Ida Kollberg on the Program and Course Offerings at the NJ Faculty

The overarching goal is to enhance the quality and financial viability of the courses, which are currently deemed negatively affected by the large number of courses with few students per course.

Ida Kollberg works at the Department of Crop Production Ecology, where she researches plant-insect interactions, serves as the Director of Undergraduate Studies, and is responsible for several courses. Ida studied biology at SLU and completed her PhD at the Department of Ecology. This fall, she will have been at SLU for 25 years.

What is the background of the new assignment?

"The course economy is currently strained. We have too few students spread across too many courses, resulting in insufficient funding per student. This leads to either course cutbacks or reduced compensation for teachers. Teaching should be delivered with high quality and provide fair compensation for teachers, which is why this task is very important."

What does the upcoming work entail?

"We will conduct a thorough review of the courses and programs offered by the faculty to primarily see how we can reduce the number of courses with few students. For example, can courses be combined, restructured, or co-taught, or should some be removed? This does not exclude the possibility of also working on the other end, attracting more students, but that is not included in this assignment."

Who is involved in the work?

"Seven working groups with different areas of responsibility have been formed, primarily involving members of the Program Board and respective program directors of studies. We will see how the work progresses."

What is the timeline?

"In November, the working groups will report to the Program Board. In March, a proposal for strengthening the course economy will be presented to the faculty leadership."

Photo: Ida Kollberg