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20090109

CE biweekly meeting

Jan 9, 2009

Education

  • New master programme coordinators
- Thomas Arts (Software Engineering)
- Kjell Jeppson (Integrated Electronic System Design)

Research

  • No news about strategic research funding
- Call text not yet public :-(
- Deadline still March 16 :-( :-(

Department issues

  • Proposal for hiring research assistants / postdocs back on table
- Use short-term surplus
  • Archivist (Gunilla) to work here 3 days / week
  • Follow-up of work environment poll (2005) being planned
  • All personnel must submit declaration of consulting (etc) outside Chalmers
- Call will go out
  • Unhandled invoices will automatically be passed upward
  • New account numbers will simplify things (hopefully :-)
  • New web area available for those who don't want to use PingPong yet (see Arne Linde if you need this)

Personnel

  • Ana Bove scheduling her docent lecture
  • External evaluators for Ulf Assarsson's docent application have been assigned

Chalmers issues

  • Vehicular research center moving slowly
- Catarina to voice concern to Markides
  • IT University seems to become umbrella for other West Sweden universities and colleges as well

AOI

  • New round of performance reviews (medarbetarsamtal) will be initiated in early 2009
- All non-students
  • Salary adjustments mid-2009
- Individual one-on-one meetings during Feb, March
- All non-students

EDITZ report

  • EDITZ evaluation report (preliminary) presented
- Department will respond
- Feedback, opinions to Lars during next 10 days, for passing to dept. level
  • Any changes can take place no sooner than fall 2010

Executive Summary

  • Change bachelor curricula for improved employability at BSc level
  • Absorb 3-year HIng programmed into BSc
  • Reduce admissions, esp. for EE and CE
  • Possibly merge EE and CE ?? (note: authors stay short of proposing this, but it is a reasonable interpretation)

Background for recommendations

  • BSc applications severely reduced since 2001 (CE @ 2001: >300; CE @ 2008: <150; others similar)
- Reflects Swedish situation, but similar trends elsewhere in Western world
  • Also, high school graduate class will shrink by 25% over next 7 years
- Has actually been growing for 5 years now
  • Fewer teenagers study math and science
- 1998: 19.4% of students took NT programme; 2007: 10.8%
- Not all of these took advanced math (matte E)
  • Exams offered:
- BSc / "kandidat", 3 years
- Engineer / "högskoleingenjör", also 3 years
- MSc / "magister", 2 years
- Confusing structure; purported differences between 3-year programmes not manifested
  • HIng courses
- Cost crunch at the HIng courses has forced abandonment of well-working pedagogical methods
- Falling pass rates
- HIng students now taking more BSc classes
- Difference between HIng and BSc shrinks
  • MSc tuition fees for non-European students?
- May be introduced for 2010
- Could reduce the number of international students by 75% (cf. Denmark)
- Review of all Chalmers masters programmes should commence as soon as information on fees is available (February?)
  • New opportunities?
- Mainly outside traditional programme structure
- Shorter programmes (1-2 semesters?)
- Bachelor-level programmes for non-NT students
- ...