‘Good times are over’ even as Swedish election spells continuity

Academics and sector leaders say that higher education policy in the country is unlikely to change significantly despite the centre-left parties' narrow victory in the country’s general election overt the incumbent centre-right bloc.

The centre-left bloc, led by Magdalena Andersson’s Social Democrats, won a three-seat majority over the rival coalition led by Ulf Kristersson, the incumbent prime minister, who resigned after the announcement of the final vote count on Thursday. His government was made up of his centre-right Moderate Party, the Liberals and Christian Democrats, with support in parliament from the far-right Sweden Democrats.

Higher education did not feature prominently in political campaigning in the lead-up to the election, eclipsed by issues including defence, crime and the environment. And David Marlevi, vice-chair of the Young Academy of Sweden, said a pre-election survey carried out by the group found that the centre right and the centre left agreed on many policy issues – although the Sweden Democrats did not take part in the survey.

“They all support an increase in governmental research funding. They all support [the idea] that the path to permanent residency should be streamlined for foreign researchers. And they all support that the universities’ autonomy should be strengthened,” Marlevi said.

Differences emerged only in narrower policy areas, he explained, such as whether faculty positions should be funded directly (favoured by the left) or via competitive fellowships, and the extent to which institutions’ core funding should be performance-based (favoured by the right).

But universities are hoping that the new government will allocate more funding to teaching.

Anders Hagfeldt, vice-chancellor of Uppsala University, said the centre-right government had increased research funding but had “failed to stop the downward decline in education funding” per student.

“If we take experimental [subjects] like physics, chemistry, engineering [and] medicine, we can’t do as much laboratory work as we would like. For Sweden to keep the quality of higher education, we really need to step up in terms of funding,” he said.

Universities are also pushing for more independence from the state. Most Swedish universities are state agencies, giving the government formal powers over aspects of their operations. A review was launched earlier this year into whether universities should be given greater autonomy, including through a possible change to their legal status. That review is still under way and will now pass to the new government.

Hagfeldt said that while universities have a lot of autonomy, their current status leaves them open to political intervention. “The decision on [who to appoint as] vice-chancellors…is taken by the government. The chairperson of the board of the university is a governmental decision, together with what we call external members of the board, and they are in the majority. So the government, in that sense, can control the management of the university if they want to,” he said.

Karin Åmossa, head of policy and international affairs at the Swedish Association of University Teachers and Researchers (SULF), said there was “considerable continuity in Swedish higher education policy, regardless of the political composition of the government”.

“[There is] a tendency towards detailed steering, reliance on competitive research funding and expectations that universities should respond to immediate labour market and political priorities,” she added.

Åmossa said the funding squeeze on teaching was being felt by university staff, leading to “heavier workloads, less time for research and professional development, and a growing gap between the work that is formally allocated and the work that is actually required”.

Mats Benner, professor of research policy at Lund University, also expected more continuity than change with the Social Democrats in power, echoing Hagfeldt’s point about the increase in research funding. “I expect no major cutbacks because it’s not really in the cards, but I do expect no major initiatives to expand the sector,” he said.

The more significant challenge could be that Sweden is reaching the end of a decades-long period of growth in higher education and research, he added, a result of slower population expansion and competing demands for public spending.

“There are no major cuts or crazy cuts looming, not for education, not for research,” he said. “But the main challenge in the coming years for the sector will be resource stagnation. The good times are over.”

seher.asaf@timeshighereducation.com