In December, the government presented the 2020 research bill. In this blog post, we go through the effects it has on the balance between education and research within the universities' activities. Fifteen years ago, the state spent about the same amount of resources on education and research, but since then research resources have increased markedly and today are 15% larger than education grants. The research bill does not help to reverse that development, but rather strengthens the imbalance between education and research. At the bottom of this blog post, we summarize SFS's conclusions. We will return to the blog with a more general analysis of the research bill later.
Once per term of office, the government presents a research bill, which gathers the government's thoughts on higher education policy and sets out a direction for the next four years. In terms of form, research is in focus, but the bill usually concerns the entire higher education policy and also questions about higher education and collaboration are usually included as an important part. The bill is presented in the middle of the term of office, and at the end of 2020 it was time again. In December, the government presented its research bill, "Research, freedom, future - knowledge and innovation for Sweden".
This post is about how the research bill affects the balance between research and education. From a student perspective, the research bill is important for students for several reasons and we will return to other aspects in later posts. But we begin by commenting on the balance between research and education, which is one of the research-related issues that SFS has focused on most during the last four-year period.
What is the balance between research and education?
Before we go into the content of the bill itself, however, we can say something about what the balance between research and education is about and why it is important for students.
Research is crucial for higher education to maintain high quality. It may seem that students are only affected by the educational activities: Teachers, training rooms, study places, and more. But common to all higher education is that it rests on scientific or artistic grounds as well as proven experience. That it should be that way is even included in the definition of higher education that is enshrined in the Higher Education Act. The content of the education needs to be designed with regard to the research situation and the students must become familiar with scientific methods in their field. This presupposes, among other things, that the teachers at the university themselves are researchers. In addition, there are often resources, such as laboratories or machines, which are shared in different ways between researchers and students. In order for the universities to be able to arrange education, it is therefore not enough to have educational resources. They also need to invest resources in research.
From a research policy perspective, it is also not desirable to have a too strong bias towards research. The higher education institutions' basic mission can be described as creating, refining and disseminating knowledge, and this is what makes the higher education institutions contribute to the general development of society. But the work of disseminating knowledge is largely dependent on educational activities. Through the education, the students gain knowledge within their field of education which they then carry with them into working life and other parts of society. Researchers certainly collaborate in many different ways with the surrounding society, but students and education are still the most crucial for knowledge to reach out. If a higher education institution has a very large research activity in relation to the number of students in the education, then there is a risk that the knowledge that the research generates will not be taken further and will be useful in more areas of society.
A major but less visible problem with having too much funding in either direction is how it affects the higher education institutions' internal priorities. When funding for positions becomes more dependent on research resources than educational resources, research is automatically given a higher status in, among other things, recruitment and promotion to both academic positions and leadership positions. It also affects the internal distribution of resources where the pursuit of external research grants risks undermining the educational mission regardless of academic teachers' own interests. The effect of the fact that the education grant per student de facto decreases every year while the research grants increase every year also sends the signal to academic teachers and leaders that funding primarily through education is not a long-term sustainable strategy for maintaining the same staff.
It is worth noting that higher education institutions cannot redistribute resources between research and education, but the grants must be used for their stated purpose. This means that a higher education institution with large educational grants cannot decide on its own that teachers should have time for their own research. That time needs to be financed with grants that are intended for research from the outset.
It is not always easy to say what is the right division between education and research. Balance means that both branches of business need time and resources. Sometimes it may be justified to spend more resources on education in an area or at a particular university, but if the teachers are not active researchers with enough research time, the quality of education will suffer. Correspondingly, it may be more motivated to invest more resources in research, but if a higher education institution only conducts research and no education, there is a risk that the knowledge gets stuck within the academy and is not disseminated.
Shift over 20 years
Research resources have increased significantly more than educational grants for several years. The diagram below shows that the grants during the beginning of the 00s developed at approximately the same rate, but that the research grants withdrew around 2006 while the education grants remained at the same level.
Figure: The higher education institutions' total income as well as income for education at undergraduate and advanced level and research and education at graduate level 1999–2019, SEK billion (2019 prices).Source: UKÄ annual report 2020.
2006 corresponding to research grants of SEK 33 billion and education grants of SEK 30 billion. After that, research grants increased and in 2019 amounted to SEK 45 billion, an increase of 50 percent. During the same period, education grants increased by only 3 percent in fixed prices and amounted to SEK 2019 billion in 31,3. The figures refer to the higher education institutions' total revenues, which include both government grants, project funds and fees.
This is a development that has taken place under several different governments. Although it does not automatically mean an imbalance, it is important to discuss what happens in the long run. When the government presents the direction for higher education policy over the next four years, it is therefore interesting to see how it affects this development.
De facto, this development means a redistribution of resources at the national level from education to research. The research reform space is currently being created through the erosion of education, which is unfortunate and risks creating major problems, now and in the long run. This will be particularly problematic in the coming years when the higher education institutions' government capital is now declining and there are few saved full-year achievements left.
Estimation for 2020
The statistics on the long-term development only extend to 2019. To assess the research bill, we need to start from the situation in 2020. UKÄ compiles the data based on the higher education institutions' reported figures and unfortunately there is no finished data for 2020 yet. We can make a rough estimate of the higher education institutions' increased income in 2020 based on the state budget. The state budget changed the appropriations for education and research as follows:
| 2019: | 2020: | Change: | |
| Education grants | 23 880 | 24 572 | +693 |
| Research grants | 29 281 | 30 417 | +1 136 |
| -Of which base rating | 16 545 | 17 527 | +982 |
| -Of which other research OU16 | 8 225 | 8 427 | +203 |
| -Varav Vinnova: R&D (ap.1) | 2 929 | 2 845 | -84 |
| -Of which Formas: Research | 948 | 956 | +8 |
| -Of which Forte: Research | 634 | 662 | +28 |
Table: Appropriations 2019 and 2020, SEK million, 2020 prices. Grants that can be used for both education and research are not included. This applies, among other things, to parts of appropriation item 2:63 and items 2: 64-67.
The table shows that government grants for research increased by SEK 1 million and education grants increased by SEK 249 million between 785 and 2019.
We can therefore estimate the higher education institutions' income in 2020 as follows:
| Revenue 2019 | Increase in state budget 2020 | Estimating revenue 2020 | |
| Education | 31 273 | +693 | = 31 965 |
| Research | 44 997 | +1 136 | = 46 133 |
Table: Estimation of higher education institutions' income, SEK million 2020 prices.
This should be seen as a somewhat generous estimate. Due to the corona pandemic, the number of third-country students liable for fees is declining, which affects the higher education institutions' revenues separately from the state budget. The government has also made the assessment that the corona pandemic has led to lower private contributions to research. However, the latter is happening with a certain lag and should be felt more in 2021. At present, we do not know more about how large these effects actually are for 2020 and they are therefore not included in the estimate.
Resources in the research bill
The Government describes in the research bill how it intends to develop higher education policy in the coming years. This also includes the issue of new grants. This is not an exhaustive description and the government can take the initiative to distribute additional grants that are not included in the research bill. It is normal, however, that such an intention is stated in the bill.
To determine how the balance between research and education is affected, we need to consider two factors. It is partly about how much resources are distributed, and partly what other measures are described for the higher education institutions' educational and research activities to take place in closer connection and strengthen each other.
The first issue, which concerns the allocation of resources, is really about the state budget. The Research Bill cannot allocate more resources than there is room for in the state budget decided by the Riksdag. This means that the changes in appropriations included in the research bill can also be found in the government's budget bill, which was presented in September and hammered through by the Riksdag later in the autumn. But the appropriations are spread over different parts of the budget.
Only through the research bill is a clearer overview given and we get a picture of how the money in the state budget is intended to be used.
In total, an increase in research grants of SEK 3,4 billion is proposed as early as 2021, which will gradually increase to SEK 3,75 billion in 2024. This includes a gradual increase in the higher education institutions' basic grants, which in full corresponds to SEK 900 million in 2024. increase in research grants through the state research councils, which will increase by approximately SEK 632 million in 2021 and will increase by a total of SEK 1 million by 230. Within the framework of these grants to research councils, a new national research program for mental health will be funded. Funds will also be distributed to research infrastructure for SEK 2023 million and an investment in centers of excellence for SEK 400 million in 40, both of which will be distributed through the Swedish Research Council. All in all, the increases are distributed as follows:
| 2021 | 2024 | |
| Base estimate | +1 220 | +900 |
| Other grants directly to universities and colleges | +50 | +53 |
| The Swedish Research Council | +1 110 | +1 505 |
| Vinnova | +545 | +614 |
| Forms | +257 | +360 |
| High | +105 | +180 |
| RISE | +95 | +75 |
| The Swedish Space Agency | +10 | +30 |
| Financial market research | +10 | +30 |
| Total | +3 402 | +3 747 |
Table: Distribution of increased research funding. Figures in millions of kronor.
At the same time, the state grants for education at the undergraduate and advanced level increased by SEK 2 between 174 and 486. With our estimate of revenues for 2020, this means that the higher education institutions' revenues in 2021 will be distributed as follows:
| Estimating revenue 2020 | Increase BP20 + FOI prop | Estimated income 2021 | |
| Education | 31 965 | +3 402 | = 34 139 |
| Research | 46 133 | +2 174 | = 49 535 |
This means that research grants are 45,1% higher than education grants in 2021. This is a marginal change compared with 2019, when research grants were 45% higher than education grants.
However, there is a measure to balance the balance at some of the higher education institutions where the need is greatest. So far in this text, we have moved on an aggregate level without taking into account differences between higher education institutions. However, some higher education institutions have a large proportion of research in relation to their educations, while other higher education institutions have many students and relatively little research resources. Previously, each higher education institution was guaranteed a research grant of SEK 12 for each full-time student.
With the research bill, the lowest level of basic grants will be increased to SEK 17 per full-time student from 500. At the time of writing, the increase has not been distributed, but according to our calculations, it affects a total of eight state higher education institutions.
| Number of full-time students (HST) 2019 | Base estimate 2019 (SEK thousand) | Base estimate / HST | New base estimate with 17 / HST | Increase (SEK thousand) | Increase% | |
| University of Borås | 5 749 | 75 418 | 13,1 | 100 611 | 25 193 | 33,4% |
| Dalarna University | 6 007 | 77 958 | 13,0 | 105 129 | 27 171 | 34,9% |
| University of Gävle | 6 042 | 99 249 | 16,4 | 105 739 | 6 490 | 6,5% |
| Halmstad University | 5 616 | 69 613 | 12,4 | 98 281 | 28 668 | 41,2% |
| Kristianstad University | 5 621 | 63 851 | 11,4 | 98 373 | 34 522 | 54,1% |
| University of Skövde | 3 624 | 51 159 | 14,1 | 63 413 | 12 254 | 24,0% |
| High school west | 5 125 | 63 919 | 12,5 | 89 679 | 25 760 | 40,3% |
| Södertörn University | 6 940 | 84 761 | 12,2 | 121 446 | 36 685 | 43,3% |
Table: Change in research grants for the state higher education institutions that currently have lower basic grants is SEK 17 per full-time student. SFS calculation.
Mälardalen University has also had less than SEK 17 in basic grants per full-time student. However, the government has announced that Mälardalen University will have the status of a university. With that decision, the government proposed to increase research funding. It is thus an increase that would have taken place anyway, regardless of the increase in the minimum level. Therefore, Mälardalen University is not on the list.
As can be seen from the table above, a number of universities will receive a significant increase in their research grants. It is important for the teachers at these universities to have the opportunity to conduct research. It will probably lead to quality improvements in the educations concerned.
At the system level, however, this change is marginal. In total, this is an increase of SEK 195 million. This corresponds to approximately 1,3% of the total basic grants or 0,4% of the higher education institutions' total revenue for research. It will not leave a major imprint on the balance between research and education at the national level.
Other instruments for research affiliation
There is another question about how the research bill affects the balance between research and education. Namely, there are political tools for how research funding can be more useful in education and vice versa. If the government chooses to use some such tools, the balance between research and education could increase even if the resources continue to be distributed as before.
Perhaps the most debated issue in this area in recent years concerns a single grant. This was proposed by the Board and the Resources Inquiry at the beginning of 2018. The idea of a collective grant means that the higher education institutions on their own would have to redistribute money between the business branches. They could thus use research funds for education or educational grants for research. Many were positive, but many were also worried that the higher education institutions would invest too much in briefly neglecting one of the branches of activity. There was disagreement in the higher education sector. After the research bill has been presented, everything indicates that the government will not proceed with the proposal.
However, there are other ways to make research grants useful to education. One solution that SFS has proposed is that the government commission the state research councils to set higher requirements for educational affiliation in the research they fund. Research councils distributed almost SEK 2019 billion in research funds in 12, and that amount has increased. These funds are distributed upon application in competition. In theory, research councils have the opportunity to demand that research take place in close connection with the education. The government could instruct the councils to work more in such a direction.
The research bill does not contain any measures in this direction. This reinforces the image that there has not been a political will to balance the activities of the universities.
Conclusions
As we mentioned, it is not obvious what is the right balance between education and research. However, it is problematic to allow more and more bias towards research without discussing the consequences at system level and for education. The research bill does not in itself entail any major further shift. On the other hand, it can be seen as another lost chance to straighten the balance and take responsibility for the branches of activity strengthening each other.
Admittedly, there is an investment for the most educational-heavy higher education institutions to catch up. Higher education institutions are guaranteed at least SEK 17 in basic grants for each full-time student. However, the effect will be marginal because most of the higher education institutions already reach that level.
Our fear is that the growing imbalance will lead to more researchers choosing to do full-time research and not contribute to the programs. There is also a risk that there are too few educated people in other sectors who have the right skills to take part in research and turn it into practical use in society. In that case, the research investments will not be of maximum benefit.
At the same time, there is a shortage of educated at the undergraduate and advanced level in many sectors and resources could have been invested in developing those educations instead. In such a situation, research investments become completely wrong priorities.