A word from the Dean

Dear Staff and Students

Since the turn of the year, the Faculty's Management has been working hard on completing the Faculty's budget strategy for 2016-2019, including a catalogue of selections and deselections. During January, two major seminars were held: an academic development seminar on 11 January and an education seminar on 25 and 26 January. In addition to the Management Group, the Academic Council participated in both seminars as well as a number of key staff members and students from different departments and the Faculty's Administration.

Personally, I found participation in the two seminars to be a very rewarding experience. I had the opportunity to meet with many staff members from across the whole faculty, and it was inspiring to see the commitment with which they approached the day. Although the objective of the education seminar was to advise Management on potential streamlining of study programmes, staff were constructive and professional in their conduct.

So, what was the result of the two seminars? A great deal. In the newsletter you can read more about the detailed proposals, so here I will just refer to my personal high points.

The academic development seminar was about how we can continue to ensure a dynamic professional environment at the Faculty. Management received many recommendations, and I will mention two of them here.

One recommendation was that a dynamic academic environment needs a stable framework. Each staff member has the best fulfilment potential if the framework is clear and suitably accommodating - and doesn't change too much over time. It is Management and Administration's task to ensure that researchers and teachers can focus on what they are best at - within a well-defined financial and organisational framework.

The second recommendation was that we will maintain and, if possible, increase our annual funding of PhD students. The role of PhD supervisor is considered to be a core task for scientific staff; PhD students contribute greatly to the collective scientific production. In short, the PhD students are a central part of the scientific food chain.

At the education seminar, the list of recommendations was even longer. Following the seminar, I am convinced that we will be able to maintain the quality of our study programmes for less money. This is due not only to increased use of digitalisation but also better use of instructors and external lecturer (DVIP) in our teaching.

The Management Group has just finalised the Faculty's strategic selections and deselections and I am now ready to deliver my recommendation to the Vice-Chancellor. Following this, there will be a series of meetings of the Executive Board throughout March before an overall recommendation is presented to the Board on 4 April.

Thank you to all staff for your contributions!
Martin Zachariasen, Dean