We look forward to welcoming new and returning students to a new academic year. We wish all lecturers, programme directors, administrators, students’ unions and everyone else involved in teaching the very best for the semester ahead. Your work is important and of high quality, and we are grateful for it.
The total number of students admitted to SLU’s degree programmes has increased by just over 8 per cent since last year. This suggests that the resources invested in marketing our degree programmes are paying off, and that more prospective students are becoming aware of our university and what we offer.
For LTV’s undergraduate programmes, the increase in admitted students is mainly seen in the two horticultural engineering programmes. Among our Master’s programmes in the Swedish admissions round, the Horticultural Science programme has admitted more students this year.
These students are in addition to those admitted earlier in the spring through the international admissions round. As usual, we will only know the final cohort sizes once students have registered. SLU has also continued to keep applicants engaged after the application deadline, and we hope this will help the positive trend continue.
Education conference and Faculty day
As usual, the education conference in Ultuna attracted a lot of visitors. The theme was ‘Education in Practice’, and the keynote lectures explored the role of ‘friction maxxing’ (google if you’re not familiar with this word) and its role in learning, as well as why meaningful relationships between teachers and students, and among students themselves, can improve students’ chances of completing their studies successfully. From the LTV Faculty, Jitka Svensson, Helena Mellqvist and Lisa Norfall led a workshop on feedback in teaching.
The faculty’s own ecucation day has been moved to February, and we will send out an invitation later this semester.
We would also like to flag the opportunity to apply for funding to develop short courses for professionals in food supply and food security. The deadline for applications is 30 September. You can find further information here.
Our Faculty Day attracted a large audience, with lectures on AI and academic freedom. Both topics are highly relevant and challenging for us, and for higher education in Sweden in general. We hope the day offered new insights that we can bring into our everyday work. See the presentations from the faculty day here.
Western Node
The projects relating to the Western Node are progressing as planned. One of the groups driving the work forward is developing proposals for a long-term laboratory layout, aiming to maximise functionality and make workflows as smooth as possible.
The architects are now involved in the ongoing work, which helps build a shared understanding of the needs and requirements of our core operations. Once the preliminary study has been approved, work will move on to designing the future workspaces.
New operations manager
We are also pleased to announce that Patrik Stolt has been appointed as the new operations manager at SLU Partnership Alnarp. Patrik has extensive experience as a leader and innovator in the Swedish and international agricultural sectors, with a particular focus on primary production and the food supply chain. He also holds a PhD from Alnarp in genetics and plant breeding. As operations manager, he will be part of the Unit for Collaboration and Development. We look forward to welcoming him.
I wish everyone a rewarding and enjoyable autumn semester.
Håkan Sandgren
Head of the Faculty administration
