Pro Vice-Chancellor Eva Åkesson to be new Vice-Chancellor of Uppsala University

“I expect to have to work hard, but I’m used to that”, says Eva Åkesson on her new job as Vice-Chancellor of Uppsala University. She will be leaving Lund and her job as Pro Vice-Chancellor at the end of the year to face what is possibly her greatest challenge yet.

She seems perfectly calm ahead of her new role and looks happy at her very last for LUM. There have been many through the years because she has been behind a lot of the changes that have created progress at Lund University.

She has been in charge of internationalisation (plus national Bologna promoter and expert) and quality assurance, particularly in first- and second-cycle education. She has been in the university management group for nine years – six as Assistant Vice-Chancellor under Göran Bexell and the past three as Pro Vice-Chancellor, sharing management of the University with Per Eriksson. Now, halfway through the mandate of the current management group, she thinks it is time to move on.

“It is important not to cling on, but to have the sense to let go at the right time”, she says.

Eva Åkesson is leaving at a time when there seems to be a general departure from the management group. Assistant Vice-Chancellor Ingalill Rahm-Hallberg will soon be retiring and Head of Administration Marianne Granfelt is going to become Secretary-General of SUHF. It is a coincidence that this is all happening at once, according to Eva Åkesson, but it does not have to be a bad thing.

“While we’re making changes we might as well do it properly. It is certain to be a bit easier for the new people coming in if several of the old ones leave and make room. Plus, it’s not a bad idea to review responsibilities and routines after three years.”

She feels confident that her areas of responsibility, internationalisation and quality assurance, will have a secure future under Eva Wiberg, who is now training for her role as Assistant Vice-Chancellor in the management group.

In Uppsala, Eva Åkesson will work with a different style of organisation. She will have a pro vice-chancellor, but the assistant vice-chancellors are responsible for subject fields rather than specific issues.

“I will continue to work in a management group with shared responsibility. The old single-handed leadership is not particularly modern; it has had its day”, she says.

In some contexts, Uppsala and Lund are seen as old arch-enemies and rivals. Eva Åkesson rather sees the two ancient institutions as good partners in cooperation. They could perhaps become even better…

“It is difficult to say within which specific areas at the moment. But Uppsala is very involved in MAX-lab, and in my own subject, chemical physics, there are good collaborations. I meet a lot of people from the two universities who speak well of each other”, she says.

Eva Åkesson is leaving Lund with mixed feelings, she says. She has been very happy here since 1996 when she came from Umeå University to Kemicentrum and was involved in building up a research group. She began to develop an interest in education issues, became director of studies and was then able to take these issues with her to the management group when she became assistant vice-chancellor. Until now she has managed to maintain a small connection to her research subject as chair of Lund Laser Centre.

“It has been great to be able to support my old research field in this way”, she says.

At home in Hässleholm, her daughter Saga has moved to Umeå to study law, while son Linus is still in upper secondary school.

“He will be able to finish school in Hässleholm”, says Eva Åkesson, who is used to commuting.

Uppsala University is now looking for a flat for the new Vice-Chancellor, who is looking forward with excitement and confidence to the future.

“Sometimes I wonder how it’s going to go, of course, but I’ve been working on an almost daily basis with vice-chancellors for nine years and have even held some vice-chancellor’s assemblies, so I think I’m prepared. It will be very exciting to get to know Uppsala and fun to meet new people and learn even more.”

- Maria Lindh

FOOTNOTE: Eva Åkesson has been elected Vice-Chancellor by a unanimous nominating committee at Uppsala, where the University Senate has proposed her as Vice-Chancellor to the Government, which makes the formal decision. Eva Åkesson will take up her new post from the start of next year and Assistant Vice-Chancellor Ingalill Rahm-Hallberg will fill in as Pro Vice-Chancellor at LU part-time from January to April.