Of all first-choice applicants to engineering programmes in Sweden, 28.8 percent apply to KTH – an impressive market share.

But we are facing a challenge – the government’s decision to reduce the ceiling for many universities, including KTH, in the coming years will affect the opportunities for many students to start their academic journey.  At the same time, the Swedish labour market has a great need for engineers. In areas such as sustainability, digitalization, AI development and infrastructure, technical skills are important. It is therefore natural that KTH’s engineering programmes have a high number of applicants, as the education lays the foundation for future job opportunities.

However, we now have to decide how to distribute the reduced admission numbers among the different programmes. This will not only affect those currently hoping to study engineering, but may also have consequences for society as a whole. A smaller supply of trained engineers can obviously have a long-term impact on technology-intensive industries and their development.

Many argue that Sweden should invest more in engineering education, especially in areas where technological innovation is central. Instead of reducing education places, we should discuss how we can strengthen the supply of skills and support Swedish industry.

Regardless of future political decisions, interest in studying at KTH remains high, and we look forward to welcoming the new students in August.

The reception at KTH is probably one of the best in the country, I dare say, with around 1,500 students involved. The sections of the Student Union are the natural home for our students, and the sections are of course also central to the reception. The sections are a ‘home away from home’ during the study period. From the university side, we are both happy and proud of the great cooperation we have with the Students’ Union and the chapters. What you do is of great value to all students and to the attractiveness of our university and, in turn, to the success of our students.

This year we admitted nearly 4,500 new undergraduate students and nearly 3,000 into our various programmes. Both the total number of applicants and the total number of first choice applicants were at record levels this year. In fact, we have never had as many first-choice applicants for our civil engineering programmes as this year. KTH is also the university with the most applicants for engineering programmes in the country. More than 27 percent of all applicants to engineering programmes in Sweden apply to KTH!

International applications were also strong. We received more than 25,000 applications for our Master’s programmes, of which 13,000 chose KTH as their first choice and 10,000 of them were fee-paying students. These are also record numbers.

As I mentioned, there is something special about the start of the semester on campus, and I would like to take this opportunity to welcome all our students to campus, to thank all the students who made the welcome possible, and to wish you all the best in your further studies here at KTH.

But the issue that’s generally neglected is what this research should be, and how the quality of research improves when there is a close link between it, education and students. Is it equally obvious that research should be linked to education, as it is that education should be linked to research? It’s never a bad thing to have young, questioning people around, but how does this bolster research, and how can the interchange between education and research be developed in a way that teachers, researchers and students need each other?

These matters were subjects for debate at the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences last week, in which I participated, based on a recent report (in Swedish only) presented by the Academy. The report looks at how education and research can be closely integrated in further education in Sweden today – or rather, how this is currently not happening.

One suggestion in the report is that greater efforts in research should also be accompanied by efforts to develop the education environment. This is an interesting and innovative proposal, which would mean that research efforts should also work in favour of education, for example by linking the development of master’s programmes to research funding.

For a research-intensive university like KTH, this would be a positive development. It would mean that we have greater scope to create complete academic environments, and could also better benefit from the advantages that arise from expanded, successful research environments. One pivotal argument in linking education to research funding is that it is through education that we can most quickly ensure that the latest and most advanced research has an impact.

I look forward to continuing this discussion in other forums, and to have further opportunities to emphasise the importance of keeping research and education closely linked. In that context, it would of course be important to once again raise the issue of collective funding for research and education (as is the practice in many other countries, not least in the Nordics) so that the connection between research and education is emphasised also in the governance system. This is, after all, what makes us a university.

Our alumni network spans 32,000 people in 19 chapters worldwide. About 23 percent of KTH’s alumni now live and work abroad. According to a 2021 career survey at KTH, roughly one in five graduates have opted to live abroad in the past ten years. And the same survey shows this is a dream for many more.

The world has shrunk, while societal challenges are growing increasingly complex – which is to say that our former students are making great contributions around the world, and perhaps that home is now, far more than just 20 years ago, the place where people choose to work and make a career – regardless of country and continent.

This not only shows that our students are sought-after on the global labour market, but it also reflects KTH’s international status as a university.

In early May, a Swedish delegation visited the US and had the opportunity to meet alumni in San Francisco’s Silicon Valley, the Mecca of innovation. This is home to one of our two US chapters, the other one being in New York.

I felt proud and quite emotional to meet such dedicated and inspiring people, who were passionate about their alma mater. Many of the people we met now work for major tech corporations or global Swedish companies with operations in the US.

KTH now provides almost 200 courses offering the latest knowledge in particular areas. Students can apply for these courses to update their knowledge and keep up with the competition, or simply to learn more and be inspired as their curiosity guides them. There is quite a variation between the different courses, with some attracting far more applicants than there are places, and others vice versa. The most popular course is programming in Python, BB1000, with 931 applicants for 100 places.

The autumn figures also show, for example, that KTH’s MSc Engineering programmes remain the most sought-after, even though there are slightly fewer applicants than last year. There are 4,995 applicants to these programmes and architecture this year, compared to 5,105 last autumn.

The gender distribution among applicants remains much the same as before, with just over 30% being female first-choice applicants. Interest in studying computer science engineering and electrical engineering is lower among women, while the proportion of female first-choice applicants to biotechnology and chemical engineering is slightly higher.

Lifelong learning entails ongoing professional development throughout an active career, whether in the form of short courses or longer programmes. Students may wish to enhance their knowledge in their current work area, or even move partly or wholly into a new field, give their career a boost and make themselves more attractive on the job market. KTH will continuously develop a range of options specifically tailored to this target group, who wish to go into, or return to, higher studies as mature students.

Sweden’s new student finance scheme for transition and retraining has vastly improved opportunities to study later on in life. The scheme is oversubscribed but will gradually be expanded over the coming years in an effort to achieve a better balance. For KTH too, this means that our lifelong learning offering is likely to increase in importance moving forward. It will also be important to strike a balance between upskilling and reskilling in the courses and programmes we offer.

We need to ask ourselves whether we should primarily strive to help people with an existing engineering degree, for example, to develop in their career, or enable those without a technical degree to start studying at more of an entry level. There are of course many opportunities for KTH to be an important player in this discussion as things develop.