Umeå University has offered courses and study programmes on Campus Skellefteå for many years. The primary example is the Nursing Programme, which has also been able to use Skellefteå hospital for its clinical training. Nowadays, there is also an off-campus teacher education programme with gatherings in Skellefteå. Over the years, Umeå University has also offered a bachelor's programme in social work and a few other teacher educations in Skellefteå. The number of applicants per place has, however, resulted in the programmes only running certain years and many programmes have hence been replaced by distance education independent of location.
Dieter Müller, Deputy Vice-Chancellor
Photo: Mattias Pettersson
A common denominator for the University's programmes has been that they attract somewhat older students who, due to their family situation, prefer to study closer to home. Also Luleå University of Technology (LTU) has offered several courses and study programmes in Skellefteå, not least in economics, but has had to discontinue these due to a diminishing number of applicants per place. Currently, LTU offers courses and study programmes equalling 300 full-time equivalents in engineering and computer science.
In the last year and with reference to the huge need for labour, the national coordinator Peter Larsson has argued for more higher education in Skellefteå. But this without any analysis of who would choose these courses and study programmes. He has invited universities from the south of Sweden to start educations in the north, and clearly succeeded in persuading Mälardalen University, and potentially also the university colleges in Gävle and Trollhättan, to do so. Umeå University and LTU were only asked very late in the process, and Umeå University has chosen to decline the offer of joining what Peter Larsson wants to call Skellefteå University Alliance.
Our reason for declining is certainly not an unwillingness to offer education in our neighbouring town up north. It is rather the knowledge we possess on how there is an insufficient long-term demand which has resulted in our decision to not increase our range of courses and programmes offered. As you are probably familiar with, unemployment in the Västerbotten county is currently nearly non-existent. Simultaneously, demographics show a worryingly low number of young people. The conditions to establish higher education courses and programmes in Skellefteå have never been so poor. A flourishing labour market with inflated salaries soaks up any prospective students, and those who move to Skellefteå are also enticed more by the jobs offered by the industry than by the opportunity to take on a higher education.
Holding courses that do not meet the student quota for the costs incurred means that other courses and study programmes at Umeå University need to sponsor the empty places in Skellefteå. This is not a reasonable route that shows our regional commitment, in our mind.
What we do know is that three quarters of all people with a higher education have a degree from Umeå University, and that most municipalities, including Skellefteå, benefit from having a university in the county. Umeå University has always contributed to talent acquisition in north Sweden and we know that offering study programmes onsite in municipalities is neither the only nor the most efficient way of achieving knowledge or local commitment for students. Placements, site visits, guest lectures and degree projects in collaboration with local trade and industry are other tools to show students what opportunities the labour market in the north can offer.
If you ask me, it is also reasonable from a regional policy standpoint that towns in a region find their own strengths and complement each other rather than try to copy each other's offer of courses and study programmes. Don't forget that when the ongoing construction of the North Bothnia Line has been completed in ten to twelve years' time, Umeå University will be less than an hour's commute by rail from central Skellefteå.