Time for a new semester and a new academic year! Walking up the hill on Drottning Kristinas väg at KTH Campus makes you feel happy and proud. The reception of new students is in full swing and the atmosphere is good. The number of applications has been high, many of our programmes are popular, and I would like to take this opportunity to welcome all new students.

As usual, the holidays flew by, but a few important highlights from the summer of 2025 will remain.

KTH and Chalmers, which together educate more than half of Sweden’s engineers, organized two exciting seminars on AI in Almedalen: Ansvarsfull AI – en svensk konkurrensfördel? and quantum technology Svensk kvantteknologi: Från strategi till global framgång (In Swedish). We will further deepen our collaboration with Chalmers, not least in the highly relevant research to strengthen Swedish competitiveness.

Just before midsummer, the QS ranking was published, in which KTH performed well, coming in at 78th place among the world’s universities in terms of sustainability, social impact and international research collaborations.

In addition, me and some of my fellow presidents initiated, what I believe to be, a much-needed debate on how Swedish universities should approach cooperation with China  (in Swedish). Sustainability technology could be a possible area of cooperation, without compromising security or the values that are crucial to democracy.

I also submitted a discreet but nonetheless forward-looking reform proposal to the government (in Swedish) in another opinion piece.

There is a lot to look forward to this autumn in terms of education, research and collaboration. As the autumn semester gets underway, we will be fully focused on continuing to work with all our new and existing students, and on continuing to conduct successful research in broad collaboration with other universities, the business community and society. I look forward to continuing to work for the best interests of KTH!