Letter from the Dean

The past few years have been marked by fluctuations in the number of newly registered students. During the Covid period, we had a peak, but since then the numbers have dropped significantly. We are continuously working to increase the number of applications again. This involves improved marketing of our programmes, but we also need to review the content of the programmes to make them more appealing to prospective students.

The programmes related to agronomy have seen the most significant decline, and SLU has determined that the reform introducing separate bachelor’s and master’s programmes leading to an agronomy degree has not achieved the desired results. Therefore, the five-year agronomy programmes will be reintroduced starting from 2025–2026.

We have a large number of educational programmes, and consequently many courses, but not so many students, which contributes to a strained undergraduate education economy. The NJ Faculty is therefore working to reduce the number of courses while maintaining the quality of education. This may involve more shared courses, merging programmes, and possibly discontinuing some courses. This work is being conducted by several groups with a coordinator, Ida Kollberg, from the Department of Crop Production Ecology. Read an interview with Ida here.

Lastly, course evaluations show that we have a very high quality in our education! In the autumn of 2023, 24 courses (out of over 90) had an average rating of 4.5 or higher, and only 3 courses had ratings of 3.0 or lower! Three courses received a perfect score of 5.0: BI1044 Plant Pathology, BI1277 Vertebrate Zoology, and BI1381 Mycology. Congratulations to those who work on these courses! SLU also received fantastic reviews in the International Student Barometer, read more about it here! I hope that the students' reviews become more widely known, so please help spread the word!

Now I am looking forward to a summer break with the hope of typical summer weather. I wish everyone at the NJ Faculty a pleasant summer!

Jon-Petter Gustafsson
Vice Dean and Chair of the Programme Board

Photo: Amanda Öberg.