GU-Journal 3-2023

GUJOURNAL

News Eva Wiberg's years as Vice-Chancellor

Report How to save the world

People Celebrating jubilee doctors and new professors

Digging where she stands

Astrid von Rosen unites the academia and practitioners

Thank you and farewell!

fter six years, my time as vice-chancellor of the University of Gothenburg is coming to an end.

I am proud and happy about how the university has developed during these years – the years that I got to “borrow” and lead the university. When I was inaugurated in 2017, I briefly listed five areas that I considered were the most important and that needed to be prioritized: Quality over quantity, a good working environment, internationalization, student influence and governance and management.

When I look back, I see that we have carried out solid work with goals and strategies to create a more cohesive university, and we have created a clearer division of labour between the faculties and departments. One of the most important milestones was the vision of A University for the World, a vision that extends as far as 2030. It is a vision that clearly profiles universities in the direction of strengthened internationalization and cooperation. During my time as vice-chancellor, several collaborations have been initiated, including the Mirai network with Japan and the European alliance EUTOPIA, which includes 10 European higher education institutions. And together we have adopted an internationalization strategy.

A central issue for me has been efforts to strengthen student influence and to show appreciation for the time our student representatives put in to improve the

way we work. The students are what make us a university, and their contribution is extremely important.

The diligent work undertaken in sustainable development has also been brought about by the combined forces of the entire university. We are now creating a forum in western Sweden for sustainable development, and in recent years the university has advanced its position through the climate framework.

When I look back at my level of ambition at the time of my inauguration, I can say that we have come much further than I could have imagined. In retrospect, it would appear that a lot is feasible, but some things are more difficult. And it is difficult to list what is unforeseen in advance. One of the greatest challenges during this period was the pandemic, where the entire university switched to remote and home working in just a matter of days. Everyone made an enormous effort, and despite considerable difficulties we managed to keep the organization going. In retrospect, we have become much better at digital working methods. Another major and serious event was the email crash in the autumn of 2020. The extensive work undertaken after the email crash means that today we are far better equipped for that type of incident.

My goal of managing and renewing the University of Gothenburg would never have been possible without you, the employees. Thank you so much for your support in moving us forward! I also want to wish my successor Malin Broberg the best of luck. It is an honour to assume responsibility for a university for a period of time, to have ambitions and to do your part.

Editor-in-chief:

Allan Eriksson, Phone: 031–786 10 21,

e-mail: allan.eriksson@gu.se

Editor:

Eva Lundgren

Phone: 031–786 10 81, e-mail: eva.lundgren@gu.se

Photographer:

Johan Wingborg, Phone: 070–595 38 01,

e-mail:

johan.wingborg@gu.se

Layout: Anders Eurén, Phone: 031–786 43 81, e-mail: anders.euren@gu.se

Address: GU Journal, University of Gothenburg, Box 100, 405 30 Gothenburg , Sweden.

E-mail: gu-journalen@gu.se

Internet: gu-journalen.gu.se

ISSN: 1402-9626

Vice-Chancellor EVA WIBERG

Astrid von Rosen studies scenography.

Ceremony for Jubilee doctors.

Inauguration of professors.

GUJOURNAL The GU Journal has a free and independent position, is made according to journalistic principles.

News 04–20

04 New governance- and financing model for Central Administration.

06 Carina Mallard new Pro-Vice-Chancellor.

07 Kaj Blennow on top of the list.

08 Prefers traveling slowly by train.

10 Sweden a paradise, says blind student from Sarajevo.

11 Scientific way to measure progress in education.

12 Eva Wiberg's six years as Vice-Chancellor.

15 Hi there, Kanchana!

Profile 16–18

16 Performing art for all senses.

Report 19–21

19 How to save the world!

20 Is AI to be trusted?

People 22–25

22 Jubilee doctors celebrated.

24 What does a professor's chair look like?

Masthead

What role do universities play?

ot often do all of Sweden’s University Vice-Chancellors come together to write a joint letter to the government. Yet, this has now happened. The letter is written as a response to a hastily taken government decision that temporarily reduces the term of office for university board members, from three years to 17 months. The alleged motivation is that the board is in need of more competence in regards to their security policy, but the question is how the government aims to produce such people in just 17 months. Criticism of increased politicization has been voiced – as well as rebuttals that our universities already are affected by both political ambitions and adaptations to business and society at large.

Lars Strannegård, Vice-Chancellor of the Stockholm School of Economics, has threatened to introduce entrance exams aimed to deal with the overindulgent grades that some upper secondary schools seem to set. If already existing inequity in society is reinforced by students from prestigious schools receiving undeservedly high grades, that poses a risk to the social contract itself. While we will never have a perfectly equal society, there must remain a clear goal to at least strive towards this end.

As always, this issue contains both news and several reports from different activities at GU. We who work with GU Journalen never cease to be amazed at how many exciting things are going on, both in research, education, and other activities.

We wish you an interesting read and, of course, a really wonderful summer!

Allan Eriksson och Eva Lundgren

Nadina Imamovic is a visually impaired Erasmus-student at GU.

Profile Astrid von Rosen

Hoping to save money

Dialogue and engagement – these are the watchwords when a completely new governance and financing model for the Central Administration (GF) is now being introduced. It is clear that the faculties will have much more influence.

– Everyone will be affected, more or less, says project manager

Therese Johansson Przybylak.

THE PROJECT team has worked intensively for a year and expectations for the report that is now being presented are high. The problems are well known, says Therese Johansson Przybylak.

– In simple terms, you could say that faculties and departments feel that the administration costs too much and that we do not know what it does. The administration argues that they get more and more tasks to carry out with existing resources, while the organization's need for support and service is increasing. In the current model, there are several ambiguities that mean that the potential to manage and prioritize resources at an overarching level within the Central Administration are minimal, and we need to get to grips with that.

JOHAN JOHANSSON , University Director, points out that the new governance and financing model will make tougher demands on the Central Administration in terms of setting priorities.

– In order for it to work, we need to improve the dialogue around the Central Administration’s duties in relation to

it needs to be sorted out and cleaned up a bit.

The proposal is to distribute all the costs based on three categories: Operation of the Central Administration, university-wide activities and investments. Each area will receive a total budget and must be discussed within spe-

cial working committees. All the costs must be laid on the table, described and priced.

– The focus is to have the right conversation in the right team. You should not be negotiating everything with everyone. The purpose is to obtain greater control and clarify the assignments and

the faculties and departments. It will be a challenge to find a good framework for this but I am convinced that it is necessary to provide appropriate and cost-effective support.

ACCORDING TO Johan Johansson, operational support at the Central Administration and out in the faculties and departments must be seen as an integrated whole.

– In order for us to be able to strengthen support for education and research, we must work together.

Therese Johansson Przybylak started last autumn as project manager and is new to the university world. She says it has been an educational journey, but it has been difficult to get an overview.

– It has been much more complex than you might imagine at first glance. My experience is that there are quite a lot of silos, both within the Central Administration and within the entire university. There are many small self-governing entities, which make it difficult to get an overall picture.

The current financing model means that the Central Administration has a budget of 6.4 percent of total turnover. But that is not the whole story. In addition, there are invoices for IT, service and campus.

– OTHER WAYS HAVE been found to finance activities that are in demand, but which do not fit within the basic financing of joint activities (the so-called GV invoice). Today, all the Central Administration's operations are in the same bag of money and compete for the same resources. For anyone who is not very familiar with the Central Administration's finances and operations, it can be very messy, and therefore

Therese Johansson Przybylak emphasizes that the new model is based on dialogue and having the right discussion in the right forum.

– It's about creating legitimacy and creating trust in what we do in the administration, she says.

mandates.

A key team is the heads of administration who it is proposed will be given the responsibility of preparing certain issues and obtaining support for them locally.

– IT HAS BEEN proposed that they will have significant influence over the various areas, above all those that deal with university-wide activities and new investments. Based on proposed content and allocation for the various operational groups in the project report, the largest operational group will be known as the administrative operation (approximately 819 million). The idea is that the faculties will get an insight into this operational group in their budget process, but when the budget has been established, it is up to the Central Administration to prioritize. The second largest is university-wide activities, with a budget of 235 million. It has been proposed that the faculties will have significant influence over this category.

ONE EXAMPLE IS the Swedish Scholastic Aptitude Test (SweSAT), which loses 9 million every year

–The Central Administration has very little ability to control the level of ambition for this operation, but it contributes to the deficit at the Central Administration. Examination activities and joint premises (such as accommodation for visiting researchers) are also running a deficit. These are examples of issues that need to be raised and discussed, it is not something upon which the Central Administration alone should determine.

THE THIRD CATEGORY involves new investments and is linked to a budget, which in the project team's proposal, will amount to almost 50 million. We are proposing obtaining

extensive support here.

But not everything is included in the investigation. This applies, among other things, to IT costs and digitalization or how to handle the Central Administration's deficit of approximately SEK 73 million.

– We are very hopeful that we will solve the problem with the deficit, but it is an issue that must be handled in the right groups.

How hopeful are you that the new model will save money?

– That is, without a doubt, the expectation of the rest of the university. My view is that the dialogue that the new model entails will provide better conditions, but we must be clear that it will require a tremendous amount of work to achieve it.

In the model, where you combine a fixed framework with price and salary enumeration, could there be a risk that there are insufficient resources and that more work is instead outsourced to faculties and departments?

– We are aware of the risk and do not want it to happen. That is why we need to encourage dialogue so that the people making the decisions understand the consequences. New proposals that come up must be scrutinized and described by the heads of administration group, should they have unwanted consequences.

Could it lead to an economy of negotiation where the Central Administration decides to negotiate to get even more resources?

– Some things are already being negotiated today, but not in the right forum. It is about moving the negotiation to the right forum that can prioritize the right issues, i.e. for the people who are affected. Those who will be given the information must also have a mandate

to set priorities, particularly concerning operations that are university-wide and new investments. The Central Administration must have a continued mandate to prioritize within its own operations (CA operations).

Is there a risk that the new way of working will be more time and cost-consuming than the current model?

– Yes, there is a risk, but the aim is to save both time and money in the long run. But we don't want to push the new model out into the organization. It all depends on the level of ambition and the targets that we have not yet set. Here, too, we need to create dialogue. Our aim is that the model and introduction should obtain broad support, something that will take time.

The university is complex, this also applies to all the different reporting relationships and informal power structures.

– Explaining the model will be a challenge. We can present a lot of information and figures, but if we can't explain it in a comprehensible way, that information has no value. It is only when there is insight into and an understanding of the Central Administration’s operations that we will have achieved a degree of transparency. It is something that we will have to work on constantly improving. We are getting there and will succeed somehow.

This autumn, the so-called implementation phase commences, which should be completed by February 2024. There is a strict deadline to get it ready in time for the budget in 2025.

– There remains a huge amount of work to get everything in place by then. Both in terms of the new forums that need to be created and the old ones that need to be adapted to the new model.

But work will continue even after that.

– We will probably work on developing and improving the new control and financing model in our day-to-day work for several years to come. And everyone will be affected because the activities are financed with joint funds, and that is precisely why they need to be clearly linked to the benefit it provides for the entire university. When times get tougher, tougher priorities will be required. Then it is important that we are prepared and have the ability, Therese Johansson Przybylak states.

Text: Allan Eriksson

Photo: Johan Wingborg

→In the summer of 2020, the University Board decided to review the funding model that has existed since 2013. In autumn 2020, Karin Röding was commissioned to review the Central Administration (CA) and in the report she presented 34 specific proposals based on the need for increased clarity and transparency. Part of that work has formed the basis of the project team's proposal for a new governance and financing model. It is based on the model used by the universities of Lund and Uppsala.

The project Ny styr- och finansieringsmodell för Gemensamma förvaltningen (New governance and financing model for the Central Administration) commenced in April 2022 and was presented in April 2023. The steering committee is led by Acting University Director Johan Johansson. Since September 2022, the project team has been led by Therese Johansson Przybylak, and there is a reference group for the project, which comprises heads of administration, amongst others.

Carina Mallard new Pro-ViceChancellor

She is moving from her role as Deputy Vice-Chancellor to step into the role of Pro Vice-Chancellor.

– I am very grateful for the trust people have in me and humbled by the role, says Carina Mallard.

IT HAS BEEN a long process. In January she was nominated, and since then there have been a number of interviews right up to the Consultative Assembly hearing on May 23, when she received the most votes.

– I feel secure in my role as Deputy Vice-Chancellor for research and have acquired a good platform, and I feel I have strong support from the university management and the Grants and Innovation Office. The questions are interesting, but the big difference now as pro-vice-chancellor is that I will provide support to the vice-chancellor.

SO FAR, SHE HAS had a few meetings with Malin Broberg, and it is clear that Carina Mallard will continue to have overall responsibility for research.

– I have been working on this for a couple of years and it feels good that I can contribute with the knowledge I have acquired. I also look forward to getting involved in issues related to the Asso -

ciation of Swedish Higher Education Institutions, and to collaborating more with external stakeholders, both nationally and internationally.

What awaits in the immediate future is work on developing new strategies for research for the next period, and also contributing to the government's research bill. One of the most important questions is how the University of Gothenburg can improve the recruitment of lecturers and researchers.

– IT IS EXTREMELY important that we can offer a good research environment and ensure good career paths. Attracting top international researchers is difficult considering how long recruitment can take, and then we have to take into account the process that the Swedish Migration Agency requires, but we are not alone in that. In addition, I want to work to increase our international research grants. I don't think we've been as successful in that area as we could be.

Although much of the work is the same, there are of course some major differences when stepping in as acting Pro-Vice-Chancellor.

– IT'S ABOUT representing the entire university, both internally and externally. I strongly believe in delegating and transparent leadership, which is important given that we

are a public body with strong independent faculties. In recent years, I think we have developed good procedural methods at the University of Gothenburg. If we do not have the organization's support for the decisions we make, it will be difficult to develop the university. We should also not control too much, but try to give the researchers the best conditions possible.

She emphasizes that the great strength of the University of Gothenburg is its broad base.

– It is a challenge but also something that we must make the most of. A broad base is a prerequisite for achieving excellence. If we have that, we can also attract the very best,

which strengthens our brand as an attractive university.

Like many others, she is very critical of the government's meddling and politicization.

– We feel it is a threat to academic freedom. I think we have to work together with other universities so that the politicians understand the complexity and that a university is not like an ordinary business.

Although the role of Pro-Vice-Chancellor is full-time, Carina Mallard will still be involved with the research team she heads at the Department of Neuroscience and Physiology, where she researches brain damage in premature babies.

– I will be supervising a

doctoral student, among other things. I think it is important to have that grounding in reality. I see it as skills development, she says.

Text: Allan Eriksson

Photo: Johan Wingborg

→ Facts: Carina Mallard was born in 1963 and has been Deputy Vice-Chancellor for research at the University of Gothenburg since 2021. She completed her undergraduate degree in physiology at Lund University and her doctorate in paediatrics at the University of Auckland in 1995. In 2006, she became Professor of Physiology at the University of Gothenburg.

On June 14, the university board decided to appoint her Pro-ViceChancellor.

Kaj Blennow at the top

Kaj Blennow is number one in the rankings of Swedish researchers in the field of neuroscience, and 17th among researchers worldwide. This is according to rankings that were recently published by the site Research.com, where as many as five Swedish researchers, two of whom are from the University of Gothenburg, were among the 100 highest ranked researchers in neuroscience.

LISTAN DOMINERAS STORT The list is dominated by researchers from the USA, but there are also a number of researchers from Great Britain.

– The ranking is based on the so-called d-index, which is calculated based on the researcher's number of publications and citations within a certain field. It is said that a successful researcher should have a d-index that is equivalent to his age or higher, explains Kaj Blennow, Professor of Neurochemistry.

With five researchers in the top 100, among others Henrik Zetterberg from the University of Gothenburg, Sweden is in

a very commendable third place in the world in neuroscience.

– That we are successful can be demonstrated by the fact that it was a researcher from Uppsala, Lars Lannfelt, who developed the drug Lecanemab, which very effectively removes amyloid plaque from the brain. It is the only effective drug for the treatment of Alzheimer’s that has been developed so far.

Kaj Blennow and Henrik Zetterberg have also made an important breakthrough in their Alzheimer's research. Together with PhD students Fernando Gonzalez and Przemek Kac and researcher Thomas Karikari, they have developed new methods to measure the breakdown of nerve cells in the blood and also a test for tau pathology in the brain.

– THIS MEANS a completely new strategy that makes it easier to detect Alzheimer's at an early stage. An elderly person who is worried about their memory will be able to go to their health centre, take a simple cognitive test and then take a blood test. If the person is judged to have a low risk of illness, they will be sent home, if the risk is judged to be high, the person will be referred to a specialist clinic for a more thorough examination. Thanks to the drug Lecanemab, the outlook for the treatment of Alzheimer's is much brighter than it was just a few years ago.

Eva Lundgren

→About the rankings: The rankings for researchers in neuroscience is available here:

https://research.com/scientists-rankings/ neuroscience.

Swedish researchers who are on the ranking list (their ranking appears in brackets) Kaj Blennow, the University of Gothenburg (17), Anders Björklund, Lund University (23), Tomas Hökfelt, Karolinska Institutet (30), Kjell Fuxe, Karolinska Institutet (40), and Henrik Zetterberg, the University of Gothenburg (70).

Kaj Blennow

Photo: Johan Wingborg

Enjoys slow traveling

When the others on the committee took a flight, Jana Bergholtz got on the train to Antwerp, Belgium. The trip to Antwerp took 35 hours with 7 changes of train. It took 22 hours to get home with 4 changes of train. But despite the delay, she has no regrets.

– I will always take the train if possible.

JANA BERGHOLTZ trained as a geologist and has long had a passionate interest in the climate and the environment.

– I avoid flying, am a vegetarian and part of the Zero

Waste Movement, says Jana Bergholtz who works with various research projects within the Centre for Person-Centred Care (GPCC).

At the end of May, she attended a conference on person-centred care in Antwerp, where she presented a study on patient and public participation in healthcare.

FOR HER, IT WAS an obvious choice to take the train.

– I think we should do what we can to reduce our climate footprint.

But the trip down, which should have taken 27 hours, took 35 hours. Right from the start, from Stockholm to

Copenhagen, there were major delays and train changes.

– It was difficult with so many delays, but I was able to work on the train. Then I arrived in Odense in the middle of the night. But I got a refund.

The train journey cost just over SEK 3,800, including a four-day Interrail pass and seat tickets.

But it is important to leave in good time and be prepared for the fact that there may be delays.

– If the conference starts on a Monday, for example, it may be advisable to leave on the Saturday.

Another tip is not to buy all

your seat tickets in advance, but to reserve seats in the Interrail pass app once you’ve started your journey. Then your journey is more flexible, she thinks.

JANA HIGHLIGHTS the advantages of travelling by train.

– It is wonderful to travel slowly and experience the changes in the landscape and beautiful sunsets. Moreover, you can take advantage of the breaks in the journey and see places you would otherwise never get to see. At most stations you can lock your luggage in the luggage lockers.

Jana Bergholtz thinks it is much easier to travel by train today. An increasing number of lines are opening up in Europe; for instance, it is now possible to take the night train from Stockholm to Hamburg.

THE ONLY DOWNSIDE, depending on how you look at it, is that it takes time.

– If you want to have a sleeping compartment, it costs a little extra and you have to be prepared to spend an additional night in a hotel, if necessary. But it's worth it. I’ll always try to take the train within Europe and hopefully I will inspire others to do so as well.

Text: Allan Eriksson Photo: Private

Jana Bergholtz

» I think we should do what we can to reduce our climate footprint.«

Jana Bergholtz

Difficult with education in wartime Ukraine

– The experiences from the pandemic have helped both university employees and students in Ukraine to cope with the countless trials of the war. But now many of them are very tired of the pressured situation and this major initiative has petered out, Nataliya Berbyuk Lindström explains. She is the project manager for a study on how digital technologies can be used during protracted crises, using Ukraine as an example.

THE NUMEROUS experiences gained during the Covid-19 pandemic should be used to better cope with other crises as well. This is the starting point for the project Digital resilience of Ukrainian higher education institutions in times of crises, where Ukraine serves as an example of how digital technology can be used to keep the higher education system going during the war. The first results from the survey have now been published, says Nataliya Berbyuk Lindström, Associate Professor in Communication.

– THE WAR IN Ukraine is an extraordinary situation that is affecting the entire world, economically, politically and environmentally. There are several similarities with the situation during the pandemic, but a war is, of course, something completely different: For example, the electricity can be cut off at any time, which means that the population must take care of the essentials, such as cooking, and only then do they have

time for other things, such as studying. There is insufficient access to textbooks or other material, so it is important to have as much information as possible in your head. And for people who are forced to flee, a computer is not the first thing they would take with them, but rather their mobile phone.

THE PROJECT MEANS that both employees and students from 14 Ukrainian universities have been interviewed, some in 2022, and some very recently in 2023. And mobile phones in particular have proven to be the most important tool, both for teaching, communication and examination, Nataliya Berbyuk Lindström explains.

–Mobile phones are used when teaching on Zoom, Teams or Google Meet, but also for staying in touch, for example via WhatsApp or Telegram. Teaching has become both extremely student-oriented and exceptionally efficient – since you can be interrupted at any time, it is important to use every minute in the best way possible. The lecturers increasingly decide for themselves how they should teach, which often means that which happens to work at that particular moment. It might involve homework instead of classroom exams and the digital signing of documents, among other things.

SINCE IT IS DIFFICULT to know where the students are and when they will have the opportunity to study, many lecturers have started recording short lectures that can be easily shared on different platforms. Timetables and

examination dates have also become increasingly flexible.

– But the uncertain supply of electricity has also meant that the lecturers have had to take several steps back. For example, instead of using digital tests, they might send Word files that the students

→ About the project: Digital resilience of Ukrainian higher education institutions in times of crises is a project where researchers at the Department of Applied IT, together with Ukrainian colleagues, investigated how lessons from the pandemic can be useful during war. The Project Manager is Nataliya Berbyuk Lindström, Associate Professor in Communication. Other participants include Aleksandre Asatiani, Natalia Kononova and Liudmyla Grynevych. The study includes interviews with 23 university employees and 17 students from 14 state universities in Ukraine, 11 of which are located in the eastern part of the country.

can fill in and send back. In some instances, the students have also been forced to write their assignments by hand and then send them as photos via Messenger.

The part of the study that is from this year shows that many of them, both lecturers and students, have grown tired of the difficult situation, says Nataliya Berbyuk Lindström.

– THE LECTURERS long to return to normality and are tired of always having to learn new technology and come up with innovative ways to teach. And students, especially those who commenced their education during the pandemic and still haven't been on campus, find that their education is too goal oriented. They cannot jump out through their computer screen and give a friend a smile or a pat on the back, everything is very dreary and impersonal.

Eva Lundgren

The interviews were conducted via Zoom or MS Teams during two periods: May–October 2022 and February–May 2023. The recorded interviews comprise approximately 38 hours. Previous results are presented in the article: Use of Digital Technologies in Multiple and Extended Crises: A case of Ukrainian Higher Education.

Nataliya Berbyuk Lindström is the project manager for two more projects, funded by the Swedish Institute: Building Remote Work Capabilities in Higher Education Institutions in Ukraine and Digital Technology for Advancing Awareness and Knowledge of Human Rights in Ukrainian Military.

»Teaching has become both extremely student-oriented and exceptionally efficient ...«

Nataliya Berbyuk Lindström

Wishes for a more organized support

– As a blind person, I have had to acquire certain skills, such as reading braille and walking with a cane… but I have no special needs; I have the same needs as everyone else.

So says Nadina Imamovic from Sarajevo, who has been an Erasmus exchange student at GU for three months.

IT WAS LAST NOVEMBER that GU's partner university in Sarajevo proposed Nadina Imamovic as an exchange student within the framework of

Erasmus International Credit Mobility. The program offers exchanges with universities outside the EU, and also provides inclusion support, explains Viktoria Jendmyr, education administrator and international coordinator at the Department of Social Work.

– Since, as far as I know, our department has never received a blind exchange student before, we naturally wanted to find out what the commitment entails. Among other things, we had three Zoom meetings with Nadina to discuss her needs.

Together with Johan Ahlgren at the International Centre, Viktoria Jendmyr contacted the Swedish Council for Higher Education, UHR, which administers funds from the European Commission.

– WE LISTED EVERYTHING that Nadina needs, in addition to what the department offers. Among other things, the UHR supported some of her apartment rent so that she could live reasonably close to central Gothenburg and be able to walk to the department. We also got support for extra hours for the teachers,

»Sweden feels like a paradise for the visually impaired.«

Nadina Imamovic

so they could go over specific points with her, and to label her student room with braille so she could cook, wash and so on. We were quite unsure of exactly what we needed, but at UHR they were very accommodating and explained that we could complete the application as we went along.

At the university central level, however, it was not possible to get help with anything other than the pedagogical, i.e. note-taking, text-reading and the like. And that has worked exemplary, but everything else was the department's responsibility, says Viktoria Jendmyr.

– BUT IF THERE IS anyone who should be up to this kind of challenge, it is the Department of Social Work! Many staff members got involved. For example, at first the City of Gothenburg refused a professional companion – since Nadina is only here for a short period and lacks a Swedish social security number, the support does not apply to her. Then one of our teachers, Lilja Cajvert, got involved, so in the end Nadina got a companion after all, paid by our department.

At home in Sarajevo, Nadina Imamovic is involved in Bosnia's Association for the Visually Impaired. She says

that it is difficult to be a blind student in her home country.

– When I started studying at the University of Sarajevo, I was not given a companion, but my mother followed me both to and from the institution. I also had to adapt all the course material myself. This meant that I first scanned my coursebooks, which could be around 400 pages, and then fed them into a program that converted the text into artificial speech. Then I transferred the most important parts to braille because you learn better by reading than by just listening. Nowadays, the University Library helps to make the literature readable for me, so things are progressing even if it takes time. Here at GU, I have not experienced any problems getting help; Sweden feels like a paradise for the visually impaired.

NADINA IMAMOVIC has also been an exchange student in the USA for ten months.

– I had a guide dog there, which was very good. However, that would not work in Sarajevo because of all the aggressive stray dogs there, that attack other dogs.

Many staff members at the Department of Social Work and the International Center have committed themselves to Nadina Imamovic, explains Viktoria Jendmyr. In particular, the teachers on Nadina's course have been a great support.

– I understand that GU cannot have special readiness for the very few occasions when we receive a blind exchange student. But there should be some kind of help, perhaps in the area of widening participation, or at least a sounding board, for a department that accepts an exchange student with a disability. It is fantastic with all voluntary efforts, but more organized support is also needed.

A knowledgemeasuring ruler

– Measuring a child's growing knowledge should be comparable to measuring a child's increased height. The Rasch method aims to create the same kind of accuracy in the social sciences as in the natural sciences. A centimeter on a ruler is the same length regardless of where it is on the scale; similarly, the Rasch method creates a scoring system for things like reading ability that is exact.

As explained by David Andrich, professor of Education at the University of Western Australia.

GEORG RASCH (1901–1980) was a Danish mathematician, known for his method of measurement in which statistical models express the probability of a correct answer to a task as a function of the individual's ability and the difficulty of the task. It is a model that is used in education, mainly to measure development in both individuals and groups, says David Andrich, a world-leading expert on the Rasch method, who also used to work with Rasch himself.

– It is important to create a test that really measures what you want to investigate and nothing else. For example, you might want to know how much a fourth grader has developed his reading skills over the course of a year. Using the Rasch model, the test can be designed so that it measures the student's development, independent of other factors such as gender, age, background and so on. In order to do a good investigation, careful preliminary work is required. It could, for example, be about testing reading ability in several different ways or, if you instead want to use the method in the health field, to produce data about a patient's health and attitudes to care and treatment.

During a month-long stay in May, as visiting professor at the Department of Education and Special Education, David Andrich held a Rasch course and lectured on how the Rasch model can be used when assessing, among other things, school students' reading ability.

Text: Eva Lundgren

Photo: Johan Wingborg

Viktoria Jendmyr

Text: Eva Lundgren Photo: Johan Wingborg

Six years as Vice-Chancellor

Organization and structure, that is what Eva Wiberg strived for during her six years as vice-chancellor at the University of Gothenburg.

– Many people may think that work with employment regulations, auditing and disciplinary management seems boring. But on the contrary, it has been an absolute pleasure to be involved in developing one of Sweden's most extensive and most dynamic universities.

WHEN EVA WIBERG left her job as pro-vice chancellor at Lund University on July 1, 2017, to take over as vice-chancellor at the University of Gothenburg, she came to an institution that in many ways was similar to the one she had left.

– The two universities

are roughly the same in size and scope with many similar challenges. But there were differences too. The University of Gothenburg had carried out the organizational change GU Förnyas (University of Gothenburg Renewed), which I am sure was effective at the time. But the faculties had lost influence and mainly devoted their time to allocating funding while all other responsibilities/ were brought down to the departmental level and the heads of department. After an investigation by Håkan Pihl, the University Board decided, in autumn 2018, to revise the internal rules of procedure. Now the dean and the faculties have a distinct role between university management and departments at the same time as the head of department's role has been clarified.

A university has billions of kronor in turnover. Eva Wiberg wanted to familiarize herself

early on with how the University of Gothenburg's finances and governance worked.

– I FELT THAT internal governance and control could be improved, for example the Board's work with audit issues and the transparency of the work of the Central Administration. In dialogue with the then chairwoman of the board, Cecilia Schelin Seidegård, I suggested that the University of Gothenburg should introduce an audit committee, which was set up in autumn 2017.

Eva Wiberg was also involved at an early stage in disciplinary and misconduct matters.

– We have made a change and introduced increased clarity concerning disciplinary matters, which are often difficult processes that need to be carried out with respect and dignity. We now have a

revised procedure for handling disciplinary cases, which took us some time to develop, and the pro-vice chancellor and lawyers and other employees, as well as the doctoral representatives, have done an exceptional job. The role of the student representatives has been made clear and also what is required in the department's notification to the Disciplinary Committee. The many complaints received in connection with the pandemic related to digital examinations at home, and they have been a considerable challenge.

ONE OF THE ISSUES that Eva Wiberg was closely involved in was student influence.

– The students are the ones who make us a university, and their contribution to the organization is extremely important! Today, they are represented in the university's

2017–2023

2017 2018 2019 2020

Audit Committee appointed

Procedural change for the Disciplinary Committee

management team as well as in all preparatory and decision-making bodies. And all the student unions, including the School of Business, Economics and Law, are part of the University of Gothenburg's student unions. We are now establishing revised rules for student influence, and with Deputy Vice-Chancellor Pauli Korteinen's commendable work, we have established both guidelines for study places and student social activities.

THE UNIVERSITY management's decision-making has also been made more rigorous.

– So that the employees do not have to work on weekends, we moved decision-making meetings and management councils from Mondays to Thursdays. And the matters raised must be so well

Revised internal rules of procedure

The University of Gothenburg joins Mirai (takes over the presidency, we joined well before)

New ceremony: Thecertification ceremony

New allocation method for direct government funding based on the number of full-time students

Internationalization Council established

RED 19 investigation completed

The University of Gothenburg joins the Climate Framework

The University of Gothenburg joins EUTOPIA, the University of Gothenburg takes over the presidency

clearly contribute to the green transition.

But the most important thing was, of course, that it was at that time that the extensive work on a new vision commenced.

– THE WORK ON the new vision began with a workshop during the spring. Among other things, we decided to arrange a number of vision seminars, open to both employees and students, in order to get as many points of view as possible. It was also important to keep the vision simple and focused, without a lot of unnecessary verbiage.

Covid-19 pandemic Email crash

Construction of Natrium commences

The vision A university for the world for 2021–2030

the world is one of the most important things that I have worked towards. During my time as vice-chancellor, several collaborations have been initiated, including the Mirai collaboration with Japan and EUTOPIA, which now includes ten universities. But we also have to collaborate with the city and the region. One example is Lärosäten Väst (Western Sweden Universities) which was established in March 2021, and includes six universities in western Sweden.

prepared that decisions are normally made at the meeting. During the pandemic, we also decided that decision-making and staff meetings should be conducted and signed digitally, a practice with which we continued. This means, for example, that a new professor can receive a decision on their appointment on the same day that the decision was made, instead of having to wait for a piece of paper to arrive in their mailbox.

2019 was an eventful year. Eva Wiberg appointed an internationalization council, and RED 19, i.e. the major review of research conditions at the University of Gothenburg, was completed. The University of Gothenburg also joined the Climate Framework, which means that all higher education institutions in Sweden undertake to

On April 15, 2020, the University Board decided on A university for the world, a vision that will extend right up to 2030. The vision is special, as it contains very specific goals and action plans divided into three-year periods, Eva Wiberg explains.

– Being a university for

THE PANDEMIC WAS a major and abrupt challenge where the entire university had to change its entire operations in just a few days, Eva Wiberg recalls.

– Everyone, both employees and students, made huge contributions; despite considerable difficulties, they managed to keep both teaching and other activities going. No one wants terrible

Some

events that took place during Eva Wiberg's term as

vice-chancellor

Eva Wiberg and Stefan Bengtsson, President of Chalmers University of Technology.

Kristina Nyström during the pandemic.

→

2021 2022 2023

Digital inauguration of the new Humanisten

Construction commences of new building for the School of Business, Economics and Law

New working hours agreement for lecturers

The collaboration Lärosäten Väst is established

Inauguration of the research vessel Skagerak

New ceremony: Jubilee Doctoral Conferment Ceremony

things to happen, but when they do, it's important to learn as many lessons as possible. The pandemic made us realize that some meetings can be held remotely and that online teaching offers new opportunities, especially for those who have difficulty getting to campus. But we were also reminded of the importance of sometimes actually meeting face-to-face, if only at the coffee machine.

ANOTHER SIGNIFICANT event was the email crash in the autumn of 2020.

– It placed a huge strain on the entire university, but also provided incentives to really take IT security seriously. Today, we are significantly better equipped for that type of serious incident.

The University of Gothenburg starts an initiative for Ukrainian visiting professors

Sweden's largest professorial inauguration comprising 106 professors

During Eva Wiberg's term as vice-chancellor a number of government initiatives were introduced. For example, in the spring of 2021, when the previous government wanted to introduce a new allocation system where universities would apply for funds for different profile areas. What is going to happen with that system is still unclear.

AT THE END of April this year, another government initiative was introduced: the members of the new university boards can only sit on the board for 17 months instead of the standard three years.

– It has led to a tremendous amount of anger at all the universities. In a letter, signed by 37 vice-chancellors, we highlight the extreme

Construction commences for the Faculty of Fine, Applied and Performing Arts

Natrium is completed and the inauguration will take place during the autumn

All student unions are now part of the University of Gothenburg's student unions

disrespect in changing the conditions for the new boards just a few days before they plan to take office.

A number of construction projects also took place during Eva Wiberg's time as vice-chancellor. The new Humanisten building was completed in December 2019, and staff will move into Natrium in August. The School of Business, Economics and Law and the Faculty of Fine, Applied and Performing Arts also have new buildings under way, and there are also plans for a new University Library.

– SAHLGRENSKA LIFE is an important strategic investment for the university that our board supports. The proximity to the hospital and the Public Dental Service is important for future developments. Now we have admittedly turned down a lease proposal, but together with Region Västra Götaland we are looking for new solutions regarding how to realize the project.

During Eva Wiberg's term as vice-chancellor, two new festivals were also introduced: The certification ceremony, which recognizes students who are active in the student unions and members of doctoral student committees, as well as the Jubilee Doctoral Conferment Ceremony, which honours people who received their doctorates fifty years ago.

The fact that Eva Wiberg

the

time

am

will be leaving her position as vice-chancellor on June 30 does not mean that she will be idle.

– I will continue my involvement in Mirai and in the Sweden-Japan Foundation. I also sit on the board of Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München as well as in several foundations and will also be undertaking assignments for Lund University. I am pleased and satisfied with what I have achieved, but at the same time I am cognisant of the fact that there is always more to do. Soon I will hand over the reins to Malin Broberg, who will manage and renew the organisation. I have the utmost confidence that she will do it in an excellent way.

THE UNIVERSITY of Gothenburg is an inclusive university that it was easy to become a part of, explains Eva Wiberg.

– During my years here, I have met many fantastic people and made a lot of new friends. But mainly I want to draw attention to the management team and the staff. Being able to work in a team with these knowledgeable and at the same time selfless employees has been an honour and an experience that I will happily carry with me for the rest of my life.

Text: Eva Lundgren

Photo: Johan Wingborg

»I am pleased and satisfied with what I have achieved, but at

same

I

cognisant of the fact that there is always more to do.«

Eva Wiberg

Göran Ivarsson, IT-technician, in the control room.

Hi, Kanchana N Ruwanpura

Professor of Human Geography!

The Association for Evolutionary Economics (AFEE) has awarded you the 2023 Clarence L. Ayres Scholar Award.

What is the AFEE?

– Within the paradigm of economics, there are many schools of thought: from the Austrians to the Marxists. One strand of (heterodox) economics is the institutional thought that draws on Veblen’s work but also that of Karl Polanyi and infuses feminist economics. AFEE is the academic body that brings together institutional economists.

Why did you get this award?

– This award is given for outstanding scholarship for academics outside of the USA. My most recent book takes a feminist and labour perspective to unpack historical and institutional conditions that have facilitated Sri Lankan apparels transition to be on the vanguard of ethical production – and record the centrality of labour agency (collective and individual) in the success of the country’s apparel industry. I draw on labour geography, feminist economics, and institutionalist thought to inform my theoretical and conceptual framings around political economy of development and draw on anthropological methods around ethnography to conduct my research. More details can be found here: https://www. gu.se/en/news/garments-without-guilt-new-book-on-global-labour-justice-and-ethical-codes-in-sri-lankan-apparels

In what way does this award encourage you in your work?

– It was an unexpected and pleasant surprise to win this award. Although I was initially trained in (heterodox) economics, I have since then moved onto the discipline of human geography and development studies in terms of career and work. However, I have continued my intellectual conversations and engagement with feminist economics and institutionalist thought, even as I also speak across disciplines to human geography, development studies, anthropology, and South Asian studies. So, it is so thrilling when my academic peers from my initial discipline of training still find value in my scholarship (and I follow the steps of Yanis Varoufakis a decade later: wow!), – and thought me worthy of the Clarence Ayres award for institutionalist thought. It is a validation of the importance of inter-disciplinary conversations within the social sciences.

Performing art for all senses

– Where do I come from and how did I end up here? asks Astrid von Rosen. She is the new director of the Centre for Critical Heritage Studies, new professor of art history and visual studies, and for many years deeply involved in research on scenography and independent performing arts. Everything she does today can be traced back to her background.

Dig Where You Stand, Sven Lindqvist's ground-breaking book on how to research one's own work, has finally been published in English after 45 years. The editors are Astrid von Rosen, professor at the University of Gothenburg, and Andrew Flinn, researcher at University College London (UCL).

– Work on the translation began back in 2013 when I was headhunted to what later became the Centre for Critical Heritage Studies (CCHS). Some colleagues and I had gone to London for a meeting at UCL and at one point we were going to pair up with English researchers in a kind of “academic speed-dating”. I chose Andrew Flinn who does research on archives and activism and I had two minutes to say something. So I explained that, together with practitioners, I wanted to research independent dance troupes. To my surprise, Andrew then started talking about Sven Lindqvist, who he was very interested in after reading one of his articles. However, he had never read his book because it was not available in English. The idea was then born to translate the book. It has taken ten years and a lot of work, but on March 22 the publication of the book was celebrated in London. The event is important because there is currently a great deal of international interest in Lindqvist's thinking about digging where you stand.

When Astrid von Rosen digs where she stands, she ends up in her mother's garden next to a small red cabin out in the countryside in southern Östergötland. Her mother was a vegan and grew all the family's vegetables herself. Her father supported the family as an artist. Her parents were involved in global justice and environmental issues, but Astrid von Rosen saw herself as deviant and different from everyone else.

– I was good at school but I didn't like it and wanted to leave. My dream was to be like my aunt.

Elsa Marianne von Rosen was a ballet dancer and choreographer, and someone Astrid von Rosen was fascinated by.

– As a 16-year-old, I moved away from home to attend upper-secondary school in Linköping. That's when I started dancing in earnest. A couple of years later I enrolled at the Royal Swedish Ballet School in Stockholm to begin

the rigorous training to become a professional dancer. Dance became my profession, and I worked at the opera houses in Malmö and Gothenburg, among other places. However, in the early 1990s, when I had two small children and had to take on extra work, my body couldn't take any more.

She started studying instead, first at the IHM Business School, then at the University of Gothenburg. In 2007, she became a doctoral student in art history and visual studies.

– It has been said that dancers do well in academia. We are used to working hard, are disciplined and have trained our brains to memorize maybe three hours’ worth of step combinations. I am also a person who loves writing and enjoy working. So I, who previously saw myself as an oddball, noticed that I fit in in the university world.

The subject Astrid von Rosen is engaged in, scenography, is a small research field in Sweden. Internationally, however, scenography is an interdisciplinary field that is really beginning to flourish, she says.

– It’s about an increased interest in understanding and examining the creation of worlds in relation to individuals and society. Today we have developed wonderfully useful theories and methods to access the power of the multi-sensory interplay between sound, light, space, bodies, costume, scent, audience and larger social, cultural and political contexts.

But the concept of “scenography” has also expanded to include events beyond the stage, for example on the street and in the public space.

– People interact with different environments that contain sounds and smells, traffic or nature, and a kind of rapid architecture arises that can create new, often short-lived worlds, for example activists camping outside a government building, Astrid von Rosen explains.

“Dig Where You Stand” is not only about examining one's own work, but also about studying other phenomena in the place where one happens to be. In the Expansion and Diversity project, which in 2019 received SEK 13 million from the Swedish Research Council, Astrid von Rosen and her colleagues studied alternative groups in

Text: Eva Lundgren Photo: Johan Wingborg

Gothenburg during the latter part of the 20th century.

– Some are well-known, such as the National Theatre and Rubicon, others have received less attention. Among other things, I am interested in the black dancer Claude Marchant who, after a long international career, came to Gothenburg in 1967 and started the Marchant Dance Theatre. He is marginalized in Swedish performing arts history, but created a lot of interest in jazz dance among the general public, but also among people who wanted to become professional dancers. At a seminar a few years ago, a number of practitioners demonstrated various movements. An ordinary room on Vera Sandberg allé, where the Department of Cultural Sciences was then located, was literally teaming with bodies that had archived the knowledge they had danced to under the direction of Marchant.

Together with Claude Marchant’s surviving partner, Bo Westerholm, Astrid von Rosen has gone through an extensive private archive of the great dancer's work.

The results are included in the database and open digital platform that is part of the Expansion and Diversity project. Practitioners’ practical knowledge, experiences and memories can be combined with the researcher’s ability to be systematic, use theory and method, and write scientific text.

– The database can be thought of as part of a larger network where different sources and people contribute facts and stories. The work on the database has been characterized by “radical empathy”, i.e. by the ability to respect the thoughts and experiences of others, even if one has a different opinion or background.

– The database, which is a tool for continued research, can by definition never be complete. By understanding the database as one of several parts in a network, it is easier to see how it can live on in new ways. Research initiatives can just as easily come from practitioners of the performing arts as from academics.

This way of thinking about archives, networks and databases, from a dig-where-you-stand perspective, is an important part of CCHS's theoretical and practical approach, Astrid von Rosen emphasizes.

– The CCHS truly represents interdisciplinarity. The centre moves across faculty boundaries, has international collaborations and is interested in an outside perspective from users of various types. But we are also good at research communication. One example is Matarvspodden (the Food Heritage Podcast) with Jenny Högström Berntson as producer, which covers everything from school-canteen food to food in times of crisis.

Together with Elisabeth Punzi, a specialist in neuropsychology, Astrid von Rosen appeared in the episode Mat i nöd och lust (Food for Better or Worse), which was broadcast last December. During the episode, she talked about her Facebook blog Simonssons änka (Simonsson's Widow).

– My beloved husband, the love of my life, passed away last February leaving me in a state of shock and exhaustion. We used to cook together; he was a classically skilful cook who loved fish, while I contributed with

dishes inspired by Italian and vegan cuisine. The blog, where I write a couple of posts a week, became a way for me to structure my existence and perhaps also comfort others who could identify with my grief.

In February this year, Astrid von Rosen was appointed Professor of Art History and Visual Studies. The experts, both from Finland, explained that she is a pioneer in scenography research, which she has reinvented through a combination of theory and empirical work.

– Of course, I was both happy and grateful for the appreciative words and that they took the time to familiarize themselves with my work in such a conscientious way.

The idea of digging where you stand is also about digging down into yourself. Astrid von Rosen has just turned 59 and believes it is time to reflect.

– I see my life as an arc that began with my parents’ social activism and artistic interests, continued with my own artistic endeavours and now continues in my work to combine academia and practice. And, even though it wasn’t intended that way, I see that it all ties together.

Astrid von Rosen

Currently: New Professor of Art History and Visual Studies. Editor, together with Andrew Flinn, of an English translation of Sven Lindqvist's book Gräv där du står – hur man utforskar ett jobb: Dig Where You Stand – How to Research a Job (translation: Ann Henning Jocelyn).

Current position: Researcher and lecturer at the Department of Cultural Sciences. Head of the Centre for Critical Heritage Studies (CCHS).

Lives in: Central Gothenburg.

Family: My elderly mother, my brother and his family, my two beloved children and a grandchild. Close friends are also a kind of family.

Hobbies: Produces the blog Simonssons änka.

»An ordinary room on Vera Sandberg allé … was literally teaming with bodies that had archived the knowledge they had danced to under the direction of Marchant.«

ASTRID VON ROSEN

Buy out oil companies and save the planet!

This is how one could summarize John Broome's talk during a workshop at Humanisten in early June. The conference was organized by the Research Group for Financial Ethics.

Taxing energy and emissions to fund the development of green alternatives seems sensible, acknowledged John Broome, Professor of Moral Philosophy at Oxford University.

– Nevertheless, most of us would probably find it difficult to accept the taxes that really should be imposed to compensate for emissions and environmental destruction. I myself am no better: my son lives in Australia and, naturally, my wife and I want to be able to visit him every now and then.

To solve the problem, John Broome presented a radical proposal: Instead of taxes, the World Bank can borrow from future generations to invest in green technology and infrastructure.

– This would be a win-win situation: Those of us who are living now could continue to consume without too high a tax burden. The subsequent generation may indeed have to pay for a loan they themselves did not take out, but in return would take over a much more sustainable world than would otherwise have been the case.

Passing our current consumption costs onto our grandchildren sounds a little unfair, John Broome conceded.

– But no one in 100 years’ time suffering from the irreversible effects of climate change will take comfort in the

fact that the level of national debt is low.

To end the consumption of fossil fuels, John Broome had an even more radical proposal.

– Let the World Bank buy out all the oil and gas companies, and then shut down their business! Something similar has actually already been done: In 1833, Britain used 40 percent of its GDP to buy all the slaves in the empire, and then freed them. Paying slave owners was, of course, highly questionable from an ethical perspective. Moreover, it was immensely costly and burdened several generations to come – but slavery was eradicated.

The Conference on Financial Ethics was held on 2–3 June.

Text: Eva Lundgren Photo: Johan Wingborg

John Broome spoke at a Conference on Financial Ethics in June.

AI – a threat or reliable!

Discussing ChatGPT's ability to cheat on exams and take our jobs in the future is just skimming the surface. Instead, we should view AI technology in the same way as we do a nuclear threat.

Olle Häggström, Professor of Mathematical Statistics, is not alone in warning us about the end of humanity.

But far from everyone agrees on the risks.

The open letter that was written a few months ago attracted a lot of attention. Almost two thousand researchers and prominent names in the technology industry came out and spoke about the risks of artificial intelligence. The demand they made was a six-month pause in the training of the most powerful AI models.

When the GU journal spoke to Olle Häggström at the end of March, shortly after the letter had been published, he said that he did not hesitate in signing it.

– But of course a pause is not enough. The aim was to draw attention to the issue and to convince the right people to stop developing the AI systems, giving legislation a chance to catch up, he says.

Since then, the debate has been intense on social media and in the opinion pages in the newspapers. Most recently, Max Tegmark, Professor of Physics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, claimed that half of all AI researchers estimate that the risk of AI causing the downfall of humanity is approximately ten percent. His article in Time Magazine had a considerable impact – but it also met with opposition. Among other things, the survey was criticized for being too small and unscientific to be relevant.

But Max Tegmark is not the only one sounding alarm bells. Olle Häggström refers to an American AI researcher, Eliezer Yudkowsky, who in an article in Time Magazine also warns of the end of the world.

– He didn't even sign the open letter

because he thought it underestimated the seriousness of the situation. According to Yudkowsky, the most likely result of building a superhuman AI is that everyone on the planet will die, says Olle Häggström.

It is, of course, the controversial ChatGPT that brought this loaded issue onto the agenda. Open AI's advanced language models have been both admired and criticized for their ability to produce human-like texts and reasoning. The question that divides the researchers is whether ChatGPT should be considered only a rudimentary language robot or whether it is a sign of a far more frightening development. The most pessimistic researchers believe that the machines are already capable of "thinking" on their own and that it is only a matter of time before they surpass human abilities.

– There are already examples that deep within the system itself, it understands reasoning and can draw its own conclusions, says Olle Häggström.

Once the technology reaches AGI level, Artificial General Intelligence, there is no going back, he believes. If in that situation we do not succeed in taming the machines, so-called AI alignment, they risk becoming brutal and autonomous and taking over man's place in the food chain. The world as we know it will be over.

– It may be that AGI is 20–30 years away. There may be hidden limitations that we are not aware of. But the most likely thing is that it will happen within a decade or even next year.

Olle Häggström has been accused of scaremongering, including in an op-ed article in Göteborgs-Posten. One of the authors was Moa Johansson, Associate Professor of Data Science and AI at Chalmers University and Gothenburg University.

– ChatGPT is an impressive system, but is nowhere near general intelligence. Lang-

uage models are also not, as some believe, conscious in any way. There is no scientific evidence to suggest that they want to take the place of humans, she says.

The fact that the robots are considered to be so perceptive is, among other things, due to the fact that lots of people, usually in low-wage countries, have been hired to train the model. As people have interacted with the model and rated the answers it delivers as good or less good, even more data have been collected. This in turn has been used to train the model to learn what people consider to be a good or bad response.

– ChatGPT works well because it was trained on such enormous amounts of data, not just plain text, but also data about human preferences, says Moa Johansson.

She thinks it is important to clarify the mystery behind how the models work. Today's language models consist of a large neural network where the developers insert text and the machine makes probability calculations. Based on the information, it can then generate coherent text, poems, essays, stories, but also images and program codes. It is a fantastic technology, but it is not sentient in any sense, says Moa Johansson.

– We are so used to ascribing consciousness to all kinds of machines, robotic vacuum cleaners, lawnmowers and our laptops, she says.

Where Olle Häggström predicts disaster, Moa Johansson sees a limitation. According to her, there is no imminent risk of human extinction due to the language models, however amazing they may be.

– Just because you scale up a neural

»He didn't even sign the open letter because he thought it underestimated the seriousness of the situation.«

OLLE HÄGGSTRÖM

network, it is not a given that it will develop superintelligence, she says.

According to Moa Johansson, and many other AI researchers, we should instead focus more on immediate challenges. The risk of fake information, for example, has increased with ChatGPT, and for scammers and spammers it is a wonderful opportunity. Even people wanting to engage in political influence campaigns have been given an excellent tool. The language models can help to write customized texts with the right message for the right target group. Moa Johansson believes that this is the development we need to be vigilant about.

– From a sustainability point of view, it's not good either. It takes an incredible amount of energy to run these machines, she says.

Something that the researchers agree on is that legislation is required to control the development of AI. The new EU regulation, the AI Act, which is the first of its kind, is supposed to regulate the use of AI as a technology, but it is legally

complicated and the decision has been delayed.

– Legislation is important and necessary. Furthermore, the tech companies need to take responsibility for their products and how they collect their training data, Moa Johansson believes.

Olle Häggström wants to see much more drastic measures. He agrees with AI researcher Eliezer Yudkowsky's demand for an international agreement that completely bans this type of research indefinitely. It also needs to have a strict framework akin to the rules surrounding nuclear proliferation, because the threat is at least as great.

– The regulation is proceeding so slowly that the AI Act will be outdated before it even comes into force. It would have been ineffectual against OpenAI's GPT models even if the US had been an EU country. This slow pace means that we need to work with other parallel approaches in addition to regulation, he says.

He sees the joint letter published

on the Future of Life Institute website and Eliezer Yudkowsky's article in Time Magazine as steps in the right direction. By building consensus on the issue, the researchers can hopefully influence the corporate culture in the AI companies. And that the question has come up on the agenda at all, he sees as a small glimmer of hope in what, in his opinion, is a gloomy future.

The debate continues to be intense both in the research community and in the media. Both Olle Häggström and Moa Johansson say they have never spoken to so many journalists before.

– The AI disaster may well be around the corner, and if we are to succeed in averting it, we must stop burying our heads in the sand, says Olle Häggström.

Text: Lotta Engelbrektson

Photo: Johan Wingborg

SOLEMN CELEBRATION for jubilee doctors

On May 5, it was time once again for the jubilee doctoral conferment ceremony, one of Gothenburg University's major celebrations. In the auditorium of the main building, 26 doctors who received their doctorate degrees 50 years ago were celebrated.

– For your commitment, your dedication and your many years of hard work, you are worthy of both appreciation and gratitude, Vice-Chancellor Eva Wiberg declared.

It was following the National Emblem march, performed by Göteborg Brasskvintett (Gothenburg Brass Quintet), that Vice-Chancellor Eva Wiberg held her speech.

– In your various fields, ranging from psychiatry, infectious medicine and pharmacology to lecturing in mathematics, technology and pedagogy, among

other things, you have contributed to the tremendous progress society has made over half a century. Whether you were employed in the private or public sector, you have worked and taken responsibility for our shared future. It is to celebrate you that the University of Gothenburg has held this special jubilee doctoral conferment ceremony for a couple of years now.

Among the cheering doctors was medical doctor Anders Nordwall, initiator of the Nordic Region’s first department for spinal cord injuries.

– It was a delightful and beautiful ceremony. I look forward to continued celebrations and dinner at Medicinareberget.

The jubilee doctor Britta Olinder, former lecturer at the English department and still an active literature researcher, was also very pleased.

– It was a very nice ceremony, I really feel both happy and honoured.

Text: Eva Lundgren

Photo: Johan Wingborg

On May 5, Jubilee doctors, who took their exams 50 years ago, were solemny celebrated at Vasaparken. Afterwords the doctors were invited to dinner at Wallberg Conference Center. This is a new ceremony that took place for the third time.

What should a professor's chair be like?

Ewa-Lena Bratt, Professor of Nursing with a focus on medical care related to acute and critical conditions:

– If I were to draw a professor's chair, it would be a really beautiful chair, preferably in red velvet with a golden frame.

Nir Piterman, Professor of Computer Science:

– Hmm, I have a fairly comfortable office chair. But I prefer standing, so my chair could probably be used more.

Sara Landström, Professor of Psychology:

– A professor's chair should be incredibly soft. There should also be a foot stool so you can put your feet up, have your computer on your lap and work leaning back. Ergonomics would be less important.

Text: Eva Lundgren Portrait photos: Allan Eriksson Photo: Johan Wingborg

Svetlana

– A professor's chair must be comfortable but also be high enough to accommodate a drawer underneath. You would find answers to everything there: If someone is wondering about something, anything, you could quickly look into the drawer and the explanation would be there.

Mikael Hilmersson, Professor of Business Administration, especially international business:

– After sitting through a two-and-a-half hour professorial inauguration, I can say that a professor's chair is hard – very hard.

– The words “professor's chair” makes me think of a magnificent wooden chair behind a large dark desk. But a more modern image is dynamic, where the professor switches between his different chairs in meeting rooms, at his desk or in the lab.

– I have my professor's chair at home, it's a comfortable, moss-green wingback armchair.

– My impression so far is that a professor’s chair could almost be compared to the Iron Throne in Game of Thrones. It is uncomfortable and risky but desirable and empowering.

Facts: About the professorial inauguration: This year's professorial inauguration was held at Konserthuset on May 12th. Forty-nine professors were inaugurated, 6 adjunct professors and 2 visiting professors were welcomed. In addition, 5 excellent teachers and 14 pedagogical award winners were honoured.

– My office chair is like nothing else. It has wheels so I can ride around on it and it’s red to hide any bloody experiments.

In addition to the vice-chancellor's welcome speech, Lina Eriksson, Professor of Political Science, and Emil Berglind, Vice President of the University of Gothenburg’s student unions, also spoke.

Students from the Academy of Music and Drama, the Gothenburg Brass Quintet and Stella Academica provided the musical entertainment.

Lajic Näreskog, Professor of Paediatrics

Joachim Sturve, Professor of Ecotoxicology:

John Fletcher, Professor of Analytical Chemistry:

Gisela Brändén, Professor of Membrane Protein Structure, Function and Dynamics

Andrei Chagin, Professor of Molecular Medicine: