Planning for 550th anniversary in 2027 – many ideas grouped in five themes

Were any ideas submitted after the article?
“We’ve had many ideas come in since then and had numerous meetings with various actors. This led to us grouping the ideas into five separate themes,” says Johan Tysk, chair of the steering group.

The five themes are: the University and culture, the University and future generations, the University as a social actor, the University in Uppsala and the wider world, and the University’s renewal. The criteria were the University’s importance to society and to its own internal development, research and education. But it should also be something fun, Johan Tysk and Anna Liv Jonsson are both quick to point out.

“We want to put into words what we’re proud of right now, but also something for future generations,” says project manager Anna Liv Jonsson. “It’s the employees who make our University.”

The anniversary steering group was due to submit a report in 2023 to the Vice-Chancellor containing proposals for measures and a budget for the celebrations.

Was that report submitted?
“The project plan and the budget proposal were developed during autumn 2024 and in autumn 2025 a decision will come from the Vice-Chancellor on funding,” says Anna Liv Jonsson. “Many parts of the University will be organising celebrations during the jubilee year in the context of their own operations.”

“We’ve held dialogues with many people in the University as well as externally about whether and how they want to participate in the jubilee,” says Johan Tysk. “For example, we have excellent cooperation with Uppsala Municipality.”

Although the jubilee’s budget has not been established yet, the steering group has been given the green light by the Vice-Chancellor to continue its work.

But more specifically, how will the jubilee be celebrated? What activities will there be?
“Naturally, we aren’t quite finished yet, but there is an annual wheel in place,” says Anna Liv Jonsson. “The jubilee starts on Saturday 27 February 2027 with an event in the University Main Building for employees, students and the public. And it will end on Saturday 27 November 2027, the day before the first Sunday of Advent, also with an event in the Grand Auditorium.”

Johan Tysk reveals that this event will also showcase how much and what the fundraising campaign Boundless Knowledge, launched on the University’s birthday on 7 October 2024, has generated – and not just in terms of Swedish kronor. The results of the campaign will be counted from 2021 when it began.

Permanent fixtures

Some of the jubilee activities will become permanent fixtures. Something that is already underway is the Pääbo Route, a cycle path linking nine campuses, and named after Svante Pääbo. Svante Pääbo received the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 2022. At the Nobel luncheon at Uppsala Castle, he spoke about how interdisciplinary his work had been, and how he got around between the different departments by bicycle. The following year, Svante Pääbo was named Alumnus of the Year, and had the cycling route in Uppsala named after him.

“Svante Pääbo’s work and the cycling route are symbolic of a broad university, integrated into the city of Uppsala,” says Anna Liv Jonsson.

Other activities include the resumption of the writing of Uppsala University’s history, which came out in book form for the University’s 400th anniversary in 1877. Two volumes were added in 2012, and in 2027 more will be added.

“Carl Frängsmyr at the University Library has been writing for many years now, but the end is in sight,” says Anna Liv Jonsson. The coming volumes will cover the history of the University up until 2000. There will be release activities for the new volumes during the jubilee.

Another part of the celebrations is that the University has commissioned author Carina Burman to write the text of what is to become the book Uppsala universitets kvinnor (Uppsala University’s Women). The book will be a collective biography and a well-researched story about these women and their university.

“Hopefully, it’s going to be released on International Women’s Day, 8 March, in 2027,” says Anna Liv Jonsson. “We can’t say much at present about the content other than that it aims to tell a story that hasn’t been told before.”

Shared day with Bridget

The actual jubilee day will be 7 October 2027, the day the University counts as its birthday. It’s a day shared with celebrating Bridget of Sweden, one of the patron saints of Europe, who was canonised on this day in 1391.

What's it like to share a special day with a saint? Won’t there be some competition?
“Bridget of Sweden is the patron saint of Uppsala University, and it was on this day in 1477 that teaching began at the University,” says Anna Liv Jonsson.

The term ‘jubilee’ itself also has close ties with Christianity.

“The term goes back to the Biblical Year of Jubilee which, according to the book of Leviticus, is to be celebrated every fifty years,” says Anna Liv Jonsson. “This also applies to the University’s doctoral graduates. Fifty years after their conferment ceremony, they return and become jubilee doctors. But having a jubilee every fifty years also means that a new generation gets to be involved and celebrate in each instance.”

Ulrika Hurtig