The University Management and I have, together with managers at all levels of our University, been working for quite a few years now to increase our use of the resources available to us each year, to strengthen the work we do. I'm very grateful for the efforts you have all made: last year, the University used all of its annual resources for the first time since 2016.
Per Ragnarsson, Deputy University Director
Photo: Mattias Pettersson
The main argument for why we should try to do so is because it allows us to keep raising the bar for our two core activities, education and research. Using a large share of our resources most probably also improves our work environment and lowers our workload. We're also more likely to be awarded more government funding in the coming years if we can show we've used up all the resources we have. Lobbying for an increase would otherwise be a hard sell.
The primary reason our costs have increased is because we've hired significantly more staff these past few years, which is an exciting development. Last year, Umeå University had 3,832 annual employees: in 2019, that figure was just 3,528. This means 304 new annual employees have joined us these past three years – a nine per cent rise. I have been particularly pleased to welcome more doctoral students and teaching staff (professors and associate and assistant professors) to our University.
Another encouraging fact in the annual accounts is that our income from research grants from funding bodies increased significantly last year – much more than it did at any time in the past decade. In 2022, these grants increased by SEK 119 million: an 11.5 per cent increase compared with the year before, and one that leaves us with a total of SEK 1,152 million in research funding. The increased funding has gone to all four faculties, with their many departments and units.
A less welcome development in last year's annual accounts is that we did not manage to live up to the budget the Government had set (the so-called funding cap) in terms of the number of full-time equivalents and annual performance equivalents. That is partly because the funding cap was 12 per cent higher last year than it was in 2019, as a result of the Government's recent investments in higher education. Other reasons we failed to meet the Government's funding cap is because there was a slight drop in both the number of full-time equivalents and in students' performance, compared with 2021. Because of this, the University's income fell by SEK 71 million last year.
On the whole, however, I would say our annual accounts for 2022 make for an optimistic read. Which is not to say there are no challenges – not least meeting the Government's budgetary expectations in terms of first- and second-cycle level education. In the years to come, we will need to keep striving to use up all our available resources, spending them on high-quality education and research. And this still applies despite the current financial situation, with its high inflation.