Skip to main content
To KTH's start page

Board of KTH convenes extra meeting

A front of a building.
Published May 17, 2022

The board of KTH has chosen to convene an extraordinary meeting next week in response to official letters received from KTH’s five school faculty assemblies regarding the procedure for offering a professorship.
“The board will examine the matter at the upcoming board meeting,” says Pia Sandvik, Chair of the Board.

In this instance, the matter concerns an offer of a professorship in March (kallelse till professor) , where the procedure for making the offer was criticised, partly because no expert opinion was obtained and also because the justification was considered insufficient. There have been calls for an independent investigation.

Sigbritt Karlsson, President of KTH:

“I welcome the fact that the board is raising the issue so that together at KTH we can stop the spread of rumours and clear up any uncertainty. I have come to the conclusion based on my assessment that the process in question complies with KTH’s employment procedures and the wording of the Swedish Higher Education Ordinance.

A report on the procedure for making the offer has been submitted to the Swedish Higher Education Authority, UKÄ. The board of KTH will submit a statement to UKÄ by 1 September.

“We will respond to UKÄ’s questions about the process,” Pia Sandvik says.  

The method for offering someone a professorship, ( kallelse till professor in Swedish), was introduced in connection with the autonomy reform in 2011. In accordance with the Higher Education Ordinance (chap. 4, §7), it means that the university can offer a person employment as a professor if employment of that person is of special importance to a particular operation at the university. The offer is initiated by KTH  (in Swedish), drafted by the chair of the appointments board and KTH’s director of personnel and decided on by the President. The procedure and requirements differ from when a person is promoted to professor , which involves a different process and is initiated at school level and decided on by the appointments board.The procedure for offering a professorship varies between universities.

 are part of the collegial influence on KTH.

Page responsible:redaktion@kth.se
Belongs to: Current
Last changed: May 17, 2022