News: May 21, 2021
How should universities respond to pressing societal challenges, and what role should the higher education institutions have in the future society? Those were some of the issues discussed when representatives of American and Swedish universities met at the CALIE project's conference.
CALIE, Sweden-USA project for collaboration, academic leadership and innovation in higher education, is a three-year collaboration between four Swedish and three US higher education institutions, where representatives from the university leadership have the opportunity to exchange experiences on academic leadership and renewal of education. The project runs until the end of the year, and a digital conference took place May 18-19.
“The project has come to mean so much more than we could have anticipated from the start. The pandemic forced the universities to rapid adjustments, and in this work the CALIE project has become an important platform for the exchange of experiences. It has also given spin-off effects for continued collaboration, says Pro-Vice-Chancellor Mattias Goksör”, University of Gothenburg 's representative in the project.
The conference Academic Leadership and Strategic Renewal of Education in Challenging Times brought together over 100 participants from 39 different higher education institutions, and among the speakers were, for example, representatives from the Swedish Ministry of Enterprise and Innovation, the Swedish Embassy in Washington DC, Confederation of Swedish Enterprise, European Commission as well as people from the project's partner universities.
Eva Wiberg, Vice-Chancellor of the University of Gothenburg, Mattias Goksör, Pro-Vice-Chancellor, and Julia Nyberg, Vice President of the University of Gothenburg Student Unions (GUS), were some of the speakers. Julia Nyberg urged the Swedish higher education institutions to actively use the students in the renewal work.
“Do not forget the power that the students constitute”, she said.
The conference included discussions on universities in times of turbulence and transformation, and the future role of universities. There were also dialogues about how the European Universities Initiative can contribute to renewal of higher education, since currently 27 per cent of Swedish higher education institutions are part of a European University Alliance. A contribution from the conference is that the future skills supply at both national and international level requires even stronger cooperation between the different actors in society, in order to ensure lifelong learning.
CALIE has recently released an anthology, Academic Leadership in Times of Transformation, which is also the final report for the project.
“The anthology and the conference are important contributions to the national, European and international dialogue on the renewal of education and the future University. Academic leadership plays an important role in this shift”, says Mattias Goksör.
Participating universities:
Lund University (coordinator)
Stockholm University
Uppsala University
University of Gothenburg
University of California Berkeley
Stanford University
University of Washington
The CALIE project is funded by Vinnova
The University of Gothenburg's participation in the CALIE project is part of an investment in enhanced collaboration with North America.
More information about CALIE can be found on the project's website.
Questions? Please contact Karolina Catoni at the International Centre.
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Print date:
2024-03-28