The degree that people enter the labour market with will rarely underpin their entire career. The climate transition, digitalisation and today's swift technological advances are just a few examples of developments that fuel people's need to adapt and develop professionally. Our Vision emphasises our desire as a university to take responsibility for people's future by offering "flexible educations that meet the needs in a changeable working life that presupposes lifelong learning".
Cathrine Norberg, Deputy Vice-Chancellor of Umeå University.
Photo: Mattias Pettersson
We may offer an impressive range of programmes and freestanding courses, but their scope and the pace at which they are given can be an obstacle for working professionals, especially if they are required to attend classes in person. Which is why we need to keep finetuning and adapting our education, for example by offering parts of a programme as standalone courses, splitting up courses into shorter modules to meet specific needs, or teaching entire courses in short, focused bursts.
The Swedish Government has granted us resources as part of its lifelong-learning initiative. Among other goals, this initiative aims to promote studies that focus on climate adjustment. The Government encourages higher education institutions to set up targeted initiatives, design new courses (or adjust existing ones), and take other steps to further lifelong learning. Our funding target agreement for 2022 clearly stipulates we will have to report on our efforts. I look forward to seeing what Umeå University's faculties will come up with.
The big question is how we can make our courses and programmes accessible and relevant to more people. To do so, we need to cooperate to establish novel ways of thinking. The other day, the University Management discussed the issue with the Faculty of Arts and Humanities. Among other things, we talked about three new courses designed for working professionals. Cultural Perspectives on Medical Care is being held for the first time this spring semester, remotely. The other two courses (The Swedish Music Industry and Decision Theory and Artificial Intelligence) are remote summer courses. I personally cannot wait to learn more about them and see which students will be applying!
The decision to offer the Food and Nutrition Programme as distance rather than on-campus learning last autumn is another fascinating example of the way online distance learning promotes lifelong learning and career transitions. Changing the way we held the programme allowed us to attract a more senior group of students: on average, applicants were ten years older than those who had applied the year before.
Another development that is related to lifelong learning is the new student financing for working adults. In February, we were overjoyed to hear that Umeå University was one of the universities with the highest number of approved applications. Proof that the new financing's target group is attracted to our depth and breadth.
To make all courses and programmes out there accessible to new target groups and help individuals and organisations navigate the lifelong learning-oriented education that Sweden offers, Umeå University, 16 other higher education institutions and RISE (Research Institutes of Sweden) have set up the project "Digital portal for lifelong learning for Swedish universities". Together, we will be developing a cross-university database of courses and programmes – a single digital gateway, as it were – based on updated versions of existing management systems (LADOK, NyA).
I would like all of us to come up with similar innovative ideas to advance lifelong learning – I look forward to the work we will be doing on this together, both at our own university and with fellow higher education institutions.