MALMÖ UNIVERSITY 2018 Diversity, Creativity and Social Commitment
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MALMÖ UNIVERSITY 2018 Diversity, creativity and social commitment Background document and road map for presentation to the Swedish government December 2016 Translated from the Swedish original 2 MALMÖ UNIVERSITY 2018 CONTENTS FOREWORD ……………………………………………………………… 3 SUMMARY ………………………………………………………………. 6 INTRODUCTION ……………………………………………………….. 14 Chapter 1: 1998–2005 A NEW UNIVERSITY TAKES SHAPE …………………………….. 18 Chapter 2: 2006–2015 RAPID DEVELOPMENT IN THE NEW UNIVERSITY …………….. 33 Chapter 3: MALMÖ UNIVERSITY 2016: A STATUS REVIEW …..... 47 Chapter 4: MALMÖ UNIVERSITY – THE WAY FORWARD ….….. 95 CONCLUSION ……………………………………………………………. 125 3 MALMÖ UNIVERSITY 2018 FOREWORD On 1 January 2018 Malmö University will finally be awarded full accreditation. As Vice-Chancellor, I find it both inspiring and challenging to have overall responsibility for leading the future development of our academic activities. Our creative and knowledgeable staff and students are the most important resource in the work that lies ahead. Through its genuine commitment to society and socially integrated activities Malmö University has unique opportunities to use innovative research and education to help create a better world by contributing to a process of sustainable social progress. Malmö University stands on a firm foundation (see Chapter 3) and can look forward to the future with confidence. My first year as Vice-Chancellor has been a stimulating one, during which I feel that I have learnt something new every day. However, acquiring new knowledge and participating in society in a meaningful way is a privilege that not everyone is able to enjoy. Social disparities are increasing and people’s rights are being violated on a daily basis. This is happening in every country. A democratic state that heeds and upholds the rule of law is a fundamental prerequisite for respect for human rights and the right of every individual to live their life in freedom and safety. All people are equal in dignity and rights, and have the right to education and learning. This concurs with the work of the Malmö Commission which, a few years ago, focused on inequalities in people’s health and what can be done to create better and more equal conditions for health and social participation. Malmö University is a young, creative and ambitious educational institution that will soon be awarded full accreditation. Together with other educational institutions around the world, the university defends freedom of speech and freedom of conscience and upholds respect for liberty, democracy and equality. Research and collegiality with a high level of integrity are the foundations on which academic excellence is built. Malmö University sets its sights high when it comes to the quality of education and research, a good balance between line management and collegiality, and gender mainstreamed operations that embrace diversity in its widest sense. We now have a unique opportunity to develop a university that plays an important role in society, both locally and on a global level. Universities need to use their scientifically based knowledge and adopt a critical approach in order to question the kind of specious and populistic reasoning that risks undermining sustainable social development. By researching important social phenomena and sharing the results of 4 MALMÖ UNIVERSITY 2018 this research, we can contribute to increasing knowledge and improving understanding. The opinions of Malmö University researchers are frequently heard in the social debate. I hope that, going forward, our academic voice will grow even stronger in the media and that the university itself will be a forum for a scientifically based critique of the most pressing issues facing society. The 17 sustainable development goals (SDGs) in Agenda 2030 describe complex and urgent societal challenges, and the multidisciplinary research and education conducted at our educational institutions is an important stepping stone to enable us, together with other actors in society, to achieve these goals. Malmö University is already addressing the majority of these SDGs through research, education and collaboration. We are also active participants in regional innovation initiatives in three of these areas: “Good health and well-being”, “Sustainable cities and communities” and “Smart, sustainable materials”. Malmö University is uniquely placed to conduct inter-disciplinary research and education that is highly relevant to society in collaboration with local and regional partners such as the City of Malmö and Region Skåne. Developments in the context of an expanded region, with the planned Fehmarn Belt fixed link and new road and rail connections between Skåne and Denmark, open up exciting new horizons. Today Malmö University already has a number of strong and competitive research fields, not least within the framework of our five multidisciplinary research centres, but we need to increase the overall volume of research so that we can achieve a better balance between research and educational activities. In Chapter 4 we present the target areas and strategies that will enable us to develop our research, education and collaboration over the coming years. Our students, seven out of every ten of whom are first-generation academics, must be inspired by research from an early stage in their university education, so that they will consider the possibility of joining PhD programmes themselves at some later stage. To solve tomorrow’s complex societal challenges Sweden needs greater diversity among research students. We educate students in fields and train them in professions that are highly relevant to today’s society, paving the way towards careers as teachers in schools and preschools, and as engineers, nurses, social workers or dentists. To meet tomorrow’s societal challenges we need to enhance the quality of professional education and its links to research. This is a key requirement if students are to develop a critical 5 MALMÖ UNIVERSITY 2018 mindset and an ability to value knowledge that they can transform into action. Creating a culture that upholds learning and education will be the focus of our work in the years to come. Our researchers are currently involved in a collaborative process of identifying important societal challenges (focus areas) that research needs to address. These focus areas have their roots in our current research activities, which often take place in close liaison with societal actors from a broad spectrum across the public, private and social economy sectors. It will be interesting to see which focus areas have the potential to grow over the coming years and how we can support their evolution into mature research environments. Another area of priority is the development of methods to describe or measure the results, added value and social benefit of our research and educational activities. I am delighted that our lecturers and researchers will now be able to develop their ideas and projects over longer periods of time together with other researchers and partners, locally, nationally and globally. Thanks to its uniquely close integration into society and a multidisciplinary and highly innovative methodological approach, Malmö University has outstanding opportunities to contribute new perspectives and the knowledge that is needed to create a sustainable society. The documentation that follows was produced and submitted to the Swedish government in the autumn of 2016. The main author is Hans Lindquist, but many others have contributed textual material, provided input and shared their points of view. Kerstin Tham Vice-Chancellor 6 MALMÖ UNIVERSITY 2018 SUMMARY Towards full university accreditation In its 2016 research policy bill, “Collaborating for Knowledge – for society’s challenges and strengthened competitiveness”, the Swedish government declared that Malmö University will be awarded full accreditation with effect from 1 January 2018. The reasoning behind this is explained in a press release that calls attention to the fact that Malmö is currently Sweden’s largest higher education institution (HEI) without general accreditation for master’s and PhD levels. Still, the university has accreditation to award doctoral degrees in a number of disciplines, maintains a high level of research quality, and delivers education, conducts research and engages in collaboration which is highly relevant to today’s society. In preparation for the change in status, the government has requested a background document and roadmap from Malmö University. The present document outlines the history of the institution, analyses its current activities and operations, and describes its ambitions and plans for the future. A university is founded Malmö University was founded on 1 July 1998, when parts of Lund University located in Malmö – among them, the Faculties of Odontology and Education, together with undergraduate programmes in Engineering – were incorporated into the new institution. At the time the government called particular attention to the ambition to facilitate the recruitment of students from non-academic backgrounds and to develop new problem-based learning methods. Also, the new university was not to be organised along traditional lines with a departmental structure based on subject-oriented fields of study. Education at first-cycle and advanced levels Since its establishment in 1998, Malmö University has expanded rapidly, primarily in terms of bachelor’s and master’s level programmes, but also with regard to doctoral education and research. A number