News from the NJ Faculty Board meeting, 7 December

Recruitments

The board decided to launch the following recruitments:

• One senior lecturer in soil chemistry.
• One senior lecturer in biochemistry.
• One associate senior lecturer in soil nutrient cycling.
• One associate senior lecturer in soil mechanics and soil management.
• One associate senior lecturer in economics and business administration specialising in applied business administration

These recruitments are part of the faculty’s long-term skills provision plan, drafted in consultation with the departments. The ambition is that all subject areas (ämnesområden) should have a core of teachers funded by direct government funding..

Fewer subject fields

The faculty board decided to reduce the number of subject fields from 55 to 50. This is a policy decision that will apply as of the end of 2025. It will lead to increased core funding for the remaining subject areas, something that has been part of the faculty strategy since 2017 when the objective to strengthen subject area funding was first introduced. One way of fulfilling this objective is to reduce the number of subject areas.

This should be seen in the context of direct government funding, in practice, being reduced as the annual increase is usually not sufficient to cover salary increases. This erosion of funding means less funding available for a subject area once the salary of the professor has been paid. The faculty board’s decision will conteract this trend.

New graduate school at the NJ Faculty

The board decided to establish a new graduate school – People, Society and Sustainability – for the period 2023 to 2025, with annual funding of SEK 950,000. The background is that in February this year, two of the faculty’s graduate schools were invited to submit a joint application for a new graduate school.