At the same time, we cannot look blindly at the school system. We need to self-analyse in the higher education sector too. This is something the Swedish Research Council does every other year through the Swedish Research Barometer report, which provides an overall description of the state of Swedish research and development. The last one looked at 2019–2021. Unfortunately, this report is not a particularly exciting read either. Swedish research is well above OECD average, but worrying trends when it comes to numbers and impact can be found.
Dieter Müller, Deputy Vice-Chancellor
Photo: Mattias Pettersson
Sweden is one of five countries that invests the most amount of funding in proportion to its GDP, and has the highest number of researchers in relation to inhabitants. However, Sweden is not one of the top five countries in either category when it comes to scientific production. In particular, Sweden is gradually losing positions when it comes to impact, which is expressed as a proportion of the ten percentage of publications that were cited the most.
Beside these rather unpleasant statistics, the report also contains some rather useful information. I learnt what proportion of research takes place in the business sector, and that it employs 75 per cent of all researchers in Sweden, whereas only 20 per cent of all researchers in Sweden work in the higher education sector. The report also has some interesting facts about university operations. For instance, there is a lower number of staff with recently awarded doctoral degrees found at universities these days compared to ten years ago.
Academic staff at higher education institutions spend on average 43 per cent of their working hours on research, whereas teaching and doctoral education makes up for 26 per cent. This means that approximately 30 per cent of their time is spent on administration and other assignments. The report reveals that research in Sweden is primarily conducted by doctoral students and associate professors, and this despite the fact that associate professors have the lowest number of hours assigned to research among all research staff.
If I may return to publications produced at Swedish higher education institutions, the report makes a comparison with the period from 2012 until 2021. For this ten-year period, the total number of registered publications increased by more than 70 per cent, and not least China and a few other Asian countries account for a large proportion of that increase. This has also meant that it has become even more challenging for publications from Sweden to reach the top ten most cited percentages, particularly since that proportion of publications is reducing.
Still, Sweden finds itself above the ten per cent average – even if we find ourselves behind Denmark, and soon maybe also Norway. Sweden's greatest success is found in humanities, biology and agronomics. When it comes to humanities, one reason could be that publications in humanities in Sweden is relatively international. Albeit, engineering sciences, chemistry, health sciences and material sciences are experiencing the biggest drops compared to ten years ago.
The report covers the nation as a whole, but some information about Umeå University can still be found. Unfortunately, we are the only sizeable university in Sweden that has a reduced proportion of highly cited publications under the ten per cent mark. Umeå University merely reaches a proportion of around 9.5 per cent. A small consolation is that the most recent Swedish Research Barometer report from 2021 shows that the corresponding number was just over eight per cent, which indicates that we are on the rise again. The report also reveals that Umeå University produces the highest proportion of highly cited publications in the fields of biomedicine, agronomics (most likely plant science) and biology, whereas the medical and social sciences produce above the global average.
All in all, we can establish that the Swedish higher education sector, just like the education sector, has some challenges ahead. Umeå University is no exception. Let's get going with regaining the strong position we once had. Maybe it's even time for an academic New Year's resolution?