GUJ6-2013English

News

GUJOURNAL 6 | 2013

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Proud of his roots Professor Ronald Paul changed both country and class Sick building

conferment ceremony

BO Rothstein

Employees flee Vasagatan

A festive and dignified party

Five suggestions to simplify administration

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UNIVERSITY OF GOTHENBURG

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Vice Chancellor

A magazine for employees of the Universit y of Gothenburg

What we need to solve challenges O n e y e a r g o e s by quickly, and it was recently time again for the University’s most important ceremony, the graduation of doctoral students. In that context I want to bring up the current discussion about postgraduate education.

A strong need is now being voiced on the European level for more Ph.Ds. in different sectors of society. At the same time, the connection between advanced level education and post-graduate education is different in different European countries, in spite of the clear ambition of the Bologna Process for academic degrees in Europe to be comparable.

In Sweden, the four year long postgraduate education has continued as it was before the Bologna Process was introduced.

In that way we differ from most other countries, where the advanced level is a part of the post-graduate education, whose last part is then three years. There is a risk that different systems stand in the way of mobility and student exchange, and it’s time to review the Swedish system. At the University of Gothenburg, the educational board and its post-graduate education committee have started work to shed light on the relationship between the advanced education level and the post-graduate level.

Ja n B j ö r k lu n d, minister of education, was an honorary guest at the ceremony two years ago. I named three wishes in the face of the research bill that was on its way: to increase the proportion of research funds that we can control, to protect free and curiosity-driven research and to safeguard the breadth of scientific activities. All these points were actually oriented toward the same thing – that we as universities and colleges will be able to contribute the broad knowledge that is needed to solve our big societal challenges, such as creating a long-term sustainable society.

The research bill was a step in the right direction. New money became available in the form of stronger base financing. There were also clear signals of the importance of quality, long-term thinking, freedom and the possibility to take risks. One thing that was missing in the latest research bill was the humanities and educational perspective.

At this year’s ceremony we again had the honour to have Jan Björklund as our guest. I took the opportunity to say a word in favour of the necessity of a diversity of knowledge in which the humanities, the social sciences and art are natural parts.

November 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

Eva Lundgren 031 - 786 10 81 eva.lundgren@gu.se 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 Fo r m a n d L ayo u t

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

Torsten Arpi, Ulrika Lundin and Sven-Eric Liedman P r oo f r e a d i n g

Robert Ohlson, Välskrivit i Göteborg Photogr aphy: Johan Wingborg

A s a n i llu st r ati o n I mentioned the discussion in Sweden about the work market having difficulty finding the right competence. The employee organisation Svenskt Näringsliv (Swedish Enterprise) claims that students are not “employable” to a great enough extent, that there is a mismatch on the work market and that we are over-educated in Sweden.

This seems to me a strange discussion that easily leads thoughts in the wrong direction about what higher education is good for.

What Sweden needs to develop as a knowledge nation isn’t a narrowly defined order for tailor-made students. What is needed is students with critical and analytical thinking with a broad palette of useful knowledge and competence that can be managed in a particular context. Beyond this, and this is true regardless of the discipline, we have to meet and cooperate over disciplinary boundaries, both in research and education, to develop the cross knowledge that is needed in a rapidly changing society.

A s a u n i v e r s it y , we can and must do this.

But for this to have effect, our politicians have to give clear signals that it isn’t sufficient to put efforts into medicine, technology and economics; research in the humanities, social sciences and art is also needed, and the importance of education and life-long learning must be recognised. I hope that Jan Björklund and his colleagues in the government will give attention to this and mark its importance.

Pam Fredman

T r a s l at i o n

Janet Vesterlund address

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Ronald Paul, Professor of English Literature Photography: Johan Wingborg

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Contents

GUJOURNAL 6 | 2013

10

Vice-chancellor

2 We need thinking students! news

4 The building where people feel bad 6 Joint Administration to save 12 million next year 7 Bad quality, but rankings are still important 8 166 new PhDs at the year’s biggest party profile

10 The working guy who became a professor of literature Leisure

13 The program is set for Global Week Chronicle

14 Stop re-organising! Björn Rombach says we need a reform pause Debate

14 Bo Rothstein wonders why it’s easier to book a trip to Kathmandu than to fill in a travel expense form

A passion for worker literature These voices are seldom heard, says Ronald Paul.

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The biggest party of the year This year’s PhD conferment with mingle and ensuing banquet with 775 dinner guests at Svenska Mässan was a radiant performance.

They want to leave the building Many are sick from the physical work environment at Vasagatan 33.

Editorial Office: No solution for Vasagatan 33 T h o s e o f yo u who follow GU Journal’s blog (www.gujournalen. blogg.gu.se) have been able to read Eva Lundgren’s impressions of her MOOC course in social psychology.

It’s over now, but it’s been interesting, instructive and fun. The advantages are that you can choose yourself how much time you want to put into the course, you can listen to an extremely enthusiastic and knowledgeable teacher and you take the course together with students from for example Australia and Pakistan. The doubts that Eva had at the beginning are completely gone. This is a kind of teaching where you use the interac-

tivity that modern technology offers and where students are active and involved in the course.

Co u ld t h i s b e something for GU to do? Arrange a course in some subject in which the University is internationally first rank. The teachers hold lectures while the students take care of the chat and contacts with other participants. Maybe the MOOC can even function as project work in an ordinary course. But, from what we understand, GU doesn’t have any concrete plans as yet.

In this issue you can read about how staff working in the building at

Vasagatan 33 has become sick from the physical work environment.

A large number of persons have contacted us and talked about how worried they are. We report in the article what has happened since the University moved into the building. In spite of repeated measurements and actions, the problems have become increasingly worse in recent years.

The people who feel worst have been moved around. Now the personnel unit has had enough and wants to leave the building but it may not.

Has the number of managers increased at the University? There’s much to indicate that, even though

it’s been difficult to get a trustworthy basis for it. Our survey shows that there are now 15 per cent more managers compared with five years ago.

But many more have also been given tasks that are like those of managers.

An explanation is that, after the reorganisation, the departments have gotten so large that more managers on different levels are needed. Can it be that there’s a built in power in the administration to continuously grow?

Keep on contacting us!

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News

”We want to leave this building!”

Dizziness, nausea, burning eyes and nose.

Those are just some of the symptoms that a large number of employees at Vasagatan 33 experience. The problems have been going on for years. About ten people have such serious symptoms that they’ve been forced to work in another location for over a year.

O u r m e m b e r s can’t deal with this anymore.

If the employer can’t present a concrete action plan to solve the problems, the Work Environment Authority should be called in,” says Stefan Schedin, chairman of the ST union.

The first reports of unpleasant odours at Vasagatan 33 came in 1999 when parts of the Central Administration moved into the building, which was built in the 1800s.

Since then, employees have complained from time to time about the odour problem which causes headache and tiredness.

The building has had different problems over the years. In a rain storm in 2002, for example, a drainpipe leaked so that water sprayed in toward the façade. A fan was set up that had to stand there for about eight months. When a fan and cooling system was installed in 2009, many employees experienced different kinds of symptoms.

O n e e m p loy e e describes for instance how at a meeting on the fifth floor it suddenly felt like a poisonous gas was being sprayed into the room.

“People ran out of the meeting and a colleague said that this was what it was like here.”

Twelve investigations have been done during the years, a number of floors have been broken up and cleaned, moisture problems have been fixed.

The problems still continued, which the Work Environment Barometer in 2011 clearly indicated.

“The results for the personnel unit show that 47 per cent very often or fairly often are worried about physical health risks at work, such as noise, dust, odours, moist or dry air,” says Marianne Leffler, the manager

1994 A main agreement was set up between GU and Wallenstam that, in the event that Vasagatan 33 could be made into offices, GU would be the first to lease.

October 1999 The University of Gothenburg leases the property from Wallenstam.

Personnel soon complain about a bad odour. An investigation was made for mould.

Photogr aphy: Johan Wingborg

Fall 2002 Personnel again complain about a bad odour and some are irritated by itchy eyes. In a heavy rain storm it was found that a drainpipe leaked and was spraying water toward the façade. A fan had to be used for eight months.

2003 Further investigations and sanitizing are done.

Fall 2006 Another room is investigated, where personnel don’t feel well. No mould was found.

2009 A fan and cooling system is installed. GU’s costs are 5.4 million crowns over ten years.

2010/2011 Another employee complains of a bad odour in a room. The floor joists are replaced but the odour remains.

News

GUJOURNAL 6 | 2013

of the barometer investigation. “The corresponding figure for GU as a whole is 13 per cent. Further, at the personnel unit, 36 per cent say that they have problems with dry skin or dry mucus membranes in the eyes, nose, mouth and throat – three times as many as in GU as a whole.”

The situation got even worse when the University gained access to a formerly private apartment in the same entrance in 2012.

The apartment smelled bad and elevated levels of moulds were found. Some flooring was broken up and replaced with new.

According to finance director Lars Nilsson, whose office is on the third floor, there haven’t been any big problems on that floor, a part from of a room with a strong smell of tar, which has been shut.

“The problems that have been reported, for examples with the ventilation, have been fixed by installing a large number of air pumps in the building.”

In the fall of 2012, all employees at Vasagatan 33 were called to a large meeting which also the property owners, Wallenstam and Previa, attended. A questionnaire was done with about the work environment. This confirmed and emphasised the problems that were pointed out in the Work Environment Barometer. It showed that 90 per cent feel varying degrees of tiredness, 80 per cent feel that their head is heavy and about 55 per cent have concentration difficulties. About 27 per cent often have itchy eyes and over 20 per cent have nose irritations.

About 28 per cent experience nausea and dizziness. Compared with the norm values the investigation at Vasagatan 33 showed extremely high values for these symptoms.

“Unfortunately, the questionnaire doesn’t show exactly where in the building the people who have the worst problems have their offices,” says Stefan Schedin. “In spite of the questionnaire being done a year ago, no energetic action program has been presented. Many employees despair of its ever getting better.” whose problems were most severe, about ten people, moved to other offices over a year ago.

One of them is payroll administrator Agneta Felix, who first moved to Erik Dahlbergsgatan and then to Bengt Lidnersgatan.

“My symptoms were headache, asthma symptoms, aches and irritated eyes. When I visit the offices at Vasagatan 33 now the symptoms come back after about half an hour.”

It was intended in the fall that the employees who had been moved would T h e e m p loy e e s

2011 GU pays for a climate adaptation of the conference room and certain other rooms.

Spring 2011 More complaints about odour. An air analysis shows benzene in the air.

After further measurements, no elevated values are found. The results are presented at a large meeting. People who felt serious symptoms move to Södra Allégatan.

return to Vasagatan, but the move had to be interrupted since those who had had problems experienced them again. A few more employees have had symptoms since then.

“This is the second time in a year that I’ve left the building and been forced to be isolated from my work mates,” says safety officer Adrian Nählinder. “The renovations that have been done have obviously not been enough. For some reason, it was also decided not to break up the flooring in several rooms, despite that they know, as far as I understand, that there can be waste down there that emits substances. My tolerance has become successively lower. After only five–ten minutes in the building I feel a headache and irritation in my throat, mouth, nose, lips and eyes. It scares me.”

Photogr aphy: all an Eriksson

E v e n e m ploy e e s who don’t have any symptoms are worried.

“We have to find out what it is and do something about it,” says payroll administrator and safety officer Jane Olsson. “If there are dangerous agents in the walls and floor they have to be taken away. We have a feeling that we’re not being taken seriously and that our symptoms are suspected to have other causes than the bad indoor environment.”

“We don’t want to work in a sick building,” says payroll administrator Marianne Lund Persson. “So many people are worried, more and more people are feeling symptoms. Just today another of my colleagues contacted Previa. What we wonder is what health risks there can be in the long run and so we want a proper risk analysis.”

Personnel manager Håkan Berg also thinks that the best thing would be to move all of his personnel.

“But we’ve decided in the area management to make certain checks of the investigations that have been done before an action proposal is presented. As it is now, 20 per cent of my employees can’t be in the building. I think that my personnel have been brave to have stood it so long. But it’s hard to hold the work group together and the situation isn’t made any better by there being so many who are worried. It doesn’t matter what the cause of the problems is.

Our personnel don’t feel well and we need a solution now. Company health care is now making an investigation in the personnel unit to find out if there is any relationship between the psychosocial work environment and the physical experience of the building.”

In spite of the fact that several investigations have shown that many employees have distinct symptoms, there are no technical values that show that any dangerous limits

Fall 2011 An Örebro questionnaire is done but the response rate is poor. During the spring of 2012, black mould is detected in one room.

June 2012 An independent investigation by the Botanical analysis group show that certain samples contain mould that can be an indication of moisture damage.

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Stefan Schedin

Håkan Berg

June 2012 GU gains access to a new apartment in which there is a strong odour. Personnel placed above the apartment are moved out. Sanitization of the apartment is begun.

have been exceeded in the building, according to Frida Wiklander. She hasn’t felt any symptoms herself but she thinks that it’s important to get to the bottom of what is causing the problems.

“We safety officers can’t tell our employer what should be done, but we have to get a good dialogue going between all the parties. All the rumours that are going around aren’t helping anyone, not the employees and not the employer.”

It was in February of 2007 that the property owner Wallenstam first heard about odour problems in the building. Wallenstam explains in an e-mail that this was fixed.

They also say that they, together with the University, have carried out a large number of investigations to find the causes of the problems. These haven’t led to any results yet, but Wallenstam says that the personnel will be called together as quickly as a deviating odour is reported.

A meeting at the end of October with representatives of the employer, union and main work environment agent didn’t lead to any concrete decisions, which Stefan Schedin regrets.

“The actions that the employer has suggested are far from enough. For example, the waste products that were used as filling should be properly sanitized.”

A r e a m a n ag e r Anna Lindholm is now planning to use an independent expert to investigate whether the measurements that have been done are sufficient.

“We need a short-term solution for the people who don’t feel well as well as a longterm plan for solving the problems for good.”

The unions and chief safety officer will now discuss how to proceed.

“The employer has to develop an action plan quickly,” says Stefan Schedin. “The employees’ work situation is completely unacceptable.”

Eva Lundgren & Allan Eriksson

Fall 2012 The Örebro questionnaire is used again with a very good response rate.

Fall 2013 The people who have been moved return but immediately experience their symptoms again and are moved out a second time. A few more people experience symptoms.

News

New journals on your tablet The Gothenburg University Library is now arranging a trial period of a new mobile e-journal service. BrowZine allows you to search, browse, collect, read and monitor almost all of the University Library’s journals.

With BrowZine you can: Easily read almost all of the University Library’s journals in a format that is optimzed for tablet devices, create a personal bookshelf with your favorite journals, be alerted when new editions of journals are published and save articles to other programs such as Mendely, EndNote and others.

To get started, search for BrowZine in the App Store or Google play and download the app. Select ”Göteborgs universitet” from the drop down list under settings and then login with your GU card number and personal identification number.

Questionable ranking GU is in the 205th place in the world, at least according to the QS ranking that was presented on September 10. That is twelve placements lower than last year. But the ranking is questioned by GU’s unit for analysis and evaluation. An explanation is that the list is rather unstable: several of the schools have had a great change in their placement from one year to another.

“That placements can change so much over one year shows how close it is between universities.

Small changes in absolute values have a great effect in the indicators,” says Magnus Gunnarsson. “The previous criticism remains: these questionnaire studies are not representative and the reputation indicators are given unreasonably great importance.”

A satisfied student?

The report A Satisfied Student analyses what makes students satisfied with their education. The report investigates the extent to which students’ total satisfaction is affected by the attitude to individual parts of study life, such as study environment, possibilities for student influence, the infrastructure around the studies and the contents of the education. Among other things that can be seen is that students appreciate training in analytical skills, adaptation of the studies’ difficulties and the relation to teachers. Factors with which the students are not equally as satisfied are access to course literature, information, examinations and administrative work.

The report, which is based on data from students in Gothenburg in 2012, can be downloaded from: http://www.analys.gf.gu.se/.

Academic 15 minutes Starting in the fall of 2013, academic 15 minutes are being arranged on Mondays at the city library 300m2, Södra Hamngatan 57. During November, the quarter hours will deal with women’s power and lack of power in literature, about handicraft and design among the population at Lake Victoria and about city shops vs shopping centers. December will feature internet mobbing, whistleblowers and the importance of the care environment for health.

Faculty board stopped new department There will not be a marine department. The Sciences faculty board voted negatively to the proposal on September 26.

“We could absolutely be world leaders in the marine area, so I regret the decision,” comments dean Elisabet Ahlberg.

It wa s i n J u n e that the faculty presented a proposal for collecting all marine activities in a single department. The reason was that the marine profile, one of the University of Gothenburg’s strategic areas, is fairly vague.

The proposal was met by both negative and positive reactions.

Several employees felt that the time plan was far too narrow since the new department was intended to be in place so soon, on January 1, 2014. It was also mentioned that the faculty had

already carried out several organisational changes and that it was important now to have a Elisabet Ahlberg calm work environment.

At the same time, a questionnaire showed that about 62 per cent of the teachers and researchers with a marine profile were positive to a new department.

“So I’m disappointed over the decision and worry about the development of the marine area in the long term,” says Elisabet Ahlberg, dean of the Faculty of Science.

The University of Gothenburg has recently made several important efforts in the marine area. For example, the procurement of a research vessel that

will be built at a cost of about 120 million crowns will be ready very soon. And, in the fall, Kerstin Johannesson, professor of marine ecology, will present an investigation about how the whole University’s maritime activities can be coordinated and how there can be cooperation with external actors.

R e s e a rc h e r s and research groups now have the possibility to change departments to make the coordination of the different areas easier.

“This applies to the marine field as well as other areas where an organisational coordination would be beneficial to activities,” says Elisabet Ahlberg.

Eva Lundgren

Uncertain consequences of savings plan Now it’s clear how much money Central Administration will save – a total of 12 million crowns during 2014. But it isn’t clear yet exactly how this will be done, according to University director Jörgen Tholin.

How have you arrived at that sum and can you give examples of areas in which money will be saved?

“We’re going to save 35 million crowns during the next three years and 2014 is the first year in which savings will be made.

12 million crowns is a third of the total amount and it’s been divided among areas which our studies have indicated. We’re too early in the process to say what concrete saving measures will be taken.”

What consequences will the savings plan have for personnel?

“The areas and units are working now with translating the results of the studies to concrete measures. It hasn’t been establis-

Photography: Johan Wingborg

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hed yet what consequences there will be for personnel.

Can you give examples of activities that shouldn’t be in the Central Administration anymore and that can be “advantageously” taken care of by external suppliers?

“There’s greater and greater pressure from the government to centralise administrative functions at several authorities through for example the State’s service center. Outsourcing of certain parts of the business is a possibility that we have to be open to. When we investigated the possibility to use the State’s service center for payroll admi-

nistration, we found that this wouldn’t lead to any greater effectiveness.”

Quite a bit will be saved over three years in Central Administration. But in Vision 2020 and the re-organisation work GU renewal, it’s stated that Central Administration shall focus more on a clear service level and development of the IT system, for instance. How can this level be maintained or strengthened if 35 million have to be saved at the same time?

“The one doesn’t exclude the other. Saving money and at the same time working for a good and clear service level have to do with steering and making different priorities in our activities.

Several efforts are being made parallel with saving and making work more effective, such as in student administration and admission systems, in addition to a continuation of the expansion of housing for guest researchers.”

ALLAN ERIKSSON

News

GUJOURNAL 6 | 2013

Quotation

GU Journal’s web panel 12

38

GU has gone down a few placements in the most recent international rankings.

Do you think that the University of Gothen­ burg should invest in climbing up on the lists?

The number of responses was 89. No: 39 Response rate 92 per cent. Employees among a random selection of 500 applied to GU Journal’s web panel.

39

More important than you think Rankings don’t give a fair picture. In spite of that, the country’s vice-chancellors think that rankings play a rather large role, not least in an indirect respect.

This is what a unique survey by Pontus Sundén shows.

How i m po r ta n t are rankings for the country’s seats of higher learning? To find out, teaching student Pontus Sundén, who now works at web developer at LUN, sent out a questionnaire to the country’s university and college vice-chancellors. The response rate was high, 32 of 40 vice-chancellors answered the questionnaire.

The results are quite consistent. Most of the vice-chancellors think that rankings give a poor picture of the quality of a school.

But the most common understanding is that rankings are a reality that you have to relate to, regardless of what you think about them. “ T h e r e ’ s a n i d e a that rankings have a general influence, but there are few vice-chancellors that think they’re important for their own schools. The vicechancellors still think that other actors, such as politicians and businessmen, use the school’s placement in the lists. In that sense, rankings can have a rather great indirect effect,” says Pontus Sundén.

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Pontus Sundén

27 indicated that rankings affect schools’ reputation and about 20 believe that research financers and political decisionmakers use rankings to a high or a very high degree. About ten vice-chancellors also think that the lists have a direct influence on recruitment, particularly of international students.

T h e v i c e- c h a n c e llo r s’ responses give a contradictory picture.

On the one hand they say that rankings are a poor measure of quality and on the other hand that rankings are used.

Despite criticism, three vicechancellors say that the rankings give correct information and two indicate that the placement on the lists has a direct influence on the distribution of resources.

However, half of the vicechancellors believe that longterm efforts on quality improve placements on the lists.

Sti ll , t h e i n d i r ec t importance can’t be underestimated, according to Pontus Sundén.

“The risk is that rankings are given greater importance than they actually have. A kind of loop arises. If others think that rankings are important, there are more that identify themselves on the basis of the categorising that rankings create. It may be that new universities have another identity than old ones, even if both have the same formal status.”

Pontus Sundén doubts the claim that rankings are given greater importance among politicians and students.

“We don’t know that. It would be interesting to investigate whether it really is true. But if the vice-chancellors say that it’s important for others, it especially affects the external picture of the school – then the idea that rankings are important gains strength.”

Allan Eriksson

Pontus Sundén’s master thesis Swedish Schools’ Management of International Rankings can be downloaded at: https://gupea.ub.gu.se/ handle/2077/31558.

»The devastation of academic freedom at universities and the introduction of authoritarian workplaces are thus not just a first step but a direct strike at the heart of democracy.

The immediate effect is that we get a culture of silence with self-censorship and arbitrary prohibition of expression that lies outside the law.« Jens Stillhoff Sörensen, researcher at global studies at GU, who on the Swedish radio, OBS, has held a series on the New Public Manage­ment philosophy and its influence on Swedish rule of law.

GU not well known abroad Weak results in investigations of reputation – that is probably the explanation of why GU lost a few placements in Times Higher Education’s (THE) annual ranking list of the world’s best universities.

“The category of teaching and research includes reputation investigations and it’s probably why we have a poorer placement than Lund and Uppsala Universities. We’re simply not as well known internationally,” says investigator Magnus Gunnarsson at the unit for analysis and evaluation.

As last year, the University of Gothenburg places in the interval 201–225.

The exact position can be calculated, 223, which is five placements lower than last year.

But in another area, Preclinical, Clinical & Health, GU has climbed a few placements. In the indicator group Citations, GU has even a higher citation value than Karolinska Institute, although the overall ranking is still only 83, which can be compared with KI’s placement of 14.

Compared with 2012, the University of Gothenburg has improved in the indicator Citations while there has been a deterioration in the indicators of Teaching and Research.

“Other comparable Swedish schools, such as Lund and Uppsala Universities, show a similar pattern.”

In spite of the fact that THE is counted among one of the more prestigious ranking lists, Magnus Gunnarsson is very critical of some of the methods.

“THE doesn’t give much information about the reputation investigation. For example, we don’t know how large a proportion responds. In terms of reputation, most schools that are ranked lower than 50 probably have very low and unstable values.”

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Conferment of doctoral degree

The teacher group at general medicine received Sahlgrenska Academy’s teaching prize.

Gunnar Svedberg’s prize was given by the Vice-chancellor to Annika Perttula for her involvement in HBTQ issues.

Dignified and festive This year’s PhD promotion with mingle and ensuing banquet with 775 dinner guests at Svenska Mässan was a radiant performance.

1 6 6 n e w Ph D s who had recently completed their doctoral degrees and about twenty teaching prize winners were the obvious center of attention on Friday, October 25th.

Among the guests and speakers were Minister of Education Jan Björklund and regional Governor Lars Bäckström.

However, there was another speaker that was particularly distinguished at the banquet. The speech by the honorary doctor of the faculty of Fine, Applied and Performing Arts, performance artist Liz Aggiss, showed how a person with humour and performing and artistic abilities can be powerful in the framework of a speech lasting only a few minutes. It isn’t too daring to guess that her speech/performance is something that will stay with those who were present.

GU’s new chairman of the board, Cecilia Schelin Seidegård, was present at the mingle between the ceremony and the banquet.

“This is a way to both care for the

University’s traditions and honour those who have earned their doctorate. It’s both dignified and honourable,” she said.

Pam Fredman spoke particularly in her speech to Jan Björklund, where she emphasised what she thought was lacking in the research and innovation policy bill from the fall of 2012: “I miss the humanities and teaching perspective. Our politicians have to give signals that it isn’t sufficient to put our efforts into only medicine, technology and economics but that research efforts are also needed in the humanities, social sciences and the arts.”

T h e d oc to r a l pro m oti o n is the University’s ceremony for conferring the so called insignia for doctoral dignity. It is well-oiled machinery that is put into motion, 110 years after the University of Gothenburg’s first doctoral promotion.

There were many people in the backdrops, at least 70 GU employees and students as well as Marie Lowrie, master of ceremonies at GU since 2007.

Theatre, musical and opera director Staffan Aspegren was included starting this year in the ceremony group from the faculty of Fine, Applied and Performing Arts, which is connected with Academic ceremonies.

“The theme this year was our social responsibility, which was hard to formulate.

I chose music numbers that had common denominators with what was going on at the podium,” said Staffan Aspegren, who was helped by students from the Academy of Music and Drama who were responsible for most of the excellent musical performances during the day.

GUJOURNAL 6 | 2013

In what way does your research contribute to a better future?

GU Journal asked eight new PhDs doktorer.

Andreas Godsäter Age: 39 Did his thesis in: peace and development research “In light of a deeply unfair world, my research on cooperation between countries in southern Africa is important. By increasing our understanding of how people’s organisations work together regionally on HIV/AIDS and trade questions I hope to contribute to a better future for poor people.”

Honorary doctor Samuel L Stupp promoted by Kerstin Nilsson for Sahlgrenska Academy.

Some of the events/entertainment during the ceremony and the following banquet, or exceptions that instead strengthened the impression of the perfect arrangement:

The doctoral candidate that succeeded in the feat of almost missing the short walk over the so called Parnassus, the actual rite of transformation to enter into the academy as a newly conferred PhD. The comment “Hi Dad!” from the public when one of the new doctors in the faculty of Natural Sciences was honoured.

When all the new PhDs at the School of Economics were almost skipped. The upright intervention by the vice master of ceremonies, Jörgen Kyle, and marshal Linus Callheim saved the situation, however.

Text: Torsten Arpi photography: Johan Wingborg

Maria Gyhagen Age: 55 Did her thesis in: obstetrics and gynaecology “I‘ve done research on the long-term injuries to the pelvic floor that women can have after giving birth.

This knowledge contri­ butes primarily to increasing women’s autonomy in decisions concerning future childbirths.”

Lisa Wiklund Age: 32 Did her thesis in: ethnology “My thesis has to do with national identi­ fication in increasingly globalised everyday life, which means both new possibilities as well as limitations that have to do with things like national belonging and identifica­ tion. I do research on this tension. Mobility is constantly increasing and it is important that we now and in the future understand our everyday life from a cosmopolitical perspective.”

Robert Rudäng Age: 38 Did his thesis in: medicine “My research identifies and evaluates factors that affect how we build bone mass in young years. Greater knowledge about this can contribute to the development of new treatment methods for osteoporosis and thus reduce the number of fractures in our society in the future.”

Gabriela Schaad Age: 46 Did her thesis in: business economics “I have studied how municipal energy companies with high ambitions in the area of the environment work with the transformation to renewable fuels and technologies, an important question for the future. I show that these companies, with the help of innovations, cooperation and a strong position in the local society, can create long-term value for both owners and society.”

Ulrika Wänström Lindh Age: 44 Did her thesis in: design “What I’ve studied has to do with understanding space with the help of illumination, for example how we see and experience the form, size and atmosphere of a room depending upon the placement of illumination. This is important for the experience of safety and social community and facilitates orientation in public rooms.”

Stefan Johansson Age: 32 Did his thesis in: teaching “How do different forms of judgement work in schools? What are the factors that contribute to making teachers’ judgement of students’ knowledge and skills more equal and fair?

That is part of what I have done research in.”

Andreas Johnsson Age: 36 Did his thesis in: natural geography “The eternal question is whether there is life on other planets. This is something that my research can give an answer to. But by studying neighbouring planets we can also gain references to the earth’s development. We now know that processes we earlier believed only occurred on earth have also existed on Mars, such as the building of glaciers.”

QUESTIONNAIRE: Ulrika lundin Photography: Johan Wingborg

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Profile

Working guy from Newcastle

GUJOURNAL 6 | 2013

he trip from shipyard workers’ Newcastle in northern England to a professorship at the University of Gothenburg has been a long one.

Ronald Paul hasn’t just moved from one social class to another. He’s also changed countries and languages. But he thinks it’s important to safeguard one’s roots.

“I feel very privileged to be able to combine the experiences from my own background with research and teaching.”

Ro n a ld Pau l , who was born in 1950, grew up in the worker city of Newcastle in northern England. At that time, Newcastle, like Gothenburg, was a shipyard city, and Ronald’s father worked in a shipyard.

“I grew up in a family with small means.

We didn’t have much money. But my childhood was anyway good. There was a strong unity.”

No one in his family studied at a university. Not even anyone he knew went on to higher education.

“It was completely unthinkable in some way; it didn’t exist in our world. Most of the people in my family and my friends became coal workers or worked at a factory or a shipyard.”

Many close to him lived in direct poverty.

“There was a small food store on our street where you could hear people ask for one egg or one slice of ham. They couldn’t afford more, simply. I could see children in school that wore their parents’ old clothes.

They just rolled up the arms or pant legs.

That’s how poor it was.”

We meet in Ronald Paul’s small, snug work room in the Humanities above Näckrosdammen. The room is filled with bookshelves with many, many books.

There’s a framed poster from Moderna museet on one wall and photographs of loved ones above his desk.

H e o ffe r s m e his desk chair and sits in the room’s other chair. The back of the chair can be felled backwards so I’m grateful not to be sitting in it as I take my notes.

Ronald Paul says he already made a small change in social class as a child. There was an examination at the age of 11 years, and if you passed that you continued to grammar school, which was preparatory for higher studies. If you didn’t pass you continued on to secondary school.

“Everyone I knew failed that exam. But for some strange reason I passed it. It was my first little contact with another world.”

Young Ronald then went to grammar school where it was possible for instance to study other languages.

“I was the only one on the whole street that went to that school. I remember the feeling of separation between my own family members and friends and the new school world that I’d fallen into. We had homework. None of my friends had that.

They could play soccer when I had to sit and study. I didn’t like it and thought that separation was very hard.”

So, at the age of 16, Ronald Paul quit school without taking any examination. He started to work at a factory. Then he was a bus conductor for a year.

In 1970 he came to Sweden for the first time. He returned several times for holiday, alone or with friends, with the ferry line that then travelled between Newcastle and Gothenburg.

T h e bac kg ro u n d was that, as a bus conductor, he had met Swedes who had come for shopping.

“One of the bus lines I worked for drove people from the boat to the city centre.

Then I came into contact with Swedes.

Before that, Sweden was hardly in my world at all.”

Travelling by boat to Gothenburg was cheap at that time.

“I remember it cost six pounds the first time I travelled. So I was here on holiday many times. In the 1970s there weren’t many Englishmen here. I felt a little special in a very positive way.”

During his trips to Sweden, Ronald Paul also made friends here and he decided to move to Gothenburg. He studied at the adult school, among other things to learn Swedish. He had plans to be an English teacher but a study counsellor at the University put other thoughts in his head.

“It wasn’t so easy to get a job in a school at that time. He suggested that I study English at the University and wait a while.”

So, it was studies at the University of Gothenburg.

“I studied English and Swedish, in the old teaching program. So I’m actually educated as a Swedish teacher too,” he says laughing.

The young Ronald Paul thought being in Sweden and Gothenburg felt good.

“One thing that’s characteristic of the class society in England is that you have very many stereotypical ideas about people who come from northern England. That feeling disappeared when I came here.

People viewed me as an Englishman. They didn’t hear from my dialect that I came from Newcastle. It felt like a freedom in many ways. Moving here opened up the world for me physically, geographically and mentally.”

He says that dialect is still very important in his former country. It can determine what job you get and your whole future.

“If you’re educated at a private school like Eton or Harrow you get an accent that almost guarantees a good job and a good life. But a northern English accent can mean disaster.”

I n ti m e , Ro n a ld Pau l did his doctorate in Gothenburg with a thesis on post-war worker literature. Then he started to work as an English teacher, first at Folk University and then at Angered’s high school, where he also taught Swedish.

“It was very useful, a completely different reality compared with the university.”

He returned to the University of Gothenburg in 1993, this time as a lecturer.

Ronald Paul does research on English worker literature. He became a professor of English with a focus on comparative literature last year.

He’s particularly interested in female worker authors. In England, they’ve recently started to take more room on the literary scene. Ronald Paul mentions names such as Pat Barker, Agnes Owens and Jeanette Winterson.

“I think the combination of gender and class is very exciting.”

He especially likes the author Pat Barker.

She was awarded the prestigious Booker Prize in 1995 for her novel about the First World War, The Ghost Road.

“When she won that, people started to take female worker authors seriously.”

T h e r e i s a g r e at tradition of war stories written by men such as Ernest Hemingway, John Dos Passos and Erich Maria Remarque.

“So you could expect that there wasn’t any more to write about the First World War. But Pat Barker focused on a thing that hadn’t been treated very much before.”

It has to do with the phenomenon of shell shock, that is, a post-traumatic stress syndrome that affected soldiers in the First World War. “They started to cry, couldn’t sleep, screamed and were hysterical. At first, these men were seen as cowardly and they were punished. But there were finally so many of them, there were thousands of young men

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Profile

»I choose texts by worker authors that otherwise aren’t usually on universities’ literature lists.«

Ronald Paul Currently: Professor of English since 2012 with an orientation toward comparative literature.

Age: 62 years.

Born: In Newcastle in northern England.

Lives: In Västra Frölunda in Gothenburg.

Family: Partner and one daughter who lives in Australia.

Background: Worked in a factory and as a bus conductor. PhD and associate professor. English teacher at Folk University and Angered’s high school. Teacher and researcher at the University of Gothenburg since 1993.

Interests: Listening to folk music, especially Irish.

Likes very much to see films.

Favourite author: “Many, but I’ll say Pat Barker.

She’s a female worker author of the highest class.”

Favourite among Swedish worker authors: Vilhelm Moberg and his The Emigrants. “It was the first Swedish book I read. As an immigrant I became very taken by it. It’s almost a national epic, a magnificent work.”

Most recently read book: Skulden (Debt) by Kajsa Ekis Ekman. “Shattering in many ways about the situation in Greece.”

Most recently seen film: The Spirit of ’45 by Ken Loach. “I love Ken Loach. He describes the working class in England in a human way.”

Weakness: “I should do more.”

Strength: “I hope that my background has given me empathy for people, that I’m loyal.”

Motivation: “It’s clear that as a teacher and researcher I want to see myself as a part of the renaissance project.”

Favourite food: The Indian dish chicken tikka masala. “It’s more popular in England now than fish and chips. I like it that England is so multicultural.”

who had these symptoms, that they had to open a special hospital. They received therapy there instead of being punished.”

The first worker authors started to be published in England in the 1840s, although the literary genre didn’t really grow until during the 1900s.

Ronald Paul says that the worker authors didn’t have as strong a position at all in England as in Sweden.

“There’s a large middle class tradition in England in literature as well, with writers such as Charles Dickens, Virginia Woolf and James Joyce. Few worker authors have been able to compete with them, so the worker literature has always been a secondary tradition there, even if there are a few exceptions.”

Ronald Paul says that Sweden has fantastic worker authors.

“There’s an enormously rich worker literature here. It’s unique in all of Europe.

No other country can compare. There was a whole generation of these authors here during the 1930s. And they were the most innovative that existed then.”

Ro n a ld Pau l i s particularly interested in the 1930s. He is writing a book about English worker authors of that time.

“I see many parallels between the 1930s and today, like social tensions, growing mass unemployment and racism. That’s why I want to go back to that time when I write. The 1930s are also interesting from a literary perspective. There’s an exciting relation between politics and aesthetics.”

Ronald Paul thinks that there were many political novels that were written during the 1930s that weren’t of course so successful, with fairly stereotypical descriptions of people.

“But the Swedish worker authors often succeeded in producing complex descriptions of the political course of events during the 1930s.”

He feels that there is a new wave of authors today who take a political position but who are also great artists.

“Pat Barker is an example of a figure like that. She writes about the war in such an artistically convincing way.”

Ronald Paul thinks that having roots in a worker environment is enriching and a great advantage as a researcher and teacher.

“I have a personal enthusiasm for British worker literature. It reflects in part my own childhood and my experiences. The worker literature gives a voice to a class that isn’t otherwise heard in public discussion. So I’m passionate about it not only for personal reasons but also pedagogical reasons. It’s very exciting literature, well worth doing research in.”

He wants to make the many people who are hidden in history visible, who have been marginalised and have seldom been able to speak.

“I choose texts by worker authors that otherwise aren’t usually on universities’ literature lists. The dominant texts there are written by middle class authors.”

C h a n g i n g s oc i a l c l a s s can give a feeling of not fitting in.

“Sure, on the personal level you can sometimes feel social uncertainty. People often talk about changing social classes as simple, but there are problems. One’s identity is always tied to one’s childhood, how you speak, how you look at life. In England people say ‘class will out’. That is, it’s with you, it always comes out. A professor with a middle class background doesn’t need to think about this. He’s in an environment characterised by his old class experiences.”

Ronald Paul hasn’t experienced any obstacles at the University.

“No, I’m very thankful, people have been positive. The University has been a supportive environment for me as a person, both as researcher and teacher.”

And teaching is something he very much likes.

“Yes, very. I like the contact with the students. They question, they’re curious and enthusiastic. They want very much to learn about the world and they see literature as an opportunity for doing that,” he says and continues: “The situation in the world today is so problematic and demanding. There are so many threats, not least ecological ones. And the students feel that. Literature gives them a tool for understanding their own personal situation and that of the world around them.”

H e li k e s to discuss with the students. The respect you get has to do with the interplay between students and the teacher, not with having the title of professor.

“It’s a challenge but also an enormous satisfaction.”

Ronald Paul thinks that a university should never be an ivory tower.

“It has to be a place where people discuss large questions, things that deal with ethics and morals and how we deal with our existence on this planet.”

And he thinks that literature can get us to feel more at home in the world.

“It is a rich source of insight.”

Text: Annika Hansson Photography: Johan Wingborg

Global Week

GUJOURNAL 6 | 2013

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Time for Global Week!

This year’s Global Week has more programs than ever. Neguest Mekonnen will talk about the Hunger Project in Ethiopia. Sida’s general director will speak about global cooperation and Svante Weyler will give his view of the Congo.

There will also be a volunteer exhibition, music and a horror movie.

It’s time for Global Week for the fourth year in a row.

As always, the week is full of events. This year’s Annual Lecture, for example, will be held by Charlotte Petri Gornitzka, general director of Sida. At the same time, a mini exhibition will be shown with several large volunteer organisations.

“An exciting guest is Neguest Mekonnen, who leads the Hunger Project in Ethiopia,” coordinator Helena Åberg explains.

“Another is Svante Weyler, who will speak about his time as foreign correspondent in the Congo. A panel will discuss how global poverty and inequality can be fought. Jan Scholte from the University of Warwick, a true authority in the area, will be on the

panel. And Robert Henry Cox will talk about German leadership with respect to renewable energy.

A s c a ry pa r t of the week will be Dracula.

The classic film Nosferatu from 1922 will namely be shown at Artisten, accompanied by frightening improvisations on the organ.

The film Heart of Sky, Heart of Earth also deals with unpleasant things but of a completely different kind, that is, how destruction of the environment can lead to our downfall.

“A computer program with grammar in about thirty languages, everything from Swedish to Nepalese, will be presented. And there will be a concert with the University

of Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra,” says Helena Åberg.

A n i m po r ta n t part of the week is all the international colleagues that will come. International Center has invited about 30 people and Sahlgrenska Academy has put together a special program for a further 25 colleagues from primarily European schools.

“We try to pair together people that can be interested in the meetings, for example for a future student exchange,” explains Rebecca Törnqvist, international administrator at Sahlgrenska Academy. “During Wednesday we’ll also have a program of lectures and seminars on the environment and global health that will be open to all who may be interested.”

Eva Lundgren

Ur programmet: Monday 10:30, Humanistiska biblioteket, How to publish in a scientific open access journal 14:00, Vasaparken: Annual Lecture on Global Collaboration med Charlotte Petri Gornitzka

tuesday 13:00, Vasaparken: Neguest Mekonnen om Hungerprojektet i Etiopien 13:15, Handelshögskolan: Global governance for global social justice 16:00, Vasaparken: Coding the grammars of the world

15:00, Vasaparken: Utbytesstudent eller volontär? Utställning med Läkare utan gränser, Arkitekter utan gränser, Pedagoger utan gränser, Kooperation utan gränser, Individuell Människohjälp, Svenska kyrkan, Peaceworks samt fredsorganisationen CISV.

Anna Stockman

Caroline Bath

Catriona Plos

Helen Rey

Svante Weyler

17:30, Sprängkullsgatan 19: Filmen Heart of Sky, Heart of Earth

Mithika Mwenda

Neguest Mekonnen

Petri Gornitzka

Robert Henry Cox

Thomas Hammarberg

Friday 19:00, Artisten: Konsert med University Symphony Orchestra

For more information: www.globalweek.gu.se/.

19:00, Artisten: Nosferatu med orgelmusik Wednesday 12:00, Sprängkullsgatan 19: Lunchseminarium med Robert Cox Thursday 14:15, Handelshögskolan: Capital flows, exchange rates and the international monetary system 15:30, Humanisten: Svante Weyler om Kongo

In Memory

over-estimate Jan Ling’s importance for the University of Gothenburg. It was he who created the subject of music science which bloomed in his hands. He played an important role for the development of the Academy of Music during the years.

During the beginning of the 1990s he was an innovative dean for the Faculty of Arts. He introduced a new spirit – happier and It i s d i ffi c u lt to

more direct! – and he put effort into common projects instead of clutter.

He later became Vicechancellor of the University for five years. He was charismatic like no other. He could make the most boring meetings a party.

But his magnificent plans were sometimes ground down in the mills of rules. He finally tired of it and left his post a year early.

W it h t h at h e was able to return to his dearest activities: playing, doing research, writing, lecturing and spending time with his family and friends. Many were the times I heard him play a fugue or a prelude from Bach’s

Das wohltemperierte Klavier on the beautiful grand piano in his and Monica’s home. And he constantly had a new book that we could discuss for hours.

Ja n Li n g wa s an innovative music expert. His doctoral thesis on the nyckelharp became a classic work. He introduced music sociology in Sweden. But most important of his works was in music history, about which he wrote five volumes. The last volume, on the turn of the century 1900, came out a few days before his death.

Jan Ling and I were friends for over 40 years. We were both politically to the left, united in

the same passion for freedom and equality. We had a wonderfully easy time working together.

We held surely a hundred dialogue lectures together over the years. But, above all, we had fun when we met on an untold number of Monday evenings. Jan was like that – people were happy in his company. He made life both richer and easier for others.

We shall remember him with happiness.

Photography: Henrik Tobin

Former University Vice-chancellor, Professor Jan Ling, 79 years old, has passed away. His immediate family is his wife Monica Ling and his children and grandchildren.

Sven-Eric Liedman

Debate

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Chronicle

”We need a reform pause on the floor”

I f t h i s s e lf- h e a li n g is good or bad depends on what one thinks about the need for change.

From a department perspective it’s reasonable to be positive to the attempt to re-organise the University. We can probably agree that the world around us changes – and that we have to develop with the world around us.

The preserving powers are extra strong in the University for several reasons: the present design, with smaller adjustments, has functioned for a very long time. How it goes for the University itself isn’t the most important thing to employees and managers. One’s own subject is always the most important. University reforms are normally a zero-sum game. There are winners but also many losers with strong resources that fight for self-healing, and the line functions only in one direction. Orders can be sent down. Wholehearted support goes in the other direction to a very small extent.

Particular attention has been given to

Photography: Johan Wingborg

So m e p eople t h i n k that it’s too early to ask how the University’s re-organisation is going.

It is human to hope. But if we want to know how it is now, it’s always best to ask just now.

And if we want to know what will happen in the future, we shouldn’t ask a researcher.

The answer is that it’s going the way it usually does. The management gave the organisation a real push and got it to temporarily move in another direction. The machinery is now operating in full to regain everything the way it used to be. A metaphor I like is Saab’s self-healing bumper from the 1970s. The rubber was pushed in at a collision but pushed itself out again. The University’s structure is a self-healing bumper that right now is pushing itself back.

how it’s going with the departments’ increased responsibility. Responsibility is an argument and can be the price for both decreasing and increasing managers’ and units’ power, resources and work tasks, but responsibility in itself is never particularly important in organisations. What is important for the department is instead the distribution of power, resources and work tasks in the form of activities and administration. The reform has affected that distribution.

We at the department have gotten a few more work tasks through the reform, primarily as applies to personnel issues. These work tasks aren’t so big that they significantly increase the need for personnel. But they require more qualified administrators, which makes salary costs higher.

The overhead that the departments pay hasn’t decreased to match the increase in work tasks and costs.

The departments’ power has not been significantly strengthened. Power remains in the middle.

The faculties work to regain what they’ve lost.

When we say that the faculties have a lot of power it means that certain departments have

a great deal of power over other departments.

Faculty managements are, whether they like it or not, an instrument for certain of the departments.

Follow the money if you don’t believe me. What is called strategic decisions is most often the power over the faculty that becomes visible.

Important processes such as recruitments haven’t become smoother. Sooner the opposite.

Administrative routines haven’t been simplified. Control is increasing. And the departments report more and more to more and more people.

No one is taking collective responsibility for different parts of the administration finding further recording and requiring reports.

The University has gotten a vaguer management structure. Two administrative levels have been added at the same time that service has gotten worse. Furthermore, the distribution of tasks between the levels has become even less clear, for example as regards work environment issues and decisions that have to do with premises.

A n d t h at ’ s w h e r e we stand. If the entire re-organisation isn’t to result in nothing, selfhealing has to be controlled. From a department perspective, this is worth a try. It’s sad to see the management give up.

At the same time, we on the department level have a screaming need of a focus on our activities.

Screaming! The method of preserving what was good with the re-organisation must not become one more reform. We need a reform pause on the floor. In successful organisations, even the highest management has a focus on activities and not a focus on reform.

Björn Rombach He ad of the School of Public Administr ation

Time for a cultural revolution !

D u r i n g m y n ow 18 years at the University of Gothenburg, there is one thing that has never happened: namely that there has come any information from some part of the administration that has contained anything new that someone has thought up that would make it easier, simplify or make more effective my work as a researcher and teacher. Instead, everything I have to do that includes any administrative task has become harder, more complicated and now takes a much longer time.

Some examples: as responsible for a number of research projects, I have to certify many invoices. It now takes eight times more time per certification compared with earlier. Ordering trips and goods is endlessly more complicated now than before, as it is to fill in travel expense forms. The web pages that GU has for this are in short monstrously unpedagogical, time-consuming and difficult to navigate in. A simple thing like looking at my wage specification took

14 minutes today. There is an endless number of rules, and they are moreover self-contradictory. For example, according to the applicable rules for travel, I must make my trips “as cost effective as possible”, but the travel agency I am forced to use is not infrequently many times more expensive than what I can find myself on the Internet for the exact same trip. I have been responsible for now more than 100 million in research funds without ever having gotten criticism from auditors about how these means were used, but for that I have to waste a half a day on a completely meaningless course so that I can be allowed at all to purchase goods and services for my funds. To this can be added that GU has a system for overhead costs that is completely incomprehensible to me.

And if people like me cannot understand the system, it is by definition a bad system.

I interpret this administrative morass and this lack of creativity in terms of

finding solutions that make work easier as a cultural problem in GU’s administration. It does not have to be this way since, in my experience, there are two “islands” of effectiveness and creativity in activities. The one is the Research and Innovation Office and the other is the University Library. Beyond that, the situation is such that radical steps have to be taken to change this part of the University. Here are five suggestions.

1) Make the internet-based computer systems user friendly. Right now, it is easier to book a trip to Kathmandu (including hotel and airport taxi) than to fill in a travel expense form or certify an invoice at GU. It is easier to declare taxes than to add items at GUP. 2) Give every individual administrative unit the task of developing at least three suggestions that would make the work for researchers and teachers easier (not least the researchers that have heavy project responsibilities).

3) Gather the system of rules in a

number of easily used manuals that are updated continuously.

4) Do not hide the substandard overhead model behind the formulation that the model shall not be used mechanically.

Create instead a comprehensible system of rules for when there can and should be exceptions. We who are responsible for bringing in external funds to GU do not at all appreciate being continuously forced to negotiate with department heads, deans and the University management over these things.

5) Research has many prizes.

Introduce a prize for the administrator at GU that during a year has made the best suggestion for making researchers’ and teacher’s work easier.

In short, a cultural revolution is needed in the administration. It must namely be for our activities, not the opposite.

Bo Rothstein

Professor of Political Science