As chairman of the Swedish National Union of Students, SFS, I would like to welcome you to the post of Minister of Higher Education and Research. SFS is an umbrella organization for Sweden's student unions and represents 280 students and doctoral students. We have had a good and constructive dialogue with previous ministers of education and the Ministry of Education and see every opportunity for it to continue like this.
An important issue for SFS is that all Swedish higher education programs must be of a high quality. We demand investments in pedagogy, for example, we want all teachers who teach at the university to be pedagogically knowledgeable. You can read our proposals in the attached report Student learning in the center.
For the past six months, we have also been running the #heltsjukt campaign, which is about students' health insurance. We think that all students should be covered by the health insurance, which means that the rules must be changed so that the health insurance is linked to studies instead of as today to study grants. We also want students to have the right to part-time writing, that the number of qualifying days in the event of illness should be reduced from the current 30 days to 7 days and that the responsibility for student rehabilitation should become clearer.
I enclose the report #heltsjukt where you can find more information about our proposals. We hope that the students' health insurance will also be high on your agenda!
Finally, I wish you good luck with what for us students is the country's most important mission!
With hopes of good cooperation,
Rebecka Stenkvist, Chairman of the Swedish National Union of Students, SFS.
Today, SFS sends the welcome letter together with reports, posters and the book #heltsjukt to Sweden's new minister for higher education and research.