European impulses

President’s blog 13 April, 2024.

I have spent the past week travelling, first in The Hague with my Swedish president colleagues, on a trip jointly arranged by the Swedish Higher Education Authority (UKÄ) and the Association of Swedish Higher Education Institutions (SUHF) within the framework of UKÄ’s promotional assignment from the government to train and develop us presidents. We met our president colleagues in the Netherlands, where a large number had joined us, leading representatives of the country’s accreditation organization, NVAO, as well as representatives of the Ministry of Education, Culture and Science, which in the Netherlands is joint. Sometimes these kinds of trips can feel a little dutiful, with many, and long, draws of varying quality. This time, however, it was highly rewarding, with open exchanges of experience and discussions that were mutually beneficial. Comparing conditions is interesting. In the Netherlands, for example, universities are not allowed to set up their own programmes; this is controlled by the government. Maybe that is where we are heading in Sweden too, judging by the signals? At the same time, our colleagues were shocked, for example, by the level of detail of learning outcomes in our professional education and training programmes. On the research side, various measurements showed that they were doing well – roughly in the same place in the charts as Sweden, for example. We also had interesting discussions about merit assessment, where the Dutch universities have been at the forefront of a broader and more qualitative view of merit. From the sun and warmth of The Hague, we travelled to a cool and rainy Swansea, which was, however, offset by the university’s fantastic location right by the sea. The view from the meeting room at the opening board meeting is something to be envied.

Here, the European University Association (EUA) held its annual general assembly, which was preceded by a number of meetings and followed by the annual conference, this time on the theme of academic integrity in every sense of the word. The concept, which as such is not very well established in Sweden, includes integrity in academic leadership, but also research ethics as well as ethics in education and degrees (where we were shown horrific examples of the industrialized production of fake degrees with fake grades from fake universities). This also includes integrity in international cooperation, not least from a security perspective – what we usually call responsible internationalisation. And the final plenary session was devoted – once again – to merit assessment, now with the integrity perspective in focus. It was clear that this topical subject is deeply engaging – the participants were numerous and active, and here too we were reminded that academia is international, that knowledge exchange and dialogue are highly valued, and that we have much to learn from each other. Slightly off the main theme, one session of the conference was also devoted to presenting and discussing the EUA’s new vision for the European Commission’s 10th Framework Programme for Research, also launched last week: ”Paving the way for impactful European R&I, the EUA’s vision for FP10”, the result of the work of a task-and-finish group that I had the pleasure of chairing. It is particularly important, at a time when needs other than research and higher education dominate policy, that we as universities are proactive in defining and justifying our own vision of needs and resources. Research and higher education in international co-operation are in so many ways key to the development of society, both in terms of addressing challenges together and in seeing and seizing opportunities.

Astrid Söderbergh Widding
President