The Operational Plan of the Board of the Faculty of Languages for 2024
SUMMARY OF THE OPERATIONAL PLAN OF THE BOARD OF THE FACULTY OF LANGUAGES FOR 2024
On 23 November 2023, the board of the Faculty of Languages decided its operational plan for 2024. The plan allocates funds for each department’s ongoing work including its quality-enhancing work. In addition, funds are set aside for faculty-wide initiatives.
As a result of the faculty’s strategic initiatives, the educational mission is laid out in terms of full-year students (HÅS) 2024. The distribution of HÅS is determined by the bidding of the subjects in each department. The amount received by the departments for their work is partly based on student completion rate in recent years. This new way of calculating brings a clearer focus on each department’s subject areas and is intended to encourage initiatives that bring increased performance.
The 2022-2024 operational plans in their entirety are found here.
FINANCES IN BRIEF
The Disciplinary Domain Board is awarding the faculty 195 million kronor in state grants for operations in 2024. Of this, 85 million kronor are earmarked for education at bachelor and master levels and 110 million kronor to research and education at postgraduate level. These funds must also finance joint projects at the university and disciplinary domain level totaling 52.2 million kronor (overhead).
The corresponding sums for 2023 are 80 million kronor for education and 105 million kronor for research. While this is a sizable increase (5%) from last year, it must also be taken into account that salaries have increased and inflation is currently high.
In addition to grants for education and research, the vice-chancellor also allocates special funds for training available to the university as a whole such as the Language Workshop and staff language courses in Swedish and English. In total, the faculty receives 17 million kronor for these activities.
Finally, the faculty receives a total of 697,000 kronor for each language for which we have national subject coordination responsibility, a total of 7.7 million kronor.
Thus, the faculty receives in full just over 220 million kronor for its 2024 operations.
THE FACULTY´S STRATEGIC INITIATIVE
Every year, the board decides on initiatives in strategic development areas. These usually have a three-year horizon.
INITIATIVES FOR ALL OPERATIONS
STRATEGIC PLAN. In 2022, the board appointed a working group, consisting of the faculty’s deans and heads of departments, to formulate a clear vision for the faculty’s future operations in research and education and also to propose concrete measures to achieve this vision. (See more below under Research and Education Initiatives at Postgraduate Level.) In 2023, the faculty board initiated new directions in light of this work. Future work will take into account further the findings from KoF 2024 (see below).
FACULTY OPEN FORUMS. In 2022, so-called faculty open forums were initiated for all faculty employees. Their purpose was to foster links between the faculty’s departments as well as different staff categories. In 2024, two such forums per semester are planned.
CAREER SUPPORT. Career development positions – associate senior lectureships and postdoctoral fellowships – are an increasingly common form of employment at the faculty. Consequently, the faculty will more systematically take avail of the university’s central career support services to facilitate the transition to permanent employment.
EDUCATION INITIATIVES AT BACHELOR AND MASTER LEVELS
PROFESSIONAL CONNECTIONS AND ALUMNI. The board has identified strengthened links to working life as an important way to improve the faculty’s relatively low throughput and retention. Funds will therefore continue to be allocated for an alumni network as well as professional activities.
COLLEGIUM FOR LANGUAGE EDUCATION. In 2021, the board decided to create a subject didactics collegium to facilitate the exchange of experience as well as the development of the faculty’s courses within the university’s teacher-training programmes. As of 2024, this initiative will expand under the umbrella term collegium for language education.
THE LANGUAGE BACHELOR DEGREE PROGRAMME. For 2024, a working group has been given the task of proposing changes to provide a clearer profile for the language bachelor degree programme, also in the form of specialisations.
CONFERENCE PARTICIPATION. The departments have been given the task of supporting participation at academic conferences for masters students as well as teachers participating in educational conferences.
RESEARCH AND EDUCATION INITIATIVES AT POSTGRADUATE LEVEL
KoF 2024. 2024 is the year earmarked for the evaluation of research and postgraduate education. The board allocates 200,000 kronor for activities linked to this process.
FACULTY RESEARCH SCHOOL IN DIGITAL PHILOLOGY. Since 2023, the faculty hosts the research school in digital philology financed by the Swedish Research Council. The school will be accepting a total of eleven doctoral students, of whom four are based at Uppsala. The research school requires yearly co-financing of 1,2 million kronor.
RESEARCH ENVIRONMENT. The board sets aside 450,000 kronor to support the faculty research networks Language and Learning as well as Historical Linguistics. These initiatives will be reviewed in 2024.
FOLLOW-UP ON THE EVALUATION OF EDUCATION AT POSTGRADUATE LEVEL. The measures that the board decides on arising from the evaluation report will come into effect in 2024 primarily within the context of work on the strategic plan and KoF 2024.
DOCTORAL ASSOCIATIONS AND JOINT FACULTY COURSES. The board sets aside 150,000 kronor for research activities aimed at new doctoral students, doctoral associations and joint faculty courses for doctoral students.