France did it. The Netherlands debates it. Merging
universities into bigger globally competitive organizations is en
vogue. Now this trend has reached Scandinavia. In Sweden, Stockholm
University, the Karolinska Institute and the Royal Institute of
Technology (KTH) currently talk about fusing their three top
institutes into one in order to make it into the top 25 of the
Shanghai Ranking.
40% of Sweden's research, 70.000 students
The new university's operations would be split up into four main
areas: medicine, technology, natural sciences and humanities and
social sciences. KTH would then specialize in technology,
Karolinska Institute in medical sciences, while Stockholm
University is likely to shift its focus to natural sciences and
humanities and social sciences.
The outcome would be an organization accounting for 40% of
Sweden's research activities, 6000 staff members, 70.000 students
and a budget of over SEK9 billion (€990 million). "The present
names will be kept as today, and the new university can be
established without a demanding reorganisational process, in a
timeframe that a new board will find suitable," Professor Kåre
Bremer, rector from Stockholm University commented.
Support by policymakers
"Geographically, the three units today are located close to each
other, and already collaborate in a large number of projects,
activities and by the use of scientific equipment. The merger would
mean that the international position of Stockholm and Sweden in
higher education and research becomes visible to a much greater
degree that today," Bremer argued.
The president of KTH, Peter Gudmundson, supported this saying
that "we see a clear tendency throughout the world regarding the
associations between medicine, technology and natural science
becoming stronger. This is one of our most important efforts so
far."
This push to merge universities into bigger more competitive
institutions is backed by Swedish policymakers as well. In the
recent Swedish 2012 budget, Jan Björklund, Minister of Education,
called upon national universities to initiate talks themselves
without politicians interfering in the process.