What does micromanagement do to research and education?

A lot is happening in the higher education sector in Sweden right now. We have just received the Swedish Government’s Research and Innovation Bill. It includes strong investments in research and innovation. So far that’s great, according to many. But the overall strategy for the new initiatives in the Bill prioritises competitive funding. Instead of most of the new funding going to the higher education institutions’ floor allocations, on the contrary, it will mainly be earmarked for Sweden’s research councils. In particular, and as expected, the focus is on expensive research infrastructure, technology research and life science. Research in the HumSam disciplinary domain (Humanities, Law, Social Sciences, Languages, Theology, Educational Sciences) has been given little attention, and is mentioned mainly in the context of smaller initiatives. While the Bill notes that the humanities and social sciences perspectives are needed to solve major societal challenges, research in these areas is mentioned more as ancillary, within already defined domains, than as stand-alone subject areas.

It is also notable that this year’s Research and Innovation Bill is somewhat record-breaking in the sheer number of different initiatives. It is very detailed, and in many respects not quite complete. For example, interestingly enough it announces a review of the legal form of business entity for higher education institutions. This is being pushed strongly by the Association of Swedish Higher Education Institutions (SUHF). Shirin Ahlbäck Öberg of the Department of Political Science has shown how weak the constitutional protection of Swedish research and education is, and it is good that the Government has shown a willingness to inquire into the administrative authority form of our higher education institutions.

We are also awaiting the terms of reference for the new inquiry announced by the Minister for Education into a new model for ‘expanded’ governance of the educational offerings and dimensioning of higher education institutions and universities. To contribute to the Government’s terms of reference for this inquiry, a number of actors – from SUHF to the Confederation of Swedish Enterprise – have begun discussing what this governance should look.

What then is the problem that needs to be addressed? It is often said that the higher education system moves too slowly. That universities are like the old ocean liners; they don’t change course at any price. When needs for new skills arise, it can take a long time for us to create courses that can respond to these needs. We are also regularly criticised for educating too many students in the ‘wrong’ study programmes – that we should be investing more in educating people for jobs where there are shortages of skilled labour. Demands are constantly being made on higher education. Couldn’t we provide shorter study programmes/more programmes at second-cycle level? More courses and study programmes that are more specialised/broad, more market-adapted/broad liberal arts orientation? Couldn’t our responsibility for higher education be made more regionally/nationally relevant? Couldn’t we focus more on study programmes? Or more on freestanding courses? More on campus or more online? More professional qualification programmes/more general qualifications? Different stakeholders want to exert their influence.

As I see it, we have two main problems in the sector today: the underfunding of education and the political micromanagement of both research and education.

Higher education funding has been continuously eroded since the Higher Education Reform in 1993. For example, Swedish higher education has among the lowest student-teacher ratios in the EU. This is because the price tag per student isn’t keeping up with the cost trend, and because of the ‘productivity deduction’. Higher education institutions are expected to keep on educating more and more students, but at a lower and lower cost per student. In addition, every year we are forced to pay funds back to central government in the form of rent for our premises to Akademiska hus, a state-owned enterprise that is required under its mandate to generate a market-based return.

The second problem concerns political micromanagement. For example, the qualitative targets that teaching staff are required to teach to are extremely detailed, down to the smallest, week-long course level. Another example is how the Budget Bill regulates the funding for the Government’s STEM initiatives, which are important in many ways. This funding has to be redistributed away from study programmes with ‘low activity’ and courses in areas where there is not ‘deemed to be any shortage in the labour market’. It sounds so easy doesn’t it: courses and study programmes that don’t lead to jobs can be scrapped, can’t they? But designing and dimensioning a higher education institution’s education offering requires substantial and continuous quality enhancement, as well as juggling conflicts of objectives.

Academia provides continuity, and is responsible for identifying the need for both specialised and broad knowledge. Through this, we can ensure that a strategic long-term approach is taken, and plan for education that benefits society far beyond spasmodic and immediate needs.

Sverker Sörlin of the Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm (KTH) writes pertinently about the importance of collective knowledge – of a broad liberal arts education. Because our society is facing rapid change that entail major and acute societal challenges. That is why it is important that higher education institutions like Uppsala University do not give in to populist views concerning what is seen as ‘useful’ in the moment. Instead, we will continue to intensify the dialogue between academia, employers and other actors in society. We will continue to shoulder our democratic responsibility and educate students who will be equipped to lead and function in a changing world.

And we will continue to conduct cutting-edge research on all the questions for which the humanities and social sciences have expertise, including the areas of battery technology, security and precision health that the Government has identified. There is not a single societal challenge that does not require a HumSam perspective. But research cannot just conjure up solutions out of thin air. We need basic research – even in the humanities and social sciences.

Tora Holmberg, Vice-Rector of the Disciplinary Domain of Humanities and Social Sciences, Uppsala University