There has been a shift of resources from education to research. We are presenting three proposals for the 2024 Research Bill to strengthen education.
The proposals are:
- The policy should introduce a 2 percent target for government spending on research and higher education as a share of GDP. In other words, an overall spending target that aims to strengthen Sweden as a knowledge nation. The target is set high, but not unattainable. It is only 0,3 percentage points higher than spending in 2012.
- New funds should primarily be directed towards education at the undergraduate and graduate levels so that they can grow at the same pace as research. Neither sector should take precedence, but today significantly more resources are being spent on research and politics needs to address this.
- The imbalances in research funding need to be corrected. The government should reduce the large number of research funders and transfer some of the money directly to universities. The reform should be combined with clearer demands on universities to build up their doctoral programs and employ more doctoral students using the new resources.