News from the management

Campus development

The campus development process has entered the next phase, and an architect has been hired to draft a more detailed suggestion for the design of the Western hub (Västra Noden) buildings and our future work environment. Our green campus environment is also being improved, and the latest additions are the new fruit and berry field with trees and bushes from Balsgård, and the move of the organic fields which will hopefully happen soon. You can see the fruit and berry field on your right when you approach campus from Åkarp.

Our vice dean for research infrastructure led the first, successful workshop on our research infrastructures; the next workshop will take place Wednesday 24 April, 13:15–15:00, and is both on-site and hybrid.

The LTV Faculty celebrates 20 years

This year, we celebrate our 20th anniversary as a faculty. Celebrations will take place as part of the Faculty Day on 29 August and will include an exciting trip back in time, as well as delicious food and good company.

LTV Edcucational conference

Another save-the-date is the LTV Edcucational conference on 28 August with an inspiring programme.

Subject area review

The faculty’s subject area review is entering the last phase, establishing principles for defining a subject area as well as the suitable size of a subject area to create conditions for strong research environments, the role and function of heads of subject and principles for the allocation of funding. The faculty board will decide on principles on 3 April, and during March there will be information sessions for heads of department and heads of subject (7 March) and all staff (11 and 13 March). After these information sessions, the departments, supported by professional process management, will continue to work on designing and describing their subject areas ahead of the allocation of funds for 2025 and 2026. We’re trying to keep the subject area review page up-to-date, so please check that for more information.

Financial support for doctoral students

We received 27 applications for our initiative to co-fund doctoral students, an amazing result. The assessment panel will meet on 7 March; the panel consists of two groups, an in-house one (the dean and the vice dean for doctoral studies) and an external one (Honorary Doctor Professor Catherine Ward Tomsson, Honorary Doctor Professor Charles Francis and Professor Magnus Löf). On 15 March, we will be presenting the 10 doctoral student projects selected by the panel.

Marketing our programmes

As for student recruitment, the deputy dean, the programme directors of studies, students, teachers and staff from the Education Centre are arranging a number of open days to attract potential students to our programmes. A big thank you to everyone for your commitment and let’s hope our marketing efforts will result in an increased number of applications in the future.

2024 staff survey

Between 22 January and 2 February, all SLU staff could take part in a staff survey. The survey provides a measure of employee satisfaction, which is summarised in an employee engagement index. At the faculty, we arranged a small contest with semlor as a prize; the winners were SoU with the highest response rate, VF with the largest absolute increase in response rate compared to the 2021 survey and LAPF which had the largest relative increase in response rate compared to 2021. The total response rate for our departments was 84 per cent, considerably higher than in 2021. The overall faculty result was very good (an index of 73), with a notable increase in almost all areas compared to 2021. The faculty’s combined results are available to read (in Swedish), and you can compare them with the results for SLU as a whole. The results for individual departments and divisions will be presented by heads of department and line managers.

This semester, SLU has submitted its opinion on the research funding investigation (FoFin), SLU’s budgetary support documents 2025–2027 to the Government Offices and SLU’s annual report 2023 to the government (those documents in Swedish only).

Finally, I would like to take this opportunity to wish you all a great spring semester.

Kind regards,
Christina