The university is stepping up to provide Sweden with confidence in the future

The annual report is based on the university's vision, goals, and strategies. Each chapter links to these and shows how well the university has achieved its goals.

 “It makes it quite clear what a strong university we are," said Mats Tinnsten, Vice-Chancellor.

The work on the annual report follows an annual cycle and many people in the organisation are involved. Magnus Bergenholtz, Controller, is part of the project team.

“It's a broad team effort that goes on pretty much all year and it's worked well; everyone delivers on time and is committed to the work. We continuously develop our work processes, so it gets a little better every year. Many thanks to everyone who contributed," he said.

At the same time as the annual report, the budgetary data for 2024-2026 has also been prepared. This is an important document sent to the Ministry of Education, emphasising the needs of higher education in the coming years.

“The budgetary data does not change much from year to year.  What's new this year is that we're sticking our neck out and saying that we have the qualities of a full status university rather than a university college, which is our status today," said Magnus Bergenholtz.

Some highlights from the annual report

Below are some excerpts from the annual report. It provides an in-depth picture of the university's activities in 2022.

The university is an attractive place to study

The annual report shows that our students experience good quality in their education. We have many applicants per place and more than 9 out of 10 of our alumni get jobs.

Our employees also feel that the university is an attractive place to work, which is reflected in the employee survey. However, sick leave has increased compared to the previous year, but this was expected given the recovery from the pandemic. At the same time, the proportion of people on long-term sick leave has fallen. The annual report also shows that the commitment to the university's results and goal achievement needs to be increased in order for employees to have a more positive experience of the work situation.

Strong education and research environments

The University of Borås has worked to create complete academic environments in its six priority research areas and it now has rights to grant Master’s degrees in all of its priority research areas. 

The university also has doctoral degree-awarding powers level in four of the six priority research areas and artistic rights, as well, in Textiles and Fashion. In order to offer complete academic environments, efforts are being intensified to obtain doctoral degree-awarding powers in the fields of Educational Work and Business and IT. Within the university, systematic work has resulted in nationally strong education and research environments with internationally successful research groups.

With sustainability in focus

The university also continues its sustainability work, for example through a systematic approach, the integration of sustainable development and the 2030 Agenda in our educational programmes, and the fact that much of our research addresses the challenges defined in the 2030 Agenda. We have also signed agreements with the two largest property owners on campus to jointly develop a sustainable campus.

In 2022, the number of work trips increased significantly compared to the previous year during the pandemic. In 2023, the university will therefore need to reduce travel to meet the national framework for university emissions.

Unique university with its own science park

The University of Borås is the only university that owns its own science park, which provides a unique opportunity for collaboration. Several examples in the 2022 Annual Report show that Science Park Borås is a facilitator for everything from research projects and urban development to government assignments. The university also has several other arenas for collaboration, for example through internships and the collaboration platform with the City of Borås and the business community in Borås.

Research increases, education volume decreases

Another form of collaboration is research carried out in collaboration with external partners. It is therefore gratifying that research resources increased in 2022 and that the increase was mainly from externally funded activities. In 2022, the university has made a deliberate reduction in the range of educational programmes offered in order to adjust the volume based on the resources allocated by the government.

Facts

The university's vision statement is, “Together, we take responsibility for the future. Through continually developing distinctive education and research, we make a difference.”

University goals:

• The attractive university
• Complete academic environments 2.0

University strategies:

• Digitalisation
• Continually developing distinctive education and research
• Environments for learning
• Together and in collaboration

Read more

Read the 2022 Annual Report (Swedish only) in full here or in the archives maintained by the Registrar's Office, Reg. no. 1128-22.

Read the budgetary data 2024-2026 (Swedish only) via the same link or in the archives maintained by the Registrar's Office, Reg. no. 1129-22.