NJ Faculty Board Meeting 17 February

The NJ Faculty is recruiting a professor of political science

February 17 will be historic for the NJ faculty and SLU, which has now decided to recruit a professor of political science with a focus on society's governance of biological diversity. The recruitment is a consequence of the Swedish Biodiversity Centre (CBM) being transferred to the Department of Urban and Rural Development in January 2020. Political science includes studies of the content of politics, political processes and the institutional rules that surround them.

The new professor will strengthen and renew social science research and education on biodiversity, especially in relation to policies, policies and policy implementation of sustainable development for biodiversity. The proximity to the Department of Economics and SLU Swedish Species Information Centre lays the foundation for a strong and dynamic social science research environment.

– There have been incredibly exciting discussions in the recruitment group about the focus of this professorship and I am glad that the faculty board liked our proposal. We hope to be able to attract talented researchers to SLU and the department, says Lars Johansson, who is head of the Department of Urban and Rural Development.

– A major societal change is required to meet the threats to biodiversity in the world and in Sweden. Research on and for the governance of societies' work with biological diversity is a crucial contribution to this process. We therefore see the professorship as a gratifying and very important addition to the research conducted at CBM, says Tuija Hilding-Rydevik who is the manager of CBM.

The NJ Faculty result for 2020

The NJ Faculty's result for 2020 was SEK -4.2 million. It was better than the budget deficit of -23.9 million SEK. It is mainly the costs that were lower than planned. The current situation with the pandemic has led to limitations in operations and thereby lower operating costs by 13%. The faculty's total balanced capital continues to decline and at the end of 2020 corresponds to approximately 8% of the turnover. The faculty as a whole is thus within the permitted range of -3% to 10%. However, the balanced capital is affected by a deficit in the faculty centrally and there are variations between different departments.

The number of full-time equivalent employees was 998 which is an increase of 2 compared to 2019. During the past five years, the faculty has increased with 114 full-time equivalents.

The faculty produced a total of 1,133 full-time equivalent students in 2020 and has also overperformed 97 students more than the stated assignment.

In research and doctoral education, the faculty had an assignment of 37 degrees. In total, the faculty awarded 24 degrees in 2020.

Broadened recruitment and broadened participation

Since last autumn, work has been underway at Swedish higher education institutions to develop a strategy for work with broadened recruitment and broadened participation. It aims to reach to a greater extent the groups in society that have so far not seen higher education as an opportunity. Everyone – regardless of social or geographical background, gender, transgender identity or expression, ethnicity, religion or other belief, disability, sexual orientation or age – should perceive studying at a university as an obvious opportunity.

The faculties have now been given the opportunity to comment on the proposal for SLU's strategy. NJ's faculty board discussed the proposal. A consistent view was that the strategy could have been more ambitious formulated and that it was mostly about recruitment and less about broadened participation. The Faculty board decided that Torleif Härd, as chairman, would determine the response remittance, which should be sent no later than 26 February. Deputy Vice-Chancellor Karin Holmgren at SLU is responsible for this work on the strategy.

New Associate Professor at NJ Faculty

Recently, SLU decided that a person who has been appointed associate professor at another university does not need to undergo a new associate professor examination when that person gets a job at SLU if certain formalities are fulfilled. Now the first associate professor has been appointed at NJ according to this practice. It is Björn Rogell at the Department of Aquatic Resources who has been appointed associate professor in the subject biology with a specialization in ecology. Björn was appointed associate professor at Stockholm University in 2017. The Faculty Board has now decided that no new examination needs to be made.

Other News

Docent lectures

March 17–19, there are associate professor lectures at NJ. They are held as Zoom Lectures. See information about times and schedule here

August T Larsson Guest Researcher Programme

The aim of the programme is to promote exciting and important research collaborations by inviting guest researchers from all over the world to enrich and be enriched by the activities at the NJ faculty and SLU. Read more about this opportunity here