Thematic evaluations

During 2023-2024, the Swedish Higher Education Authority (UKÄ) conducted a thematic evaluation of collaboration with the surrounding society.

At the beginning of 2024, the university submitted its self-assessment for the thematic evaluation of collaboration with the surrounding society to UKÄ. The evaluation focuses on the universitys' strategic work to create favourable conditions for engaging in collaboration in research and education.

At the end of October 2024, the university received UKÄ’s graded recommendations. The university is required to report its actions regarding the "should" recommendations to UKÄ by 2 November 2026.

"Should" Recommendations:

• The university should consider the differences between subject areas in its strategic work when creating conditions for collaboration.
• Given the variation between subject areas, the university should develop how collaboration for mutual exchange can be ensured by involving external partners.
• The university should provide feedback on the results of the follow-ups of collaboration to external stakeholders and collaboration partners.

"May" Recommendations:

• The university may consider the balance between the large number of priority areas and individual staff collaboration initiatives when developing goals and strategies for collaboration.
• The university may design sector-specific goals for collaboration in its strategic work.
• The university may continue its work to further strengthen incentives for collaboration in terms of merit recognition.
• The university may develop indicators to capture the quality of the collaboration conducted in research and education.

In 2023-2024, UKÄ conducted a thematic evaluation of contract education. The evaluation includes review from several perspectives: quality assurance, regulatory compliance and efficient resource utilization. Uppsala University was not one of the higher education isntitutions that was selected for this thematic evaluation.

The review of the contract education has several purposes:

• to review that the higher education institutions comply with the regulations for contract education

• to produce a knowledge base that highlights the significance contract educations for the institutions of higher education and for the provision of skills

• to highlight challenges with contract education and suggest possible ways to handle them.

The review is carried out in different stages. First, data collection is carried out. Collected information from the higher education institutions are then used as a basis for selection of in-depth reviews.

A more comprehensive description of the evaluation can be found in UKÄ's guide (in Swedish).

Since 2001, higher education institutions (HEIs) have been obliged by law to actively promote wider participation in higher education (Higher Education Act [2001:1263], Chapter 1, Section 5). On behalf of the government UKÄ evaluated how heigher education institutions worked with widening participation 2019-2022.

The evaluation consists of two parts. One part is an evaluation of the institutions work with widened participation. The other part is an analysis of the social imbalance in the recruitment to higher education from different perspectives, and a knowledge overview of widened participation in Sweden and the Nordic countries.

The thematic evaluation intends to show how the country’s HEIs work with widened participation, and what results have been achieved and what areas need development. By doing this they aim to contribute to knowledge and development.

In February 2024, the university submitted its report on actions taken in response to the recommendations received (2022). In November 2024, the university received UKÄ's decision following the follow-up. UKÄ believes that the university has taken the recommendations into consideration and that the actions taken are good. Read more about the university's work on widening participation.

The first thematic evaluation was performed in 2017, with the theme sustainable development. Uppsala University got the highest possible grade, meaning that we have well developed processes for working with sustainable development.