A new year is upon us. It also marks the halfway point in the mandate. Ulf Kristersson's government took office in October 2022 and has therefore had just over two years to develop its higher education policy. Almost two years remain until the 2026 parliamentary election. 

In the light of the crackling fireworks, we ask ourselves: What has the government done in the field of higher education and what can we expect next?

Introduction with cancel culture in focus

When the government took office, the Liberals' Mats Persson was presented as the new Minister of Education. Already in the fall of 2022, the new minister announced that he would take action against "cancel culture." Until then, the concept had been quite peripheral in the Swedish higher education 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 political agenda that does everything it can to silence those who do not share the same worldview and thereby restrict the academic freedom of researchers. 

By accusing the opposing side of getting stuck on symbolic issues and suppressing dissent, politicians have a perfect tool for… well, getting stuck on symbolic issues and suppressing dissent.

I autumn budget 2023 The government also announced that student union funding would be reduced by 30% from the end of the 2026 term. In practice, this means weakening an important critical voice that fulfills an important reviewing function regardless of the government's color.

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. To strengthen academic freedom, politics must dare to let go of its grip and trust in the universities' own ability to conduct good business, at least according to the researchers and teachers themselves.

It was the spring of 2024.

Rocked among the ministers

In the fall of 2024, the government announced that the Minister of Labor, also the Liberal Party leader Johan Pehrson, would switch places with the Minister of Education Mats Persson. Most interpreted this as the party leader needing to be more visible on the school issue, which is the Liberal Party's profile issue. However, it is a mystery why Pehrson would take over the portfolio for higher education, research and space. He nevertheless spent the first few months standing in front of the Minister of Education Lotta Edholm and talking about schools and upper secondary schools. 

Johan Pehrson initially showed no great 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 members' meeting in Pehrson's hometown of Örebro, he declined to visit there either.

A low point was when Johan Pehrson participated in Football Morning on December 15, only to announce the following day that he could not meet with 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, accompanied by his ministerial colleagues Jessica Rosencrantz and Ebba Busch, presented the new research bill, which sets the direction for research policy for 2025-2028. Work on the research bill has been ongoing 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 committee, and that it was Linnéa Carlsson, who had previously been chair of the SFS doctoral student committee. The government also invited a round of applications in the fall of 2023 and SFS submitted a report. 

This does not mean that the government always listened. SFS commented on the content of the research bill in a Blog Post and are largely critical of the direction of the policy. However, it is still positive that there has been an opportunity to raise points of view from the student and doctoral student perspective during the course of the work.

The research bill will also be a window into the future, as it sets the framework for much of the higher education policy for the remainder of the mandate. We can expect more investments in excellence at fewer higher education institutions, at the expense of breadth that will benefit more students. 

2025 – what can we expect?

The government has so far raised the importance of STEM education and strengthened quality. An example of this was when the government in the latest 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 direction to characterize the policy 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 better education, not to weed out eligible students and lower expectations of educational providers. 

From 2025 onwards, universities and colleges will also have two new missions: 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 the higher education institutions themselves to take responsibility for getting there. Regardless of what researchers, teachers and students say, the government must let go and trust that the sector will function better if it is given more autonomy. 

And what awaits student unions as we enter 2025? When the New Year's fireworks go out, darkness unfortunately sets in. Most student unions are preparing for reduced income from 2026 and 2025 will likely be characterized 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 offer a positive turn.