A new year is upon us. It also marks half time in the term. Ulf Kristersson's government took office in October 2022 and has thus had just over two years to develop its higher education policy. Almost two years remain until the 2026 parliamentary elections.
In the light of the crackling fireworks, we ask ourselves: What has the government done in the area of higher education and what can we expect next?
Introduction with cancellation culture in focus
When the government took office, the Liberals' Mats Persson was presented as the new education minister. Already in the fall of 2022, the new minister announced that he would fight against "cancellation culture". Until now, the concept had been rather peripheral in the Swedish university debate, but all the more common in, for example, the United States.
According to the cancel culture narrative, the university is full of teachers and students with an identity politics agenda who do everything to silence those who do not share the same worldview and thus restrict the researchers' academic freedom.
By accusing the opposing side of getting bogged down in symbolic issues and suppressing dissent, politicians have a perfect tool to … well, get bogged down in symbolic issues and suppress dissent.
I autumn budget 2023 the government also announced that student union funding would be reduced by 30% from the end of the term in 2026. In practice, this means weakening an important critical voice that fulfills an important scrutinizing function regardless of the color of the government.
The cancel culture debacle resulted in a report from UKÄ which showed that cancel culture is not really a thing. Instead, political governance was highlighted as the biggest threat to academic freedom. In order to strengthen academic freedom, politics must dare to let go and trust the universities' own ability to run a good business, at least according to the researchers and teachers themselves.
It was the spring of 2024.
Rocked among the ministers
In the autumn of 2024, the government announced that the Minister of Labor Markets, and also the leader of the Liberal Party, Johan Pehrson, would change places with the Minister of Education, Mats Persson. Most interpreted it as the party leader needed to be seen more in the school issue, which is the Liberals' profile issue. However, it is a mystery why Pehrson would take over the higher education, research and space portfolio. He still spent the first months standing in front of Education Minister Lotta Edholm and talking about school and high school.
Johan Pehrson initially showed no major interest in higher education policy. Several in the sector have expressed that it has been difficult to get in touch with the new government. When SFS had a membership meeting in Pehrson's hometown of Örebro, he refused to come to visit there as well.
A low water mark was when Johan Pehrson participated in Fotbollsmorgon on December 15, only to announce the following day that he could not meet SFS until mid-January. SFS is thus the largest interest organization within the minister's area of responsibility.
The research bill as a window to the future
On December 12, Johan Pehrson presented the new research bill together with ministerial colleagues Jessica Rosencrantz and Ebba Busch, which sets the direction for research policy for 2025-2028. Work on the research proposal has been going on for over a year. Not least because the government appointed a research committee in August 2023.
For SFS, it was positive that the government invited a doctoral student representative to the research preparation, and that it was Linnéa Carlsson, who had previously chaired the SFS doctoral committee. The government also invited to a recording round in the fall of 2023 and SFS left an input.
This does not mean that the government always listened. SFS commented on the content of the research bill in one Blog Post and are largely critical of the direction of politics. But it is still positive that there has been an opportunity to raise points of view from the perspective of students and doctoral students during the course of the work.
At the same time, the research bill becomes a window to the future, as it sets the framework for much of the higher education policy during the remainder of the mandate period. We can expect more investments in excellence at fewer universities, at the expense of breadth that benefits more students.
2025 – what can we expect?
The government has so far emphasized the importance of STEM education and strengthened quality. An example of that was when the government in the last budget raised the price tags in two areas of education without raising the ceiling amounts in the latest budget bill. Another example is the assignment to the teacher education inquiry which resulted in a proposal to adopt fewer students but with better prior knowledge, but leave the ceiling amounts in place We can probably expect this approach to shape politics in the coming years as well. SFS believes that educational quality is a priority issue in order to curb the far-reaching negative erosion. But the goal of quality enhancements must be to promote a better education, not to weed out qualified students and lower the expectations of the education providers.
From 2025, universities and colleges will also have two new assignments: to take measures to increase throughput in STEM and to develop the educational offer in AI.
It is clear where the government wants to go with its higher education policy and the government does not trust that the universities themselves will take responsibility for getting there. Regardless of what the researchers, teachers and students say about the government having to let go and trust that the sector will work better if it is given more self-determination.
And what awaits the student unions as we step into 2025? When the New Year's fireworks go off, darkness falls, unfortunately. Most student unions are preparing for reduced income starting in 2026 and it is likely that 2025 will be marked by preparations to reduce costs and find alternative sources of income. As a consequence, they may find it difficult to focus on the statutory core mission of monitoring and participating in the development of education and the conditions for studies at the university. It does not look like it will be an easy year for the country's student unions, but hopefully the coming year will bring a positive turn.