During the spring, I had the benefit of working with a national evaluation for the Swedish Higher Education Authority, with a focus on collaboration between higher education institutions (HEIs) and the surrounding community. By analysing self-evaluations from 37 HEIs, I can confirm that collaboration is a powerful tool.
Academia carries a vision of creating value and contributing towards a positive societal transformation. This vision is in line with the Higher Education Ordinance from 2021, which stipulates that “the mandate of higher education institutions shall include collaboration for mutual exchanges with the surrounding community, as well as ensuring that the knowledge and expertise found at the higher education institution bring benefit to society.” However, in our daily work, not everything we do needs to have immediate social relevance or a direct connection to external stakeholders. The road from new knowledge to practical application is often long and arduous, and we can never predict exactly which parts of our work will generate public value. Needs are constantly changing, which makes governance and prioritisation a challenge.
To create actual change, we need carefully planned strategies and clear goals for collaboration. A comprehensive analysis of evaluations from 37 HEIs has confirmed that collaboration is a powerful tool for strengthening Swedish research and education. The goals largely involve using collaboration as leverage to enhance the quality of the HEIs’ own activities.
At our university, we emphasise the importance of integrated collaboration. We can proudly highlight several examples of how collaboration has been integrated and resulted in top-quality research and education. A notable example is our collaboration with Region Värmland through “smart specialisation”, which has received international attention as an effective way to face societal challenges through targeted research. Other good examples from the evaluation are when our courses and study programmes in various ways connect to the labour market, and when we integrate practical components into our study programmes. Our customised contract education, designed to meet specific needs of external stakeholders, is another way for us to create value and drive change. These examples show that mutual exchange at our university contributes both to public value and academic renewal.
Karlstad University, like other HEIs in Sweden, is likely far ahead in an international comparison. In recent times, Sweden is the only Nordic country to highlight the increased importance of collaboration by amending the Higher Education Act. We have also put a strong emphasise on collaboration being a mutual process and developed methods and strategies for collaboration. According to the evaluation, these initiatives have resulted in more conscious collaboration efforts at Swedish HEIs.
The collaboration efforts in higher education and research are impressive. But to fully utilise its potential, we need greater commitment from the wider community to match our high ambitions. A concrete measure is to actively invite external parties to further strengthen the connection between collaboration, education and research. Other measures include developing role descriptions to clarify the expectations for each party. This effort should involve all parties in the collaboration.
By taking another step and deepening our work together, we can create a change that not only strengthens academia but also benefits the entire society.
