The road to a joint support services

Earlier this year, the President decided that the support services at the schools and the University Administration (GVS) should merge to form a new organisation from 1 January 2023. The joint organisation is called Support Services (VS) and is the next step in the work of developing high quality support and efficiency that frees up teachers' and researchers' time and contributes to KTH's competitiveness. Now the plan for how the merger will be carried out has been decided.

The goal of a joint and more coordinated support services is for students, teachers, researchers and other staff to receive equal and accessible support regardless of where they are at KTH. One organisation means that each support area can be seen as a whole, which contributes to cost-effective support services.

The way ahead

The President’s recently decided plan on how to proceed with the merger, programme directive for joint and coordinated support services at KTH , points out the direction for work:

The schools' support services initially form five new departments together with GVS. Continued development and organisation of support areas is led by the University Director and is a joint work between the schools and GVS.
The development work is conducted as a multi-year programme and is expected to last until 2026.
all staff join the new organisation, initially in their current roles. Employees will be involved and affected in different ways depending on which development is prioritized during the work.
the work with strategic competence supply within the support services must be developed to ensure the right competence, in the short and long term.
the development of support services must be kept in pace with other ongoing developments within KTH. The work with future education and the results from KTH's research assessment evaluation (RAE) are examples of development work within KTH.
principles that should permeate and characterize the development work are; business benefit, close to business, involvement and participation, work culture for renewal and mutual respect. Read about what the principles mean .

About the work

During the spring, Heads of Administration within the schools and Heads of department within GVS together with various working groups mapped and analyzed seven support areas; educational support, research support, financial support, HR support, infrastructure support, communication support and management support. The goal has been to create a current situation analysis for each area.

During the autumn, the area groups will deepen their work and focus on the support area's new situation. Common priorities must be set to determine which parts need to be developed and in which order. Development needs that are identified during the autumn and that can be implemented even then, can be implemented before the new organisation is in place.

Some development will be implemented early in the programme period with minor efforts in the form of activities. Other development may require a project form and a longer time horizon. All development must be based on the users' needs and be preceded by well-founded preparatory work. In 2026, KTH is judged to have developed the parts of the operational support that need to be addressed.

Before the merger on 1 January 2023 can take effect, adjustments and preparations need to be made. Responsibilities and mandates must be reviewed at different levels, the financing of support services needs to be handled and a joint business plan for the entire support services 2023-2025 must be produced.

During the autumn, an action plan will be drawn up for the work January 2023 - September 2026.

Take a look at the time fram for the merger

Programme organisation

A programme is a way of conducting development work that brings together several projects and activities with the same goal. The purpose is to find synergies and support the work with common templates and models.

There is a Steering Committee to lead the work and be responsible for achieving the programme's goals. It consists of the Heads of School, Vice President for Digitalization, representatives of the Central collaboration group and a representative of the Student Union. The University Director is the chairman.

In addition to the Steering Committee, the merging form the University Director's management group with all Heads of Administration heads at the schools and Head of Administration and Heads of Department within GVS. To involve teachers and researchers in the work, a Head of Department Advisory Board with two Heads of Department from each school has been established.

In addition, there is a Programme Secretariat that coordinates, administers and supports the development work.