Lots of rice and little praise - our commentary on the 24/25 budget

The government's and the Sweden Democrats' budget proposal for universities and student unions has now been presented. Unfortunately, it does not come with much good news.

A large part of the student movement's and our budget comes from government grants determined in the budget. The planned reduction in funding by around SEK 20 million is still there, and is expected to be gone by next year's budget. We are extremely critical of this. The student movement is already operating with few resources and has been hugely affected by high inflation.

During the fall, we have been involved in the SFS housing report and pushed the student housing issue in the media. We have demanded that the state take greater responsibility for the construction of student housing, but investment support is still being phased out. No special support for student housing will be added either. A good bet is that the temporary increase in the housing allowance seems to remain at least until the middle of next year.

Although the government is investing even more resources in Stem education, this is happening at the same time as universities and colleges are falling behind due to their increased costs. The issue of premises is particularly acute for universities that rent from Akademiska hus. There they have been hit by huge rent increases. In addition to these increased costs, savings requirements of 0.5% are eating up much of the investment. All in all, this will lead to less teaching time with fewer teachers.