The corruption investigation's proposal creates legal uncertainty and threatens Sweden's attractiveness as a research nation. In a debate article in the newspaper Public The SFS doctoral committee urges the government to shelve the proposal.
The proposed criminal record check makes it unclear what could lead to deportation and risks creating concern among researchers with foreign citizenship.
“We do not know what will be considered misconduct or what information universities will be forced to share,” write Topias Tolonen-Weckström and Meryem Saadi, doctoral student representatives in SFS, warning that researchers “will play it safe – tempting fate can be costly.”
The proposal for a conduct review threatens academic freedom and trust in higher education, but also Sweden's attractiveness as a research nation.
Read the debate article here.