Author
In the past few weeks, I have had the privilege to meet the newly elected Student Council of the KTH Student Union (THS). The Student Council is elected by the chapters and constitutes the very backbone of the democratic order on which THS is based.
Student involvement in the Student Union, chapters and associations is important to KTH. Not only is it the primary driver for student influence, it is also an important factor in creating a shared study and work environment for the students, one that’s both inclusive and enriching.
For more than ten years now, membership of a student union has been optional at state-run universities, having been mandatory for a long time. This means that student unions now have to actively recruit their members, and doing this obviously depends on having a well-run operation.
THS managed well in the transition to optional membership and today has a far-reaching field of operations beyond active student influence. This includes important reception activities, careers support, and a wide range of social and academic activities for students. It is good to know that THS is there as a close collaboration partner to KTH.
I have mixed emotions when I think back to student council meetings at my own alma mater, further north in Sweden, where our discussions were dominated by political debate and argument well into the small hours. At the time student union politics was strictly party political, and the council’s work was governed accordingly. Discussing matters that were relevant to university studies was far more uncommon.
Student Union Council work at KTH today seems to be quite different, with a clear focus on promoting academic success and developing KTH’s and the Union’s operations.
Positive collaboration is a guarantee of quality development in KTH’s operations in general, and education in particular. Like all other universities, KTH supports its Student Union with more than we receive in state grants. That is problematic.
A student union should be independent of the university in which it operates. A well-intentioned proposal is therefore being submitted to the government: why not double national funding for student influence from SEK 55 million to SEK 110 million? Government funding for student influence must increase to levels equivalent to before mandatory student union membership was abolished.
This will benefit everyone.
Author
As globalisation has increased, so the world has got smaller. It has also grown more complex, as have the societal challenges we are all facing. As a university, of course we want to embrace openness and internationalization in research and education. But we want to do this with responsibility.
International collaborations in research and education, and exchanging knowledge across national and disciplinary boundaries, are not only incredibly stimulating and exciting – they are necessary.
Even so, it is important not to be naive in the face of tyrannical rule by authoritarian regimes, or to close our eyes to the geopolitical tensions that exist around the world. Knowledge and research can end up in the wrong hands or be used for unintended purposes, such as military purposes. The remedy for this is knowledge of the country or region in question, careful control of any risks, and good judgement to facilitate analysis and consideration of different international collaborations.
It is not an easy balance to achieve, and as a university, it is important that we have the aspects of what we call responsible internationalisation in mind on every level within the organisation.
Should we have a collaboration or exchange with the country or regime in question? Sometimes it is reasonable to stop a collaboration, but openness could also strengthen democracy in the long run in countries where it is otherwise hard to come by. Or at any rate provide inroads for democracy on an individual level – where we have a lot to learn from each other, with our different points of reference or even our disparate world views. And it is important here to distinguish between nation and individual. If a researcher comes here to study, we cannot put the blame on them for the regime they grew up in. So responsible internationalization is also about supporting researchers in countries where it is hard to practise free and independent research and education.
Ultimately though, it is important that KTH nurtures and protects all its students, researchers and staff, whatever their nationality or background.
Author
The horrific images and constantly updated death toll following the earthquakes in Turkey and Syria have provoked strong feelings of empathy and despair. Hope is needed and, unprompted, I look around for research into the area – and come away even more convinced that research is absolutely vital.
But the images also prompt questions. How can this happen? Again? Is this as far as we have come with all the knowledge, research results and technical solutions we have today, in everything from materials, construction, solidity, urban planning, safety and security?
Following the 2011 earthquake in Japan, for instance, the country has focused heavily on securing structures with, as far as I am aware, successful results, and on preparing its people and buildings against future tremors.
There is a great deal of knowledge and competence at KTH regarding different aspects of earthquakes. This includes research into being able to better predict when an earthquake might happen.
And that is a source of hope.
Author
The EU’s ninth framework programme, Horizon Europe, runs 2021–2027. It will soon be time for a mid-term review, and discussions regarding the tenth framework programme are already under way.
There have been framework programmes for research (and innovation) within the EU system since 1984, and they have become an increasingly important source of research funding. The current programme encompasses EUR 95 billion over seven years. And while Europe is certainly a big place, that is a lot of money.
The three pillars of the programme are Excellent Science, Global Challenges and European Industrial Competitiveness (e.g. health and climate), and Innovative Europe. As representatives of the universities, we have many access points into the various pillars, based on research issues, partnerships and forms of funding.
This was very clear during a two-day stay in Brussels. KTH, Karolinska Institute and Stockholm University jointly make up the University Alliance Stockholm Trio, part of which includes having a shared office in Brussels. The trio also has a research funding collaboration. Taken together, the presence in Brussels and the research funding can be important resources for increasing success within the framework programme. Together, we already have just under 40 per cent of all the funding coming into Sweden via the programme, but of course there’s always scope for more.
During the visit to Brussels, we met people at the Commission and the many organisations that work in lobbying and monitoring, and we attended the Science Business conference. It was very clear that the research profiles represented by the Stockholm Trio were of great interest in Brussels. Sustainable development was discussed at every meeting (!), linked for example to digitalization, health, climate and other areas. What we are doing at KTH and within the Stockholm Trio is of genuine relevance also to the European political system.
One of the key points for the future is to increase the proportion of funding awarded via the European Research Council (part of the Excellent Science pillar), so as to expand the scope of excellent research.
Another is to continue efforts to include non-EU countries in the programme, such as Canada, New Zealand and South Korea. This is a clear signal that research is, by nature, global. The parts of the programme that focus on special societal challenges should have a distinct element of scientific research to ensure that it is possible to find solutions to the major issues.
Author
It’s exciting to see how combining different areas makes both areas stronger – a genuine case of one plus one equals three. For instance when KTH’s technical and scientific disciplines come together with research environments in the humanities, social sciences and economics. These meeting are something that add a lot of value to KTH.
One example among many is the Environmental Humanities Lab, which is now a research centre at KTH. The lab conducts analyses from an experimental approach based on a raft of different human and social science theories, in an endeavour to find answers to the global challenges society is facing. This could be anything from political ecology and migration, to the role of cities in the climate transition.
Or industrial economics and organisation at the intersection between economics/management and engineering/science, highlighting areas such as logistics, production management and entrepreneurialism.
Interdisciplinary collaborations like these are ever more important in dealing with the increasingly complex issues the world is facing today. It is therefore crucial that we have these combined environments also at KTH, and I hope they can be even more successful.
The mixture of heavy engineering and humanities/social sciences can be found in many places around the world, such as the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, MIT. At KTH too, we have a tradition in history of technology that is crucial in broadening perspectives in research and education.
