agency for Education in its Boost for Teachers project. Other major contracts were master programs for civil servants in Vietnam and training for the executive directors of a number of authorities.

Research continues to prosper. Uppsala University has increased its share of funding granted by the Swedish Research Council from 13 percent in 2007 to 16 percent in 2010. Funding from Vinnova and the Bank of Sweden Tercentenary Foundation has also risen. On the other hand, EU grants have slipped.

“There we have made a commitment to enhanced support in the application process, which is rather exhaustive, and this should yield better results in coming years,” says Anders Hallberg.

The number of academic publications has risen by more than 6 percent since 2008, and the upward trend we glimpsed last year seems to be corroborated. The number of doctoral degrees has increased by 5 percent, following a few years of declining numbers. The number of employees at Uppsala University in December 2010 was about 240 individuals more than for the same month the previous year, and most of them are teachers/researchers.

The University’s positive outcome of SEK 223 million is primarily ascribable to increased research allocations and an increased number of full-year students. The volume of unused research grants has also continued to grow, which positions the University well to continue to be a strong research environment.

“We noticed this early on, so the situation looks better for us than some other places, and we will continue to address this issue.”

The University has also extended its collaboration, with international partners and with other institutions of higher learning. This collaboration also involves national and regional actors – both in the business community and in the cultural sector.