{"id":1334,"date":"2025-04-09T09:57:27","date_gmt":"2025-04-09T07:57:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.kth.se\/blogs\/itm-management\/?p=1334"},"modified":"2025-04-09T11:31:37","modified_gmt":"2025-04-09T09:31:37","slug":"at-last-we-can-shut-down-mechanical-engineering","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.kth.se\/blogs\/itm-management\/2025\/04\/at-last-we-can-shut-down-mechanical-engineering\/","title":{"rendered":"At last, we can shut down the Mechatronics programme!"},"content":{"rendered":"

In English further down<\/p>\n

\u00c4ntligen kan vi l\u00e4gga ned Mekatronikprogrammet!<\/h2>\n

Eller kanske inte, som f\u00f6re detta programansvarig f\u00f6r Mekatronik \u00e4r det inte h\u00f6gst p\u00e5 min prioritetslista, men i min nya roll som vice grundutbildningsansvarig har jag p\u00e5b\u00f6rjat arbetet med att titta p\u00e5 ITM:s utbildningsportf\u00f6lj. Och det handlar kanske inte s\u00e5 mycket om vad vi ska l\u00e4gga ned eller starta upp, som att vi beh\u00f6ver komma fram till vad vi beh\u00f6ver f\u00f6r\u00e4ndra f\u00f6r att \u201dframtidss\u00e4kra\u201d v\u00e5ra utbildningar. Det har hittills fr\u00e4mst inneburit att jag pratat med de som b\u00e4r upp verksamheten ute p\u00e5 institutionerna: program- och masteransvariga, studierektorer och prefekter. Det bekr\u00e4ftar den bild som jag redan har haft \u2013 att ITM \u00e4r ganska bra p\u00e5 att erbjuda samh\u00e4llsrelevanta utbildningar med KTH-unika, eftertraktade profiler.<\/p>\n

KTH har centralt p\u00e5b\u00f6rjat ett parallellt arbete med att s\u00e4tta tydligare \u00f6vergripande st\u00e4llningstaganden f\u00f6r hur v\u00e5ra utbildningar ska utvecklas och vi kommer, som skola, ha samlat v\u00e5ra tankar runt detta fram\u00e5t sommaren. Som jag ser det, s\u00e5 beh\u00f6ver vi jobba mer systematiskt med v\u00e5r utbildningsportf\u00f6lj under flera \u00e5r fram\u00e5t. Inte bara p\u00e5 programniv\u00e5, utan ocks\u00e5 utifr\u00e5n vilka (nya) f\u00e4rdigheter som v\u00e5ra studenter beh\u00f6ver ha med sig fr\u00e5n varje enskild kurs.<\/p>\n

\u00d6ver lag efterlyser de som jag pratat med ocks\u00e5 lite tydligare processer fr\u00e5n att definiera vad vi ska arbeta med f\u00f6r att genomf\u00f6ra f\u00f6r\u00e4ndringar. Det k\u00e4nns lite tungrott och kanske saknas lite framf\u00f6rh\u00e5llning. Som program- och masteransvarig \u00e4r det inte heller s\u00e5 enkelt att veta vilka bollar man ska springa p\u00e5, eftersom man inte vet exakt vad man ska g\u00f6ra i sin roll. Mitt l\u00e5ngsiktiga m\u00e5l \u00e4r d\u00e4rf\u00f6r att vi ska s\u00e4tta strukturer f\u00f6r samarbeten och rollbeskrivningar tydligare p\u00e5 pr\u00e4nt.<\/p>\n

Klarar vi det, att ta i de stora dragen runt grundutbildningen och arbeta ihop p\u00e5 ett strukturerat s\u00e4tt, s\u00e5 tror jag att det finns flera stora fr\u00e5gor vi kan ta tag i tillsammans. Det kommer m\u00e5nga, mer eller mindre kloka, verksamhetsplaner, strategier och beslut fr\u00e5n KTH centralt, och ibland saknas den d\u00e4r konkreta l\u00e4nken ner till v\u00e5r verksamhet. Ska vi tolka fram en s\u00e5dan l\u00e4nk s\u00e5 beh\u00f6ver diskussionen f\u00f6rankras ute p\u00e5 institutionerna bland de som ber\u00f6rs av besluten. Ibland tror jag att man gl\u00f6mmer att en s\u00e5dan f\u00f6rankring kan vara minst lika viktig som att ta fram vilka m\u00f6jliga val det finns att v\u00e4lja mellan.<\/p>\n

S\u00e5, jag t\u00e4nker att alla de jag pratat med hittills beh\u00f6vs f\u00f6r att skapa en s\u00e5dan f\u00f6rankring, och f\u00f6rhoppningsvis finns det fler ute p\u00e5 institutionerna som ocks\u00e5 \u00e4r intresserade av att t\u00e4nka l\u00e4ngre fram \u00e4n till n\u00e4sta kursstart. Jag ska se vad jag kan g\u00f6ra f\u00f6r att skapa m\u00f6jligheter f\u00f6r detta.<\/p>\n

\/Fredrik Asplund, Vice grundutbildningsansvarig p\u00e5 ITM-skolan<\/p>\n

At last, we can shut down the Mechatronics programme!<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Well, maybe not, as a former programme director for Mechatronics it is not at the top of my priority list, but in my new role as Deputy Director of First and Second Cycle Education I have started to look at ITM’s education portfolio. And it is perhaps not so much about what we should close down or start up, as we need to find out what we need to change to \u201cfuture-proof\u201d our programs. So far, this has mainly involved speaking with those who carry the day-to-day operations at the departments: programme directors, directors of studies, and heads of department. These conversations have reaffirmed what I already suspected\u2014that ITM is rather good at offering societally relevant programmes with KTH-unique, in-demand profiles.<\/p>\n

KTH has also begun a parallel effort at the central level to define clearer overarching principles for how our education should evolve, and by summer, we as a school aim to have consolidated our thoughts on the matter. As I see it, we need to work more systematically with our educational portfolio over the coming years\u2014not only at the programme level, but also in terms of the (new) skills our students should take away from each individual course.<\/p>\n

Overall, those I’ve spoken with have also expressed a need for clearer processes\u2014from defining what we should be working on, to actually implementing changes. Things can feel a bit sluggish at times, and perhaps there\u2019s a lack of foresight. For programme directors it\u2019s not always easy to know which initiatives to pursue, especially when the responsibilities of the role aren\u2019t fully clear. My long-term goal is therefore to establish well-defined structures for collaboration and clearly documented role descriptions.<\/p>\n

If we succeed in tackling the broader questions surrounding undergraduate education and work together in a structured way, I believe there are many significant issues we can begin to address collectively. There are plenty of (more or less clever) operational plans, strategies, and decisions coming from central KTH, and sometimes the concrete connection to our daily work is missing. If we\u2019re to interpret and implement these decisions meaningfully, the discussion needs to be anchored within the departments\u2014among those directly affected. I believe that such anchoring can, at times, be just as important as laying out the available choices.<\/p>\n

So, my sense is that everyone I\u2019ve spoken to so far is essential to creating this kind of anchoring\u2014and hopefully, there are even more people across the departments who are interested in looking further ahead than the next course start. I\u2019ll do what I can to create opportunities for that.<\/p>\n

\/Fredrik Asplund, Deputy Director of First- and Second Cycle Education<\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In English further down \u00c4ntligen kan vi l\u00e4gga ned Mekatronikprogrammet! Eller kanske inte, som f\u00f6re detta programansvarig f\u00f6r Mekatronik \u00e4r det inte h\u00f6gst p\u00e5 min prioritetslista, men i min nya roll som vice grundutbildningsansvarig har jag p\u00e5b\u00f6rjat arbetet med att titta p\u00e5 ITM:s utbildningsportf\u00f6lj. Och det handlar kanske inte s\u00e5 mycket om vad vi ska […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1519,"featured_media":1338,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[18,62],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1334","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-director-of-first-and-second-cycle-education","category-fredrik-asplund"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.kth.se\/blogs\/itm-management\/files\/2025\/04\/Fakultetsnamnd-Fredrik-A_2024-08-29_1000-563px_2.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6P3xp-lw","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kth.se\/blogs\/itm-management\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1334","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kth.se\/blogs\/itm-management\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kth.se\/blogs\/itm-management\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kth.se\/blogs\/itm-management\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1519"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kth.se\/blogs\/itm-management\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1334"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.kth.se\/blogs\/itm-management\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1334\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1341,"href":"https:\/\/www.kth.se\/blogs\/itm-management\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1334\/revisions\/1341"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kth.se\/blogs\/itm-management\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1338"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kth.se\/blogs\/itm-management\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1334"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kth.se\/blogs\/itm-management\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1334"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kth.se\/blogs\/itm-management\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1334"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}