Urgent calls to close gap between research, teaching

There is a risk that higher education in Sweden will collapse, warned University Chancellor Harriet Wallberg in a recent article in Dagens Nyheter. “The widening gap between investment in teaching at basic levels and research is creating ever-more distress,” she wrote.

Agreement across the political divide was needed that would guarantee increased investment in higher education for at least 20 years.

The strong message from Wallberg only two months after her appointment as university chancellor must be seen against the backdrop of a looming Swedish general election on 14 September.

There have also been numerous reports evaluating the higher education sector, demonstrating that while Sweden has the second highest gross domestic product investment in the world after Denmark, this has not delivered value for money in terms of the sector’s performance.

Even between 2005 and 2011 expenditure on higher education increased from 0.78 per cent to 0.9 per cent of GDP, while most other countries reduced investment due to austerity measures caused by the economic recession.

A report from the Centre for Business and Policy Studies, or SNS, confirmed Wallberg’s worries.

Combining Excellence in Education, Research and Impact: Inspiration from Stanford and Berkeley and implications for Swedish universities is a comparative analysis, well documented and strongly argued, that delivers a plethora of fact and observation.

It was written by United States and Swedish scholars, and high-level officers of Swedish institutions – Arthur Bienenstock, Sylvia Schwaag Serger, Mats Benner and Anne Lidgard.

The report is a part of an ‘educational commission’ established by SNS to monitor Swedish higher education and give recommendations to the government.

It calls for extensive reforms, notably changing recruitment to institutions to reduce academic ‘inbreeding’ and attracting more international talent, increasing mobility both between higher education institutions and other sectors of society – and most of all upgrading the quality of teaching at universities.

“Swedish universities have shifted their emphasis strongly towards research at the expense of teaching, with disconcerting effects on teaching quality and the international attractiveness of Swedish universities,” the report says.

“This research bias is partially explained by the fact that in Sweden academic excellence is often equated with research excellence, neglecting the importance of teaching. Furthermore, it indicates an under-appreciation of the key role of students, and thus teaching, in determining regions’ and countries’ competitiveness and innovation capacity.”

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