News from the management

Thesis Day and the end of the semester for our students

On 31 May, Thesis Day and the graduation ceremony were held on campus. They were successful events with presentations, speeches and music for our students, colleagues, friends and families. Many thanks to all who participated and to all those who organised the events – that the students  appreciated it was evident in their happy smiles and laughter.

Faculty dialogue with the vice-chancellor and university management

Every year, the faculties have an operational dialogue with the vice-chancellor and university management, and on 27 May it was our turn. We discussed, among other things, how the faculty is doing in our core activities, covering aspects such as finance, quantity and quality. We spent considerable time discussing the quality reports for both research and environmental assessment, doctoral education and our programmes, and also focused on external and internal environment scanning for work on the upcoming SLU strategy.

The day finished with a quiz trail in the park with the aim of showing and drawing the management's attention to what a fantastic treasure SLU has in the form of our research infrastructure at the faculty. In general, our faculty is doing well and management appreciates and praises the strategic work that is being done to develop and strengthen our faculty – and all of you contribute to this, driving the faculty forward through quality research, teaching and collaboration.

There are, of course, areas where there is room for improvement, such as increasing our approval rate for grant applications and our publication quality. However, I am certain that we can improve these areas together, through strategic work.

Subject area review

On 3 April, the faculty board adopted principles for how we define a subject area, the appropriate size of a subject area to create the conditions for strong research environments, the role and function of subject coordinators, and principles for subject funding allocation. The next step is now the departments implementing these principles. They have support in the form of professional process managers, and the heads of department and deans have had an initial meeting with them. The process managers will support heads of department and staff in the continued efforts to define and describe subject areas for the allocation of funding in 2025 and 2026. Changes as a result of the process can of course cause concern, but it’s important to remember that the purpose of the subject area review is to strengthen conditions for the future and for all staff at the faculty.

New doctoral students on the way

The 10 principal supervisors who were granted projects in the faculty's doctoral initiative have now published job ads and we look forward to welcoming 10 new doctoral students in exciting research areas this autumn.

New faculty programme director joins us in August

Our current faculty programme director, Kristin Andersson, has chosen to return to her previous employer (Malmö University). Her replacement, Cecilia Hultman, will start on 19 August. Cecilia currently works as head of department support at the Malmö Academy of Music, Lund University, and programme director at the Faculty of Fine and Performing Arts at the same university. Previous posts also include administrative officer and programme director at Malmö University. We thank Kristin and wish her good luck, and we look forward to welcoming Cecilia in mid August.

LTV faculty day

The LTV Faculty was set up 20 years ago, which means that we have an anniversary this year. We celebrate this on 29 August, from 10am to 9pm, with exciting activities, pomp and circumstance and of course good food and company. Keep an eye on the web where the programme will be posted before the end of the semester and where you can register.

LTV training day

On 28 August between 9:30am and 4:20pm, we have a training conference at Best Western Malmö Arena Hotel. The day will include exciting lectures and a guided tour of the Hyllievången park. If you have not yet registered, there is still time.

The last faculty board meeting of the semester

On Wednesday 12 June, the faculty board had its last meeting this semester. The faculty's heads of department were also invited and the focus of the meeting was opportunities, challenges, practical examples and academic integrity in the use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in our research and teaching. An exciting day with Göran Lindsjö (AI advisor in Sweden and abroad) and Roger Petterson (SLU’s Division of Learning and Digitalisation) as inspirational speakers.

Finally, I would like to take this opportunity to thank you for this semester and all your efforts, great commitment and work that you have contributed this spring. I wish you a nice Midsummer and a nice and restful summer and holiday.

Summer greetings,

Christina