The university currently has about 16,000 students studying, which corresponds to about 8,500 full-time students, and the financial contribution for next year that the government has now proposed, which corresponds to 592 full-time students, is welcomed by Rector Johan Sterte.
- It is very positive that we get to expand our education to the extent here in Karlstad, we are one of the universities that, relative to our size, receive the largest allocation of funds for education, he says.
According to Johan Sterte, the grant for the university means 13 percent more in funding for education in 2021 compared to last year.
- It is a big expansion in two steps where we have to pull our straw to the stack to deal with the pandemic that we are in the middle of today, he says.
More training places for the shortage forces
In order for more people to have the chance to study at universities and colleges, the government will add a total of just over SEK 1.7 billion in the budget bill in 2021 - which corresponds to almost 19,000 full-time students at the country's higher education institutions.
The idea is that more people should be able to train to work in data and IT, care, school or social care where there is a shortage of labor.
At Karlstad University, it is now relevant to have new places in several educations.
- We have a large teacher education and it will get a large part of the new resources.
We also have both engineering and master's degree programs that will benefit from this, quite a lot on the technology and computer side.
We also have nursing education and nursing education, which is also a major shortage, where we will invest some of the resources, says Johan Sterte.
The budget bill is based on an agreement between the governing parties, the Center Party and the Liberals.