As we speak, we at Stockholm University are in the process of completing our action report following the Swedish Higher Education Authority’s (UKÄ) review of our programmes. This has required extensive work at all levels of the organisation, with some measures aimed at driving quality, while others are more duty-based and less beneficial – simply things that must be done. And there is much more to come. Next on the agenda is the follow-up to the previous thematic evaluation of the work to broaden recruitment. When it was carried out, the claim was that it would be a quality driver and serve to spread good examples. But out of the blue, when came time for follow-up, UKÄ had changed its stance. Now there is suddenly a probing follow-up that is to result in an explicit assessment of the work of each higher education institution. However, the strong criticism from higher education institutions that followed this change of course only resulted in UKÄ choosing to reclassify “satisfactory” to “sufficient” (and consequently the assessment “unsatisfactory” has been instead become “insufficient”). This hardly addresses the core of the criticism. Right now, UKÄ is also preparing for a thematic evaluation of the collaboration between higher education institutions, for which we have recently been invited to nominate assessors.
In addition, UKÄ currently has an ongoing assignment to review contract education programmes. They also intend to review the higher education institutions’ innovation offices. Moreover, UKÄ has been tasked with making a “compilation of higher education institutions’ work to promote and safeguard academic freedom” (previously known as the cancel culture inquiry). Here, universities and colleges have received a referral with a request to report on the work “to promote and safeguard a culture that allows the free pursuit of knowledge and the free dissemination of knowledge, in accordance with the provisions of the Higher Education Act”, followed by questions about how common it is for academic freedom at the institution to be challenged internally and externally, as well as concrete examples of this and the measures taken. I do not think that we at Stockholm University were the only ones who felt caught off guard by this.
The minister wants to reduce the bureaucracy at universities and colleges, which is excellent. A good start would be to unburden UKÄ from the demand to perform impossible tasks.
This text is written by Astrid Söderbergh Widding, President. It appears in the section ”Words from the University’s senior management team”, where the management team take turns to write about topical issues. The section appears in every edition of News for staff which is distributed to the entirety of the University staff.