The road to a joint support services

The 1st of January 2023 KTH entered the next phase in the coordination of the support services. The support services at the schools then became departments within the joint support services at KTH under the management of the University Director. The overarching mission of the support services is a coherent organisation for students, teachers, researchers and other staff to receive equal and accessible support regardless of where they work at KTH. A coherent organisation is a stepping stone for the goals of the development of the support services into being delivered with high quality and cost efficiency.

In 2022, the President decided that the support services at the schools and the University Administration (GVS) should merge to form a new organisation. The joint organisation is from 1^st of January 2023 called Support Services (VS) and is the next step in the work of developing high quality support and cost efficiency that frees up teachers' and researchers' time and contributes to KTH's competitiveness. The plan for how the merger will be carried out was decided the 14^th of June 2022.

There are ongoing updates on the KTH intranet and web site due to the organisational change, but due to a large amount of information that needs to be revised, it might take some time before all the information has been updated.

The way ahead

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

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

About the work

During spring 2022, 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 map up the current situation for each area.

During autumn 2022, the area groups

have deepened their work and focused on the support area's new situation. Common priorities have been set to determine which parts need to be developed and in which order. Ongoing development activities continue as planned. Certain development needs that have been identified during the autumn and that could be implemented straight away, have been implemented before the new organisation is in place. All development is based on the users' needs and that it is preceded by well-founded preparatory work.

In September 2026, KTH shall have developed the parts of the operational support that need to be addressed to reach the goal of a coherent support services that frees up teachers' and researchers' time.

Before the merger on 1 January 2023, adjustments and preparations have been made. Responsibilities and mandates have been reviewed at different levels, the financing of support services has been handled and a joint business plan for the entire support services 2023-2025 has been produced.

During the first quarter of 2023, an action plan will be drawn up for the work January 2023-September 2026. The action plan will be continuously updated.

Take a look at the time frame 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.

The programme for joint and coordinated support services has 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 advisory board with all Heads of Administration at the schools and Head of Administration and Heads of Department within former GVS. To involve teachers and researchers in the work the University Director has established, a Head of Department Advisory Board with two Heads of Department from each school.

A Programme Secretariat coordinates, administers and supports the development work.