This year we will strengthen the finances and diversity
Since the turn of the year, a new operational plan for KTH has been in place, covering the next three years. One of the updates for the ITM School focuses on strengthening finances and diversity.
On December 3, the President of KTH approved the new operational plan for 2025–2027. It includes reform agendas for all of KTH, the schools, as well as resource allocation and educational assignments. The operational plan spans three years and is updated annually. This means that much of ITM’s reform agenda 2025 is similar to last year's, but some aspects stand out.
Finances
Achieving a balanced economy has been a major focus during 2024, and will remain so in 2025. Each department has developed an action plan aimed at reaching the funding cap for undergraduate education, optimizing the school's premises, working with staffing matrices for faculty, and increasing the number of research applications.
"The school has performed very well compared to other schools, primarily through office space optimization but also by reducing experimental environments," says Head of School Pär Jönsson.
Despite the active efforts, the departments of the school will reach financial balance at different points over the coming years.
Educational Offerings
With a new Deputy Director of First and Second Cycle Education (GA) in place, the work of strategically reviewing the education portfolio will continue. The goal is to develop the education portfolio for future engineers and doctoral studenter, tailored to the needs of future industries and society.
The work is based on several strong research areas, which in turn require relevant doctoral and master’s programmes. These programmes must be designed to meet future demands. Additionally, the school will identify the fundamental knowledge areas relevant to each master’s programme. During 2024, the former GA collected data from first and second cycle programmes and began an analysis to serve as a foundation for strategic planning. In 2025, GA and Deputy GA will further develop these analyses and begin implementation.
Equality, Diversity, and Equal Opportunities
The school's managers have been trained in JML issues for the past three years, and last autumn they also started training for programme managers (PAs) in undergraduate education. In this way, Pär believes that students can have a study environment characterised by diversity, equality and equal opportunities. In addition, both at the beginning and at the end of their engineering programme, they will learn to act according to the principles themselves. Once all PAs are trained in spring 2025, the School will proceed with doctoral programme managers.
"Much of the work we are entering in 2025 has already begun, and we are making great progress," says Pär. "The campus relocation from Södertälje is proceeding as planned, we have more positive financial results, and we have better control over our processes."
Text: Ulrika Georgsson