The future of support services

The University Board has decided to consolidate support services into a single organisation under the University Director. The aim is to create more integrated, efficient and responsive support for education and research.

Coming up

The timetable is updated as time goes on and at the moment the following points are relevant:

  • 10 Nov 2026: Collaboration on continued work on risk assessment.
  • 11 Nov 2026: Negotiation documents i.e. business analysis) are sent out to the negotiating parties.
  • 23 Nov 2026: Negotiation 1 (11 § MBL) regarding business change.
  • 1 Dec 2026: Vice-Chancellor's decision, organisational structure and organisational change.
  • 8 and 15 Dec 2026: Continued work on risk assessment in collaboration.
  • 2 Dec - 7 Jan 2027: Work with relocation (7.2 § LAS).
  • 18 Jan 2027: Negotiation 2 (11 § MBL and 7.2 § LAS) regarding relocation and first relocation investigation.
  • 18 Jan 2027: Decision and notification of any relocation offer, dialogue with manager.
  • 16-17 Feb 2027: Negotiation 3 (11 § MBL and 7.2 § LAS) regarding rotation, district division and relocation.
  • 15 Mar 2027: Negotiation 4 (11 § MBL and 7.2 § LAS) regarding priority, district division, relocation and possible dismissals.
  • 31 March 2027: Notice of termination is given.
    The new organization will take effect on April 1, 2027.

The risk assessment and any action plans are distributed in the new organization and the hiring freeze ends.

The goal is a support service that:

  • provides more coherent support for education and research 
  • is easier for employees and businesses to use 
  • work more uniformly and with clearer processes 
  • can prioritise based on the university's overall needs 
  • use skills, resources and digital solutions more efficiently
  • have a good ability to develop when the needs of the business change. 

It is mainly about the fact that working methods, collaboration, division of responsibilities and culture also need to be developed. 

In the long term, the goal is to make it easier to find the right support and for processes and working methods to be clearer and more uniform. The support will also be developed with a greater focus on the users' needs.

It is still unclear exactly how different services, contact channels and processes will change. More information will be provided as the organisation and working methods are concretised. 

This means that the support should be designed to a greater extent based on the needs of education and research. It should be clear where to turn, what support you can get and who is responsible for various issues.

New forms of dialogue will also give institutions and other parts of the core activities better opportunities to describe their needs and participate in the development of support. How the dialogues will be designed in practice is part of the continued work. 

Based on current data, the following is known:

  • The support services will reduce their costs by about 13 percent over three years.
  • On 24 September, the University Board decided on an overall organisational level for the support services.  
  • The University Board has decided to establish a steering function for clearer participation from the parts of the University for which the support services are available.
  • Preparatory work with organization, business analysis, budget and savings proposals is underway.
  • The organizational change will be handled through ordinary collaboration and co-determination processes.
  • In the working group for the new support services and the Fenix group, work is underway on how the new support should be organised, as well as dialogues with department and office managers.
  • The Vice-Chancellor has instructed the working group for the new administrative support to produce a proposal for a basis for decision-making.
  • The new organization will take effect on April 1, 2027. 

This has not yet been decided and unclear: 

  • exactly how all the different activities and functions should be organized;
  • which substructures and managerial functions are needed
  • how individual tasks and roles are affected
  • how the savings are to be distributed between different parts of the support services
  • How big the impact will be on staffing
  • whether, where and to what extent a shortage of work may occur. 

The information will be updated when new decisions are made. 

Different decisions are made at different levels depending on the nature of the issue and the University's delegation of authority.  

More detailed decisions on organisation, responsibility and implementation are then taken by competent decision-makers.

For example, the Vice-Chancellor decides on the overall organisation of the new support, and the University Director decides on the budget framework. 

Decisions that affect the organization and employees are handled within the framework of the Co-determination Act (MBL) and current collaboration processes. 

Contact channels, processes and forms of collaboration can change, and employees outside the directly affected departments can also be affected as users of the support.  

The concrete changes that will be noticeable in everyday life will become clearer when working methods and responsibilities have been concretized. 

New ways of working will be developed together as the organisation takes shape. The aim is for the support to be more cohesive and better adapted to the needs of the core business. 

There is no general information to give about it at this time.

If appointment or readjustment processes become relevant, the University must inform the employees concerned in accordance with current processes. 

Until otherwise decided, the current organisation, division of responsibilities and assignments apply.

Employees continue to work according to existing priorities and are informed by their manager when something changes. 

Questions about one's own work situation are primarily raised with the immediate manager.

Yes, it is possible. It is still too early to say how individual roles will be affected.  

The goal is to organise expertise and resources based on the University's overall needs. This may mean that certain tasks are collected, distributed in other ways, digitalised or reprioritised. 

When changes become concrete, affected employees must be given information and the opportunity to engage in dialogue in accordance with current processes. 

Yes, an organizational change can mean that employees get a new organizational affiliation or manager. It can also mean changed collaborations, processes or tasks. 

Exactly which employees are affected and in what way is still unclear. A decision will only be made when there is sufficient documentation and relevant decisions have been made. 

In the event of an organisational change, employees are represented by trade unions.

It can only be announced when the analysis of activities, tasks and skills needs has progressed sufficiently and the necessary decisions have been made.  

The ambition is for affected employees to be notified as soon as possible. Information will be provided gradually.  

The fact that there is a proposal for an overall organisation does not mean that each employee's organisational position has already been decided. 

In the first instance, raise the issue with your immediate manager. You can also contact a safety representative or union representative. Mid Sweden University's regular support routes for work environment and health apply throughout the change process. 

Risk assessments must be carried out and managed in connection with changes that may affect the work environment. This applies to both risks in the future organisation and the load during the change period itself. 

Even if the change is driven centrally, the work environment responsibility remains in the line organisation. Each manager is responsible for drawing attention to risks and taking action, as well as raising risks that cannot be managed locally to the next level.

The organisational change will be handled through the University's regular collaboration and co-determination processes. This means that the employer informs and negotiates with the trade unions on the issues where this is required.

The Steering Group, the Phoenix Group and the Working Group for the New Support are working on how the new support should be organised as well as dialogues with department and office managers. 

  • The steering group consists of Dan Bylund, Louise Beskow and Pär Olausson. 

  • The Fenix Group consists of Maria Torstensson, Karin Olsson and Jörgen Tholin. 

  • The working group for the new support consists of Pelle Håkansson, Sara Grut and Karin Olsson. 

The immediate manager is responsible for passing on information and capturing questions and views. 

Recurring questions and identified risks are important documentation for the project and university management.  

In the event of the organisational change, which is handled through the University's regular collaboration and co-determination processes and negotiations, you will be represented by the trade unions. 

New ways of working will be developed together as the new organizational structure takes shape. At that stage, employees will be engaged in creating and contributing to new ways of working. 

The goal is to create clearer and more uniform processes, while meeting relevant business-specific needs. This is not the same as all needs being handled in the same way. 

New forms of dialogue will make it possible for departments and other parts of the core business to describe their needs.

The balance between common solutions and local needs is part of the continued work. 

The business needs to be able to function throughout the change period. Planning must therefore take into account continuity, critical processes, workload and the need for clear responsibilities. 

Managers are responsible for prioritizing operations and paying attention to risks.  

The organisational structure is only one part of the change. The work also includes processes, working methods, digitalisation, division of responsibilities, forms of dialogue, leadership and culture. 

The development of working methods and culture needs to continue even after the new organisation has been decided and entered into force.  

How this work is to be planned, implemented and followed up needs to be concretised and worked out together when the organisation takes shape.   

The new organisation and working methods need to be supplemented with common processes, clear responsibilities, functioning contact channels and collaborations.  

New ways of working will be developed together as the organisation takes shape.

More opportunities and reminders to express your views, digitally on the employee side and via managers, and directly to management.

We are grateful to be able to take part in both views and criticism that are raised. 

We realise that it is complex and that there are different ways of looking at how a university should be governed and developed, fundamentally we have a common goal in the form of a university that will be stronger in the future. 

We understand that there has been insufficient communication from us in management regarding certain decisions and the investments we are implementing to cope with the challenging situation and the change process.  

The changes are necessary and we are working to become better at anchoring and clarifying. 

The University Management is responsible for leading, developing and coordinating Mid Sweden University's activities. Through various areas of responsibility, internal assignments and external collaboration assignments, the management works to develop the University's education, research and collaboration and to strengthen the University's role in society. 

We will update the management website to describe our work more clearly and concretely in the coming weeks. 

The goal is that the collection page and/or the FAQ should be updated when new decisions are made, when important documentation becomes clear or when recurring questions need to be answered.  

Current and common information is published on the collection page for Future Operational Support, where it must be clear what has been decided, what has been proposed, what is being investigated and when the information was last updated. 

Questions about their own work situation are primarily raised with their immediate manager. For union issues, employees can contact their union organisation and for work environment issues also safety representatives. 

The timetable requires that several parts of the work need to run in parallel.  

At the same time as the overall organisational framework was being discussed, the university needed to produce a basis for possible subsequent decisions. 

Preparation is not the same as a decision having been made. The aim was to enable the work to continue without unnecessary delay if the Board decided in accordance with the proposal. 

A protracted process can create anxiety, uncertainty over a longer period of time and make it more difficult to plan the business. At the same time, there must be enough time for analyses, risk assessments, collaboration and necessary decisions. 

The timetable is therefore intended to provide information as soon as possible without the necessary steps being skipped - to safeguard the work environment and employees' well-being in the transition work.

We are keen to develop forms to strengthen dialogue, such as Ask & Fika, and insight into how management thinks and works. Anchor better. 

There is a lot of work to be done and despite the challenges, it will also mean positive changes, better function and development for Mid Sweden University. 

No, they are separate even though they are connected. When the organisation and working methods change, there are opportunities to reduce costs through, for example, more uniform processes, digitalisation, clearer priorities and reduced duplication of work. Therefore, the development work and the cost-cutting task need to be handled together, even if they have different starting points from the beginning. 

  • The support of the future: The work on the support of the future started as a development work to improve quality, organisation and working methods. 

  • The cost-cutting assignment: The assignment was added later and means that the costs of the support services will be reduced by approximately 13 percent over three years.

 

The University has received reduced government funding. At the same time, in order to safeguard the quality and scope of the University's main mission, more resources need to be freed up for education and research. Therefore, the costs of administrative support will be reduced by approximately 13 per cent over three years.

How the savings will be distributed is still unclear and has not been decided. This depends, among other things, on future priorities, changed working methods and what other costs can be reduced.

At the same time, the University is working to increase revenues, including through more fee-paying students, more contract education and increased external research funding. 

Personnel costs make up a large part of the costs of the administrative support. A savings requirement of this size will therefore affect staffing.

This means that redundancies are included as a possible part of an overall timetable without decisions on redundancies having been made. 

However, it is still unclear how big the impact will be, which parts of the business will be affected and in what way.

At present, it is therefore not possible to say how many positions may be affected or whether there will be redundancies due to a lack of work.  

 

Digitalisation and AI can contribute to more efficient working methods, but it is too early to say how much economic impact they can have.

The university needs to review several parts, such as processes, priorities, tasks, organisation and other costs. 

The introduction of new digital solutions needs to take into account, among other things, quality, information security, legal certainty, the work environment and the actual needs of the business.

It is possible that some tasks will change, be downgraded or cease to exist, while others need to be developed or given more space. Which tasks will be affected is still unclear and has not yet been decided. 

The page was updated 11/13/2026

Content owner:

Kommunikationsavdelningen (KOM)