Stefan Helgesson: Comprehensive universities contributes to the resilience of society
Word from the management: Stockholm University, despite not having faculties of engineering and medicine, ranks among the most comprehensive universities in Sweden. Our broad range of disciplines is part of our identity. But when I read a new report from UKÄ (The Swedish Higher Education Authority), “Small Languages and Other Small Subjects in Higher Education”, it becomes clear to me how difficult it is to maintain such a range under the current national funding regime.
Stefan Helgesson, Deputy Vice President. Photo: Sören Andersson
UKÄ’s definition of what they call the “small subject dilemma” is straightforward: it emerges when “a course has too few students to be economically viable”. At the same time, it is precisely the broad range of small courses that helps to secure the comprehensiveness of universities. This, in turn, contributes to the resilience of society in a rapidly changing world. Who could have guessed ten years ago that knowledge of Ukrainian would be a sought-after competence?
There’s the catch: the need for comprehensive universities clashes with the economic logic of our system. The problem is somewhat reduced in small subjects in natural science which may have large research environments, but for the languages – besides Swedish and English – the small subject dilemma looms large. UKÄ’s suggestion is that we should be allowed to claim funds for languages according to the price tag “other” (“övrigt”), which is higher than the price tag for education classified as “humanities”. This is what many universities, including SU, have been saying for years. Thanks, UKÄ, for providing grist to our mill! But will that be enough?
Not really. The game-changer would be if the government revisited a suggestion in the so-called STRUT-report from 2019 to devise an alternative funding system. If we received a single sum of money from the state, without strict divisions between education and research, universities would have much greater scope for strategic and long-term planning.
The very word “university” comes from the Latin term universitas magistrorum et scholarium (a gathering of teachers and scholars). It refers both to the collegium as a self-governing entity and to the comprehensive “whole” of the university where all human knowledge, through research and teaching alike, may accumulate. This would do as a guideline for contemporary higher education policies, instead of an exclusive focus on the mass-production of graduates.
This text is written by Stefan Helgesson, Deputy Vice President. It appears in the section ”Words from the University’s senior management team”, where the management take turns to write about topical issues. The section appears in News for staff.