On Wednesday 3 April, the University's new vision was approved as expected by the University Board. The new vision will take effect on 1 January 2020, and work has now begun towards developing a model for how the vision will be implemented, and how the University's operations shall use the vision in its operational and activity plans in the coming years.
The new vision document that applies in 2020 does not contain objectives and sub-objectives in the same way as the current vision does. Instead, the new vision forms the basis for a new and altered approach on how institutions should work with management and monitoring.
"The University has many demands from far and wide to deliver monitoring," says Vice-Chancellor Hans Adolfsson.
"These demands come from, among other things, the Government, financiers, the Swedish Higher Education Authority, collaborative partners and others. And needless to say, we will not stop monitoring our operations, but I see that there are opportunities that we have not yet implemented, both to work more efficiently with the necessary monitoring and to find other governance models for the operations."
The University's fundamental mission is to conduct research and education of the highest quality, in addition to fostering collaboration with the surrounding community.
"But in regards to how quality needs to improve in a specific operation, whether it is research, education or collaboration in research and education that needs to be developed, this challenge is best understood by the specific operational unit and it's also something that their employees are in the best position to be responsible for," says Hans Adolfsson.
A means for the University's operational units to structure their work to be developed will be in the form of operational plans. Operational development within both research and education requires a long-term approach for operational plans to be enduring over many years, with concrete activities that can be updated and supplemented on an ongoing basis rather than be annually revised in its entirety. At the present time, a part of the follow-up of the different operations is taking place in the form of dialogues, something that the University Management will continue to focus on and also extend.
"Dialogue is a time consuming model for monitoring and governance, but it's also something we know that works and is significant to focus even more on. It also means that we need to find ways to reduce other reporting and monitoring, in order not to increase the administrative workload at all levels of operations at the University," says Hans Adolfsson.
Read about the new vision
See the January open hearing on the vision and read a summary
Questions? Please contact:
Åsa Rudehäll, Planeringsenheten