A mixed picture for the university’s development in 2021

Every year, a follow up report is made as a basis for the university board’s discussions about the university’s forthcoming business plan.

The follow up reports are drawn up on the basis of the university’s goals and strategies. The reports contain comparisons - within the university, national and international - as well as indicators to follow up on the university’s goals and strategies.

A mixed picture

The university’s goals and strategies include five development goals. The follow up report for 2021 finds that two of these goals show positive development, while one goal is stable. For one goal, the indications do not give a consistent picture and for one the development is difficult to assess.

The goals “Expand education and strengthen the connection between education and research” and “Exploit the potential of Campus Gotland” are assessed to have shown positive development.

Stable but could be strengthened

For the goal “Develop research excellence and a strong ability to attract prestigious funding in international competition”, the position is judged to be stable, but several indicators show that the university’s position needs to be strengthened. Two indicators in bibliometrics show a downward trend. Development of the number of Wallenberg Fellows and Scholars and Wallenberg project funding indicates that the university is holding its position, but is not being reinforced.

Contradictory picture

The goal “Strengthen transdisciplinary and challenge-driven research” shows a positive trend when it comes to funding granted from the European framework programme. The university’s share of funding has also increased in some cases from financiers who support challenge-driven and needs-motivated research.

But the assessment is that this income is small compared with project funding from the Swedish Research Council, for example.

A picture that is difficult to assess

For the goal “Development collaboration as an integral part of education and research”, it is difficult to find indicators that correspond to the entire goal. However, some indicators (the number of collaborating doctoral students, adjunct teachers and teachers with clinical practice) have increased over the last ten-year period.

Falling ranking?

The university’s position has worsened in the three ranking lists that the university chose to follow. But there is also a meta ranking list that summarises these three lists and in this comparison Uppsala University is the best higher education institution in Sweden.

Increasing proportion of researchers and teachers

In 2021 the number of persons employed (full time equivalents) increased by almost three per cent compared with 2020. This is the largest increase for four years. Over the last ten years, research and teaching staff have increased by 27 per cent. It is interesting to compare this increase with the number of administrative staff, who have increased by 20 per cent over the same period.