Vice‑Chancellor comments on the budget bill
On Monday, the government's budget bill was presented. Mid Sweden University is affected by the content in several ways and Vice-Chancellor Anders Fällström gives his view on the news.
Mid Sweden University's Economics Department has compiled the most important points from the bill and below you can read a summary.
Research grants will be reduced by SEK 5.2 million from 2026
The reduction is a redistribution between higher education institutions as stated in the Research and Innovation Bill 2024 with the overall goals of achieving excellence, innovation and internationalisation. The redistribution is based on various quality indicators, and the indicator for external funds has been developed somewhat. Research grants from the EU, and in particular the Horizon Europe framework programme, now carry more weight in order to increase the incentives for higher education institutions to apply for EU funding.
Commenting on this, Vice-Chancellor Anders Fällström states that it is important that the entire University, but not least researchers, are made aware that our basic grants are reduced quite significantly as long as the University does not succeed in attracting more competitive external funding and getting more highly cited publications. It will be particularly important to attract funds from the EU's framework programmes and, if possible, ERC funds.
"Last autumn, we made a package of investments to improve our opportunities to build international networks because we knew this was coming. These include sabbaticals, visiting professors and our involvement in ChallengeEU and other international initiatives. This is to improve the opportunities to apply for EU framework programme funds, for example," says Anders Fällström.
He also notes that from 2028 there will be an additional quality indicator that determines how much basic funding Mid Sweden University can receive. It is about the Swedish Research Council's announcements of assistant professorships in 2026-27, a form of employment that does not have a great tradition at Mid Sweden University. To improve this situation, funds were allocated around the turn of the year to recruit four assistant professorships.
"It is important that everyone is now involved in scouting work and is considering co-funding opportunities to be prepared when the calls come in the spring of 2026. It is a major transition work we have ahead of us, just like many other higher education institutions, but nevertheless a reality we must adapt to," he says.
Education appropriation will be reduced by SEK 12 million in 2026
The decrease is already known and is partly due to the end of the extra investment in education throughout the country from 2021, and partly to a redistribution of appropriations during the years 2025–2027 as announced in the budget bill for 2025.
"The reduction is expected and affects us a lot, that's how it is. Our education is of high quality, but we must also remember that, in the midst of the ongoing transition work, we must constantly develop our activities at the same time. Both administration and academia," he says.
Other
The ceiling amount also includes a small increase for a continued increase in the amount of compensation for full-time equivalent students in science and technology, which began in 2024. The amount of compensation for full-time performance in the humanities, theology, law, social sciences will also continue to be increased in 2026, but will not entail an increase in the ceiling amount. An increase in the amount of compensation is part of the work to strengthen the conditions for high quality in education and the range of education offered.
From 2028, the ceiling amount will be reduced by a further SEK 4 million when the current investment in short-term KPUs is transferred to another appropriation.
In order to increase the driving force for a high-quality range of education and to provide the labour market with skills in the field of STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics), ceiling amounts are redistributed between the higher education institutions. Other areas of education where quality initiatives are mentioned include teacher and preschool teacher education, nursing education and continuing education.
In order to give higher education institutions better conditions to develop a flexible and qualified range of education, the remuneration system may need to be adapted in certain parts. The Ministry of Education and Research has referred and is currently preparing a proposal for a compensation model for how the educational offerings of universities and colleges can be developed to meet the new needs that arise in a changing labour market.
Higher education institutions have, especially during the pandemic years, accumulated surplus in government capital and are now working to reduce it. The Government has regularly followed up the agency capital in the agency dialogues and emphasised the importance of it being used effectively to strengthen the quality of education and research, and the work continues to improve the follow-up and control of the higher education institutions' agency capital.
Other areas mentioned are strengthened academic freedom, which is a fundamental prerequisite for world-class education and research. A special investigator has been tasked with analysing and proposing changes to strengthen the academic freedom of researchers and teachers in Sweden (Dir. 2025:42). The assignment must be reported no later than 30 June 2026.
The Government has previously also commissioned Statskontoret to analyse the consequences of higher education institutions' administrative tasks (U2024/01755). The assignment was reported on 11 September 2025. The Government intends to submit a bill to exempt certain research from the requirements for ethical review.