Newsmail #90, 2024-04-12

Dear all,

Weeks with odd week-numbers hold management meetings on most levels. The KTH management meeting, with head of schools, are on Tuesday morning. The school management meeting is on Tuesday afternoon. We meet in the department management group on Wednesday morning. Most units have their unit meetings on Wednesday lunch or afternoon. Units organize differently, some invite all staff members, some invite only senior staff. I myself joined the ITRL unit meeting on Wednesday afternoon.

In this biweekly process, information passes from the rector via all meetings to all KTH members. Some aspects are for information, some are for discussion. Items that are up for discussion will be brought back up the same chain again, which then takes a bit more time. In parallel, we have other forum, such as the faculty council and various committees.

This week we have discussed a draft version of the schools development plan, which should follow the KTH development plan. In the school development plan we have identified the need for a more long-term focus on our educational program portfolio, our experimental facilities, the “education for the future”, various current initiatives and activities. The department development plan has been ready for some time, it mainly focuses on the establishment of the complex systems area, of revising our master programs according to the “education of the future” and the transition from “monumental experimental facilities” to flexible infrastructure.

On the unit meetings, we discuss here and now-issues. The office-moving is a hot topic, administrative changes, such as the support for written exams, preparation for an external audit regarding our work environment, scheduled for April 24 are also topics heard in our buildings. I also foresee that there will be one more really big hurdle before the summer, the move of the HK-rooms and the mechatronics teaching labs, as well as the move of the IPD-group from 3rd to 4th floor. To reduce the risks involved, it’s important that these issues are discussed at the unit meetings, so that we are prepared and help out to find the best solutions to the challenges.

Best,

Martin