What does LTH want?

As I once wrote in my blog, I think everyone who works at the Faculty of Engineering LTH can use the motto:

 - Ask not what LTH can do for you, but what you can do for LTH.

When the new organisation was presented the other day, I said that LTH needs this reorganisation in order to reach its full potential – not because the new organisation in itself will solve all of our problems, but because we need a bit of a shake up and to sharpen our focus a little more.

There are a few different aspects to this that I would like to bring up.

I want us to ensure the quality of our study programmes and work more efficiently. The new organisation helps us work more strategically. There are many issues we need to address. How do we view the 3+2 versus the 5-year Master programme structure? Which programmes should we offer and how should they be structured? How many Master’s programmes should we offer? The education organisation has some difficult decisions to make. The next time our programmes are evaluated I want them all to come out on top!

We need a clearer strategy for what we want to achieve in our research. We need to define our strengths more, in line with the strategic plan. Many of the societal challenges we are facing require a multidisciplinary approach on our part. This means we need to work across subject divides within our faculty, but also with other faculties.

We will now have an organisational structure that facilitates strategic thinking, and in which the management level can help to strengthen us as a whole. It’s not about directing research or tampering with academic freedom. It’s about making better use of LTH’s potential. We need to think about how we use the strategic funds we distribute each year. And since our most valuable resource is our people, we need to be careful about how we recruite and who we recruit.

The PhD programme has previously fallen between the cracks, even though it is of the utmost importance to us. Our PhD students, while in a study situation, are also a resource to us in our research. The new Research Studies Board will help us make the PhD programme better.

And let’s not forget: to make LTH the best it can be we must tear down the walls between core operations and our support functions. We are all working towards the same goal!

Viktor Öwall
Dean at the Faculty of Engineering LTH