Blog from the Consistory Boarding School 6-7/11 by student representative Ernst Bergman

Today, Uppsala Student Union releases the report "The role of the head of department and the handling of discrimination cases at Uppsala University". The purpose of the report is to examine the role of the head of department with a focus on how heads of department at Uppsala University experience the handling of discrimination cases involving students and doctoral students.

Uppsala Student Union comments on the government budget.

In the housing report, 36 study locations are marked red, yellow or green, depending on how quickly a student can expect to find secure housing with reasonable conditions during the fall semester. Uppsala Student Union produces data for the Uppsala section and SFS proposes three measures to ease the situation on the housing market.

Three demands for action to improve the situation for us students.

Our requirements for Uppsala to become the country's best cycling city for us students.

Today Uppsala Student Union releases the report "What will you be then?", a report on labor market attachment for students in the humanities and theology. The report aims to highlight the need to strengthen the work with labor market attachment for humanities and theology students. The Uppsala Student Union hopes that the report will revive the issue of labor market integration in humanities and theology programs at Uppsala University.

This year Uppsala Student Union celebrates its 175th anniversary with a series of activities from March 11-16.

Uppsala University awards pedagogical prizes for outstanding achievements in education at undergraduate and graduate level. Five prizes, each worth SEK 20,000, are awarded annually in the fall.

Sweden has the least teacher-led time in higher education in Europe, according to Eurostudent, an international survey that every two years compares the economic and social conditions of students in different European countries. In the following post, Uppsala Student Union comments on the lack of teacher-led time in teaching and how this can be traced to a systematic erosion of higher education in Sweden today.

Uppsala Student Union summarizes its work during Mental Health Week 2023. In the post, you will find the statements we published as well as our views on the need for better recovery and rest to provide conditions for healthier and more prosperous students.

On Thursday evening, Uppsala Student Union's council members gathered in the Betty Pettersson Hall at Blåsenhus to participate in the first council meeting of the semester.

Last week, the government presented its joint budget for 2024 together with the Sweden Democrats. In the following blog post, we briefly describe the budget bill and how it affects us as students.

Since the publication of the Tidö Agreement, opposition to the reporting obligation included among its points has only grown. For public sector workers in fields ranging from healthcare to libraries, the duty to report is tantamount to a whistleblower law whereby one's profession contributes to the vulnerability of undocumented migrants. In the following post, Uppsala Student Union and our sections comment on the duty to report and its consequences for the students we represent.

Uppsala Student Union today released a report on the clinical placement guidelines at the Faculty of Medicine. The purpose of the report is to present the guidelines and reimbursement models used by different programs at the Faculty of Medicine at Uppsala University in the management of costs that may arise for students in connection with their clinical training. This refers, for example, to travel costs and costs for accommodation when students have a clinical placement in a location other than Uppsala. Uppsala Student Union hopes that the report will contribute to a continued discussion on the conditions for equal and inclusive higher education in Sweden. Such a discussion is an important step in the work to ensure that anyone with the right qualifications has the opportunity to study, regardless of socio-economic background.

The Swedish Students' Union recently released its annual housing report describing the housing situation for Sweden's students. Uppsala Student Union participated in producing the report and summarizes its content with a focus on Uppsala in this blog post.

Uppsala Student Union publishes the report "How does public transport work for Uppsala's students?" - a report on ticket prices and accessibility by bus and bicycle in the student city of Uppsala. The report is a first step in Uppsala Student Union's work with public transport in the coming year.

Uppsala Student Union the report releases a follow-up of Teacher-led time from a student perspective. The report aims to follow up on the survey on teacher-led teaching at Uppsala University since last year's report on teacher-led time and keep the issue of resource allocation in higher education alive. Uppsala Student Union hopes that the results will contribute to a continued discussion about the quality of higher education in Sweden and the importance of the meeting between teacher and student to ensure a research-oriented education.

On March 8, 2023, Uppsala Student Union submitted a letter to Uppsala University recommending a pilot project with free menstrual protection. This blog post summarizes the letter, the short debate that followed in Upsala Nya Tidning and our plans for the future.

Uppsala Student Union and the Doctoral Board at Uppsala University are writing to urge the government to reverse its decision to increase political control over university boards. The government must restore the term of office to three years and make it clear that they intend to return to the system where daily political issues do not control the selection of university board members. Academic freedom requires freedom from political control as well as trust between academia and those in power. The measures now decided by the government threaten both of these values.

Since the launch of the Chat GPT, the issue of AI and cheating has been on the university agenda. Particularly in the humanities and social sciences, where take-home exams are common, discussions have begun about replacing take-home exams with classroom exams. In some departments and programs this has already become a reality and is expected to become so in others. Uppsala Student Union is concerned about this development. Uppsala University should handle the situation carefully and not make hasty decisions that drastically change education.

S-students, Vänsterstudent and the Right Party debate ahead of the 2023 student union elections.

A year has passed since Russia's last invasion of Ukraine. Uppsala Student Union therefore writes a statement in support of the Ukrainian people, a total withdrawal of Russian troops and more solidarity efforts to make both a reality. We also urge all Uppsala students to attend the anniversary demonstration, which will take place outside the University House at 4pm, on 24 February.

Uppsala Student Union has through a series of debate posts fought to keep bike racks at Norrlands nation and outside Campus Gamla torget. We have been able to show that there is a majority in the municipality that agrees that bike racks should be prioritized over car traffic in central Uppsala. The following blog post summarises the reporting and debate on bicycle stands along the Fyrisån in central Uppsala

Uppsala Student Union has conducted a survey of supervisor time for Master's students writing their thesis during the winter. The report finds that the amount of supervisor time varies considerably between programmes and identifies a number of reasons why students receive too little supervisor time when writing their Master's thesis.

Uppsala University awards pedagogical prizes for outstanding achievements in education at undergraduate and graduate level. Five prizes, each worth SEK 20,000, are awarded annually in November. One of the prizes is awarded for educational achievements in a special priority area and is called the free prize. In 2023, the priority area is "Creative pedagogy".

The winner of the Gustaf Fröding Scholarship 2020 is the writer and playwright Jonas Hassen Khemiri. The Gustaf Fröding Scholarship is a literature scholarship awarded every three years by Uppsala Student Union. The recipient is chosen by a vote among members of the Uppsala Student Union after a jury has selected three candidates. The award ceremony will take place in conjunction with the announcement and awarding of the Gustaf Fröding Scholarship for the year 2023.

Today, our chairman Anton Sánchez Sulejmani writes in Altinget about the planned investigation on cancelkultur by Minister of Education Mats Persson. If you want to create a university with high ceilings, you need a more nuanced perspective than concepts like "cancelkultur" allow. In the opinion piece, we also draw attention to the lack of active anti-discrimination measures at Swedish higher education institutions as an important but absent component of the debate on academic freedom.

On Tuesday 20 December, the Riksdag will vote on raising the interest rate on student loans. Uppsala Student Union urges all MPs to vote against the proposal. Making it more expensive to study will lead to fewer people choosing to study and a streamlining of the courses people apply for.

After a great start and an incredible response from students, we now sum up the first three weeks of the coffee campaign. Read briefly about our experience of spending two weeks out on campus and our plans for the campaign going forward. Firstly, we're not done on campus, secondly, we're picking up the dialogue with the university again and thirdly, we're getting ready to hand over the demands to the campus cafes. We also provide tips on how to further support the campaign.

Coffee at Uppsala University is far too expensive. We at Uppsala Student Union want to change that. To do so, we are launching a campaign in November to demonstrate the dissatisfaction that exists among students and how to show how expensive coffee is at Uppsala University.

Few students are likely to have missed the inflation and food price rises that will take place in 2022. This autumn, the issue of how inflation affects students has emerged as one of the major policy issues and Uppsala Student Union has been at the centre of the debate. This blog post summarises the reporting and debate focusing on Uppsala and its students, from our first blog post in early September to the in-depth media coverage that has taken off in October.

Uppsala Student Union and the Doctoral Board at Uppsala University condemn the attack on the students at Sharif University of Technology as well as all state violence against demonstrators in Iran.

Uppsala Student Union invites you to a training session on Uppsala University's finances. The training will primarily focus on the following: where does the money come from? How is the money distributed within the University? What do the concepts used when discussing the budget mean? How does the division between research and education work? And how does it all fit together?

During the week you can listen to lectures and webinars, participate in workshops and activities. All aimed at informing and highlighting mental health and well-being.

Uppsala Student Union organised an election debate ahead of the 2022 elections. We invited all parliamentary parties and the interest was obvious. 800+ participants showed up. Everything is recorded for those who couldn't make it on the day. Click here to watch!

Uppsala Student Union proudly presents the report Teacher-led time from a student perspective - A follow-up and survey of the proportion of teacher-led teaching in education at six faculties at Uppsala University.

The Student Room is a podcast of Uppsala Student Union - to give a better insight into what we do and the activities of the Student Union. The podcast is available to listen to on Spotify and Google podcast.

Soon it will be time again... On Thursday 21 April at 20.00 we will find out the results of the 2022 elections!