Language support needed

At the University of Gothenburg, like most universities, there are not very many people with a foreign background in important management bodies.

– It is fundamentally a democratic problem, says Professor Roland Barthel, who until recently was head of the Department of Earth Sciences.

ROLAND BARTHEL is originally from Germany and moved here ten years ago with his wife and four children. He believes that it is embarrassing, if not scandalous, that foreign staff are barely represented in higher management bodies, especially given that the University of Gothenburg's vision is to be an international university.

– Without having exact figures, my assessment is that the University of Gothenburg is worse in terms of foreign representation than the national average of 12 percent. The higher up you go in the management bodies, for example at the vice-chancellor's strategy meetings and management councils, as well as in the consultative assembly, the fewer people you will find with a foreign background. The fact that the official language is Swedish makes it even more difficult.

ROLAND BARTHEL points out that half of all lecturers at the Department of Earth Sciences have a foreign background. Eighty percent of all lecturers hired in the last 10 years come from other countries.

– Today, integration more or less means coming here, getting a job and paying taxes, but social integration is often forgotten. But if we want to be a responsible international university, we cannot see our employees only in terms of skills supply. We have a responsibility to take care of everyone who comes here and give them the best conditions for learning Swedish and being involved in the entire organization, including taking on management assignments. Furthermore, it is equally important that Swedes learn what it means to work in an international organization. What does it entail, for example, bringing a family here from India?

Roland Barthel points out that he is a Swedish citizen and professor, his wife is a doctor, their children go to good schools and they live in a well-established residential area.

– STILL, I DON'T FEEL that I am integrated into Swedish society. Here at work, I spend most of my time with people from abroad, I have almost no social network with Swedes.

As head of department and a lecturer, he has become much more aware of how other groups feel at the department, not least doctoral students and students from Asia and Africa.

– Many of them are very lonely and are far from integrated into society.

To learn Swedish well, both incentive and time are required, Roland Barthel points out, something that steals time from lecturing, research and writing articles.

– There is a notion that everyone can learn Swedish in a year if you put in enough effort, but you that’s not the case. I speak with a strong accent, at times I cannot find the right words, and to this day often say what I can rather than what I want to say, especially when it comes to nuances in the language, says Roland Barthel, who remembers that the hardest part was when he started to speak Swedish fairly well but still not well enough to take part in a conversation.

– If you switch to English, it is even more difficult to learn.

THE MOST important thing is to get plenty of support at the beginning, so that you have a chance to learn the language and to learn about Swedish society and culture, but also about government authorities, he believes.

– Many Swedes want to show how good they are at English, which is not so strange, but it does not help those who want to learn the language. Here at work, groups are formed where Swedish is spoken at one table, English at another, German at a third. Parallel worlds work for a while, but eventually are doomed to fail if you don't do something about it in time. Welcome Services offers a lot of good activities, but you only meet other foreigners, no Swedes.

He points out that foreign employees and students are a completely free educational resource.

– Think what an untapped potential this group represents! They can enrich the organization not only with their scientific expertise but also with their organizational and management culture.

IT IS A WELL-KNOWN problem that it is difficult to recruit researchers for jobs such as head of department or dean.

– Many people think that it should be about academic leadership and leading education and research, but in reality you mostly deal with administrative tasks, conflict management and health & safety issues. It is probably particularly unattractive for employees from abroad, Roland Barthel believes.

– The collegial influence in appointing a head of department and a dean does not favour foreign representation either, as the elections are not as open and transparent as one would like. It is solely about voting based on the nominating committee's proposal.

AT THE SCHOOL of Global Studies, where half of the forty employees come from other countries, for the first two years 10 percent of the skills development for foreign staff is paid for by the university, and they also receive grants of up to SEK 30,000 to study intensive courses. Professor Merritt Polk, who resigned as head of department at the beginning of the year after nine years in the job, is doubtful about everyone needing to learn Swedish.

– Most people are extremely ambitious, publish a lot and attract a lot of external research funds, but it takes a lot of time to learn Swedish well. Some people learn quickly while others need a lot of support and training. Is it really our job to offer language support or is it up to each individual to use public resources? Merritt Polk asks.

At the University of Gothenburg there is a strategic skills supply group led by Dean Malin Broberg. In this group, attention has been drawn to the lack of international personnel in management bodies.

– We don't have any solutions right now, but we are in a phase where we are talking to various groups, including Roland Barthel, to capture general problems around strategic skills supply, says Magnus Petersson of the university's management team.

IF IT IS DIFFICUL t to get foreign personnel into management bodies, one idea could be to create a reference group to brainstorm ideas and exchange information, Roland Barthel proposes. – If the university cannot solve the problem how can one expect to succeed in the rest of society? However, internationalization must not only be designed for the good of the university, but also for the well-being of our foreign students and employees.

→ Few senior managers in academia have a foreign background

Among all university employees, 34 percent have a foreign background and in Sweden as a whole the figure is 31 percent. Among those who sit in the higher education institutions' management teams, the corresponding figure is 12 percent, Universitetsläraren’s survey shows. More than a quarter of these employees come from one of the Nordic countries.

Statistics Sweden, SCB, defines a foreign background as being born abroad, or as being born in the country but where both parents were born aboard. One of the various interim goals that the government has set for state employers is that the proportion of employees with a foreign background should increase at “all levels”.