LUND
UNIVERSITY, SWEDEN AND COMMUNITY OUTREACH
Ebba Ossiannilsson (Lund University, Sweden)
Sweden is a large country (450 000 km2) and
with a comparatively small population about 9
million inhabitants widely dispersed geographically.
There are about 49 HEI in the country and around
a hundred local study centers. In Scania there
are three HEI, Lund Univesity, Malmö University
and Kristianstad Unviersity College.
Each of these Universities has the role of a
stakeholder in its surrounding region .
Lund University (LU), with seven faculties and
a number of research centers and specialized
institutes, is the largest unit for research
and higher education in Sweden and also in Scandinavia.
The main part of the university is situated in
Lund, but a number of departments for research
and education are located in Malmö and Helsingborg.
Lund University was founded in 1666, partly
in order to link the provinces which had been
ceded by Denmark in 1658 more closely with Sweden.
Since then, the University has developed into
a modern international centre for research and
higher education.
At present, more than 34 000 students are enrolled
at Lund University and altogether some 6000 people
are employed.
With over 350 departments and centers LU offers
a large variety of courses. All courses are accessible
to outreach students, especially as many of the
courses are available on the net. LU offers both
its own courses and courses which have been designed
or commissioned to meet the particular learning
needs of a group or community.
Some examples of outreach activities and regional
co-operation etc.are given below:
Seminars, workshops and conferences
Seminars, workshops and conferences run by LU
take place almost on a daily basis both in
Lund and also in the region. These are academic
activities but they are also geared to a more
general and non-academic audience .
Commission Based Education
LU has a special company for commissioned education,
Lund University Education AB, www.education.lu.se.
Commissioned courses take place regularly , at
locations close to where the participants are
working and/or living. There are also outreach
activities delivered on a similar basis which
can be seminars or full courses. All are commissioned
that is they are paid for by the group or organisation
which requests them from LU.
Learning centers
LU is also working with the municipalities, especially
in Scania, the south part of Sweden. Here in
the municipalities, learning centers have been
established, where people enrolled in different
courses at LU can use creative learning environments,
electronic facilities, video-conferencing,
etc. http://www.campus.hbg.lu.se/utbildning/lokalastudiecentra.html
In Sweden these learning centers are a large
part of what is called community outreach, and
there is also a special network NITUS http://www.nitus.org/Engelska/indexeng.html which links learning centers in Sweden with the
universities and municipalities.
Lund Net University
Through the Swedish Net University, www.netuniversity.se and through Lund Net University www.fov.lu.se,
LU has a large “outreach” both
nationally and internationally. Our courses
in English will be offered at the portal Lund
Unviersity Online (the web portal is not yet
ready).
