Our staff work hard to apply for money, follow up and report on grants to a variety of funders with different requirements for follow-up, different rules for how the money can be used, different rules for covering overheads and requirements for co-financing. We are good at this!
However, a challenging consequence of the funding system is that it is difficult for universities to be really good employers. Although we know with a fair degree of certainty that funding will come to the university through external funders, it is difficult to know in advance exactly what we will be funded for and on what terms.
At the same time, there is a strong expectation that universities will provide secure conditions and predictable career paths for our academic staff. In other words, the combination of a lot of sometimes short-term external funding and the need for long-term favourable conditions for our academic staff is not the easiest to solve.
During the year, KTH has investigated how we should structure our career system and also how different categories of academic employment outside the career system should be described.
The aim is to be able to offer clear conditions for all our academic positions and to take long-term financial responsibility for the positions we offer. Not everyone can have everything, but everyone can know what applies to the category to which they belong.
Universities also offer a large number of fixed-term positions in the form of PhD studentships, post-docs and assistant professorships. It is generally accepted that academic careers are built on such positions, which eventually lead to tenure. However, even with fixed-term contracts, it is important that the terms and conditions are clear.
Universities have a great deal of freedom in shaping the career system, although there are some legal and regulatory constraints. This freedom also brings with it a great deal of responsibility and, as I said, the somewhat challenging question of how to combine a high proportion of external funding with secure and predictable employment conditions. One of KTH’s goals is to create an attractive, inclusive and equal working environment. The career system is an important part of achieving this.