SFS comments on the research policy bill that was presented during a press conference with Helene Hellmark Knutsson (S), Minister of Higher Education and Research. Today we give overall comments with some reflections in the bill and next week we will publish a blog post with more in-depth analyzes.
The Swedish National Union of Students (SFS) are generally positive about the research bill. Several issues that we have pursued have been heard, including the basic grant to be increased and the education grant for doctoral students to be abolished. These are two important victories to raise the quality of the educations and create safer conditions for doctoral students. The biggest gain, however, is the news announced in advance about an investigation into the resource allocation system for higher education and research. A higher basic grant can be expected to lead to many educations having a stronger research connection. It makes higher education better and more relevant.
Something that SFS, on the other hand, is critical of is how the government in the same breath proposes increased autonomy and trust in the higher education institutions at the same time as they clearly make a number of targeted investments and point out priority areas. SFS believes that the policy should refrain from a detailed control of higher education and research. The higher education institutions should design research and education themselves in dialogue with the government.
Increased base funding
Finally! SFS believes that it is positive that the basic funding for both education and research is strengthened. The basic grants will be increased by 1,3 billion successively until 2020. Despite the increase, most of the research grants will still be exposed to competition. Although the increase is an improvement that should enable greater long-term and that many educations are more closely linked to research, we hope that the basic funding's share of research money will be further increased within the period to which the research bill relates.
Increased long-term perspective through a 10-year perspective
New for this year is that the research policy is presented with a perspective of ten years, instead of four years. With this longer perspective, it would actually be possible for the government to present much more daring visions of a sustainable distribution between basic grants and external funding, a healthy balance between research and education, and the long-term conditions for research. We feel this is missing in the bill. Although some steps in the bill have been taken in the right direction, there is no clear vision of what the academy should look like in ten years.
Equality
The government sets a goal that half of all newly hired professors will be women by 2030. SFS is positive about investing in gender equality in academia, but is critical of the fact that the ambition only concerns new hires of professors, as this only marginally affects the unequal professorship.
The government also states that they want to clarify the mission of higher education institutions and research funders to integrate a gender equality perspective into their activities. This is good. However, we ask ourselves what it will mean in practice. And we wonder why the government does not go further, for example by actively working for an equal representation on the boards of higher education institutions and other authorities that decide on research funding.
Merit employment
The Government expresses a desire to uniformly regulate merit employment at the national level and to clarify the merit requirements. These approaches are good and in our opinion contribute to securing both career paths and forms of employment. If the merit system is made predictable, transparent and contributes to the connections between education and research increasing, it can also work to increase quality for the entire academy. At present, however, the bill does not highlight the importance of ensuring both educational as scientific merits in employment. We hope that the government will clarify this in the future.
The education grant for doctoral students is abolished
SFS has long pushed the issue of replacing education grants with employment. It is therefore positive that the bill proposes that the education grant be abolished. It is about securing career paths and employment also for doctoral students.
However, SFS is critical of the government's choice to retain scholarship funding for doctoral student positions. The problem with scholarship-financed doctoral students is, among other things, that they do not have access to adequate social rights. Since the bill concerns a 10-year perspective, it is worrying that the government lacks the ambition to abolish scholarship funding in the long run. SFS wants doctoral students, from the first day, to be employed for the entire study period.
UKÄ receives a new assignment for quality assurance of research
In the bill, the government writes that the University Chancellor's Office will be commissioned to review the quality of the higher education institutions' research. The University Chancellor's Office is already responsible for the quality assurance of all higher education and we now see that they will also be responsible for quality assurance of research as something positive. The fact that the University Chancellor's Office will have overall responsibility will hopefully lead to the quality assurance of research being permeated by a holistic perspective with a balance between education and research.
The Future
In general, we are very positive about the bill that has been presented today. Now we hope that in the future we can get answers to the questions and problems we see, but above all that the bill wins a hearing both politically and in the sector. It would be a great benefit for Sweden's students and research students - and not least for the university and society at large!
Charlotta Tjärdahl, Vice President of the Swedish National Union of Students
Fredrik Lindeberg, chairman of the Swedish National Union of Students' doctoral student committee
About the research policy bill
See the webcast of the press conference and press release
Read the entire research policy bill
Read debate article, published on DN debate 28 Nov 2016
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