The University

Fredrik Malm (L)

Madam Speaker! We shall now debate the Education Committee's report on higher education.

Free and independent universities are a cornerstone of democratic society. Those who are free to seek knowledge will also deepen their knowledge and contribute to both their own and society's development and education.

Many of today's societal problems will require more knowledge and research for us to be able to solve them. This applies, for example, to how we can cure severe diseases and how we can produce vaccines and medicines, meet the climate crisis and produce more nutrients in food, but also how we can tackle social challenges such as crime, mental illness and children's learning, for example. Here there is a utility aspect for society and the opportunity to create better lives for billions of people. It can range from alleviating pain during illness to giving children the opportunity for a better education.

Research, science, knowledge and facts are also central for us to be able to become more resistant against conspiracy theories, disinformation and self-appointed experts and fortune seekers on YouTube in general. Knowledge strengthens society's resilience. A crowd that is well-educated becomes harder for a demagogue to incite. A group that is well-educated becomes harder for an ideologue to manipulate and deceive with simple solutions.

Freedom of academia is a prerequisite for a liberal society, for an open society, and for Sweden to be a successful industrial and welfare nation. Sweden is a small country but has high ambitions in education and research. We are, to use an English expression, a small and smart country. Therefore, we must also prioritize smartly.

Madam Speaker! The Government is making major investments to promote Swedish innovative power and growth, not least by investing in the STEM fields, i.e., natural sciences, technology, and engineering. During the coming years, targeted investments will be made for more teaching hours in technical education.

We meet the needs of the industry and healthcare by training more nurses and engineers. Initiatives are also being carried out in research and education within socially important areas such as cybersecurity, battery technology, 6G and so on.

In the budget amendment, investments are also made in other parts of the education system, not least in regional vocational adult education. Also in the instances that lead up to higher education, namely primary school and upper secondary school, the government is cleaning up. It is absolutely necessary to do this. We shall have a school that, at younger ages, returns to the basics.

My party Liberalerna is also in favor of re-regulating Swedish schools and dealing with new public management's target-driven management. The 1990s' municipalization and several other changes have been deeply harmful to the Swedish school system, which has also affected higher education because students' knowledge acquisition has deteriorated.

Even at colleges and universities, we must raise the quality. Excellence in research lays the foundation for our prosperity, and there is an intrinsic value in Sweden being involved and contributing to solutions for humanity's great challenges.

More foreign researchers must come and also stay in Sweden and contribute their knowledge. Therefore, an investigator has been tasked with submitting proposals for measures that improve the possibilities to attract and retain foreign doctoral students and researchers in Sweden. The purpose is, among other things, to strengthen our competitiveness as a research and innovation nation.

This, Madam Speaker, occurs in a world that is becoming increasingly uncertain. Antagonistic actors wish Sweden ill. This is stated by the Swedish Security Service as well as the military intelligence service and also the Total Defence Research Institute, which also assesses that educational institutions are vulnerable.

Last year, the Government let an investigator review how the competence of universities and colleges in security matters can be increased. He submitted his proposal in January this year and points out major deficiencies there. Therefore, for a little over a month now, the Government has given a mandate to the nominating persons – what ordinary people call election committees – to consider that there is competence in security matters in the university boards. This is very important.

We must realize the seriousness, Madam Speaker, that states such as Russia, China and Iran view Swedish educational institutions - our universities and colleges - as important targets for information gathering and also, in some cases, as objects of sabotage.

In conclusion, Madam Speaker, the educational chain that runs from preschool up to the universities is connected. If children at younger ages do not develop and receive sufficient knowledge, the quality is lowered further down the chain.

The PISA study concerns students in upper secondary school, while PIRLS concerns primary school. The knowledge collapse we witnessed in the latest PISA study indicates very large challenges ahead also for our universities and colleges. Therefore, we must be able to see the necessity of investments in quality and excellence in higher education, but also large investments in basic knowledge and study habits at younger ages.

With these words, I wish to vote in favor of the committee's proposal in the report.

(Applause)

The speech at riksdagen.se, in Swedish (opens in a new tab)

Niklas Sigvardsson (S)

Madam Speaker! Member Malm spoke nicely about how people who are well-educated and well-informed are difficult to deceive, and one can certainly stand behind these beautiful words. It is something that has been self-evident for a long time.

It has also been obvious that as a student, one should actually be able to choose courses and to a large extent be able to choose to educate and form oneself within what one oneself desires. A higher education institution should be able to adapt courses according to the labor market's needs but also according to the students' will to study them.

Therefore, I still want to hear the member's view on what his own party colleague, the Minister for Education, has discussed extensively in the media over the past week, namely the substantial cut in independent courses that has been announced. The Minister also points out that there are courses of a hobby character within higher education. I would like to hear member Malm explain and reflect on this in his own way. Which courses of a hobby character can the member name? What is it that is going to disappear from higher education moving forward?

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Fredrik Malm (L)

Madam Speaker! I appreciate that Niklas Sigvardsson is humble enough to state that Member Malm may reason "in his own way". That is very good. I really appreciate that.

It is like this, Madam Speaker: For a number of years, we have had a discussion about, for example, the dimensioning of the Swedish upper secondary school. One has discussed the need for more to study, for example, vocationally oriented programs, and that it means that slightly fewer will study theoretical programs. It is clear that even when it comes to higher education, one must be able to conduct a discussion regarding, for example, dimensioning. It can be about courses that are a bit longer, about shorter courses, or about whether one from a political standpoint—perhaps in a research proposition or in some other way—wants to map out a direction because one wants to prioritize certain research areas a bit more, and so on.

I perceive that what Mats Persson wants is to have such a discussion because he sees a risk in the development over the recent years, that is to say that certain branches of education - especially the technology educations, which are very important for Sweden and often quite expensive when it comes to labs, teacher-led instruction and other things - risk to fall out negatively on the total, so to speak. That is a bit how I perceive it.

I welcome that discussion. I think it is just as important for higher education as it is for upper secondary school. Otherwise, everyone must answer for what they say. Those who choose to use words like hobby character can do so. I do not use that expression, in any case, but everyone is free to choose which words they use.

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Niklas Sigvardsson (S)

Madam Speaker! I listened intently for an answer to my question. At the end of the reply, the word hobby character was mentioned at least, so we may perhaps consider the question answered. But I still do not quite understand.

If it turns out as the minister says, the number of courses will decrease, and what the Minister for Education says should reasonably be what the majority of the committee will make decisions on going forward. We must at least reasonably be able to think that way. Therefore, I still think that Member Malm is rightly obligated: If it is the case that courses will disappear, in which direction do the courses that are to disappear lie?

It becomes, like, illogical in my head when Fredrik Malm completely avoids that type of question. His Minister for Education has, over the past week, very clearly stated that courses will need to disappear and that it is primarily courses of a hobby character that are to be hunted down at the country's higher education institutions. I therefore ask which types of courses among the independent courses Member Malm thinks should be reduced at the country's higher education institutions going forward.

The speech at riksdagen.se, in Swedish (opens in a new tab)

Fredrik Malm (L)

Madam Speaker! There is a saying that goes: "As one asks, so one gets an answer." This perhaps encapsulates this exchange of remarks a little.

It is not we here who make decisions on individual courses at the higher education institutions; I am convinced that Niklas Sigvardsson is fully aware of that. But if, within higher education in Sweden, there are relatively speaking almost cuts to heavy, expensive, and long training programs that are very important for Swedish growth – not least training within industry, workshop technology, green transition and so on – while at the same time there is a very strong increase in shorter courses where one perhaps cannot always see quite the same connection to the labor market, I believe that even the Social Democrats would perceive that development as not entirely optimal.

If we set the rhetoric aside a bit, I think that when one looks at our education system, one must be able to conduct a political discussion regarding the issue of dimensioning and so on of the educations - and I think that applies across the entire line, actually, from the youngest ages all the way up to the universities. But then we have autonomous institutions, and based on the guidelines and budget allocations that are made, they obviously decide for themselves regarding the education, course content and such things. I do not think, therefore, that Niklas Sigvardsson actually needs to be so worried.

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Camilla Hansén (MP)

Madam Speaker! I thank Fredrik Malm for the speech. I thought it sounded like a very wise idea to map out the direction for research and education in a research proposition that one makes proposals about and has a debate on. Now, however, the directions are appearing in debate articles in the daily press, written by a government party.

I want to link this to academic freedom and the protection of it. There is great support for the fact that it needs to be strengthened; there does not seem to be any huge political disagreement about it, and from the academy and students, the pressure is quite high to strengthen the constitutional protection for academic freedom. When individual ministers point with the whole hand at what should happen at higher education institutions and with specific courses, perhaps it is also high time.

I have perceived that there is nevertheless an interest even from the government and the Liberals in strengthening the constitutional protection for academic freedom. My question is therefore when this will happen.

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Fredrik Malm (L)

Madam Speaker! If we are talking about constitutional laws, we can begin by stating that the right for ministers to write debate articles is actually constitutionally protected, which I hope the Miljöpartiet takes note of.

Of course, government representatives, party leaders, or all of us in here must be able to express themselves on issues regarding research, even if we are not going to vote on the research policy bill just for today. We only do that once per parliamentary term, and it would be a meager debate on research if we could not discuss the direction of research on the other days as well.

I would say this, Madam Speaker: I am not closing any doors for a discussion regarding what Camilla Hansén is raising. It should however be said that there is now a mandate at UKÄ, if I remember correctly, regarding for example free research and how it is protected for researchers. That mandate I believe is to be reported in May, and then we will see after that as well – it is perhaps a bit of an overall picture and so on. But I welcome that discussion.

The speech at riksdagen.se, in Swedish (opens in a new tab)

Camilla Hansén (MP)

Madam Speaker! Now, it was perhaps not the questioning of writing debate articles in itself that my question was about. It was rather about when the work will begin to strengthen the protection for not only the research but also higher education, the teachers' work, the organization, the funding, and perhaps regulations regarding the appointments of persons within the academy. When will this happen?

The protection of academic freedom in Sweden is weak in an international context. Another weakness is that we have very little teaching time. The students in what we like to call the knowledge nation Sweden spend very little time with their teachers. This is, of course, a concern for quality. Should one learn difficult things on one's own or together with those who already know difficult things?

The government has chosen the cheese slicer as a tool when it comes to the academy and has made general cuts that affect all educational institutions. They have invested in science and technology education, which is great – I am not against that in any way. The problem is that the general cuts at many educational institutions are greater than the investment they have made in science and technology education.

Before the autumn budget, the Liberals could have been active and pushed to get money back to the academy. We have a situation where educational institutions are canceling teaching because they cannot afford it. Lawyers, teachers, and nurses are having canceled lectures. This is happening in the knowledge nation Sweden, which has the least teaching time in all of Europe.

When will the Liberals push to ensure that students get enough time with their teachers?

The speech at riksdagen.se, in Swedish (opens in a new tab)

Fredrik Malm (L)

Madam Speaker! I listened to this long reasoning and noted that Camilla Hansen's party has governed Sweden for eight of the last ten years. Why did nothing happen? How has Miljöpartiet been able to accept that this development has continued?

If one only focuses on quantity and the main goal is that as many as possible should enter higher education, then there will be less teacher-led instruction. That is what happens if one does not simultaneously compensate the higher education institutions for the increased cost. The most important thing for us is to have as high a quality as possible.

I agree with the analysis that this is a problem in Sweden. It is a problem that the teacher-led teaching time - for example, the time a student gets with their supervisor - is insufficient. I hope that as we fight inflation, strengthen the Swedish economy and its productivity, and thereby enhance our opportunities to invest more in higher education, we actually do just that.

The Liberals are the party that in every negotiation over the last 30-40 years has tried to milk out that little extra for school and education. It is our party's most important issue, and we gladly accept help from everyone who wants to contribute to this work moving forward.

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Anders Ådahl (C)

Madam Speaker! I believe this will be an interesting exchange of an ideological nature, Member Malm! Our parties are, fundamentally, quite similar to one another. The Centre Party is liberal, and the Liberals are perhaps liberal.

At the same time, I find that we have recently drifted apart a bit. The reasoning regarding the academy that Member Malm presented from the rostrum, I did not think hung together, and I thought it had quite little to do with liberalism. On one hand, it was an unblemished defense of the free academy and the free university, and on the other hand, Sweden has a Minister for Education who wants to control individual courses and who wants to step in and control how the composition of the boards should look. He wants to change and micro-manage.

Member of the Board Malm spoke about wanting to leave new public management when it comes to the school. Even in higher education, we have something that resembles new public management. I can agree that we should leave this, but I do not think we should go to new liberal management - the new liberals' management - and point with the whole hand and directly manage.

I would like to ask Member Malm to explain how, on the one hand, one can say that we absolutely must have free academies and free universities and, on the other hand, have views on which courses individual universities choose to have in their catalog. This could never happen in the USA. Donald Trump would never during his time have been able to point at Stanford and Harvard and say: Remove these courses! Because the academies are free there – they are free from the state.

How does this hang together, member Malm?

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Fredrik Malm (L)

Madam Speaker! Regarding the example, I believe that Donald Trump would very much like to step in and say this and that about the mentioned educational institutions. It is, however, quite true that autonomy in the USA is very great, so he would have little success in this.

What this is about is rather a discussion on how our higher education should look and function in a broader perspective. Our Minister for Education has been very clear about the necessity of strengthening STEM subjects with a STEM strategy so that we get more engineers, strengthen engineering education, and so on. Unfortunately, the previous governments did not make that prioritization. They prioritized other things within the education sector.

Member of the Government Anders Ådahl is, of course, completely correct that the Liberals and the Centre Party are now ideologically quite close to each other. One should, however, note, Madam Speaker, that it has not always been so. The Centre Party oriented itself in a liberal direction to reach more urban voters at some point in the late 1990s, while the Liberals have been Liberals since liberalism and the party system were born in Sweden.

When it comes to the composition of boards, I do not perceive it at all as any kind of interference in academic freedom. There are rules for how board members are appointed at our universities and educational institutions. These rules are determined by the government. Now they are being adjusted to strengthen the competence and security knowledge in the boards. This is being done following clear indications from our law enforcement authorities, and it has subsequently been the subject of an investigation. I do not see any oddities at all in this procedure.

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Anders Ådahl (C)

Madam Speaker! I agree with Member Malm that it is wise to direct extra interest and focus towards what is called STEM, i.e., science, technology, engineering and mathematics. It is good that a government can point out certain areas and make special investments in them.

It is not this, however, that we are discussing, but we are discussing the academy's freedom and autonomy. We are discussing institutional freedom and that the higher education institutions themselves shall be allowed to choose their course offerings and which programs are offered. It is the higher education institutions that have the greatest opportunity to deliver the very best courses to Sweden's students. We are talking about this and about the difference in how our parties view it.

There is something I do not understand. If one, as Minister for Education, says that we should not have certain courses, it must have a consequence. How do you make this happen? Is it through some form of direct management? Should one turn to the heads of the higher education institutions and say that they should remove this or that course, or how is it supposed to go?

I believe that Education Minister Mats Persson said that he will use the economic instrument and cut funds to certain universities. However, there is a risk that these universities will not choose to remove the courses that Mats Persson calls hobby courses. If one now wants to steer the universities, which the Liberals seem to want to do, and does not want to leave them free, how will that practically happen? How will one get rid of the courses that the Liberals want to remove?

The speech at riksdagen.se, in Swedish (opens in a new tab)

Fredrik Malm (L)

Madam Speaker! I believe it is important that we have some perspective here.

Member of Parliament Ådahl can enter any educational institution in Sweden, regardless of whether it is a university or a college. If he enters there with the starting point that the institution does not operate under academic freedom today, I believe he finds himself in some kind of parallel orbit around the globe we actually live on. We have a free academy in Sweden. We have free research in Sweden. The Liberals safeguard this order, just as I hope that all parties in the Riksdag safeguard that order.

Madam Speaker! I can also state one more thing. Politics always steers higher education through economic resources. We do it in the budget bill. We did it the other day in a spring revision budget. We will do it this autumn with a research policy orientation bill and so on. It happens all the time, and it happens every day.

The same applies to the Swedish school system. We have now increased support for precisely technology education. Based on the Center Party's reasoning, we should possibly not do so. But we have chosen to make that prioritization because we consider those educations to be very important.

One can never escape the fact that higher education is an interplay where our universities and colleges should be as free as possible. But in the end, there are also 7, 8, 9 or 10 million taxpayers out there who hold us accountable for ensuring that we allocate resources in such a way that we reach the goals that we have, in a democratic manner, set for higher education.

This is interconnected. It is not possible to decouple sectors, where furthermore each university is an authority, completely from all politics. It is impossible to do that. At the same time, we absolutely should not have an order where politics decides things that are unreasonable for our higher education institutions to meet. It is a constant interplay.

I hope that moving forward we can continue to develop Swedish higher education in ways that will ensure we win even more Nobel Prizes in the future.

(Applause)

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Niklas Sigvardsson (S)

Madam Speaker! I would first, of course, like to point out that we Social Democrats stand behind all our reservations and the motions that are treated simplified in this report. But for the sake of time, I only move for approval of reservations 1 and 6.

Madam Speaker! Sweden is a fantastic country to receive an education in, which gives many people the chance to realize themselves through educational journeys within our entire education system. Higher education and research are absolutely crucial for Sweden as a knowledge nation, but also to provide everyone with opportunities for education and to strengthen their life chances.

Still, access to higher education is unevenly distributed across our country and between people. It enriches some regions, while other regions become poorer. Just as in primary school, the parents' educational background plays a completely decisive role for people to continue their studies at university and for their opportunities to complete their studies. The proportion who proceed to higher education is also completely dependent on where in the country one lives.

In Danderyd, it is 79 percent who have started higher education studies at the age of 24. The corresponding figure in the ten municipalities with the lowest transition rate lies at 10-20 percent. In addition to the social composition, it is the geographical proximity to higher education and the situation on the local labor market that determines the entire decision. Foreign-born men who immigrated at some point between the ages of seven and twelve start higher education studies to the lowest extent.

We as a country cannot be satisfied with that. More must be done, and the hard work that the previous Social Democratic governments have carried out needs to be strengthened and developed. More initiatives need to be established so that people far from academic homes are given the opportunity to realize themselves and get the opportunity to contribute in the best way to the future development of society. Therefore, initiatives on learning centers, student health, and differentiated course offerings are extra important to enable more people to undertake university studies.

A task that has become increasingly important is the opportunity to transition and develop throughout life. During a working life, we may be forced to change paths and professional roles three, four, and five times. It is one of the main reasons why, since 2022, there is a transition study support in place that provides the financial opportunity to, at later points in life, be able to transition or supplement knowledge that strengthens individuals and their opportunities in the labor market.

But for the transition study support to become as good as it can be, we need to get better opportunities for transition and skills development through a changed course offering for higher education.

Increased flexibility in the educational offering is needed with more short courses and more part-time courses. Since a majority of those employed today have a post-secondary education, the educational offering will need to be at both post-secondary level and university level.

It is required that a new range of courses be developed, but also that courses that today are placed a bit later in program educations also become possible to study and are opened up for more people. People should be able to supplement a degree that has a slightly older style.

Today's announcement from the government that they are open to an investigator reviewing this is pleasing. Then the committee majority can also stand behind reservation 6, which I previously moved for approval.

Madam Speaker! The strange statement regarding independent courses from the government and the Minister for Education is not only a threat to people's ability to educate themselves throughout their lives and to be able to develop. It also follows a trend for the current government, which time and again challenges academic freedom.

It is freedom where the academy needs to be those who govern the content of the courses and the course offerings that exist. Otherwise, we must ask ourselves whether the government and its parties truly stand up for academic freedom, or if it is now to be the government's task to micro-manage even course offerings in the future.

To the massive criticism that has occurred during the past week, we can add this past year's criticism regarding the boards of the universities. In that case, it cannot be ruled out that the political micro-management will become larger and increasingly detailed moving forward. It is a clear break from the previous common view in this chamber on academic freedom.

Over the past year, more than 440,000 students have studied at some of the country's higher education institutions. It is pleasing that so many choose to study a single course or an entire program. The students are, after all, the absolute most important when it comes to the activities of higher education.

They can also be an extremely important resource in participating in developing and improving the operations of the educational institutions. But in that case, all the country's students need to be given the prerequisites regarding studies, well-being, health, and activities.

It is therefore of the utmost importance that the work to develop student health continues to be strengthened. It is pleasing that the common student health portal that has been launched is up and running. It was initiated by the previous Social Democratic government. But further steps need to be taken.

We need to dispel the myth that higher education is not for everyone. Not everyone may want to go to higher education, but everyone must be given the opportunity to be able to go to higher education. In that case, higher education needs to be adapted for all types of students. In that case, class, learning ability, mental health, or family situation should not play any role. Students who enter their studies should also have the opportunity to be able to complete their studies.

Another matter of utmost importance is that students across our country have the opportunity to engage in a strong organizational life at our higher education institutions. There, the tradition of campus engagement looks very different. But there must, of course, be a breadth in the range of student-led associations at all the country's higher education institutions. This also includes political associations.

In view of various events in recent years and the risk that student organizations may be treated arbitrarily, we Social Democrats believe that Chapter 1, Section 13 of the Higher Education Ordinance should be reviewed so that arbitrary interpretations do not exclude democratically organized associations.

Colleges, universities and student unions shall take their respective democratic responsibility. But that requires that political organizations can also be part of the democratic dialogue at all the country's educational institutions.

In this way, all the country's educational institutions contribute not only by reviewing, being able to educate for critical thinking and obtaining well-educated students, but the democratic political conversation must also exist all around at all our educational institutions. It contributes to students seeing it as a self-evident part to contribute not only during their studies but in society at large throughout their lives.

In conclusion, it is important to point out that we have come a long way regarding the development of higher education. But we need more, and we can do better. We need to ensure that the policy does not stop at focusing on more people getting in and starting their higher studies. We need to continue to ensure that those who have gotten in also complete their studies and that they are given the opportunity to graduate.

A social democratic higher education policy will provide many doors in and more chances during studies. A completed education provides endless opportunities. Such a policy is crucial for Sweden to be able to succeed as a knowledge nation and for the individual to be given opportunities for their educational journey.

(Applause)

The speech at riksdagen.se, in Swedish (opens in a new tab)

Marie-Louise Hänel Sandström (M)

Madam Speaker! I reflected on the question that the member raised quite early in his speech: broadened recruitment. It sounded as if the government would have cancelled a lot of measures that the Social Democrats had previously taken, which I do not quite think corresponds with reality.

The government is investing heavily in broadened recruitment, in ensuring that student health functions, and in providing support to all students and pupils who want to study. We have also worked extensively with the STEM strategy, which aims to reach parents early so that children and pupils will dare to study in areas they might not have thought they could manage. We are also investing heavily in "tekniksprång" (technology leaps), for example, to tell students that they can manage their studies.

I think the government is doing very much for a broadened recruitment, so I am curious about what it is that the member thinks we are not doing but that the Social Democrats did.

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Niklas Sigvardsson (S)

Madam Speaker! I did not think my speech was so critical of the current government, but rather it was critical of how reality looks. Reality is still uneven. We Social Democrats succeeded with much, but we did not succeed all the way. That is what we are honest and open about. We need to get better, and Sweden needs to get better, when it comes to the development so that everyone gets a chance to pursue higher education. There we need to do more.

I have been around various educational institutions in our country. Most recently, it was around Easter, when I had the privilege of visiting Malmö University, which works a great deal with academic introductory courses. There, I got the opportunity to meet students who came from very different backgrounds. There were those who had just come from the folk high school and who saw the academic introductory course as a step in. There was also someone who was around 50 years old and worked as a preschool teacher but who wanted to study so that in the final years of her professional life she could work as a special education teacher, because she felt that the calling had come here and now.

I wish that the government could talk more about those types of broadened recruitment initiatives so that we get an even clearer focus on broadened recruitment. In that way, Sweden as a nation can continue to take steps towards enabling studies throughout the country.

In Lund as well, they work with broadened recruitment, but perhaps in a slightly different way. They have open courses, including an introductory course in law, where everyone who applies gets in if they have basic eligibility. Those who are absolutely the best then get an opportunity to enter the law program, which is one of the most sought-after programs in the entire country. One does not therefore need to get an A in all subjects; instead, one can find one's calling in life later and be given the opportunity to study.

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Marie-Louise Hänel Sandström (M)

Madam Speaker! I was referring to the fact that the member previously said that the Social Democrats made many interventions that were interrupted. I therefore wanted to know what it was that the government would have interrupted and what the Social Democrats would, in that case, do for a broadened recruitment. But if it was nothing that was interrupted, it is of course only positive.

I have also been around many different educational institutions, and I also see many who work a great deal with broadened recruitment. But I also see that in many places, work is being done to make the whole thing welcoming for students with neuropsychiatric diagnoses. It can, for example, involve them being able to arrive a bit earlier at the university or college. That is, for example, what is done in Malmö. In this way, students can get used to the surroundings.

There are, therefore, many who are working with this, and we think that is extremely good. We see great value from the government's and the Moderaternas side in getting as many as possible to want to study. We need more who want to study at universities and colleges, so we do everything to enable and facilitate this.

Then reality is, of course, as it is, but the most important thing is that we show students and pupils that we believe in them and that we see opportunities. This shall start as early as in preschool. We believe in the students' inherent possibilities to move forward if they want to study. Not everyone may want to study further, but one should be able to do so at the levels that work. The important thing is that we offer educations with different orientations and in many different places that are welcoming to all students and pupils.

My question, therefore, concerns this: If there is anything that the Social Democrats want to do more of and that the government is not doing, I am curious about that.

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Niklas Sigvardsson (S)

Madam Speaker! Now I understand what it was that caused the member to request a reply from the beginning. I shall have to check the minutes to see if I said "interrupted", but I do not believe I said that.

We Social Democrats want to continue to ensure that we broaden. I took up some examples. This concerns, among other things, foreign-born men who immigrated at some point between the ages of seven and twelve, that is to say, early primary school age. It is the group that is absolutely least represented among those who proceed to higher studies. There we will need to do more.

We also need to broaden which types of careers students feel are possible. Even though the trend is positive regarding women choosing STEM subjects - which we have talked about a lot before - we need to make continued efforts. This is largely about how we can, for example, strengthen study and career guidance earlier. But it is also about the business sector and the trade union movement, which can be involved as an important part of the work to show what a modern workplace means within these different types of occupations. That way, both men and women can be attracted to the working life later.

It is the next step to take when we need to improve equality in the sector as a whole. Today, there are very many women who are studying, which is very pleasing, but we also need to attract people to make different, perhaps not so gender-stereotypical, career choices.

There is a great deal to do here, but the most important thing that we Social Democrats will continue with is to ensure that there are no closed doors for those who do not happen to have academic parents. We still see that in those municipalities where the academic level is very high, it is a much greater given that one's children proceed to higher studies. We must continue to blur that boundary.

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Marie-Louise Hänel Sandström (M)

Madam Speaker! I vote in favor of the committee's proposal in the report.

Higher education is a constantly relevant and important issue. During the morning today, we had the privilege of attending the Riksdag's research day. We gathered in the Second Chamber Hall, where it was full to the last bench. The interest from the members was great, and many initiated and interesting speakers participated.

Today's common theme was AI, which affects all our committees. It is important that we see that AI is something that affects very many. Sweden is an AI nation, but we can always become better. This leads me into today's debate area, higher education. It is a very interesting and incredibly important area, where we see many different opportunities. Sweden is, as Fredrik Malm previously mentioned, a smart but small country.

Since we have been talking about AI all morning, I had to ask ChatGPT about higher education. A long exposition came out which I do not intend to read out, but I will settle for the concluding remark: Higher education offers advanced knowledge and specialization in various subject areas and is often important for career development and obtaining specialized professions. The educational programs can be theoretical, practical, or a combination of both depending on the subject and institution.

It sounds quite reasonable. That is what we want to see with higher education; it should provide great and diverse opportunities.

When it comes to AI specifically, the Swedish Council for Higher Education, or UKÄ, has had a mandate to analyze how AI can affect higher education's educational offerings in relation to the labor market's needs. It is, therefore, an investigation that has been ongoing. This mandate has been carried out together with various educational institutions, authorities, and employers. It is incredibly important that we see how AI affects and how it can facilitate where we, for example, have a skills shortage.

Why was this investigation then needed? It has, after all, been quite extensive and in-depth. One concern that we hear about daily is a lack of competence. No matter which company we visit, we hear this. Three out of four companies say that they cannot hire the people they need because the right competence does not exist. We see this internationally as well, which means that we must make an extra effort to retain students and get people, for example researchers, to come here to us to study and work.

There is also a great shortage within the manufacturing industry and the IT sector, but also within environment and sustainability. As everyone knows, we now have a battery factory in Sollefteå, and soon there will also be such factories in Gothenburg and Mariestad. It is extremely positive, but it requires a great deal of competence and also special competence.

Even within this area, UKÄ has a mandate, namely to look at the supply of digital competence. UKÄ therefore has much to do, which is good. We shall, of course, try to find solutions to this.

The green transition is something that the government and the Tidö parties prioritize very highly. Here, too, we are working a lot on obtaining the right competence.

Madam Speaker! To remedy this lack of competence, we need to invest already in primary school and also in upper secondary school. We must have good educations. We must have a good school. Upper secondary school shall maintain high quality, regardless of whether it is a vocational education or a theoretical education. Unfortunately, we see at many colleges that it is still the mathematics that is lacking. Many are dropping out of the education, for example within technology, because they do not manage the mathematics. Within certain educations, we have seen that it can involve as much as 40 percent who do so. Approximately as many do not manage the education within the allotted time.

Madam Speaker! Higher education institutions shall annually report to the Ministry of Education on what the educational supply should look like. They shall speak about what assessments, what prioritizations, and what needs analysis they perform, this is so that we obtain good educations that the students demand but, above all, that society and the labor market demand. These assessments are thus made every year. I think it is extremely important that the higher education institutions speak about why they choose a certain education and the number of students who are expected to attend it.

Madam Speaker! We need more students in higher education and more students who want to study engineering and natural science subjects. As mentioned earlier, the government has initiated a STEM strategy - science, technology, engineering and mathematics - which is expected to be completed at the end of the year. It is about children already from preschool having their interest for these subjects piqued and seeing that they are fun. In that case, it is important that the educators receive support, as it is they who are to motivate the students in preschool. But even guardians need to be involved and see that this is important and fun.

One must also have role models within these professions. I may have mentioned this before, but an example of a role model is our astronaut Marcus Wandt. As I may also have mentioned, he studied to become a civil engineer at Chalmers.

Last week, he and I were in Gothenburg and visited almost 200 six- and seven-year-olds living in marginalized areas. They got to meet this charismatic astronaut, who told them that it is precisely you who have the opportunity to study. Not everyone may become an astronaut, but everyone has the opportunity to study, for example, technology. Later in the afternoon, we also met students in grades seven to nine. They were perhaps not as enthusiastic and ran up to the astronaut, but they were still just as interested. The purpose was to talk about how these are important subjects. Science is something we must invest in. We met perhaps 400 students, and someone might actually become our next astronaut. We hope for that – at least that the interest has been raised.

Madam Speaker! How do we then reach the older students? It is important that we do so. As a colleague from another party said earlier, it is also important that more, even more from different areas, get the opportunity to study. In that case, it is important with easily accessible information about what is available and where it is available. One should be able to compare the programs and see where there is high quality. We must develop the study guidance that can tell and inform about that the programs exist and how one should go about getting into a program. One should be able to follow graduates and see how they get started on the labor market and what a program can lead to. One should also get more advice and tips about professions in short supply.

It is, therefore, much that can be done to reach students of all ages. We also have the transition study support, which is intended to reach those on the labor market who need to continue their studies, either to retain their job or to be able to take another job.

When we look at which educations we should have, it is however important that it is always quality before quantity.

Madam Speaker! It is important that the educational institutions adapt to the development of society and that the programs are flexible. That is exactly what we have with the transition study support.

Another important question is where the training should be held. We have several different variants. We have higher education institutions, we have universities of applied sciences and we have vocational schools. It is important to get an investigation on where the training fits best.

Today, as I believe someone mentioned earlier, an investigator has been appointed to review how the educational offerings of higher education institutions can be changed to follow the labor market and to see which form of education is most suitable. UKÄ thus has very many investigations right now. This is positive, because there is much that needs to be changed. The Government and the Tidö parties are doing very much to be able to improve what previously has not been top-notch.

Madam Speaker! We also need professors and lecturers who teach at the universities. They shall, of course, work according to scientific, pedagogical, and artistic skill. Now, there is an almost equal gender distribution among those who teach at the higher education institutions, but when it comes to professors, there are still more men - 68 percent right now.

The Moderates see a concern with the fact that the number of teaching hours in higher education programs is decreasing. The teachers also see it as a major problem, as well as the fact that the administration is increasing very much. We also want to change and improve this, and we therefore have several investigations on it.

The Moderates want to safeguard academic freedom, which has been mentioned here. It was written into the Higher Education Act on July 1, 2021, and the higher education institutions shall work actively with this. Right now, UKÄ is conducting case studies, as mentioned earlier, which are to be reported on May 15, so quite soon, to see how the provision on academic freedom is followed. It is extremely positive.

The Moderates and the Tidö parties want to see fewer political lectures and less political influence over research and education. However, there must be expertise among boards and principals regarding both educational needs and what the market is seeking.

Finally, I just want to point out that next week there will be exciting seminars on both STEM education and how we can facilitate mathematics teaching. I hope that more people will seek them out.

I vote in favor of the committee's proposal. And it is incredibly fun with higher education!

(Applause)

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Camilla Hansén (MP)

Madam Speaker! Thank you, Marie-Louise Hänel Sandström, for an energizing and enthusiastic speech!

I think I made a mistake earlier. I probably directed a remark to the wrong person. Fredrik Malm testified, namely, that the Liberals at every given moment always try to milk out money for school, education, and research. That can be difficult sometimes if you are a small party in a government, and it does not seem to have gone so well all the way.

That is why I now turn to the member who represents the Moderates, the party that holds the dreaded Ministry of Finance where many have fought hard battles and lost. How do you, as a Moderate, with the burning interest you have for higher education and its quality, view the fact that the Moderates are part of slicing up higher education when we have so little time for teachers and students together?

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Marie-Louise Hänel Sandström (M)

Madam Speaker! Thank you very much, Member Camilla Hansén, for the question!

The Moderates believe that education is extremely important and absolutely want to invest in high-quality education. However, we may perhaps view different ways of how this can be done. We must prioritize within certain educations, and we must also prioritize what it looks like for the educators at the educations. That is why we have the Research Funding Inquiry, in order to be able to see how the higher education institutions work - it does not only concern research, but it will also concern the higher education institutions - and how we can, for example, reduce the administrative burden so that one can have more teaching hours and spend more time on teaching, which we think is incredibly important.

We have also in our adjustment budget allocated extra money for education. Even though the municipalities have the greatest responsibility for primary school, we are investing more money there, precisely in order to be able to have more investment there from an early stage and also be able to retain teachers.

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Camilla Hansén (MP)

Madam Speaker! I thank you for the answer. I do not quite know how I should interpret it. But I interpret it as that the Moderaterna are satisfied with a small shard for basic education and think it is okay to slice it thin when it comes to teaching at a higher level. I think that is a pity. It is a misprioritization. Large investments are required for the students to get enough time with their teachers.

Another challenge regarding access to higher education in Sweden concerns availability across the entire country. In northern Sweden, there is an incredibly great need for nurses, teachers, preschool teachers, and social workers, and also mining engineers and other engineers. But it is incredibly far to the nearest higher education institution.

It will be important to be able to educate oneself in different ways. Perhaps one already has a job and wants to take part-time courses. It is also important to attract people from homes without a tradition of studying to undertake higher education, even though one can currently easily get a well-paid job within the industry in northern Sweden. Unemployment is low, many have a low tradition of studying in their families, and the educational institutions are far away.

I wonder how the Moderates view having access to education throughout the country. Is one prepared to work with decentralized higher education, for example at learning centers, so that it will be possible?

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Marie-Louise Hänel Sandström (M)

Madam Speaker! Thank you to Camilla Hansén for the questions!

Initially, I just want to correct; the Moderates naturally consider education to be important even at a higher level. There must absolutely be high quality in both colleges and universities, just as in primary school, of course.

The Moderates think it is important that we have training in, for example, Luleå and Kiruna. I recently visited Luleå University of Technology. They often work together with Kiruna and have a kind of satellite, in order to be able to have training closer to the towns. I have also been in Storuman, where there are also training sites so that one does not have too long a way to one's training.

I also realize that if one studies in a place, it is more likely that one might stay there. It is therefore extremely important. We absolutely safeguard that there should be universities all over Sweden. Then research perhaps still must be prioritized in different places. But obviously, there should be educational institutions all over Sweden.

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Niklas Sigvardsson (S)

Madam Speaker! I also would like to take the opportunity to ask questions to Member Hänel Sandström.

The other day I looked at what the member said in the committee debate in May last year. At the end, the member had a passage that resembled what she said at the end today as well. I want to quote what was said a year ago: "Madam Speaker! Finally, I want to say that the Moderates and the Tidö parties want to see fewer political finger-pointing and not as much influence over research and education. We want to see more expertise regarding both research, development, and business among principals and board members. Great demands shall be placed on a breadth within these boards."

It becomes very interesting, given Education Minister Mats Persson's thoughts over the past week regarding independent courses. If the political finger-pointing within the academy and higher education is to decrease, the Education Minister is well contradicting just that.

Therefore, I want to ask the member from Moderaterna, the largest of the three government parties, how the member and Moderaterna view the value of independent courses. Do Moderaterna share the Liberals' and the Minister for Education's view that we must reduce the number of independent courses, because too many are of a hobbyist character?

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Marie-Louise Hänel Sandström (M)

Madam Speaker! Thank you very much for the questions, Niklas Sigvardsson! They are recognizable, even from today's question period where this was discussed. I understand that it is an important topic.

We from the Moderates say that when one studies independent courses, it is good to have a study plan, so that the independent courses lead to something. It would be very positive.

At the same time, one can say that if a standalone course is intended to lead to earning credits and receiving student aid, it is positive if it is an education that leads further.

The Minister mentioned wine courses and cats' behavior. It is possible that it would be better if those courses were given under the auspices of, for example, Medborgarskolan.

We think that independent courses are good if they lead to something. It is good to have a study plan when one studies different independent courses. In order to have funding for independent courses, we believe that they should nevertheless lead to something that one can use.

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Niklas Sigvardsson (S)

Madam Speaker! We have probably not at any point during the debate spoken about how we and the students are to finance them studying independent courses.

I believe there are many students in our country who, at approximately this time of day, are reading a standalone course, either to see if it might be what one wishes to study in the future – one tests changing paths by reading a standalone course to see if it is something that suits them – or to supplement as a student. I have, for example, had many teaching colleagues over the years who have read different types of advanced courses, either to deepen their knowledge within their existing subject area or to broaden their horizons and read something new.

The answer showed that there is still quite a lot to take away regarding the view on education. Not all the education that colleges and universities provide falls under the definition of education for going directly into a job. We Social Democrats really do not hope that the Moderates' view is that one should transition completely so that higher education should only become a training factory for profitable students who choose profitable courses and educations.

There must be an opportunity to take educational trips, to broaden one's horizons and learn something that one perhaps has not learned before. In that regard, the entire educational offering, both the activities of the study associations and the ability to take higher education and university courses, is very important.

If I am to interpret the member's answer, there is absolutely a possibility that courses in wine knowledge and cat behavior will disappear from educational institutions if the Moderaterna are involved in governing.

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Marie-Louise Hänel Sandström (M)

Madam Speaker! If the Moderates and I may wish, cats' behavior should not be included among the universities' independent courses.

When it comes to the regulatory letter and which courses should be available at the universities and how the programs should be justified, they should meet the students' needs and society's needs, with an emphasis on society's needs. One must be able to prioritize which independent courses one has; it must still lead to something.

When it comes to education, the Moderates believe that it can be better if one attends a study circle or somewhere else in terms of, for example, wine knowledge. I do not think that belongs at the university.

When it comes to the regulatory letter, the students' needs and society's needs shall be guiding for the educational needs we have. The higher education institutions also report to the Ministry of Education which priorities they make and why. I think that is very good. It is a requirement in the regulatory letter that the higher education institutions shall do so.

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TREDJE VICE TALMANNEN

I want to once again point out the agreed rules that the group leaders have agreed upon. It is the spoken word that prevails in the chamber, and political clothes shall not occur. That is the message that the group leaders have sent to all members.

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Lorena Delgado Varas (V)

Madam Speaker! I chuckled a bit when the member mentioned wine knowledge. Lo and behold – when I finished my course on organic chemistry, the work specifically concerned wine knowledge, in order to be able to determine which wines had which components depending on which area they came from. It is perhaps not our task to point out which courses are okay and not okay.

But I did not want to ask the member about these matters, but I got stuck on what the member mentioned regarding preschools. Much has been said about how STEM education should characterize the entire educational path all the way up to higher education.

When you cut the budget in municipalities, what space do you give the preschools to develop their pedagogical work? Today, you haven't even budgeted the minimum they need. Preschool teachers and childcare workers are the groups that have the most stress-related illnesses within the education chain. I don't quite understand how the preschools are even supposed to get the space to develop the pedagogical activities, let alone towards the direction the member is pointing to.

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Marie-Louise Hänel Sandström (M)

Madam Speaker! I agree that the dress code is important.

I thank Lorena Delgado Varas for the questions. It is incredibly important to still provide the opportunity, and obviously, the educators must be given the opportunity and receive training so that they can stimulate the preschool children. It is obviously not about proper chemistry teaching for the small children, but it is about playing towards, for example, mathematics.

I am at the Alfons Åberg Foundation in Gothenburg, where chemistry students from Chalmers come to teach three- and four-year-olds and show them a bit of what chemistry is. There are different ways to do this. It is not supposed to be major teaching when they are so small, but an interest should be awakened. One should have the opportunity to do that.

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Lorena Delgado Varas (V)

Madam Speaker! I agree that such a development is interesting. In different preschools, work has been done with environmental technology, but adapted for preschool children. But this does not provide answers on how preschool teachers and childcare workers shall be given space to work with these issues.

To be able to make changes, one needs the flexibility, the space, and the resources. They do not exist today. I do not quite understand how one is to achieve this.

The second thing that is worrying is how fixated one is on STEM education. I understand that a direct relationship to the business sector is seen. We have had an AI day today, and it was pointed out that AI will be used in all areas of society. By pointing out certain specific areas where research should be directed, one excludes other areas that might be good for developing society forward, for example within healthcare, pedagogical activities and so on.

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Marie-Louise Hänel Sandström (M)

Madam Speaker! I thank Lorena Delgado Varas for the supplementary question.

I agree that it is not only STEM that should be used. Actually, it is about increasing the interest in learning. Then it is, of course, also about reading. As the member says, in healthcare it is about stimulating a will to take care of someone.

I am not going to pretend that STEM will be present throughout the entire preschool line. But it is about raising interest for something that one might think they cannot manage. We hear many girls say that they cannot do math because it is too difficult, even though they haven't tried. But it is about bringing out the positive, that even those who are small should see that something is possible for everyone.

Of course, we should not direct the children to only read organic chemistry, but it should be done in a fun way. It is simply a matter of that studies are fun, and there, literacy is the most important thing of all.

When we come to the question of financing, we have increased the budget for the school, but above all, it is the municipalities that are responsible for the preschools. The preschool is not the state's responsibility, but it is the municipalities that have responsibility for the preschools.

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Robert Stenkvist (SD)

Madam Speaker! I move for approval of reservation 8.

Madam Speaker! Where is the money? I heard the question during our last debate, I have heard it today, and I have heard it to the point of exhaustion from the opposition this winter. All problems are to be solved by us pouring in more money. It is the standard solution - perhaps for all parties in the opposition.

Where is the money? I shall speak about where the money is. It is on the bottom line of the government's budget. There is no other money. That's it! That is the sum we have to work with, and it is 1,324 billion kronor for the current year. To that comes the supplementary budget of an additional 20 billion.

Well, we can borrow, say some populists in the opposition. I mention no names, Madam Speaker, that would be inappropriate. But he has a Karl Marx beard and a Finnish surname. This is an utterly unsustainable way to manage our assets. It is irresponsible, and it is not sustainable. We must not let our children pay off expensive interest. Furthermore, I want to remember that a wise statesman once said that he who is in debt is not free. It must have been a Sverigedemokrat!

Where is the money, Madam Speaker? It is on the bottom line of the budget; 1.324 trillion kronor. We cannot change that figure if we are to be long-term sustainable. What we can do is prioritize and streamline and, not least importantly, not set ourselves off on reckless adventures. Here, I am prompted to think of fossil-free steel, Hybrit, and other rather expensive extravagances. There is money in abundance there, Madam Speaker.

One way to save large amounts is to not, like a feather in the hat over every parliamentary term, designate a college as a university, often on very shaky grounds.

When a college is dubbed a university, a swelling purse of money for research arrives. It is not a sensible way to distribute our research funds. Instead, we should skip these peacock feathers and put the resources on high-quality research or, for example, increased teacher-led teaching time, which I have nagged about.

Mats Persson otherwise wrote in Svenska Dagbladet on March 14 that there will be no more university appointments this mandate period. The money shall be used in a wiser way. Finally a very wise decision! There you have the money.

Whichever side wins the next election; if you continue the university circus, never ask again where the money is. You have burned it yourselves.

Another way to free up funds is for the educational institutions to cooperate where it is natural to do so. They can cooperate to save on administration or cooperate to get a greater return on given resources. Each educational institution specializes in what it is best at. In that way, we can raise the quality without harvesting new tax money.

There is also untapped agency capital at the universities amounting to 14.7 billion kronor. The sum indicates that all universities simply cannot utilize more money. It already exists as untapped capital. Now it is to be said that a certain buffer is good to have for the universities. The sum should not be zero. But the untapped capital is too large, and there is money there.

In order to utilize the limited resources that actually exist, there should be a combined grant - not one for research and one for education, which is the case now. Each educational institution could calibrate the resources in a way that is adapted and optimal for the institution.

Yes, I believe there are also disadvantages to this. Some educational institution might start distributing the grants in a strange way, I can imagine. One must be mindful of that.

In the committee, we received information from the Swedish National Audit Office a few months ago regarding the security at our educational institutions. It concerned all handling of sensitive and information desirable to foreign powers. The result was utterly appalling. To the extent that there was competence at the educational institutions, it was not put into practice. There were deficiencies regarding identifying research data worthy of protection, organizing and managing information security work, and the fact that researchers have their own IT solutions that compromise security. There were also lacking risk assessments, etcetera.

In the restless world we live in, we must of course sharpen information security at our educational institutions. I believe everyone understands that – both sides. Precisely for that reason, the government introduced a special, temporary rule with a shortened mandate period for the boards of educational institutions to force in a security mindset. You know that decision that SD was not involved in making.

Yes, but the educational institutions must be given time to get started with the security work, some here think. Yes, if it weren't for the fact that this is an old problem.

I found a report from the Swedish National Audit Office from 2010 - it is 14 years ago - concerning Mälardalen University, which was a college at the time. What was the report about? The heading was "Audit of internal governance and control of information security at Mälardalen College 2010".

What is said in this report? It says essentially the same thing as in the 2023 report that we listened to a few months ago. Nothing has happened. Nevertheless, Mälardalens högskola has become a university. Congratulations!

I have only one message to give: Stop whining so damn much and start with your security work! This is not good enough!

(Applause)

(THIRD DEPUTY SPEAKER: I want to remind that it is Swedish that is the language in the chamber.)

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Niklas Sigvardsson (S)

Madam Speaker! I want to dwell a little bit on educational institutions and universities. Member Stenkvist spoke for a long time about the fact that the money is in the universities and that we do not need to appoint any more.

Then I would still like to take the opportunity to ask Member Stenkvist which universities will lose their title. Will some institutions of higher education around our country not even exist anymore? Do we need as many institutions of higher education as we have now, according to the Sweden Democrats, if one is to speak about the logic of where the money is.

If one listens very carefully, it is talked about that we need to allocate resources to few educational institutions, which I still thought I could hear in Stenkvist's speech, and that we should invest in specialization and excellence. Therefore, I want to ask if the Sverigedemokraterna want to close down some educational institutions and how many universities the Sverigedemokraterna wish had lost their university status.

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Robert Stenkvist (SD)

Madam Speaker! I shall give very short and concrete answers to Sigvardsson. We do not want to close a single educational institution. All shall remain. What I meant in my speech was that we cannot solve all problems simply by harvesting more money. It does not mean that we should not increase the appropriations. We can certainly do that in the future. But there are limits. We have a budget, Madam Speaker, and we want to invest money in defense, police, healthcare, and not least infrastructure. If one wants to give more money to one area, one must state in which area one should save. There is a limit. I believe that the state budget is 16 percent of our GDP, and it perhaps can be increased by a couple of percent. Then it is a stop. That is when you reach the top of the Laffer curve. Then it is not possible to extract more tax money. There are, therefore, limits.

We Sweden Democrats were all along against, which we were very clear about, Malmö University College becoming a university. That does not, of course, mean that we are going to shut it down. It was a misunderstanding.

We were strongly opposed to Mälardalens högskola, which faced much strong criticism from various sides, becoming a university. These two högskolor should not have become universities. Now they are universities, and it is difficult to reverse this. I do not know how it would happen, but we are where we are. But we were clearly and distinctly opposed to them becoming universities.

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Niklas Sigvardsson (S)

Madam Speaker! I thank you for this clarifying answer, which means that I can be somewhat reassured that some educational institutions will, in any case, not disappear, if I listen to Mr. Stenkvist's words.

All over the country, and also at Malmö universitet and Mälardalens universitet, very good research is conducted de facto within several different areas. I have had the privilege of visiting both of these universities. However, perhaps the right conditions are not being provided. There is, in fact, a very large difference in the allocation of resources based on how much money per student for research a new university receives in relation to our established and historical universities. There is a very large difference between the two institutions that Stenkvist mentions. But even if we take the somewhat older universities, such as Linnéuniversitetet and Örebro universitet, to name a few, there are still very large differences. With these conditions, these new universities, but also colleges, perform very good research.

It is possible to look at high citations when it comes to the absolute top of which educational institutions conduct such research. We will find highly cited journals and researchers among all our educational institutions. There are therefore not really the types of conflicts that I think Stenkvist paints up when it comes to quality. We will find researchers who have a low citation rate among all our universities and educational institutions, regardless of whether they are old or new.

Robert Stenkvist is welcome to reflect on this during his two minutes.

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Robert Stenkvist (SD)

Madam Speaker! Yes, there is very good research at many colleges that are not universities. However, the colleges have less research than the universities. This is what it means to become a university, that is, to have more research. What we are against is that far too many colleges have become universities far too quickly and that a huge bag of money has arrived.

Then I am sure that there is very good research both at Malmö University and at Mälardalen University. But when Mälardalen University was a college, it received a lot of criticism. Then it was designated as a university. It is strange. There was even a student there who got the money back for a mathematics course because it was of too poor quality. We are, therefore, against this.

It does not need to be a huge amount of research at all educational institutions. There is a regional political aspect to this, that the educational institutions should be spread across our country and that people in Norrland should be able to educate themselves. It is good that there is an educational institution there. But perhaps there is no cutting-edge research there. There is research, but not cutting-edge research. And it was not needed for all educations. This is a big discussion. I will just back off if I start going deeper into this. But I have an idea of how it should look. We shall take regional political considerations, and one should be able to educate oneself everywhere in the country. But if one is to conduct high-quality research, one cannot do it in all places. It becomes too diluted. Then we diminish the quality. I am completely convinced of that. We must have a plan – a common thread. And then we must work according to it.

It means that we are now halting the investments in universities and high-quality research and instead investing in increased teacher-led teaching time.

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Lili André (KD)

Madam Speaker! I would like to vote in favor of the proposal in the committee report and against all motions.

I would like to begin by saying, Madam Speaker, that the most important tasks of higher education are to convey high scientific quality and knowledge and to ensure the country's supply of skills.

We Christian Democrats take a clear stand for quality and excellence in higher education and in research. Sweden shall be one of the world's leading research and innovation countries and a prominent knowledge nation. To reach that, competent higher education teachers, competent researchers, a stimulating work environment and study-social security are required.

Madam Speaker! I have had the privilege of studying and working within academia. After an engineering degree, I remained at the educational institution to teach and to collaborate with the surrounding society.

The Academy is a fantastic place with incredibly competent staff. As a student, I entered an environment and came out with knowledge that has been fantastically valuable for the years following. I am grateful to have had the opportunity to study at the college and to have been able to work at such a knowledge-intensive place.

Madam Speaker! Higher education shall utilize all interested talents to keep Sweden competitive. And I am proud that in Sweden it is possible to study at a college or university regardless of whether you come directly from upper secondary school or are a single parent of small children, and regardless of whether you were raised in a working-class family or an academic family. Christian Democratic higher education policy therefore has its foundation in knowledge, quality, freedom of choice, and security.

Madam Speaker! I would particularly like to highlight the student unions' important role in developing higher education, among other things by identifying quality deficiencies from a student perspective and providing suggestions for improvement. The student unions contribute to promoting students' social health in their studies and driving forward for high quality within higher education. It is therefore important to listen to the student unions and their activities.

I also want, Madam Speaker, to emphasize the importance of active work from the institutions' side to strengthen the students' working environment. It is particularly important to organize student health, so that those students who are affected by mental ill-health get access to the support they need. The institutions shall provide the conditions for all students to complete their studies.

There is now a national common web portal for student health, studenthälsa.se, which was launched on 1 January 2024. The purpose of the portal is to strengthen the work of student healthcare and promote students' mental and physical health in order to thereby increase the conditions for a good and secure time of study.

Madam Speaker! So, to higher education's important task of ensuring the country's competence supply. Let me take an example, namely the green transition which is central for a sustainable society and where industry plays a decisive role. Higher education is naturally completely crucial to provide Sweden with the important competence needed for the engineering nation Sweden and the companies and the industry that are far ahead in the technology that the green transition requires, and the need is enormous.

Today we know that in recent years it has become increasingly popular to start studying to become an engineer. But at the same time, Madam Speaker, the proportion who actually complete the education is falling.

Today, a large number of people work as engineers without having a formal engineering education. And, Madam Speaker, Sweden needs a total of 30,000 engineers in 2030.

From a Christian Democratic perspective, a clearer national responsibility for planning and coordination was needed. It would provide increased opportunities for our pupils and students to obtain good knowledge in, for example, mathematics so that they can choose, for example, an engineering track but also get the prerequisites to complete the education they have chosen.

With a clear national coordination and planning of the need for higher competence in Sweden, the aggregate national need for the number of places at the higher education institutions can be predicted in a better way. Thus, conditions can be created for long-term planning and distribution of the number of places between the different higher education institutions.

Madam Speaker! Let me take another example of how higher education provides the country with important competencies. It concerns the supply of competencies for teachers within primary and secondary school.

Teacher education needs to be reformed in several different ways. It is about an increased focus on subject knowledge and a greater understanding of how important reading is for the children. It is about strengthening the training in leadership and conflict management in order to be able to strengthen the teachers' leadership in the classroom.

Madam Speaker! Today, many children and young people have difficulties with concentration. This is about using supportive methods and ways of working so that the school environment suits everyone.

The work of getting truly skilled people to want to become teachers needs to be strengthened. Also, the work of getting more academics to want to change paths and become teachers in the middle of life can be scaled up.

In conclusion, Madam Speaker, we also need to ensure that those who enter higher education have the prerequisite knowledge required. Unfortunately, there are several examples of students who have entered but who lack sufficient knowledge in, for example, mathematics or Swedish. This leads to a decline in the quality of education, to many dropping out, and to fewer completing the education within the intended timeframe. Therefore, I am pleased that the government is now developing a STEM strategy to strengthen Sweden's research, technology, engineering, and mathematics.

So, there is some development potential within both primary school and higher education. But, Madam Speaker, I would at the same time also really like to emphasize that there is much that works really well. We shall continue to take advantage of that so that Sweden shall have colleges and universities with quality and excellence.

I hereby wish to again move for approval of the committee's proposal in the report.

(Applause)

The speech at riksdagen.se, in Swedish (opens in a new tab)

Niklas Sigvardsson (S)

Madam Speaker! I requested the floor because Member André raised the important work that student unions across our country carry out.

I can only agree that the student unions carry out an incredibly important activity for the students at all our educational institutions across our entire country. In boards or other groups within the universities and colleges, they do what they are supposed to do according to the Higher Education Act and the Higher Education Ordinance, namely to review and develop the educational institutions. But the unions also carry out a study-social work, which is perhaps extra important for those students who are new to academic studies, given that one has often moved and come to new cities without any kinship or friendship ties.

That is why it sounds very false that Lili André belongs to a party that, in the government, has announced that the student unions from 2026 will lose 20 million of the 68 million kronor that are financed by the state. The student unions have, via SFS, Sveriges förenade studentkårer, issued a clear alarm about what consequences it risks to have. If one removes 20 of 68 million, then the student unions' fantastic work, which André spoke so beautifully about, will not be able to be made possible in the future. One may perhaps need to transition already this autumn or at least next year in order to be in phase for 2026.

How do the Christian Democrats view the fact that the student unions will receive 20 million less from 2026?

The speech at riksdagen.se, in Swedish (opens in a new tab)

Lili André (KD)

Madam Speaker! I thank Niklas Sigvardsson for the question.

I must admit that I do not recognize at all what Member Sigvardsson states: that we Christian Democrats are lowering the amount for student unions and student support at universities and colleges by 20 million kronor. I wonder how Sigvardsson has come to this conclusion.

For us, the student unions continue to be very important. We ensure that they are strong by making sure that the universities listen to the student unions and see them as an important resource. We see, Madam Speaker, that it is important that the student unions continue to be strong, and we will ensure that with all our might.

The speech at riksdagen.se, in Swedish (opens in a new tab)

Niklas Sigvardsson (S)

Madam Speaker! Unfortunately, I left my mobile phone behind and could not look up the exact appropriation number. We can look at expenditure area 16 together instead. There, it is stated from the government's side that the funding for student unions from 2026 will be reduced by 20 million.

The expert authority and Sveriges förenade studentkårer assess more specifically that, depending on how the distribution is made, it will be at least 12 million and up to around 20 million. Somewhere between 12 and 20 million will therefore disappear from the student unions' activities.

The only positive thing for the student unions – and it is very stomach-turning to use that word – is that they know that the money is disappearing two years in advance. They therefore do not need to carry out the entire structural transformation in half a year or a couple of months. But it is de facto the case that the government that the Christian Democrats are in is making an ambition reduction regarding the student unions.

But now that the members have become aware of this, I hope that in the upcoming two budget negotiations, it will be ensured that these funds are included in the budget and that there will not be cuts of up to 20 million kronor on Sweden's total student unions and the important work they do all around our country.

The speech at riksdagen.se, in Swedish (opens in a new tab)

Lili André (KD)

Madam Speaker! I thank Niklas Sigvardsson for clarifying that it is not directly in a Christian Democratic budget that the proposal he is now highlighting was put forward.

It is important to make priorities in a budget. Generally, one can make adjustments in different budget items. But it does not have to result in the quality being lowered. In this situation, I would like to assure Sigvardsson that a budget from the government's side is not about diminishing the important work of the student unions. They will continue to have the space to do their work, even if the budget shows priorities. The most important thing for us Christian Democrats, Madam Speaker, is to ensure that the student unions do a good job and that the students get the support they need and the influence they must have in their education and at the university.

The speech at riksdagen.se, in Swedish (opens in a new tab)

Anders Ådahl (C)

Madam Speaker! I thank Member André for an interesting speech. It was interesting to get to know a bit more about the Christian Democrats' policy in this area.

The Chairman uses words such as quality and excellence in his introduction and describes the academy as a fantastic place. I would like to hear a bit more about how, according to the Christian Democrats, we achieve this quality and excellence in Sweden and how we make the academy a fantastic place.

I believe that all our parties have an ambition to develop academia. But does it, according to the Christian Democrats, involve us redistributing money from small to large or from large to small? Is it about us changing the funding system, or are we to reorganize the sector? What is it that the Christian Democrats actually want to do to achieve high quality and excellence at Swedish universities and colleges and make academia a fantastic place?

The speech at riksdagen.se, in Swedish (opens in a new tab)

Lili André (KD)

Madam Speaker! I thank Anders Ådahl very much for the questions. Universities and colleges are fantastic places. That is something I have thought for a long time, and so it will continue to be.

How can we then do this? When one works as a teacher at a university, it is important that the students who come, for example, have sufficient knowledge to manage the educations and courses that are offered. That quality needs to be strengthened, but the previous government did nothing about that. Now, after one and a half years with the new government, we see that there is a great need for the quality to be strengthened, and we do that, for example, through the STEM strategy, Madam Speaker.

Since then, it is important for the universities to be able to conduct research and provide education that corresponds to the competence needs of the labor market. This also makes the academy, which provides higher education, a fantastic place. It is about students being able to go there, receive the education that the labor market is crying out for, and feel that they will also get a job afterwards. In that regard, the government is making investments by directing money to important areas such as green transition and NT-education, where there is a crying need, so that we get the 30,000 engineers that Sweden needs by 2030.

The speech at riksdagen.se, in Swedish (opens in a new tab)

Anders Ådahl (C)

Madam Speaker! I thank you for the response to the questions. I still think I would like to ask a bit more about this. If we are to have colleges and universities that have truly high excellence, we need to tackle these big and difficult questions together and make decisions in the Riksdag on how money should be distributed. Should we redistribute from smaller colleges to larger ones? Should we invest in certain excellent research environments, or should we spread the money more broadly across the palette? That type of positioning needs to be made as a political party.

It is also about the funding system. Today, a very large amount of research is directed via funding. A very large amount goes through various research councils where it is decided which subject should be researched. Is that a model that the Christian Democrats like, or should one perhaps change it to more free research? Those are the types of questions I have.

I would like to summarize my question. Now the government is in the process of preparing a research proposal. My question to the member is: What is the Christian Democrats' input in that work? What are your core issues that you want to include in a strong and good proposal on the Riksdag's table?

The speech at riksdagen.se, in Swedish (opens in a new tab)

Lili André (KD)

Madam Speaker! I thank Anders Ådahl for a very important question and also for good input for the answer to the question.

As the member also highlights, we have a research and innovation strategy. This strategy truly has a height. It also has priorities regarding which research we shall conduct. Basic research shall of course continue to apply, but I believe that we will be able to see targeted funds for specific cutting-edge research areas.

Already now, educational institutions are looking at how they can collaborate with one another, and it is a strength for educational institutions to be able to collaborate around those educations that do not have so many students in order to be able to increase the number of students in them. We Kristdemokrater see this as advantageous and something I can imagine that we can try to work for.

Excellent research is important to prioritize, more than great breadth and many new courses and educations that do not lead to jobs or what the labor market is crying out for.

The speech at riksdagen.se, in Swedish (opens in a new tab)

TREDJE VICE TALMANNEN

I remind Lorena Delgado Varas once again that we have agreed rules with the group leaders regarding the dress code and that it is the spoken word that counts and not political clothing. It is a rule that at least the other members adhere to, and for that I can be grateful.

The speech at riksdagen.se, in Swedish (opens in a new tab)

Lorena Delgado Varas (V)

Madam Speaker! There are some of us here who have chosen to raise the issue of academic freedom, especially after changes in, among other things, the composition and appointment of boards in the academic world. Furthermore, the government has also expressed what certain educations should contain.

Why is academic freedom so important? Academic freedom allows researchers and students to explore, research, and discuss ideas without fear of censorship or retaliation. Creating such an environment is essential for providing a breeding ground for new knowledge, promoting innovation, and solving complex problems. Academic freedom is one of the components of a strong and well-developed democracy where research and facts are not governed by political agendas or pressures from, for example, companies.

I mean that academic freedom is a thermometer of how democratic and transparent a society is. By encouraging the free exchange of ideas and critical discussions, it supports an informed public debate and creates space for critical thinking and democracy.

Academic freedom facilitates international cooperation and dialogue, which makes it possible for researchers all over the world to share insights and research results. This global exchange is crucial for promoting knowledge and leading many societies forward.

All these aspects underscore the role that academic freedom plays, not only to promote knowledge but also to promote a healthy, democratic and progressive society. To protect it is therefore essential, not only for the academic world but for society as a whole.

We live in times when the democratic space is shrinking globally. Therefore, it is extra important that we strengthen academic freedom. We do not do that by making changes that are not anchored with those who are most affected, but through proper anchoring with dialogue where the academic world's voice is truly heard. But unfortunately, the government is not working to improve or strengthen academic freedom.

One of the primary threats to academic freedom in Sweden is insecure employment conditions for academics, which can hinder employees' willingness to engage in controversial or critical research due to fear of losing their employment or for other reprisals. Therefore, insecure employment leads to reduced academic freedom.

Academic freedom is also linked to whether researchers and students feel safe even when they research or discuss topics that are controversial. We saw this when a far-right journalist signed up for a course, which caused neither teachers nor students to feel safe because they were targeted in social media. We have also seen how universities have inhibited open debates and lectures for students and teachers in the Palestine movement.

Having strong student unions is also part of academic freedom, but the government wants to reduce the grants to them. In the budget speech, all students have a right to a high-quality education, but today we see that teaching and supervision hours are being reduced in many programs. This will have enormous consequences for our future.

Students shall be involved in and have influence over the education. They shall have different backgrounds and ages. Taking advantage of the experiences and competencies that exist among today's students with different backgrounds is also a way to improve the quality of the education.

Madam Speaker! The Left Party believes that higher education should be tuition-free for all students regardless of where they come from. That people from other countries come to Sweden to study enriches Swedish higher education and contributes to higher quality. Since the fees were introduced, the number of foreign students at our colleges has decreased. In some programs, they have increased again but not to previous levels. I mean that the tuition fees should be removed and that the government should appoint an inquiry with the aim of abolishing them. Do it right, do it right, simply!

I vote in favor of reservation 5.

The speech at riksdagen.se, in Swedish (opens in a new tab)

Anders Ådahl (C)

Madam Speaker! I would like to assert that Swedish universities and colleges have two tasks, partly that we in Sweden should be able to conduct world-class research, and partly that we should be able to supply a labor market with competent individuals. I do not believe that we are seeking research of mediocre quality, and I do not believe that we are seeking to be unable to educate our students for a labor market.

Still, the situation today is that Swedish research is not of particularly high quality. We do not hold world-class status in particularly many areas, and we lag behind a bit in research quality. We also do not succeed in supplying the labor market with competent employees. We have a gap in both tasks.

My and the Centre Party's recipe for tackling this situation contains three ingredients: We shall respect academic freedom, have a higher education sector that is active throughout the country, and dare to invest in excellence in Swedish research.

Let me begin with academic freedom. We have a number of freedoms in democratic society that are completely central: that the courts stand free, that culture stands free from political influence, and that academia is allowed to manage itself. Within academia, the ceiling should be high, and opinions should be able to flow from right to left and upwards and downwards. Researchers should be able to formulate research questions and conduct their studies themselves. It is not possible to order research results. Research is, in fact, to seek new truths and new insights without preconditions.

Academic freedom has two aspects. One is individual freedom - that as an individual researcher or teacher, one defines for oneself what one engages in. The other is institutional freedom - that the higher education institutions themselves have an autonomy, a self-governance.

In democracies that are somewhat on the decline and beginning to approach dictatorships, this is often visible in academia. Politicians interfere in what should be researched, who should be employed, and which opinions are allowed to be heard. We cannot have that in Sweden, and that is why, Madam Speaker, my party and the C react quite forcefully every time we hear tendencies that the government wants to directly rule and point out what universities and colleges should engage in.

It has also been shown that it is when academic freedom is exercised fully that the research and the universities and educational institutions reach the very highest quality.

Let me say a few serious words about this freedom. With freedom comes an equally large portion of responsibility. We sometimes forget this. As politicians, we cannot simply give research freedom and then leave it and say good luck. There must be an extremely large responsibility within the academy if one has an extremely large freedom. There, I believe we as politicians should be vigilant, because if the academy does not manage to handle its freedom, it easily happens that politics moves in the authoritarian direction and wants to begin direct management. Therefore, I want to say that the academy has the task, in certain respects, to also be self-regulating and critical of how it manages its freedom.

Madam Speaker! I want to give two examples that show why higher education and research are so important for the whole country.

We are now in a paradigm shift where we are to move from a climate-unfriendly situation to a green transition where we are to reach net zero in Sweden and in the whole world, because it is absolutely necessary. The green transition takes place in large parts of our country that are not particularly densely populated. We need to provide northern Sweden with competence, as well as areas that today do not have any higher education nearby.

But when you meet representatives from different industries – almost regardless of which industry it is – you hear the word skills shortage. I am thinking of professions that must exist throughout the entire country. Teachers and nurses must exist in every municipality, just like architects, builders, and carpenters. In every municipality, there must be a number of professions, and at the same time, we have a fairly concentrated higher education in our country. We must somehow remedy this in order to fulfill our mission that all of Sweden should be able to live and that we can achieve a green transition.

I believe that one should consider three things then. The first is to expand the role of the universities of applied sciences. The universities of applied sciences have become a significant element in Swedish higher education. We should consider their role moving forward. Perhaps they can be given an expanded mandate and a larger role. That is what we in Centerpartiet believe.

We also want to emphasize that there are colleges throughout the country whose main purpose is to supply a regional labor market with labor.

But we also want to push for what is called a learning center, which actually constitutes a hybrid between studying digitally at a distance and having fellow students to socialize with on a campus. A learning center is a place where there are premises but where the education takes place digitally from a higher education institution. If we can get more learning centers out in the municipalities, then more people who live out in our country will also be able to study at a higher level and furthermore stay in their home region and become teachers or nurses in their hometown.

We need sharper edges in Swedish research. We have a declining research quality and also a somewhat declining innovative power. Centerpartiet would like to see that we dare to invest more in basic research and fundamental research with free funds. Today, research is quite heavily steered. We want to see increased freedom and wish that this were a direction in the upcoming research bill – an increased freedom in how the funds can be disposed of.

We also need to review the organizational forms. We have very many agency universities in Sweden. We believe that the foundation form and other forms can be good to introduce to a greater extent than today. Diversity provides competition, which provides further opportunities.

Finally, Madam Speaker: The Centre Party has many proposals in this area, but we have a simplified preparation this year. I want to mention one area that we have included, namely accessibility. We want to see increased equality when it comes to the opportunity to study in higher education. We find it necessary to work towards ensuring that students with NPF or other functional impairments receive the adaptations required to be able to take the higher education entrance exam. It is important that everyone gets a fair chance to enter higher education or university. There is also a great need to adapt both the teaching situation and examination occasions so that students with some form of NPF diagnosis or other functional impairments are given opportunities.

Higher education should be open to everyone who can and wants to. It is good for Sweden, and it is obviously good for the individual.

I move for approval of reservation 10.

The speech at riksdagen.se, in Swedish (opens in a new tab)

Robert Stenkvist (SD)

Madam Speaker! First, I want to say that I agree with very much of what Anders Ådahl said during his speech. There was one thing I found very interesting, which I must dig into a bit – whether it is an expression that belongs to the Swedish language.

Anders Ådahl said, Madam Speaker, that we are falling behind; we are no longer world-class. This has, as I understand it, happened for a while. It is not about the last five years, but it is over a longer period than that, I assume. Anders Ådahl mentioned, Madam Speaker, three areas for measures against this: fostering academic freedom, education throughout the country, and investment in excellence.

If one champions academic freedom, I wonder what is preventing the colleges and universities from investing in excellence already today. We have fallen behind over a period of 20 years. Is it the state that has prevented the colleges from investing in excellence? There is something here that does not quite add up, unless it is the state that has prevented the colleges from investing in excellence.

Anders Ådahl also said, Madam Speaker, that with academic freedom comes a great responsibility. I just want to say that when it comes to security, I do not think that one has taken its responsibility; that is what I said in my speech.

We are lagging behind and have been for 20 years. I wonder, Madam Speaker, if it is really a lack of academic freedom that has caused us to lag behind. I am thinking of things such as the fact that teacher-led instruction time has been significantly reduced. I believe that this is a huge problem.

I will stop there, Madam Speaker.

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Anders Ådahl (C)

Madam Speaker! Thank you, Member, for the question! I have myself worked within academia and been the leader of a large research environment. I have, therefore, in a purely practical sense grappled with questions about how we can increase the quality.

Firstly, this is somewhat difficult material, because it takes a long time for research to have an impact and to measure the quality of the research. What we see now is that we seem to have a slippery slope, and it is worrying.

Oh yes, Member Stenkvist, I want to assert that this is largely due to the fact that we do not have that much academic freedom. A very large amount of Swedish research funding is directed. Researchers are sorted into ever narrower niches, where someone else has decided what is important to research.

When I was the head of that research area at Chalmers, I had access to approximately 100 million per year to distribute. I asked the researchers: If you were given 10 million to do whatever you wanted with, what would you do then? Very many could not answer. One is so incredibly used to reacting to "calls" from research funders that one has almost forgotten that research must be free – that one must seek answers to one's own questions and not react to what someone else thinks is important. Just that aspect has, I would like to assert, an incredibly large part in that Sweden has fallen behind the free environments in Asia and the USA.

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TREDJE VICE TALMANNEN

I must remind [you] about the language even here. It is Swedish that applies in the Riksdag. One may use quotes and translate, but Swedish shall be the language. We do not always hear that.

The speech at riksdagen.se, in Swedish (opens in a new tab)

Robert Stenkvist (SD)

Madam Speaker! I understand that it is complicated matter. It is not so simple. Either the upper secondary schools are doing it wrong, or the state is doing it wrong.

The basis is partly for basic research and free research at the universities. That is why, for example, we do not put all the money into the research councils. Then we know that the money is largely tied up by companies. It is a problem, many think, while others think it is great.

Is it the state that is the cause of such gaps being formed? I would be grateful, Madam Speaker, if Anders Ådahl could elaborate a bit more on how the state is responsible for this.

I know that the basic funding is tied up by companies to a large extent. That is where the extra money comes from, which many think is very good. Many complain, however, that money disappears and that it becomes directed and tied up. The state provides basic funding so that we also have free basic research and free research. Something is going wrong here.

I await the expert Anders Ådahl's answer with anticipation, Madam Speaker.

The speech at riksdagen.se, in Swedish (opens in a new tab)

Anders Ådahl (C)

Madam Speaker! I shall see if I can answer the questions, for it is, as has been said, quite complex matter.

The basic grants are intended to be used for free research. The competitive funds that researchers apply for in calls and in competitions have a different function. There, one is to do exactly what the research funders desire. The problem with many of these grants is that they say this: To get money from us, you must also co-finance with basic funds. This means that the basic funds that should go to free research are consumed by competitive funds.

The whole thing is quite intricate. The more successful the researchers at an educational institution are at seeking and winning funds, the less free research there becomes at this institution. We have thus, with our research funding, created a downward spiral. The better one is, the less free one becomes. That is the answer.

The speech at riksdagen.se, in Swedish (opens in a new tab)

Camilla Hansén (MP)

Madam Speaker! In the debate on higher education policy, we sometimes speak of the knowledge nation Sweden and sometimes of the engineering nation Sweden. Sometimes we call ourselves a prominent research nation, but today I intended to speak about the educational nation Sweden.

It is about the pursuit of knowledge based on curiosity and interest - what one does not do because one has to, but because one wants to, because one cannot help but do it. It is knowledge that one seeks for one's own sake but which, once one has it, also contributes to a stronger society - to that which is also the land of education, Sweden.

Believe me, in the education nation Sweden, teachers, engineers, artists, meal creators, nurses, doctors, and actually also dog and cat veterinarians, app developers, and all kinds of professional groups that we know are needed are educated. Some think we will need for a while longer, but it is a bit uncertain. We also educate for professions that we have no idea about yet and that we do not know if they will exist or what they will entail. One cannot build an education nation with engineers alone.

Today we have had a research morning here in the Riksdag where the committees have delved into research with a focus on artificial intelligence and its possibilities and limitations. It is clear that broad knowledge is needed. It is not just about mathematicians, computer scientists and engineers, but it is about a knowledge lift for the whole country, here and now, from children and students to teachers, researchers, professionals, middle-aged and elderly. Everyone needs to raise their knowledge level when it comes to AI.

Here, among other things, the institutions' mission to promote lifelong learning is included, and we need to strengthen the opportunities to return to education and research at different stages of life. Yes, we need to educate ourselves to handle AI in our entire society.

I can reveal that I actually succeeded in the matter directly. You know how it is when you have access to screens when you are attending lectures. It turned out that one could easily search for the course Basics in AI at Linköping University, so that is what I did.

Since the higher education policy debate is now moving in quite strong waves regarding independent summer courses at a distance, I simply reveal that it is entirely at a distance. You never meet and are never at the educational institution. The pace of study is 10 percent of full-time, and the course can be read in both Swedish and English. I might not need to leave the hammock - I think that sounds absolutely fantastic.

I assume that the course is not hobbyist. It is offered at a scientific educational institution and has a scientific basis. This was perhaps a bit humorous, but now I want to move on to some more serious issues regarding academic freedom.

Madam Speaker! We who are interested in higher education, research and academic freedom know that a strong and living democracy is built on fundamental principles of free academia, free courts, free press and free culture.

We also know that it is a free academy, with strong protection from detailed management from governments, which can take responsibility for producing educations that students want to attend and that society needs. I want to emphasize that it is in that order that the missions stand in the regulatory letter - "students' demand and the labor market's needs".

Trust between the government and academia has faced some thorns over the past year, following sudden changes to the boards' mandates and suddenly withdrawn research funds that had already been allocated to Sida, for example. Now the government, with the Minister for Education at the forefront, is pointing with the whole hand: Technology and natural sciences are prioritized - even if some money is withdrawn - and humanities and popular education are forced into the corner of shame. Students' organizing is being sidelined in the long run.

It is a narrow view of education, of the students' goals and of society's need for higher education. This is also a damaged trust that needs to be rebuilt, and I would have expected the government to do more to heal the damage that has occurred over the past year.

I also hear a clear and distinct message: Educational institutions such as the Restaurant and Hotel University in Grythyttan should drop the sommelier courses on beverage knowledge, and Umeå University's courses in beer knowledge are perhaps not worth as much in the government's eyes as, let's say, a course on the basics of AI. I hear this despite the fact that we market Sweden as a meal country to tour in, despite the fact that breweries are emerging everywhere, and despite the fact that the tourism industry, just like all other industries, is screaming for people.

We are seeking the sustainable, truly good meal in order to be able to transition, and we are seeking the experiences that make many want to come to Sweden. This requires more than hobby knowledge. It requires expert knowledge, research and labor with relevant education at different levels, and it requires that one can educate oneself throughout life.

It is the task of the educational institutions to arrange these courses at a higher level if the students want them and society needs them, and that seems to be the case. Another reason to arrange these courses, however, is that they provide education and preparation. It is not a government's task to condescendingly designate them as hobby courses.

Academic freedom is more than the currently constitutionally protected freedom to freely choose research questions, research methods, and how to publish the results. Academic freedom needs to also encompass higher education, i.e., the teaching itself, as well as the organization and funding of the universities. If one starves the universities, they cannot organize a sufficiently comprehensive education of sufficiently high quality.

I also believe that the protection of academic freedom needs to include the power of appointment, that is, how boards and rectors are appointed. Political influence and short-term interests must not define which subjects may be researched, what should be taught at our educational institutions or how it should be done. It is the needs of the students and society that are the foundation.

Research should of course be completely free. Independent basic research is important for the development of Sweden and the world. At the same time, it is reasonable that society can prioritize certain initiatives of a strategic nature. We naturally want to invest in research that helps us manage the environmental and climate crisis we are facing.

Higher education and research have a key role to play in enabling the transition to a sustainable society that is needed. The educational institutions have an enormous potential to be a strong force in the transition and, through education, research, collaboration, and the transition of their own operations, act for sustainability.

The educational country Sweden needs a free and strong academy. We need a breadth of possible paths to obtain education for jobs, for enlightenment, for a richer life, or for a new professional life. We need both broad vocational training and excellent research - and yes, we need access to independent courses at different levels, with different paces of study, at a distance or on campus.

Madam Speaker! I want to conclude by moving for approval of reservation 2, where Miljöpartiet urges the government to clarify and strengthen the constitutional protection for academic freedom, and reservation 16 regarding the universities' enormous potential to be a strong force in the transition.

The deliberation was hereby concluded.

(A decision was to be taken on 24 April.)

The speech at riksdagen.se, in Swedish (opens in a new tab)