For a long time, the resources for higher education have been eroded due to the way the resource allocation system is designed. The resource allocation system, which is intended to be cost-effective, has in the long run become inconsistently controlling but consistent quality drainage. The resource allocation system provides insufficient conditions for the entire university's activities and limits the university's opportunities for development. SFS worked on the issue of erosion within the framework of the three-year focus issue “Resources for higher education” in the years 2016–2019.
A problem in the financing of higher education is that the appropriations are not calculated in line with inflation. Every year, a price and salary recalculation is made so that the appropriations will follow the general price development in society. But in the enumeration, a “productivity deduction” is made every year, which means that the appropriations do not increase at the same rate as the costs. The basic idea is that the higher education institutions should work a little more efficiently every year. However, there is no evidence that the business can actually be streamlined year after year while maintaining quality. In the long run, this means that higher education institutions cannot afford to employ as many teachers as before. It is a threat to the quality of higher education.
The erosion within the university since the 1990s has been described in more detail by Sweden's university teachers and researchers in the report “System error in the knowledge factory”From 2018.
This is not unique to the university, but similar mechanisms exist throughout the state organization as well as at the regional and municipal level. It affects schools, care and nursing, the judiciary, etc. In recent years, the problem of efficiency requirements and productivity deductions has received increasing attention, not least within the municipal budgets and how it affects the school.
The efficiency requirements and the erosion of higher education are still ongoing. In 2019, the productivity deduction in the state budget was 1,27 percent and in 2020 it was as much as 1,47 percent. Reduction is added to reduction. For each year, the waistband is tightened a little more.
SFS sees that this development is very worrying and wants the grants to be calculated at the same rate as the costs of being able to maintain good quality in higher education.