GUJ3-2016English

NO 3 | SUMMER 2016

Exercise removes stress Physical activity is the best medicine for today’s diseases, according to Mats Börjesson.

THEME: EMPLOYMENT

NEW VICE-CHANCELLOR WANTED

JOY OF KNOWLEDGE

Few with a foreign background

Searching for the best candidates

Scientist and dream interpreter

PAGE 4

PAGE 6

PAGE 8

2

Vice Chancellor

Recruiting and employing correctly is a question of trust

A MAGAZINE FOR EMPLOYEES OF THE UNIVERSIT Y OF GOTHENBURG

Summer 2016 E D I TO R - I N C H I E F A N D P U B L I S H E R

Allan Eriksson 031 - 786 10 21 allan.eriksson@gu.se E D I TO R A N D V I C E P U B L I S H E R

T H R E E N E W LY FLE D G E D students passed by the university’s grand main building in Vasaparken the other day. They had a hard time containing their enthusiasm and when a colleague walked by, they took the opportunity to tell her that they would soon be a part of the university.

It’s always fun hearing young people tell about their future plans, but as the Vice-Chancellor of course it’s especially enjoyable if higher studies are the dream.

That young people want to continue studying after high school is crucial for a country like Sweden, which primarily wants to compete with knowledge and expertise.

Consequently, it’s my hope that we will get better at attracting the young people who are underrepresented at the university today. We know that it’s increasingly young people from homes with highly educated parents who go on to university. This is a trend that has to be broken if the reserve of talent that exists in society is to be taken advantage of.

B U T T H E R EC R U IT M E N T imbalance to universities not only involves social background. It also involves gender. Today, nearly 70 per cent of the new students are women, an imbalance that needs to be corrected. On the positive side, students with a foreign background are growing in number, which is a trend that I hope will continue, not least through all recently arrived young people. Addressing the recruitment imbalance is important for all of our futures and it is therefore pleasing that the government clearly indicates the importance of this.

But we not only recruit students to the university. We also recruit employees and the University of Gothenburg was recently criticised for its way of handling employment. The university’s internal audit reviewed a large number of cases and confirms that improprie-

Eva Lundgren 031 - 786 10 81 eva.lundgren@gu.se

ties occurred, mainly with regard to what’s known as ”inlasningar” or employment based on the Employment Protection Act. At the same time, it’s pointed out that the majority of the cases reviewed go back several years and that there has been a clear improvement since.

A S A N E M PLOY E R , we have a joint responsibility for employment being handled in a correct and legally assured manner. It’s important that the rules are clear and transparent and that our managers get the support they need to be able to do the right thing. We have already taken a number of steps with the intention of supporting and developing the skills of managers and HR administrators. To further improve this support, I now intend to review and strengthen the university’s HR work. This is crucial to our credibility as employers. We also clarified our own employment order with regard to rules for temporary employment of less than six months.

Another area of central significance to our possibilities of competing for students and researchers is research. Being able to show our full research breadth with all of its strengths is a success factor in itself. We have therefore decided to follow up the university’s last research evaluation, RED10 with a new audit.

Work has begun on a pre-study. In accordance with our operational plan, this autumn we will also review the outcome of the internal strategic efforts that the university carried out in recent years.

P H OTO G R A P H Y A N D R E P R O D U C T I O N

Johan Wingborg 031 - 786 29 29 johan.wingborg@gu.se G R A P H I C F O R M A N D L AYO U T

Anders Eurén 031 - 786 43 81 anders.euren@gu.se

T R A N S L AT I O N

Semantix ADDRESS

GU Journal University of Gothenburg Box 100, 405 30 Gothenburg E-MAIL

gu-journalen@gu.se INTERNET

www.gu-journalen.gu.se ISSUES

6–7 issues per year The next issue will come out in October.

DEADLINE FOR MANUSCRIPTS

September 16.

M AT E R I A L

The Journal does not take responsibility for unsolicited material. The editorial office is responsible for unsigned material.

Feel free to quote, but please give your source.

C OV E R

Mats Börjesson, Professor of Sports Physiology with a specialisation in sports cardiology and public health Photo: Johan Wingborg

O U R OW N R E S E A RC H is of course partially dependent on the direction and frameworks that the Swedish government chooses to give the country’s combined research resources.

We’ll find out how this will turn out when the government presents its research bill for the next ten years this autumn.

But before that, we’ll have a well-deserved summer break. Let’s hope that the wonderful warmth of the early summer continues and gives us a nice, warm holiday break. It’s needed for the new challenges awaiting us this autumn.

Thank you for all of your excellent work during the academic year and have a nice summer!

Reg.nr: 3750M

Reg.nr: S-000256

PHOTO: JOHAN WINGBORG

Contents

GUJOURNAL 3 | 2016

THE VICE-CHANCELLOR’S COLUMN

10

2 All employment must be done properly.

NEWS

3

Exercise cures stress Mats Börjesson wants us to move more.

4 Faculty of Science best in terms of foreign recruitment.

6 Requirement profile ready for the next vice-chancellor.

7 “We’re shooting the research community in the head!” says Staffan I. Lindberg.

REPORT 8 Spreading the joy of knowledge.

PROFILE

10 Football, public health and family take up Mats Börjesson’s time.

REPORT

13 Svetlana Aleksijevitj in the border zone between fact and fiction.

14 Research deep down.

16

Maddie Leach wants to open up Valand.

18 Room for active learning.

22

CHRONICLE

20 A tool to reverse the course of terrorism.

ACADEMIC CEREMONIES

22 Professors installed at the Concert Hall.

24

The humanities nourish other disciplines.

25

Honorary doctor in Finland.

26

Master’s students celebrated.

Professor festivity 50 Professors solemnly installed.

14 Scientific divers on conference

13

Acquiring knowledge from 30 meters’ depth.

Svetlana visited Jonsered

26

We need history to understand our own time.

Graduation ceremony On June 14, 214 master’s students were celebrated.

Editorial staff: Little comfort to those who could not apply T H E FAC T T H AT illegal employment at the Faculty of Arts has come to light is positive, but this faculty is hardly alone in violating rules and laws.

In just the past few months, several other cases have received attention.

The Swedish Association of University Teachers and Researchers (SULF) recently encouraged Sweden’s vicechancellors to follow current regulations. The question is if this is enough.

The attention surrounding the illegal employment is, however, little comfort to everyone who did not have a chance to apply in open competi-

tion. The fact that not all positions were announced is one explanation of the low mobility at the University of Gothenburg. New statistics show that mobility in certain disciplinary research domains has been very low.

I N T H I S I S S U E , we also write about the oceanographer Anders Omstedt.

He believes that the researchers risk losing the big picture in the hunt for grants and points and with it the joy of knowledge. Scientists also need to embrace the humanities and arts to be able to take on the major global issues.

He also proposes dream interpretation to get to know oneself better. It’s reminiscent of CP Snow’s classic reasoning that the two cultures have to meet. An insight that is at least as current today as it was 60 years ago.

We previously wrote about savings of around SEK 55,000 to-date that had impacted GU Journal, which so far has led to one cancelled issue. We protested against the decision that we consider to be short-sighted and in conflict with the goals set by the university. The editorial committee, which consists of representatives from

every faculty, took the initiative to a letter to the Vice-Chancellor.

T H E E D ITO R I A L CO M M IT T E E believes that it is unreasonable that savings at a unit at Central University Administration should impact the university’s common newspaper, which was established by the Vice-Chancellor.

A likely consequence of a less frequent publication is less interest among the readers in contributing to an open and critical debate.

ALLAN ERIKSSON & EVA LUNDGREN

4

Theme: employment

Low international mobility at GU The Faculty of Science recruits the most teachers and researchers from other countries while Sahlgrenska Academy employs the largest share from the own university. This is shown by the follow-up survey of researcher mobility at the University of Gothenburg, which is based on statistics from Statistics Sweden. nal recruitment” since it only measures if a person has received his or her PhD at the same university.

“A person may indeed have earned their PhD here, but then been employed at another university in Sweden or abroad for a long time. Consequently, classifying based on the PhD does not always indicate deficient mobility.

On the contrary, it is positive for the faculty that teachers and researchers find their way back here after employment elsewhere.”

B U T M A RG A R E TA

100%

Unknown university have any statistics

10%

l

Se ni

or

To ta

es s

or

Le ct C ur ap are er e po r in De te ve es lo pm en t

GUNNAR0% TOBIN Pr of

not on how many are recruited Foreign universities internationally. Birger Other Swedish universities Simonson prepared his own statistics over how From the same university many of the teachers with PhDsQuantity in the period 2009–2012 190 Professors who were565 employed.

The results show Senior lecturers 165 Career Development that just over 50 per cent hadappointees an 925 Total employer other than GU. “The majority of the employed teachers are recruited externally. But external recruitment has increased T H E FAC U LT Y D O E S

»One90%then risks 80% having a stagnant 70% 60% organisation that 50% looks40%inwards more 30% than20% outwards.« Women

Hallberg, Dean of the Faculty of Arts, is not surprised by the figures.

“I think that the Faculty of Arts does well in the statistics.

We have deliberately strived for more external and international recruitment since Red10. Our action and operations plans present how we work with this and it has had a good impact.”

However, Margareta Hallberg is doubtful about the designation “inter-

100%

Women

100%

Unknown university

80%

80%

Foreign universities

Foreign universities

60%

Other 60% Swedish universities

Other Swedish universities

50%

50%the same university From

From the same university

40%

40%

70%

70%

io Se n

100% Unknown university 90% Recruited women and men, divided into employment categories.

80% Foreign universities

60%

Other Swedish universities

50%

From the same university

l

r Pr

of

es

so

al To t

C ur ap are er po er in De te ve es lo pm en

or io

rL ec t

ss fe

0%

t

0%

To ta

Men

10%

rL ec tu C re ap are r e po r in De te ve es lo pm en t

20%

70%

Quantity 495 Professors 515 Senior lecturers 140 Career Development appointees 1150 Total

Quantity 30% 190 Professors 565 Senior 20% lecturers 165 Career Development appointees 10% 925 Total

30%

Women

Men

Unknown university 90%

90%

ACCO R D I N G TO

Se n

Elisabet Ahlberg, the Dean of the Faculty of Science, active efforts have been made for several years on broad, international job announcements.

This work is now yielding results. Last year, 47 per cent of all newly recruited staff came from a foreign university.

“We have many foreign applicants to most positions. Our activities are also internationally renowned and we notice that there is extensive interest in working at the Faculty of Science.”

However, it does not look as impressive among qualification

employees where only 22 per cent have a PhD from a foreign university.

This may be because the Swedish Research Council requires that post-docs have been employed at a Swedish university, Elisabet Ahlberg believes.

“Then it looks as if we have postdocs from our own university even though they are actually from other countries. A more thorough analysis of data would therefore be needed.”

Pr o

I N T H E L A ST I S S U E , we reported how researcher mobility changed between 2007/2008 and 2013/2014 at 10 Swedish universities. The results showed that the University of Gothenburg, like Lund University, has a high percentage of internal recruitment, but in terms of the increase in external recruitment, GU ended up last among the universities. Can it be due to major differences between different disciplinary research domains at GU? Statistics now released by Statistics Sweden indicates the answer to this is both yes and no.

Internal recruitment is the highest among senior lecturers at 69 per cent, followed by the professors at 60 per cent, and qualification employees (including post-docs) at 44 per cent.

But there are significant differences.

The Faculty of Science recruits from other countries to a much higher extent. A full 18 per cent of the professors have a PhD from a foreign university. The corresponding figure for the Faculty of Arts is 4.8 per cent and for the Faculty of Social Sciences is 2.9 per cent. Sahlgrenska Academy has the highest internal recruitment in the three job categories.

She confirms that international recruitment has increased in recent years, not least in certain subject areas.

“The premise is that all employment is announced in both Swedish and English,” says Margareta Hallberg.

The Faculty of Social Sciences has roughly similar figures. Dean Birger Simonson is surprised over the low percentage of senior lecturers and professors who received their PhDs at foreign universities, barely 3 per cent.

“It’s much lower than I had expected. But there seems to be a large number of unreported instances, which may be a part of the explanation. However, we are pleased that it looks significantly better on the postdoc side.”

GUJOURNAL 3 | 2016

sharply since 2012 so it wouldn’t surprise me if it looks even better today.”

Sahlgrenska Academy has the lowest mobility in the study. Gunnar Tobin, Professor and Chairman of the Internationalisation Advisory Board, has no good explanation for what the cause of this may be. “ T H E R E A R E PRO BA B LY

several factors, but it would be interesting to see how the disciplinary research domains relate to one another at other universities and if there are differences over time. It may generally be so that medicine and health sciences stand out. Moreover, the somewhat large number of unreported instances would be able to change the outcome positively.”

But there is also a natural explanation, Gunnar Tobin believes.

Sahlgrenska Academy mainly has professional education and training, which largely attracts national app-

licants and some departments even have programmes that are not at the university level.

“Of course this means that the majority of applicants come from Sweden. The most important aspect from a quality perspective is that having numerous applicants to the positions and recruiting people from other universities can invigorate the work. We are well aware that a high degree of internal recruitment can counteract development and innovation. One then risks having a stagnant organisation that looks inwards more than outwards. Open recruitment, where applicants are awarded positions in competition, is the actual key to doing high-quality work.”

But at the same time, it is not certain that internal recruitment is necessarily entirely negative, Gunnar Tobin points out.

“It takes a long time to build up a strong research team, which by nature is not top-down, but builds on the individuals who make up the team. If

a high degree of expertise has been built up over a long time, with many doctoral students and post-docs, it’s also important to be able to retain skilled people.”

Another explanation is that it takes a long time to get a position and obtain qualifications.

“Already before doctoral studies begin, one often has already completed a long basic education. When it is finally time to apply for a position as a senior lecturer and professor, many have already had children, which can make it hard to move,” says Gunnar Tobin.

E FFO R T S TO increase mobility include the faculty initiating a post-doc programme and having plans to launch a visiting research fellow programme.

“More concrete contact points with the surrounding world increase the possibility of greater mobility.”

ALLAN ERIKSSON

Researcher mobility per discipline Professor, senior lecturer, qualification employee

At the same University

At other Swedish University

At foreign University

At unknown university / information on PhD unavailable

Sum total

At the same University

At other Swedish University

At foreign University

At unknown university / information on PhD unavailable

Previous PhD Professor

415

145

35

95

690

60,1%

21,0%

5,1%

13,8%

Humanities

45

20

5

30

105

42,9%

19,0%

4,8%

28,6%

Medicine and health science

200

60

5

25

290

69,0%

20,7%

1,7%

8,6%

Natural science

60

25

20

10

110

54,5%

22,7%

18,2%

9,1%

Social science

105

40

5

30

175

60,0%

22,9%

2,9%

17,1%

Senior lecturer

745

160

35

135

1080

69,0%

14,8%

3,2%

12,5%

Humanities

135

35

5

75

250

54,0%

14,0%

2,0%

30,0%

Medicine and health science

155

30

0

5

195

79,5%

15,4%

0,0%

2,6%

Natural science

45

15

15

5

85

52,9%

17,6%

17,6%

5,9%

Social science

400

70

15

45

530

75,5%

13,2%

2,8%

8,5%

135

65

55

55

305

44,3%

21,3%

18,0%

18,0%

Humanities

5

10

0

5

20

25,0%

50,0%

0,0%

25,0%

Medicine and health science

75

20

15

25

135

55,6%

14,8%

11,1%

18,5%

Natural science

30

25

20

15

90

33,3%

27,8%

22,2%

16,7%

Social science

25

5

20

5

55

45,5%

9,1%

36,4%

9,1%

Qualification employee/post doctor

Facts:Employees at the University of Gothenburg 2013–2014 broken down by gender, job category, area (at aggregated level) and where they took eventual doctorate. The values are rounded to the nearest five. Source: Statistics Sweden. In this table, we have removed Technology and other research and teaching staff.

FACTS: RE SE ARC HER MOBI LIT Y AT THE U NIVERSIT Y OF GOTHENBU RG 2013–2014 GU Journalen has ordered supplemental statistics from Statistics Sweden (SCB) to show what the research mobility looked like in 2013-2014. The information pertains to the number of employees at the University of Gothenburg 2013-2014, with a breakdown by gender (only for the totals), job category, research domain and where the employees received their potential PhD. The following job categories were chosen: professors, senior lecturers, qualification employees (associate senior lecturers, post-doctoral research fellows and post-doctors) and other research and teaching staff. Like the last time, GU Journalen excluded the latter category in the compilation since the percentage of uncertain information is so large. The research domains presented are: the humanities, medicine and health sciences, natural sciences and social sciences.

Where the employee received his or her PhD is presented according to the groups “at the same university”, “at another Swedish university”, “at a foreign university” and “at an unknown university (Swedish or foreign)/information on PhD unavailable”. The PhD must have been awarded no later than the year of the respective time period to be included.

Information on the employee’s educational background is gathered from the Education Register at Statistics Sweden.

Information on the university for Swedish PhDs is collected from the University Register, doctoral degrees.

Internal recruiting refers to recruiting of individuals with PhDs from the own university. International recruiting refers to recruiting of individuals with a foreign PhD. The Swedish Research Council’s report Recruitment of researchers and teachers with PhDs at Swedish universities shows that just over half of the universities’ PhD researchers and teachers are recruited internally. At the large universities, internal recruitment is even higher. More than 60 per cent of the professors have a PhD from the same university as the one they are employed at. For the senior lecturers, this figure is more than 70 per cent.

A clear trend at GU is that the number of new employees with PhDs from foreign universities increased in recent years. This is primarily true of senior lecturers and qualified employees. All faculties recruit more individuals with PhDs from other universities.

5

6

News

World’s best vicechancellor wanted

nonetheless want to try to make the process clear and transparent.”

What lessons have you personally learned from earlier election processes?

“I’ve been involved in several election processes, such as the KTH Royal Institute of Technology and Lund University. So I have quite a bit of experience of both desirable and undesirable events. It’s important to drive the process forward with a careful, but firm hand and take as many opinions as possible into consideration.”

In an interview in 2014, prior to the re-election of the vice-chancellor, you said that there was reason to review the election process. Among other things, there was criticism of the lack of influence. Have you addressed this?

“I think we have, in terms of the requirement profile and by creating a special website that’s continuously updated. We also discussed how we would arrange the Consultative College and investigated issues of confidentiality. We also read Kåre Bremer’s investigation forwards and backwards. Not everyone can be involved in the process, but our ambition is to take in as many opinions as possible.”

Does the Consultative College have a different role this time?

“I hope that we have enough applicants to be able to choose a really good vice-chancellor,” says Cecilia Schelin Seidegård, Chairman of the Board.

The work of sifting out one or more people who are prepared to lead one of Sweden’s largest universities is now beginning.

“We are going out as far and wide as possible. We don’t want to miss a single candidate,” says Cecilia Schelin Seidegård, Chairman of the Board who is leading the work of the Recruitment Committee.

T H E R EQ U I R E M E N T PRO FI LE was approved by the Board the other day and, for the first time, the faculty was able to e-mail their opinions to the teacher representatives in the Recruitment Committee. One of them, Professor Staffan I. Lindberg, feels it’s worked well.

“We’ve received many constructive improvement suggestions from most faculties. The process has generally worked well and we now have a better proposal to present to the Board than we would have had otherwise.”

However, the recruitment work is largely a closed process with secret candidates. But in spite of this, Cecilia Schelin Seidegård points out the importance of a clear and transparent process.

Many believe that Swedish universities need to become even more international. Are there plans to recruit applicants from other countries?

“We’ve discussed it. But advertising internationally is not usual in terms of these kinds of jobs. We will primarily go out nationally with advertisements, nominations and head hunting. But to get an even wider spread, we’ve decided to make the online advertisement visible throughout the Nordic region.

We don’t want to miss a single candidate.

That’s our goal for going out so widely.

Our role in the recruitment group is to get as many applicants as possible and to mull over who is or are the best.”

The company engaged in the recruitment process will handle all applications confidentially. Why?

“We know from experience that there are many who do not want to come out with their name in an early phase. Kåre Bremer even proposes in his investigation that the entire process should be confidential. We

“No, it’s somewhat similar. Gender equality shall be taken into account and we have decided that the Consultative College will itself decide on the ways of working and if there will be one or more candidates. But we don’t know ourselves how many candidates we will present to the Consultative College. There may only be one top candidate, or three who we feel are equally good.

It’s important to handle the situation in the best way possible and not get locked in.”

At KTH and Lund University, open hearings were arranged with the top candidate. Is this something that may be of interest here as well?

“It’s not something we’ve talked about yet, but we have six months to take these and other wishes into account.”

What expectations do you yourself have of the election process?

“Recruiting a vice-chancellor for one of the largest universities in Sweden is an important effort that entails incredible responsibility since our vice-chancellors have such an impact on societal development. In many ways, it’s significantly more difficult than recruiting a CEO for a company. Strong forces are involved here and many people who want to have an influence. Although it will be fun, could there be a more exciting job than becoming the vice-chancellor for the University of Gothenburg?”

TEXT: ALLAN ERIKSSON PHOTO: JOHAN WINGBORG

News

GUJOURNAL 3 | 2016

7

Today too difficult to recruit the best

I N G U ’ S E M PLOY M E N T order, a ”postdoctor” is defined as a teaching post with the following qualification requirements: “To qualify for employment as a post-doctor, a person must hold a PhD...” Similar formulations for qualified positions and post-doctors are in the Higher Education Ordinance. This is interpreted by the Swedish Agency for Government Employees such that one must hold a PhD at the time of the application.

“They make a very strict interpretation of the regulations,” says Staffan I. Lindberg, Professor of Political Science. “It should be so that the requirements must be met in connection with beginning the job, according to the same logic that one can apply to the university and then supplement one’s qualifications.

When I talk with people around the country, I get the picture that other universities try to be more pragmatic and accept applications from people who have not yet received their PhD. If we can’t recruit the best, we are shooting the whole research community in the head.”

employment order that goes against the employment ordinance is not an option, according to human resource specialist Roger Haglund.

“We have to find constructive solutions that do not break the rules. For example, there is nothing today that prevents the departments from using other position designations, such as junior researcher or assistant researcher. We don’t get involved in how it’s B U T H AV I N G A N

PHOTO: JOHAN WINGBORG

To apply for a position as a postdoctor, applicants must have ­already received their PhD at the time of the application.

“This conflicts with all international practice and prevents us from recruiting the best, young researchers who are outside Sweden,” says Professor Staffan I. Lindberg who together with 17 other key GU professors stand behind a letter to the Vice-Chancellor.

But there is a solution to the problem, according to the GU human resources unit.

but points out the importance of creating a position that suits all subjects, not just medicine. “ B U T FU ST D O E S not seem to have understood that the Higher Education Ordinance has to be changed in order for us to increase mobility and international recruitment.”

Staffan I. Lindberg, who himself was recruited from the University of Florida, believes that it’s important to have a grasp of the annual job cycle, where positions are announced early in the autumn.

“The best candidates in the market have already gotten jobs in February and March. During this period, it’s mainly doctoral students in their last year of their programme who apply.

They then finish their dissertation and defend it before they begin the job the following August.

TO DAY, P O S ITI O N S are usually advertised for three weeks, but that’s far too little time,” Staffan I. Lindberg points out.

“It should be at least six to eight weeks. Some believe that it’s enough to put out an ad in Swedish and English on GU’s website, but there are not many who scan for available positions there. At political science, when we are looking for people, we go out far and wide in both US and European web portals and spread the ads through our own networks.”

He feels that the Swedish rules inhibit international recruitment and are one explanation for why mobility is so low at Swedish universities.

packaged internationally,” says Roger Haglund.

Staffan I. Lindberg is satisfied if a creative solution can be found.

“I see it as an acceptable emergency solution on the short term.

However, we hope for a change in this autumn’s research bill so that we can recruit in the best way in the future.”

At the national level, Staffan I. Lindberg has engaged in the debate as a member of Sweden’s young academic community. He is positive to Ann Fust’s suggestion to create a new qualification position of between four and six years,

»If we can’t recruit the best, we are shooting the whole research community in the head.« STAFFAN LINDBERG

“ I N SW E D E N , we have long had a clientèle model where after the defence one seeks the favour and help of one’s own department’s professors to stay on as a substitute and seek external funding until one finally gets a position or is hired through the Employment Protection Act. Internationally, this is absolutely unthinkable. There, you leave directly after the defence and then it’s important that you’ve managed to find another job,” says Staffan I. Lindberg.

ALLAN ERIKSSON

8

Report

Spreading the joy of knowledge “Today’s researchers are directly unsuitable to solving the global problems of our time,” says Anders Omstedt. He is a Professor of Oceanography, but also a dream group leader.

Together with his colleague Anna Godhe, he began work by welding together the faculty at the new Department of Marine Sciences. He emphasises spreading the joy of knowledge.

W H E N I M E E T Anders Omstedt at the Earth Science Centre, he is preparing a lecture for the Baltic Earth Conference in June. It will concern the connection between the natural sciences and the humanities/arts, i.e. the old issue of the two sources of knowledge.

He’s also recently held a lecture about how analytical thinking and intuition can be combined with help from dream work, a subject he also just published a book about.

“The book is about the dream group work I have personally conducted for 30 years,” he explains. “Just being able to write the word ”I” was a freedom; after all, we don’t do so as researchers.”

Actually, we are going to talk about the work he began to get involved in at the Department of Marine Sciences together with Anna Godhe, Professor of Marine Ecology. It’s a matter of re-establishing the strong faculty that is on the way to disappearing due to an all too strict line management, growing competition and less time for important discussions about research, education and collaboration with society.

E S PEC I A LLY AT T H E Department of Marine Sciences, which was formed on 1 July last year, this kind of work may be extra important. The employees come from three departments, geographically spread over five locations in Gothenburg, Tjärnö and Kristineberg. But work is under way to gather the Gothenburg sections at the Earth Science Centre where the offices of the Centre for Sea and Society and the Swedish Institute for the Marine Environment will also be moving in.

But since Anders Omstedt believes that scientists have a great deal to learn from

types of thinking other than the strictly analytical, he begins by briefly telling about how a dream group meeting works.

“A dream group usually consists of six to eight people who meet for around two hours. A participant tells about his or her dream in as much detail as possible and then the other participants can ask questions.”

T H E Y S H O U LD B E open and clarifying and it’s important to continuously listen to the other person. Often, dreams are filled by emotions that can be perceived as negative.

But feelings are a strong support for the ego and help us get perspective on our surroundings. The dream group participants contribute different ideas based on their own experiences and what the dreamer has said, but it’s only a matter of suggestions, nothing is right or wrong. The task of the dream group is instead to provide valuable insights that help us understand ourselves.

Brain researchers have shown that dreams activate the part of the brain that is close to memory.

“Just like when trying to remember something that happened a long time ago by finding a thread and unwinding it, a dream can be remembered by focusing on a single detail and then searching further.

Dreams like memories need to be cared for so that we can know who we are.” This is why for example the Nobel Laureate Svetlana Aleksijevitj is virtually doing a good human geography deed when she lovingly describes the Soviet citizen who no longer exists, but is nonetheless important to be remembered.

Hearing that the scientific method,

which builds on empirical studies and critical analyses, virtually appears to be in contradiction of dream work, Anders Omstedt objects, saying that’s not the case at all.

“Sure we usually raise analytical thinking to the sky; it’s always the one who has the best argument that wins a debate; those who are wrong are almost declared idiots. But even in natural sciences, most discoveries are actually based on intuition and unexpected associations. Of course, not everyone needs to do dream group work, but it may be one way to learn to ask open and clarifying questions that mean that we get better at thinking.”

N AT U R A L S C I E N C E S are often perceived as impartial, fact-based and logical. However, not realising that natural sciences are also a part of a cultural process may be dangerous, he points out.

“We should be clearer that researchers are not at all particularly neutral, but rather are affected, just like everyone else, by fashions and popular theories. The same data can often be interpreted differently; some researchers see a trend, others perceive a paradigm shift and some others might feel that the results have no pattern at all, but rather are only due to chance.

Today’s global society is facing

GUJOURNAL 3 | 2016

»The researchers are so busy seeking funding and writing focused articles in special journals that nobody reads, that we never set our sights on the big picture.« ANDERS OMSTEDT

enormous challenges, including in areas such as the climate, the environment, water and health. But the scientists of our time, continuously hunting for new grants and constantly in competition, are directly unsuitable to solve these problems,” says Anders Omstedt. for marine researchers at the University of Gothenburg should be how we can achieve a functioning ecosystem in the North Sea. Yet, we do nothing!

The researchers are so busy seeking funding and writing focused articles in special journals that nobody reads, that we never set our sights on the big picture. We are forced to write these focused articles to get research funding; anyone who doesn’t will soon be given duties other than conducting research. That we have to constantly gather credits is because we constantly compete, internationally, with other universities in Sweden and within the University of Gothenburg. And sure, there may be advantages if large EU grants are allocated in competition, for example. But to always compete, at all levels, undermines the possibility of building anything larger. For example, we have made major investments in our field stations and in our new research ship. To get the operations to break even, they of course have to be utilised and then cooperation is required above all.”

This competition also leads to ever decreasing time for reflection.

“ T H E L A RG E ST I S S U E

to meetings with preparatory committees and other bodies and never have time for those important discussions about research and education that should themselves form the foundation of the faculty. Because we are so busy rushing around, we forget to ask what we are doing.

But the University of Gothenburg does not need to follow all of the trends. We could decide, for example, that popular science is also qualifying, that the faculty is important as a counterbalance to the line and to facilitate meetings between the natural sciences and humanities/arts.”

And it is here that Anders Omstedt’s and Anna Godhe’s work on the good faculty comes in. To lift up all of the exciting research, they have for example put all published articles produced by the department up on a bulletin board in their first 10 months. Every other Thursday, an article is presented at a seminar.

“WE ARE RUNNING

“It turned out that we have already achieved more than 90 publications,” says Anders Omstedt. “And because every article costs around SEK 1 million to prepare, there is SEK 100 million on the board. This is the department’s gold that we should be happy about and constantly discuss, both with each other and with students and the public. After all, working at a university means being in the service of thought, but to feel the joy of knowledge, we have to begin with ourselves and be proud over what we are doing here.”

B U T A N D E R S O M ST E DT would also like to increase collaboration with the humanities and arts.

“The humanists have a great deal to teach us when it comes to thinking. Not everything is about facts or precise analyses, but rather a great deal happens beyond the immediately comprehensible.”

Anders Omstedt doesn’t yet know where the work on the good faculty will lead. But he has several ideas. Among other things, he would like to begin a voluntary introductory course that neither gives credits or grades, but discusses important issues concerning the sciences and ourselves.

“For example, we could read Henrik Ibsen’s An Enemy of the People, where a scientist speaking the truth gets a whole society against him, or Svetlana Aleksijevitj’s Chernobyl Prayer, about the terrible nuclear accident that is still impacting people. And we could teach the students that research is not at all about chasing funding, but about something much larger: actually about something as important as creating a better, more empathetic and humane society.”

TEXT: EVA LUNDGREN PHOTO: JOHAN WINGBORG

FACTS On 6 April, Anders Omstedt held a Nordenskjöld Lecture at the Earth Science Centre entitled Connecting Analytical Thinking and Intuition: Challenges for Leadership and Education in Earth System Sciences. He has also written the book Connecting Analytical Thinking and Intuition – and the Nights Abound with Inspiration, with photos by Hillevi Nagel (Springer förlag).

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Profile

With a heart that beats for Gais One Sunday afternoon in May, Gais was playing away against IFK Värnamo at Finnvedsvallen stadium. Mats Börjesson is ­sitting in the stands, ready to run out on the field.

But he’s not there as a football player. Instead, he has been the team physician for Gais for the past 21 years.

“Sports have always been one of my major interests. And this summer, it will be the Olympics in Rio.”

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AT S B Ö R J E S S O N is a new Professor of Sports Physiology at Sahlgrenska Academy. But right now, he is active at the Knowledge Centre for Health and Performance Development (KHP). There, he’s the director together with Stefan Grau, Professor of Biomechanics, except for the 30 per cent he works as a cardiologist at Sahlgrenska University Hospital/Östra.

“KHP is intended to become a hub between society and the hospital. All the knowledge that is developed here, ranging from shoes that prevent injuries when running to how to change living habits, is intended to make its way out into healthcare and society.”

The employment at Sahlgrenska Academy means that Mats Börjesson is again back in Gothenburg after having commuted for five years to his job as a professor at the Swedish School of Sport and Health Sciences in Stockholm.

Among other things, he is involved in the Scapis project, one of the largest health studies in the world on people ages 50–65.

A pilot study was done as early as 2012 on more than 1,100 Gothenburg residents, but the idea is for the study, which will run for around three years, will comprise 30,000 people in six university cities.

“The study is very thorough and takes two half days to conduct. The heart, vessels, lungs and blood sugar and cholesterol are checked. In our team, we ask questions about lifestyle and also measure physical activity with an accelerometer that the participants wear on their hip for a week, more than 14 hours a day.”

T H E PR E- ST U DY already provided a number of interesting findings. Among other things, most people have a strong tendency to overestimate their physical activity.

“According to the study, a middle-aged Gothenburg resident sits an average of 9–10 hours a day! But they think that they are sedentary for maybe just six hours. And those who exercise believe that they do so around an hour a day, while in reality it’s closer to a half an hour. The results show that people are bad at estimating how much they exercise, but also that we researchers should find better ways to ask questions. In future projects, we will continue to validate measurement methods, but also investigate if it is possible to say who overestimates their exercise: is it those who are fit or unfit, men or women, and so on.”

The Scapis study also shows that there are major differences between different city districts in Gothenburg.

“In the north-eastern districts of the city, 25 per cent of the men smoke and 31 per cent

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Profile

»If I hadn’t become a football physician, I would have become a youth coach instead.«

are obese, compared with 5 per cent and 8 per cent, respectively, in south-western Gothenburg. And diabetes is 10 times more common among men in the north-east than women in the south-west.”

Most people are aware that obesity, high blood pressure and high cholesterol and blood sugar levels are related to different lifestyle diseases. But Mats Börjesson’s research team recently published a completely new, sensational study that shows that the same connection could not be found among people in good physical condition.

Physical activity accordingly appears to protect against the negative effects of stress.

“Humans, who during the majority of their existence have been nomadic, are simply not made to sit still. Even during agrarian times, we moved a great deal when we worked, just like many people still do, for instance, in south-eastern Europe. So our grandparents would have surely managed our stressful society better than we do.”

Mats Börjesson of course thinks it’s good that people exercise, play football and run the Gothenburg marathon, he points out that it’s not actually sports that are the most important.

“For example, at a workplace, it’s better to invest in activities that everyone can be involved in than sponsoring the department’s cross country ski team. I also think that those of us who work in healthcare have a greater responsibility than we may always realise: hardly anything is discussed as much at coffee breaks and dinners than exercise and different diets. Then, it’s important that we who have scientific knowledge take the opportunity and convey what we know so that we counter myths and trends that lack factbased grounds.”

Exactly because exercise and health are so intimately related, Mats Börjesson was one of the initiators of Physical activity on prescription (FaR) in the beginning of the 2000s.

EVEN THOUGH

MATS BÖRJESSON CURRENTLY: Physician for the Swedish women’s national team in football at the Olympics.

POSITION: Professor of Sports Physiology with a specialisation in sports cardiology and public health.

FAMILY: Wife and three children ages 24, 22 and 14.

RESIDES: In Västra Frölunda.

INTERESTS: Sports and music.

L AST BOOK READ: Small town talk by Barney Hoskyns, about the town Woodstock, NY. FAVOURITE FOOD: Mackerel, of course.

BEST/WORST SIDE: Energetic (can be both good and bad).

FAVOURITE QUOTE: “Only dead fish follow the stream.”

“The project initially received a lot of criticism because we put big signs in front of people saying that they should exercise.

But that’s what doctors do: tell their patients what they should do to stay healthy. FaR has also been successful and increased the patients’ physical activity so the method should be used even more in healthcare, which is just what the National Board of Health and Welfare wants.”

Mats Börjesson was also involved in creating the Fyss knowledge bank, physical activity in disease prevention and disease treatment.

“The first Fyss is from 2003, since then it has been translated and distributed worldwide. And now the third edition is coming out, which is even more scientifically stringent.”

A N OT H E R A R E A T H AT involves Mats Börjesson is sudden cardiac death among young elite athletes. As the Chairman of the European Society of Cardiology section for sports cardiology, he has worked for both national and international recommendations on cardiac screening for elite athletes.

“The first Swedish book in sports cardiology will also soon be coming out, written by me and my colleague Professor Mikael Dellborg.”

Because sports, especially football, is one of Mats Börjesson’s major interests.

“If I hadn’t become a football physician, I would have become a youth coach instead.

In 1995, when I was asked if I wanted to become the physician for Gais, I was initially somewhat doubtful. Didn’t they want an orthopaedic surgeon, not a heart doctor? But it’s worked very well and today, I recommend general practitioners and all kinds of specialists to also work as physicians in a sport.”

He’s also involved in the Swedish Sports Medicine Association, of which he has been the Chairman since 2013. And at the beginning of the 2000s, he became the physician for the women’s U21 team. Since 2009, he’s

been the physician for the women’s national team, which means he’ll be at the Olympics in Rio de Janeiro in August.

“If you know that there are more than a billion people sitting and watching when you run out on the field because something’s happened, you really feel like you’re involved in something big. The Olympics or a World Championship, that’s the kind of thing you only dreamed about as a child!”

A football physician can take on unusual assignments, like in 2010 when Mats Börjesson got to be the physician for the Ivory Coast’s men’s team in the World Championships. things also happen. At the 2011 Women’s World Championships, it turned out that several North Korean players were doped, for instance. Their physician explained that the players had been given medication with special Chinese herbs since they had become sick from a lightning strike that caused them to lose their form. I was asked by the Swedish journalists if that could be true and had to explain that anyone who is struck by lightning can of course die or be seriously injured, but that I wasn’t aware of any studies that showed it would affect physical condition.”

Football has not only led to Mats Börjesson being present at exciting matches and travelling to unusual places, it’s also given him friends the world over.

“Of course, family is the most important, but I think that many might forget the significance of also having friends. I myself am a member of a group of friends who have known each other since the age of 10 and still meet on occasion. The fact that we’ve taken different paths and work with very different things is just an advantage I think; I can’t discuss work with these friends, but have to talk about other things and you need that sometimes.”

“ S O M E ST R A N G E

PR EC I S E LY B EC AU S E Mats Börjesson is busy with work and football, his holidays are usually about taking it easy together with his family at their summer place in Tjörn.

“When other people say that they love nature, they might mean that they like to take walks in the forest. But for me, it’s all about the coast; nature is the sea and the rocky seaside...”

TEXT: EVA LUNDGREN PHOTO: JOHAN WINGBORG

Report

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SVETLANA ALEKSIJEVITJ

Svetlana is back in Gothenburg

Last year’s Nobel Laureate in literature, Svetlana Aleksijevitj, was a leisure author in Gothenburg in 2006-2008. She returned to Gothenburg on 3-4 May. She participated in a discussion with readings and music at the Gothenburg City Theatre, arranged by the University of Gothenburg, Chalmers University of Technology, the City of Göteborg’s Cultural Administration, Göteborgs-Posten and the Gothenburg City Theatre. She participated in a symposium at the Jonsered Manor together with the Permanent Secretary of the Swedish Academy Sara Danius and the authors Julia Chеrnyavskaya and Olga Sedakova.

Also see Medieteknik’s film: https://play.gu.se/ media/t/0_t9vhhl7f.

Svetlana Aleksijevitj writes lovingly about Soviet citizens. Here with her translator, Kajsa Öberg Lindsten, at Jonsered Manor.

“Several people are hiding in every person.

The person who is most honest is kept inside the longest and it is that person I want to find and let out.”

This is what Nobel Laureate Svetlana Aleksijevitj explained when she visited Gothenburg and the Jonsered estate at the beginning of May. “ T H E R E D M A N ” is what Svetlana Aleksijevitj calls the Soviet citizens who she describes in her series of five books called The Voices of Utopia. The books have taken 35 years to write and are based on thousands of discussions with survivors who successfully made it through war, famine, purges and a number of other disasters, and who despite all suffering nonetheless remained loyal Soviet citizens. She writes about women in the Red Army, about soldiers who came home sealed in zinc caskets and about the major disaster in Chernobyl 30 years ago. When I ask if the nuclear power accident still affects Belarus, which is the country struck hardest by radioactive fallout, she holds out her hands. “ I H A D LI V E D abroad for 11 years. When I eventually returned home, 30 per cent of my contemporaries in Minsk had died of cancer.

This is a disaster that never ends and affects us on every level: chemically, ecologically and socioculturally.”

But the disaster has also led to gallows humour stories. Here’s one: The USA, Japan and Russia have sent help that’s working on the roof of the destroyed nuclear reactor.

After a few minutes, the American robot is so damaged by radiation that it stops working.

After a few more minutes, the Japanese robot fails. But the Russian just keeps working until it receives a radio command: “Ivanov, you can take a break now!”

“What’s funny is that it’s only Russia that has a man do work that’s so dangerous that other countries use robots.”

The Soviet Union ceased to exist 25 years ago. Nonetheless, it’s important to not just move on without also remembering what it was like then, according to Svetlana Aleksijevitj. former leader Kim Jong Il died a few years ago, a lot of people were shown on TV in tears. I was visiting some friends at the time who felt that this sorrow ordered from above was laughable.

But that’s what it was like with us as well; when Stalin died, everyone was expected to weep. And those of us who experienced perestroika live with the feeling of having lost something important. The same people who called Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn a hero when he returned to Russia 20 years ago perceive him today as an enemy of the people. They listen to an authoritarian leader and perceive democracy and liberalism as curse words.

The dream of a communist paradise lives on with us, but also among many Western Europeans. We must therefore constantly be reminded of what it was like.”

The books Svetlana Aleksijevitj writes broaden the boundaries between fiction and documentary. Different voices speak, not of the high-flying ideas, but of what it was like to be human under unreasonable circumstances.

“ W H E N N O R T H KO R E A’ S

»I had lived abroad for 11 years.

When I eventually returned home, 30 per cent of my contemporaries in Minsk had died of cancer.« SVETLANA ALEKSIJEVITJ

“Many people ask what technique I use when I do my interviews, but I don’t have any special tricks. But after a talk, it can happen that, upon reading what I’ve written, people say that they didn’t know that that’s what they said. When this happens, it’s a sign that we had one of those really deep discussions that everyone longs for.”

I N DA I LY LI FE , we usually just move along.

“But in extreme situations, we become more exclusively ourselves. Especially people who are at the limit, like being close to love or death, express themselves incredibly beautifully.”

Love, as well as ageing and death are also the two subjects Svetlana Aleksijevitj hopes to be able to write about in her upcoming books.

“I have a lot of material, but don’t yet really know how I should use it. But the book about love might be sad while the one about old age may well be both solemn and triumphant.”

TEXT: EVA LUNDGREN PHOTO: JOHAN WINGBORG

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Sweden’s first conference for scientific diving

Marine research cannot only be done in the lab. At the beginning of May, researchers and scientific divers from around the world met for three days at the Sven Lovén Centre for Marine Infrastructure in Kristineberg outside Lysekil to present results of current oceanographic research with the help of diving.

U LLM A R S FJ O R D E N is glittering, the sun is shining and the second day of the conference begins with a temperature close to a hot summer’s day. Despite the weather, the conference participants are happy to sit inside the slightly darker conference hall and listen to presentations interspersed with regular coffee breaks out in the sun. The conference has drawn participants from many different disciplines and in the four sessions focus is on polar research, underwater archaeology, marine biology, oceanography and marine geology.

“The goal was to be able to attract at least 60 participants. Now, we have more

than 90 participants from 18 countries and a much larger breadth in the presentations than we had hoped for so we’re very pleased,” says Maria Asplund, conference organiser and scientific diver at the Sven Lovén Centre for Marine Infrastructure.

The conference is the second in the series for European Conference on Scientific Diving and the theme for this year’s conference is Coastal research using scientific diving.

“This conference creates the possibility of knowledge and experiential exchange across disciplines that would otherwise not interact much, such as marine ecology and underwater archaeology. At the same time, presentations are made of high-quality

research and many interesting studies that are valuable to everyone since we have a common workplace – underwater,” says Maria Asplund.

T H E FI R ST CO N FE R E N C E for scientific divers was held in Stuttgart last year. The event gathered 40 participants from nine countries. Next year’s conference will be in Portugal. David Jacinto, who will be organising it, takes the opportunity to show pictures of the conference facilities at Madeira where the 2017 conference will be held.

“We have a heated swimming pool just outside the conference venue,” says David happily and the participants laugh. “None of them have yet found the courage to swim

GUJOURNAL 3 | 2016

To the left: David Jacinto, researcher and scientific diver from Portugal. To the right: Eduardo Infantes, researcher and scientific diver at the Department of Marine Sciences. Below to the left: Miriam Weber, researcher from Italy.

Pia Engström and Pierre de Wit prepare a training dive in Bökevik.

»None of them have yet found the courage to swim in Gullmarsfjorden’s water.« DAVID JACINTO

in Gullmarsfjorden’s invigorating 11-degree water.”

In the afternoon, it’s time for test dives from the Kristineberg dock. Some researchers from Greece are testing a new technique for seabed inventories using a tablet, and two of GU’s own scientific divers conducted practice dives.

Pia Engström, Research Engineer at the Lovén Centre and Pierre de Wit, Researcher at the Department of Marine Sciences, put on the slightly warmer dry suits and tested the communication equipment before they set out in the boat together with dive leader Ursula Schwarz. All three of them are experienced divers who dive a great deal in their work, but during the times filled with a lot

of work on land, it’s important to get out and practice dive to keep up with the safety procedures and test the condition of the equipment.

“When we are out taking samples, we want everything to go smoothly and we often have a tight schedule to stick to,” says Pia Engström, who works year-round with diving support for various research teams at the stations as well as for visiting research fellows from other countries.

“It’s important that we are well prepared and the equipment is in top condition so that everything goes smoothly.”

TEXT: MARIE MOESTRUP JENSEN PHOTO: JOHAN WINGBORG

FACTS In Sweden, scientific diving is classified as occupational diving, which means there is an extensive regulatory framework and many safety procedures that govern what the divers may and can do below the surface. The governing regulations vary widely within Europe, however, and in some countries, scientific diving is an entirely separate category, handled differently from other kinds of occupational diving. The Sven Lovén Centre for Marine Infrastructure has worked a great deal to develop its diving operations in recent years as well as to share its knowledge and expertise in scientific diving in Europe.

The Lovén Centre has full equipment for scientific diving down to a depth of 30 metres, with the possibility of communication with the surface, and has fully trained scientific divers on site at both stations and every year arranges international courses in scientific diving for doctoral students.

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The manager who doesn’t like closed doors Maddie Leach, new Unit Manager for Fine Arts, wants to be involved in creating a Valand Academy that paves the way for dynamic and creative meetings.

“I’m used to working in open studios where everyone is welcome,” she says.

H E B R E A K FA ST rush has just died down and the music from the speakers mixes with a pleasant clatter from the kitchen.

Maddie Leach orders a cortado and familiarly takes a seat at one of the small tables at the little café a stone’s throw from Avenyn.

In just a few months, she has managed to find both a few regular hangouts and some routines. The café serves as both a watering hole and an alternative office, for example.

When one is far from home, finding small oases in the new landscape may be extra important.

Around three months ago, artist and teacher Maddie Leach left her job at Massey University in Wellington, New Zealand to begin as the new Unit Manager for Fine Arts at the Valand Academy in Gothenburg. A journey that not only meant that she travelled more than half of the globe, but also one that challenges her in the role as leader, teacher and artist.

“I enjoyed my old job. We were a tightknit team that knew each other well. It would have been so easy to stay there – and that was exactly one of the reasons that I wanted to move on,” she says. “I needed to challenge myself and not get stuck in something that was safe and comfortable.”

Maddie Leach is new Unit Manager for Fine Arts, but she also hopes to get time for her own projects.

A N OT H E R I M P O R TA N T reason that she applied to the job at Valand Academy was that she knows Department Head Mick Wilson from before and was fascinated by his vision for the new Academy. Being involved and creating a dynamic, interdisciplinary environment and helping the students explore new approaches and opening up for various kinds of artistic meetings was enticing.

But there is a ways to go until they get there, she thinks.

“I like free spaces, open studios where it’s easy to meet and exchange ideas. Valand has a tradition of the students having their own studios that they close and lock when they leave. That’s something concrete that I would like to change,” says Maddie Leach.

No, closed doors and locked rooms are something she doesn’t like. She herself immediately moved her desk from the manager’s room and put it among her colleagues’.

“As a manager, I want to work in a collective. I neither can or want to solve every

GUJOURNAL 3 | 2016

»I don’t want to do commersial work. I don’t want to make art that can be shown at a gallery and sold.«

MADDIE LEACH NAME: Maddie Leach.

AGE: 45 years old.

problem on my own. There is much knowledge that I don’t have where I want help from my workmates. As a manager, I want to be a good listener, be inquisitive, try to understand and make clear decisions when necessary.”

I N M A N Y WAYS , Maddie Leach tries to live according to her father’s motto, that everyone has a skill that’s important to bring out.

“Among other things, Dad worked as a camera man and he always said that he tried to be as open as possible on the first day of filming and not judge or analyse anyone. The person who was most brilliant might for example be the person in charge of making coffee; you just had to be open and see it.”

Maddie Leach believes that Valand Academy chose her in particular because she combines her artistry with teaching skills. During her entire career, she interspersed teaching with her own artistic projects.

“I’m not a person who makes a scene if something unexpected happens; I’m used to that as an artist. I see the unexpected as a process that creates new opportunities. I think it can be an asset at a fine arts school; there’s often a lot of drama around young artists,” she says and laughs.

What are you like as a teacher?

“I’m straightforward and open. But I don’t want to be the students’ buddy. I’m there to push them and I question a lot.

They might not always like it, but I want them to develop and make progress. That’s how I myself work as an artist, I run through loads of questions to make progress.”

M A D D I E LE AC H grew up in Auckland, New Zealand. She comes from a creative family where her mother worked as a copy editor and her father began as a journalist then cameraman, moved on to renovate houses and ended as a self-taught architect. The house Maddie Leach and her partner now live in outside Wellington was designed and built by her father.

When she was young, Maddie Leach herself dreamt of becoming a photographer.

But after a workshop in sculpture, she switched tracks and made a stake on the profession of an artist.

“There is some hype around artists that you should be a star by 23. But I didn’t

RESIDES: In Linnéstaden.

FROM: Wellington, New Zealand.

FAMILY: Partner in Wellington and his two children.

PROFESSION: Artist and new Unit Manager at the Valand Academy.

IN HER FREE TIME: “The two things that keep me in my right mind are yoga and taking walks. I’ve been practising yoga for more than 17 years and mainly do so at home on my own. Here in Gothenburg I like to take long walks in Slottsskogen.”

Maddie Leach likes open studies.

find my way until long after. I moved to Wellington, worked at a gallery and began teaching the fine arts. Only after I finished my thesis did I find my way with my sculptures.”

AT FI R ST, S H E did large-scale sculpture installations that were shown at galleries and increasingly received recognition internationally. But over the years, she’s moved over to work with different locations and based on the people who live there and the history that the individual place is home to.

“I don’t want to do commercial work. I don’t want to make art that can be shown at a gallery and sold. My interest is in a specific location where I live for a while and find different objects that originate right there.

The objects can be included in a work of art, but eventually revert to being what they were from the beginning.”

As an example, she mentions an art project she did for a museum in Wellington.

She had a boat maker make a small sail boat that she put on the roof of the museum.

“But after a few years when the boat had been put in storage, I gave the boat to a friend who began sailing with it. The boat finished being art and became a boat again,” she explains.

Right now, she has on-going art projects in Strömstad, Vancouver and Pittsburgh.

Making a base in Gothenburg, close to the European art scene, was another important factor in the decision to move here from New Zealand.

“As an artist in New Zealand, you’re so far away from everything. Mobility is limi-

ted and there are few international opportunities. Being somewhere in Europe opens new opportunities for me and I think that my way of working fits here,” she says.

Maddie Leach is slowly getting into life in Gothenburg. She’s sharing an apartment with two women in Linnéstaden, studying Swedish two nights a week, and focusing on the job and her on-going art projects. Her worst homesickness is subsiding.

“But of course it’s hard sometimes, especially on the weekends when I don’t have as much to do as during the week. My partner still lives in New Zealand because he has joint custody of his two children,” says Maddie Leach. me to take the job.

He was married with a diplomat before and is used to long-distance relationships. We’re trying to find routines that work. Now we phone every morning when I’m walking to work, which works with the time difference.”

Maddie Leach’s contract at the Valand Academy runs for five years. So far a great deal of time has gone to administration and getting to know the job. But she wants to get started teaching soon and making space for her own projects.

“It’s important for me that the work at Valand doesn’t consume all of my time. I have to be able to work with my art too,” she says firmly before she runs off to her next meeting.

“ B U T H E E N CO U R AG E D

TEXT: KARIN FREJRUD PHOTO: JOHAN WINGBORG

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An inspiring room for dialogue

Group work in the new room. The students discuss how to teach art in elementary school.

When more and more instruction takes place online, how can the students be brought to the campus at all?

Maybe by creating an environment that is so inspiring that they hardly want to leave.

Welcome to the room for active learning at Pedagogen!

A LC , AC TI V E LE A R N I N G C L A S S RO O M , is as yet a unique classroom among Sweden’s universities. Here, there is room for 36 students divided into six round tables each with a whiteboard and a large screen where a group can, for instance, watch films without disturbing the others. Over the tables, which are round so that nobody will sit on their own in a corner, things that looks like large lamps are handing, but are instead sound baffles meant to prevent noise from spreading. All wires are concealed below the floor, which is covered by a sound-dampening mat.

I N T H E M I D D LE , there is a smaller table for the teacher who otherwise circulates among the students.

“When the Pedagogen building complex moved here ten years ago, it was a boring, windowless room that nobody wanted to be in,” explains Tomas Grysell, Pedagogical Developer at the PIL unit and the project manager for the new room. “Now, it’s recei-

ved a new lease on life and has been transformed into our most exciting pedagogical room.”

It was during a visit to the University of Minnesota that Tomas Grysell was so inspired that he later simply had to go back again, this time together with his colleagues Svante Eriksson and Maria Sunnerstam. “ T H E M O ST I M P O R TA N T factor when learning something is to be seen. In a lecture hall, most students are anonymous; in an ALC room, however, the teacher listens to everyone. In Minnesota, they have a whole building equipped like this, where there are also cafeterias, microwave ovens and even a bank. The students like it so much that they are there almost around the clock.”

Telling about the ALC room is one thing.

But seeing it in reality is something completely different, points out Svante Eriksson, who is in charge of technical aspects of the room.

“The room is nonetheless somewhat basically equipped, in part to not create stress

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m

»For example, holding a lecture here would just kill the room.« For example, holding a lecture here would just kill the room.

Instead, the lecture is begun by the teacher having a brief review. Then the groups can continue working. Once someone feels called to present, they simply do so.

The other groups thereby get inspiration in the course of the work and the energy in the room gets an extra push.

We often think that the students have to be motivated to learn, as if greater knowledge wouldn’t be enough of a driver,” Tomas Grysell points out.

for active learning plays an important role in this work.

“We had a high school make a visit just recently that is now planning two ALC rooms,” explains Tomas Grysell. “Of course, we are all too happy if we can inspire others.

A web-based manual for the room is on the way and for the GU teachers who are curious only have to contact the PIL unit and perhaps attend one of our mini-courses.”

TEXT: EVA LUNDGREN PHOTO: ALLAN ERIKSSON

the students themselves have to take responsibility for their motivation. The teacher becomes more of a researching colleague than the somebody who possesses all of the answers. But it is important to keep track of the time. Once everyone is concentrated, the hours fly by and suddenly they’ve gone over time without even noticing it!”

Teaching this way demands a new way of thinking. Among other things, the teacher must have the courage to let go of some of the control and rely on the students getting by nonetheless.

“My colleagues in Minnesota say that it takes around two years to make the change mentally. The teachers who are interested need to support each other in the beginning, but once they’ve made it over the threshold, they don’t want to go back to traditional teaching.”

That teaching in an ALC room should be more costly than regular lessons is something Svante Eriksson doesn’t believe.

“This particular room can take 36 students, but in Minnesota, there were ALC rooms for 170 students. I believe that it would be good if every faculty at GU had maybe two or three rooms like this. But we don’t feel that all lectures or other kinds of exercises should suddenly be replaced; this is a complement.”

Right when GU Journalen is visiting, an art history course is being held in the room in the Teacher Improvement project. Gunnel Berlin, lecturer at HDK, explains that the students have begun blogs on GUL and are now continuing work in groups.

“BUT HERE,

concerning the technology. For example, there are no computers here; rather, the students themselves have to take responsibility for somebody in the group bringing a computer along. But a room’s design affects what pedagogy can be used. Regular lecture halls, which were created without teachers being involved and having a say, support traditional teaching with the teacher as the conveyor of knowledge. However, this room puts the students at the centre.

D U R I N G A R EG U L A R lecture, the teacher might be worried about some students not being very active or not achieving the goal. At the end, the teacher can make a round where each student says what they have arrived at, which usually means that those asked last don’t have so much to add,” explains Tomas Grysell.

“Here, things are done completely differently. The room is made for collaborative work where the teacher becomes a member of the group rather than the one teaching.

I get an entirely different overview over the students than during a regular lecture. Everyone gets to speak and work in the way that suits them. The students feel that it is so inspiring that they want to bring their vice-chancellors and colleagues here too.

Because even if the ALC room at Pedagogen is unique in Sweden, projects to create new teaching environments are under way a little everywhere; the network Rooms

Tomas Grysell

“A S A T E AC H E R ,

FACTS: ALC Active Learning Classroom is at the PIL unit at Pedagogen. The room is suited to teaching based on collaboration, regardless of the subject. If you would like to know more or perhaps attend a minicourse, please contact Tomas Grysell: tomas.grysell@gu.se.

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Chronicle

Settlement mapping:

A simple tool for reversing the Terrorism and Epistemic Violence

Epistemic Violence has emerged as breeding ground for global terrorism. Epistemic violence can be easily be recognized by the victims not by the perpetrators. That is why it is so dangerous. It happens when an innocent woman is killed without the compliance with due process of law; when her dignity is denied and all norms of justice are violated; and this savage act is defended in the name of honor, tradition and faith. It takes place when minorities are persecuted and non-combatant civilians are murdered due to hatred, bigotry and ignorance, and this act is defended in the name of love for God. When conspiracy theories are spun without taking pain to look for evidence and these theories are circulated through institutions of learning, media and pulpit, it is also epistemic violence. Epistemic violence is linked with education. Education is imparted to individuals at home, places worship, through schools and mass media and the state. If this education generates hope and opportunities rather than suspicion and fear in dealing with the other the anger can be turned into a creative energy for social wellbeing. This is very easy and even very small and modest steps can lead to significant results.

ILLUSTR ATION: KRISTINA EDGREN

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Shortcoming of conventional education

Contemporary education in various forms is based on either Intuitive or counter intuitive thinking. Intuitive thinking focusses on resemblances, feelings of liking and disliking, with little deliberations and reasoning. It builds on familiarity which might be different from truth. It might have consistency but not completeness. Counter intuitive thinking focuses on probing, measuring and validating. This was the method of Socrates, Galileo, Darwin and George Orwell. An example is Animal Farm. Two of animal slogans- four legs good, two legs bad and all animals are equal are found to be inconsistent and revised when animal stereotyping is confronted by counterintuitive evidence. Assumptions behind intuitive and counterintuitive changes define the course of action of authoritarian and democratic discourse. Intuitive model assumes that people are not aware of their problems, they also are not aware of the solutions to their problems and they lack resources as

well. It has a tacit assumption that social change and human development is a zerosum game. Counter intuitive model is based on the assumptions that people are aware of the problems, somewhat aware of the solutions and have resources to meet their needs. People don’t have tools to turn their capacities into solutions. With proper guidance they can demystify the conspiracy theories.

Settlement mapping; connecting education, social realty and peace

There are various tools that can help com-

munities build bridges with others and counter the cycle of violence in ghettoized communities. One of the most effective tools is participatory mapping of selected settlement by youth. In Pakistan’s port city of Karachi, a city of 20 million people, where half the population lives in informal settlements, this tool was successfully used by architect Perwen Rahmn. Karachi is hotbed of simmering conflict between various mafias fighting for grabbing land and water and collecting security money from various sections of the city. Terrorist groups also generate support and revenues in similar

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GUJOURNAL 3 | 2016

PHOTO: LOT TA DUSE

course of terrorism

See the possibilities, not the problems! ” R E FU G E E S O F T E N

have a tremendous energy and desire to contribute to society.

That strength is important to take care of.”

So says Elizabeth George. In August she will become project manager for the University of Gothenburg’s work with the refugee situation.

Can the soul speak to the soul?

Let the darkness of night descend on all of us A thick, cozy, warm darkness That eliminates multitudes of identity Based on sex, color, race, beliefs and ideology Where soul can speak to the soul A monastery which illuminates the inner space Much better than All the knowledge produced in the daylight dictates Of power, wealth, and ­podiums of arrogance Let the freedom to be prevail Over the desire to be a secluded me Let the dark oneness of night Overcome the bright daylight walls of breaking news, sermons and speeches Isn’t the ambiguity of darknessA step ahead of certainty of shallowness of clarity January 8, 2015

Self and Other I saw a big hole in my heart And felt the sliding mist in my eyes And an indescribable desperation Started flowing in my blood There is no ‘net connection’ that can fill this void There is no energy left in my body to surrender There is no melody in the air to melt in my ears An unformed emptiness is squatting all around I cannot reach out to the other Because I cannot reach out to myself I need gunshots to break the silence To heal my wounds To let the Sun of new day dawn on me Isn’t it strange?

January 29 2015

I N T E R N S H I P S , improved student information and validation of skills are some of the University’s efforts regarding assistance to refugees. In August Elizabeth George becomes project manager for the initiative.

“Many good efforts are made in different parts of the University. My role will be to act as coordinator and also as management support for Pro-Vice-Chancellor Helena Lindholm. I will also work with communication on the issues we want to highlight. An example would be the university’s involvement in the Jamiya project where Syrian academics educate refugees in different camps, another may involve validation of refugee skills. The plan is that I will be project manager until the end of 2017.

Elizabeth George was born in Sweden but her parents are from India.

“I have a twin sister who looks exactly like me; she is part of my soul, the second half of myself. My mother tongue is Malayalam, one of few language names that is a palindrome, that is reads the same backward or forward.

My husband is from Spain so our two children are quite used to different cultures.”

Since 2008 Elizabeth George is Head of the Integration Centre Gothenburg. But she has also worked as an SFI teacher (Swedish for immigrants) and at the Swedish Migration Agency.

“It is important to normalise the image of the refugee and not just talk about problems. Most people who come here are just like you and me; they want to study or work, get into a social context, make friends and participate in society.”

Attitudes towards refugees seem to have hardened in recent times. Do you agree?

way. Encroachment drive of these mafias was preempted in many areas through a simple activity, mapping and documentation of land and water resources and seeking legal title of these resources from the government. She got title to land for thousands of residents living in urban villages in the periphery of the city, exposed theft of water by tanker mafia and prevented eviction of thousands of households from informal settlements with one tool; mapping.

It eliminated the legal space for mafias to operate. It can be creatively used at other places with similar results.

Abu Muhammad, researcher at University of Gothenburg (Scholars at Risk)

This is his pen name. Abu’s real identity is not revealed because of the risk of being persecuted or threatened. If you would like to continue the debate or contact Abu, please send an e-mail to the editorial office of GU Journal, gu-journalen@gu.se.

“Media reporting has certainly shifted, from a very positive view last autumn to recent descriptions of refugees as a problem. But if they become a burden or an asset is really up to us; it is we who must help these people to become part of our community. Therefore, I think it’s wonderful of the University of Gothenburg to offer over 100 internships for refugees. And to support people’s way into our society needn’t be very complicated; above all, it’s a question of seeing the human being, regardless of background.

EVA LUNDGREN

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Academic ceremonies

Professorial inauguration in the Gothenburg Concert Hall

On 13 May, it was again time for the professorial inauguration in the Gothenburg Concert Hall. This time, there were 50 professors­who, together with the Vice-Chancellor and deans, entered the ceremony to the tones of the march by the Royal Kronoberg Regiment Band.

E V E RYO N E knows that the title of professor is not free, but rather entails hard, long-term and persistent work, Vice-Chancellor Pam Fredman pointed out in her welcome speech. It involves research as well as teaching.

“Giving the students a high-class education should be seen as an equally important job as conducting research. This is why the University of Gothenburg has been making a special teaching excellence effort since 2015. The on-going refugee situation in particular is a reminder that collaboration with the surrounding world is also important.

The University of Gothenburg offers around a hundred placement positions for recent arrivals and is also the first university in Sweden to welcome persecuted researchers in the scope of the network Scholars at risk. We work actively with freedom of speech issues in Global Free Speech and arrange seminars on the refugee situation. I would like to take this opportunity to thank all of the employees and students who contributed to this work in various ways.”

Then executive representative Anders Snell presented the Åforsk Foundation’s knowledge prize, which this year goes to Kerstin Johannesson, Professor of Marine Ecology. She is receiving the award because she “has committedly worked to spread knowledge both about her own research domains, such as biological diversity and evolution, and about the marine ecosystems of the seas”.

Caroline Fällgren, Vice Chairman of the Student Unions of the University of Gothenburg, thanked the professors for their commitment.

“During my years of study, I’ve had many fantastic teachers who have given me wind beneath my wings and many of them have been professors.”

As always, students from the Academy of Music and Drama participated, this time with works from Mozart, Karg-Elert and Puccini, to name a few.

TEXT: EVA LUNDGREN PHOTO: JOHAN WINGBORG

Chiara Sabia played Sonata appassionata by Sigfrid Karg-Elert.

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If you had not become a professor, what would you have been?

“I would have probably become an actor. As a teacher and lecturer, it’s important to have a good rapport with the audience and when you achieve an interaction with the students, it can be very exciting. I also like music, so another alternative would have been to become a singer.”

Madeleine Zetterberg,Professor of Ophthalmology with a focus on the front segment of the eye.

The installation begins and ends with a procession.

“I probably would have become an archaeologist, inspired by Indiana Jones. But then I might have ultimately become a professor anyway. But when I was in the eighth grade and I learned what a DNA molecule is, my interests shifted. I’m now researching the genes that change during the development of cancer and am very happy with my area of research.”

Jonas Nilsson, Professor of Experimental Cancer Surgery

»We work actively with freedom of speech issues in Global Free Speech and arrange seminars on the refugee situation.« VICE-CHANCELLOR PAM FREDMAN

“I would have probably become an emergency physician. When I studied, I had friends who were working on marine biology and delved deeper into some jellyfish or something similar, but that wasn’t anything for me. I like to work more generally. And I work well under pressure so emergency response rather than administration would have suited me.”.

Lena Gipperth, Professor of Environmental Law “It would have been exciting to become a musician. If so, I would have liked to become a classical concert pianist and played Chopin.

It seems like it would be cool to work with something that you can’t see and just disappears when it’s done, but that nonetheless moves people to the core, regardless of their culture or language. But my interest in nature was a stronger draw.”

Alexandre Antonelli, Professor of Biology with a specialisation in systematics and biodiversity “After I finished high school, I worked just over a year as a sheep shearer in Exmoor in south-west England. I was the only woman among the sheep shearers, but it was wonderful to be so close to nature. Then I came home to Sweden and continued my studies, but if I hadn’t, I might have continued working with the sheep.”

Anna Wåhlin, Professor of Oceanography

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Academic ceremonies

The humanities nourish other disciplines T H E S E A R E C H A LLE N G I N G times for universities in general, and for the humanities in particular. In public discussion abroad the view is frequently expressed that university education is a private good whose cost should be largely or entirely borne by the students, who benefit from this good.

This view is gaining traction even here in Sweden. It has led to a sharp increase in tuition in the US and the UK. It has promoted a pattern in which universities are being run as fast food franchises competing for paying consumers. This pattern has greatly undermined the quality of university education and the research environment in those countries and institutions that have chosen to adopt it. It is a source of some relief that Sweden has had the good sense to resist this model, and one can only hope that this continues to be the case.

Comparative OECD figures clearly indicate that the per capita level of higher education in a country is a good predictor of its rate of economic growth, personal health, and level of participation in civil society and democratic institutions. These correlations strongly suggest that university education is a (quasi) public good to which universal access should be promoted and protected.

tially formulated in philosophy and mathematics by Descartes, Leibniz, and Newton.

Philosophers like Bayes and Carnap established the foundations of probability theory. Cognitive science is driven by issues that first exercised philosophers of mind, and continue to do so. Psychologists have made Nobel Memorial Prize winning contributions to economics. Linguists are actively involved in natural language processing work in AI labs. Researchers often move back and forth seamlessly among these, and other disciplines in pursuit of insights into the problems that drive their work.

An engineering application requires a sound scientific understanding of the area

A N OT H E R I D E A which has become increasingly popular in recent years is that universities should focus on vocational training, and shift resources away from disciplines that do not have immediate application in the job market. The humanities are a prime target for this campaign against ostensibly “impractical” fields of study.

This development has led to growing impatience with basic research both in industry and in academic life. It is motivated by a serious misunderstanding concerning the nature of science. Scientific knowledge is the result of a highly interconnected set of research activities across a very broad range of disciplines. Progress in one area tends to influence developments in another.

Computer science and artificial intelligence developed directly out of Turing’s work in logic and mathematics. Physics consists in the study of questions about the nature of space, time, energy, and mass ini-

of the world that it seeks to manipulate. It is generally not possible to anticipate which advances in basic science will yield technology. We had no way of knowing that some of the most abstract work on the theory of computable functions in mathematics, combined with research on semiconductors in applied physics, would produce the modern computer industry.

»Scientific knowledge is the result of a highly interconnected set of research activities across a very broad range of disciplines.«

A P O LI C Y T H AT seeks to de-emphasize the role of basic research, or to suppress parts of the integrated scientific enterprise, is very likely to significantly reduce the practical economic and technological benefits that it claims to promote. It will also impoverish the scientific culture that animates liberal and enlightened societies. The humanities have always played a central role in nourishing this culture. It is a vulnerable artifact that can be easily damaged by misguided public policy. We are obliged to protect

this culture if we wish to sustain the open and progressive social order that depends upon it.

My own field of research, computational linguistics, is a paradigm instance of the integrated nature of scientific research.

It operates at the interface of linguistics, computer science, and cognitive science, spanning the humanities, mathematics, engineering, and psychology.

We share with our colleagues in linguistics the concern to understand the properties of natural languages. Together with computer scientists and mathematicians we seek to model these properties formally in ways that can be implemented as computational systems. We join with engineers in developing language technology based upon these systems. In cooperation with cognitive psychologists we explore the connections between our computational models and the cognitive processes through which humans acquire languages, represent them, and use them in communication.

CO M P U TATI O N A L LI N G U I STI C S illustrates the essential eclecticism of scientific research.

Our home is in the humanities, with our fellow linguists. But we use the tools and methods of mathematics and computer science to formulate our models. We apply these models both to the creation of language technology, and to the examination of the cognitive foundations of natural language.

Computational linguistics may seem exceptional in the diversity of disciplines that it combines. In fact, if one looks closely at other fields in the humanities, as well as in other domains, it quickly becomes apparent that, for the most part, they too are working robustly across disciplinary boundaries in order to answer deep and abiding research questions. Long may this be so. It is precisely the open ended, borderless nature of science that permits it to produce such wonderful results.

Lecture by Shalom Lappin, Professor of Computional Lingustics, held at the professorial inauguration on May 13.

GUJOURNAL 3 | 2016

Doctor with hat and rapier On May 27, Karin Rönnerman, Professor of Education, became the proud owner of a rapier. The reason is not, though, a sudden interest in fencing.

Instead, it is proof of her honorary doctorate at Åbo Academy University.

A I LCOAT O R A LL- B L AC K evening dress is the dress code for the doctoral degree ceremony at Åbo Academy University, the only Swedish-language university outside Sweden. The approximately two-hour ceremony is held entirely in Latin and all doctors get a hat, a diploma, and also a rapier, a custom from the medical faculty which has spread to other parts of the university. ”After the ceremony all the doctors walk to the city cathedral where a church service is held, explains Karin Rönnerman. TV was there and the streets were full of people, so the ceremony is apparently something that gets a lot of attention in Finland. The following day we were invited to a champagne luncheon with the Vice-Chancellor.

Karin Rönnerman became honorary doctor because of her research on teachers’ professional development, school development, systematic quality work and leadership in schools. She has also been a leader in developing the Nordic Network of Action Research (NNAF), as well as in the international network Pedagogy, Education and Praxis, which for a long time has involved researchers from Åbo Academy.

The other fourteen honorary doctorates include Yvonne Hirdman, professor of History, and Herman Lindqvist, journalist and writer.

“Most doctors had brought large bags or containers for their swords,” explains Karin Rönnerman.

“But I had not thought of that so I was unsure of how to transport the weapon on the flight back home. In the end, I asked the academy to simply send it to my faculty. And here it is; it’s such a nice memory with both the date and my name engraved on it.”

TEXT: EVA LUNDGREN PHOTO: JOHAN WINGBORG

The rapier has both name and date engraved.

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Academic ceremonies

Vice-Chancellor Pam Fredman hoped that the students would contribute to a more sustainable world.

Record number in graduation ceremony With nervous excitement, 214 master’s students trod the stage of the Eriksberg Hall to receive their diplomas and the acclaim of the packed auditorium. Professor Rickard Bergqvist imparted four pieces of wisdom and Vice-Chancellor Pam Fredman urged the students to contribute to a better world by making full use of their newly acquired skills.

T H I S Y E A R , to accommodate all 1,000 guests, the graduation ceremony was moved to Eriksberg Hall. Instead of flowers, 400 helium balloons in three cheerful colours adorned the stage. The procession into the hall was led by Rickard Bergqvist, head of the Graduation School. He was followed by Vice-Chancellor Pam Fredman and the nine programme coordinators. All were dressed in their academic gowns. A brass ensemble provided music to accompany their entrance.

Rickard Bergqvist gave an opening statement. This emphasised that the ceremony would be a lifelong memory.

“You have achieved academic success and you have every right to feel proud. I

»On average we spend about 100,000 hours at work during our life. That’s more than 12,000 working days.« RICKARD BERGQVIST

hope that you go on to use the skills and perspectives that we work so hard to teach.”

He then took the opportunity to impart four pieces of wisdom. One: Be grateful.

You are lucky to be alive and have family and friends who love and support you. Two: Treat people with kindness and respect. Act honestly and with integrity. Three: Be original. Dare to be different, invent something, build a business and do something that others say cannot be done. Four: Nothing lasts forever.

“On average we spend about 100,000 hours at work during our life. That’s more than 12,000 working days. It’s a very long time. I encourage you to do what you love, to do what you’re good at and, most importantly, make sure that you are well paid,” said Rickard Bergqvist.

T H I S Y E A R ’ S K E Y N OT E speaker was none other than Pam Fredman. She referred to the Magna Charta Universitatum, a document signed in Bologna in 1988. The document enshrines fundamental academic freedom and currently has over 800 signatory universities in 85 countries.

“Today, academic freedom is threatened

GUJOURNAL 3 | 2016

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About 20 per cent of the students come from other countries than Sweden.

214 master’s student were celebrated at the Eriksberg Hall.

throughout the world. Free choice of subject and free choice of course curriculum are both threatened. Be the carriers of academic freedom. You have the key role in the development of society. You are the future.”

PA M FR E D M A N A L S O emphasised the importance of the UN’s new sustainable development goals. She expressed the hope that, with its focus on research, academic freedom and internationalisation, their university education had given the students a good basis for contributing to a more sustainable world.

It was then time to honour the students who had won the “Malmsten Award for Best Theses”. In addition to a fine diploma, each student also received SEK 10,000. Johan Malmsten is the Chairman of the Richard C. Malmsten Memorial Foundation. Over the

years, it has made major contributions to the School of Business, Economics and Law. In addition to making the presentations to the winning students, Johan Malmsten also mentioned the symbolic value of the ceremony being in Eriksberg Hall.

“Shipbuilding in Gothenburg flourished in the 50s, but was driven out in the 70s and 80s. You students must be prepared to constantly change and not take anything for granted. I hope you now devote the summer to literature, music and art. These will broaden your perspectives and make your worlds richer.”

A PP ROX I M AT E LY 20 per cent of the students were from other countries. Sarah Franz of Germany said that she was honoured and surprised to have won the award.

“Through our education, we have gained

new skills and learned lessons that will be of great benefit. We have also sharpened our ability to think critically. When we go out into the world of work, we must continue to dare to question and be constantly prepared for change.”

Non-alcoholic beverages were served in the subsequent mix and mingle. Rickard Bergqvist commented that everything had gone to plan and that it was important to have traditions and ceremonies that marked the end and the beginning of something new.

“This is a way of recognising the journeys the students have made. I am proud that so many of them have already found work. The ceremony is also an important reminder that they are part of a major university.”

TEXT: ALLAN ERIKSSON PHOTO: CARINA GRAN

FACTS The first international master programmes started at the School of Business, Economics and Law in 1997. Ever since then, graduation ceremonies have been held annually. Over the years, the event has grown. This is reflected in the increasing number of students. A new record was set this year. On the 14th of June 2016, 214 students received their degrees. Having fully completed their studies, they are equipped to find work in Gothenburg or anywhere else in the world.