Future Education at KTH boosts its programme organisation
The programme management for the change programme Future Education at KTH. From the left: Daniel Koch, Gunnar Tibert, Sofie Kim, Per Fagrell, Anna Jerbrant, Mats Nilsson och Joakim Lilliesköld. Photo: Jon Lindhe, KTH.
Published Jan 29, 2025
Anna Jerbrant, new Programme Manager from 1 November 2024, comments on the latest programme organisation and plans for the spring. The new organisation will enable the programme to manage the extensive project portfolio and change initiatives in a more structured way supporting KTH's long-term visions and goals.
What the new assistant programme managers look forward to
Daniel Koch, ABE: "I look forward to being able to contribute with knowledge and experience from conducting education that has a different character than much of KTH's teaching. At the same time, my experience is that it is possible to learn a lot about pedagogy in contact with other programmes to understand the strengths and weaknesses of our own methods and to see new opportunities."
Mats Nilsson, CBH: "Being able to closely influence how the programme is developed and hopefully become a greater concern for many schools in collaboration."
Just before Christmas 2024, the President Anders Söderholm signed the decision to strengthen the Future Education programme organisation. Since Anna Jerbrant (ITM) was appointed programme manager for the change programme Future Education at KTH, an important task has been to develop proposals for a new organisation and anchor them in the programme's steering group and KTH's faculty council.
New challenges and expanded mission
Amid a growing project portfolio and new remits, there is an increasing need for better representation and structure to manage the remits. As a consequence, the programme management will have representation from all schools in addition to a reference group from the University Administration will be established and principle coordinators will be appointed.
Since its establishment, more than 50 development projects that, in various ways, affect all five schools at KTH have been initiated within the Future Education programme.
"From the outset, President Ander Söderholm expressed the ambition for the projects to be scalable outside the department or school. We have seen that this places completely different demands on governance and project methodology - hence the strengthening of the programme organisation," says Anna Jerbrant.
With two new programme managers, there is a role distribution between the programme managers; Joakim Lilliesköld (EECS) and Gunnar Tibert (SCI) become deputy programme managers. The new assistant programme managers, Mats Nilsson (CBH) and Daniel Koch (ABE) will have more responsibility over certain parts of the project portfolio.
"We are pleased to have representatives from all schools on the programme management team while bringing in people with complementary experiences and competencies," Jerbrant says.
In addition, 13 principle coordinators will be appointed, mainly from those already involved in the programme organisation, who will be responsible for a given principle to ensure a more explicit focus on progress within the principle and knowledge sharing.
"We need better coordination of initiatives and activities that are ongoing in the development projects – so it was natural to organise based on the structure offered by the framework, " Anna adds.
Plans for the spring
In a changing world, plans can change quickly. But current plans for the programme management is to appoint principle coordinators, onboard new colleagues to the programme organisation, run the podcast "Fika chat on the future of education", continue to support ongoing development projects and initiate the process for a new batch of school projects in 2025. Furthermore, they will continue to work on external benchmarking and exchange with other universities (mainly Chalmers and NTNU) and increase cooperation with, for example, FEEAF*.
"In addition, we have recently been commissioned to lead the development of a draft policy decision for KTH's learning environments. The decision includes both physical and digital learning environments and affects many different functions at KTH," says Anna Jerbrant.
CBH's Head of School Amelie Eriksson Karlström also writes about Mats: Amelie on Mats Nilsson
Future Education at KTH looked forward to working even more closely with Mats as new team member in the programme management. Below is how those in the programme management who worked closely and for a long time with Mats in education issues remember him.
"I got to know Mats Nilsson when I had just been appointed Director of First and Second Cycle Education (GA) for my school ITM, as our schools had joint responsibility for KTH's foundation year programmes. During the pandemic, we worked very closely together to help KTH maintain the unity and uniqueness of our foundation year programmes despite the large rapid expansion that was taking place. Future Education at KTH and I will truly miss his ability to always put student learning at the centre and his passionate commitment to KTH's engineering students."
Anna Jerbrant, Programme Manager Future Education at KTH
"It's challenging to take in. It was only in the last two meetings that I reacted to the fact that Mats looked tired and needed to stand a lot, but he just said it was a little problem with his back. I've worked with Mats since 2007. We were Programme Directors simultaneously and then First and Second Cycle Education Directors. Hence, as for me, he's one of the colleagues I've worked with the longest. Mats has always had the students in focus, deeply involved in everything from reception to thesis work."
Joakim Lilliesköld, Vice Programme Manager Future Education at KTH
"I first met Mats Nilsson in the course Leading Educational Development in the autumn of 2013, when I had just been appointed GA for SCI. Mats had become GA for the then-STH school only six months earlier, so we were both new in our roles. Since then, we have worked closely in KTH's GA groups during that period. Mats has always had a clear focus on student influence and student learning. With Mats' passing, KTH's undergraduate education and the Future of Education programme have lost a genuine enthusiast and force."
Gunnar Tibert, Vice Programme Manager Future Education at KTH
"Mats' compass needle was always pointed towards education, with the addition that Mats always put the student in focus. Since the new year, Mats has been an assistant programme manager of Future Educatation at KTH and was really looking forward to getting more involved in developing KTH's education. We have lost a competent colleague but, above all, a warm and good person."
Per Fagrell, Programme Coordinator Future Education at KTH
Organisation chart
Map of KTH's temporary organisation for the Future Education change programme.
