Uppsala University continues to grow

The Annual Report shows that the University’s operations are continuing to grow. Turnover has increased by SEK 1.5 billion over a five-year period. Among students, fee-paying full-time equivalents have increased by 8 per cent and the number of full-time equivalents has increased by just over 1 per cent compared to 2023. This means that in 2024 Uppsala University had 28,702 full-time equivalents, which corresponds to just over 54,000 students. The increase in fee-paying students is partly due to the fact that more people were able to start their education on time because visa management worked better than in 2023.

Funding agreement targets reached

The University has achieved its funding agreement targets. The targets for teacher education and preschool teacher education degrees were fully achieved, while for health care degrees they were 96 per cent achieved.

As mandated by the Government, the University has a funding ceiling in education to observe, and in 2024 the University’s performance in education exceeded the funding ceiling by SEK 93 million. It is a challenge to perform to exactly the correct funding ceiling because the outcome depends on the numbers of study places and admitted students, and how the students perform during the year. In 2024, the performance indicators for students increased compared to 2023. This year’s performance figures mean that the accumulated excess has increased to 13 per cent above the funding ceiling, which is still within the limit value.

Grants from the EU increased between 2022 and 2023 and the University’s share of grants awarded by the Swedish Research Council remains at 16 per cent.

Planned deficit

The financial outcome for the University was a deficit of SEK 121 million. A deficit was planned for 2024, so as to continue reducing the University’s agency capital, but it ended up being larger than planned. The deficit derives from both education (minus SEK 81 million) and research (minus SEK 40 million).

The number of students studying at Campus Gotland was 1,212, which means that the target of 1,500 students for this campus was not reached. This target was reached in 2021, but in recent years student numbers there have gradually fallen.

New project with Future Institutes

In 2024, the University started an initiative called the Uppsala University Future Institutes (UUniFI). This is an interdisciplinary initiative with a total of six institutes focusing on interdisciplinary collaborations to deal with questions related to migration, precision health, the green energy transition, conflicts of objectives in societal transition, interdisciplinarity and multidisciplinarity, and AI and digitalisation.

It is also noteworthy that in 2024 the University received several important donations that have opened up opportunities for projects for which it can be difficult to secure external funding.

Compensation for education must increase

In the budget submission to the Government for the next three-year period, 2026–2028, Uppsala University highlights a number of issues. These include the need for higher levels of compensation for education. Funding for higher education has been eroded for a long time and it is a challenge to provide high quality education. For example, the new medical programme involves significantly higher costs than before. Compensation for some programmes has been increased, but an across-the-board increase in compensation for all programmes is needed to maintain quality.

The freestanding courses, which are essential parts of a broad university and play a major role for example in international exchanges and lifelong learning, also need to be safeguarded. Uppsala University requests a larger permanent funding agreement target.

Higher direct government funding for more excellent research

Uppsala University is in favour of many of the government’s proposals in the research and innovation policy bill. However, the bill perpetuates the great imbalance between direct government funding and external grants, with an increasingly large share going to external grants. Sweden needs a reorientation allocating a greater proportion of research funding directly to universities as unrestricted appropriations. This will provide better conditions for strategic innovation and for conducting excellent research.

Strengthening academic freedom

Furthermore, the work begun to strengthen academic freedom needs to continue, for example by reducing bureaucratisation, and by predicating future policy reforms on higher education institutions’ needs for self-determination and a long-term approach, so as to be able to take comprehensive responsibility for their operations.

For excellent research to continue, the direct government funding for research and doctoral education needs to be increased while being kept free from co-financing requirements. Sweden’s involvement in work at the EU level needs to be strengthened so that priority is given to research of the highest quality, including in the ERC in the current framework programme, Horizon Europe.

In addition, Uppsala University is of the view that the profit requirement for Akademiska Hus needs review. The University feels that the profit requirement should be reduced, and an upper limit placed on it.

Anders Berndt