We face global challenges in both academia and politics. Ylva Fältholm believes that the university’s vision of contributing to “societal development through research, education and critical reflection on contemporary challenges” is fundamental to a sustainable society and is the cornerstone of democratic society.

The role of the university in the higher education landscape and academia’s societal importance are issues that Ylva will prioritise.

“But first I need to get to know the university and learn more about its courses and programmes, its research and the challenges that need dealing with,” she says. “So it will be a process – right now I have no agenda.”

Fostering a good workplace culture

Ylva is a professor of human work science. How can a good workplace culture be created and maintained in academia?

“I work with processes a great deal – and I want them to be participatory,” she explains. “Good leadership is important for the work environment, both in the academia and elsewhere. In academia, academic citizenship is a concept that is increasingly discussed and which is important in workplace culture. It involves building engagement in creating sustainable environments for research and education, through participation in the scientific community, membership of grading committees or ways in which senior researchers can help include junior researchers.

“It is important not to be a solitary figure, but instead to think about the whole academic environment,” she says. “This has an impact on the work environment.”

The internal environment and choices made there are not all that shape our workplace culture. National admission figures for the autumn semester show that distance learning is very popular. What happens to campuses when there are fewer people on them?

“I guess the question I want to answer is ‘How present must we be to create a good environment?’” she explains. “Instead of letting this trend just happen, we should consider the direction we want to take, and why. If we want to have a thriving campus, we may need to think about the balance between face-to-face and distance learning and have a strategy for what we want to achieve.”

Vice-chancellor at the University of Gävle for eight years

Ylva Fältholm is currently vice-chancellor of the University of Gävle, a position she has held since 2017. What will she bring with her from there?

“Starting at Södertörn University is a new context, but the task of a vice-chancellor is largely the same,” she explains. “For example, I know how the government makes decisions, how higher education institutions work and how inter-agency dialogues are conducted. I’ll be bringing this with me to build upon. Similarly, I already have a network in the sector.”

“We must protect students’ rights to apply for and shape their own educational pathways”

The consequences of the political governance of higher education and research are being felt in academia, both nationally and internationally.

“We are seeing trends in Europe where some countries are moving in less democratic directions and are starting to control programme content or prohibit universities from offering certain courses,” she says. “We must be vigilant, and this is a major challenge for the whole of academia.”

What is happening in the US can also happen here.

“We are actually more vulnerable than Harvard University, for example, because we are a public agency and are governed on the basis of the resources we are given,” she says. “So working for more autonomy and more distance from the state is a good thing.”

Academic freedom, cooperation, transparency and open science are keywords for a higher education institution.

“However, geopolitical tensions mean we need to be vigilant about who we work with,” she says. “We must draw the line between antagonistic countries that want to access expertise and innovation, and safeguarding the open scientific community.

“In Sweden, the emphasis is on making all education attractive to the labour market,” she explains. “But we must protect students’ rights to academic freedom, to apply for and shape their own educational pathways. But that assumes that liberal education is valued.”

Calls for a long-term strategy on the issue of full university status

Södertörn University is not the only institution with the ambition of achieving full university status. The University of Gävle has the same aim.

“However, the current political circumstances are not favourable,” says Ylva. “But we must remember that this is a long-term ambition. It is an issue that I have raised regularly and will continue to raise. I’m not just thinking of each separate higher education institution, instead I would like a more long-term strategy for all of Sweden’s higher education institutions. Which ones have become full universities has been a little ad hoc, and perhaps not on entirely clear grounds. Here, I would like to see a more transparent process. Still, internationally we are already universities as we conduct doctoral education.”

Impressions of Södertörn University

Ylva says that her impression of the university is that it is a dynamic environment with extremely interesting research and education.

“It is an exciting place and I’m looking forward to being part of it,” she says.

All employees are invited to a conversation with Ylva Fältholm on 28 August. Want to suggest a question? Please send it to kommunikationsstod@sh.se