Contract education
Contract education is specifically designed for professionals and funded by employers. On this page you can find out more about what contract education is, what the rules are and how you can benefit from, or contribute to, our range of courses and programmes.
Contract education is specifically designed for people in the labour market and is paid for by the employer. It thus allows employers to use universities to develop the skills of their staff, although contract education can also be provided for labour market or welfare policy reasons.
Contract education may only be carried out if it is linked to higher education programmes at first or second-cycle level for which the higher education institution is entitled to award degrees.
Contract education offers great opportunities to spread research findings
Every year, several employers order Lund University’s contract education programmes for their employees. Commissioning clients come from local, national and international markets, giving the University a rich bank of experience, a wide network of contacts and many new perspectives.
The University encourages staff members to utilise research in various ways and continuously develop our activities. Your ideas for education may be of interest as contract training.
By engaging in contract education, you can share your research findings and contribute to societal development. You will also have the opportunity to learn about the experiences and needs of the outside world. External stakeholders' perspectives on the research and education conducted by Lund University contribute to the continuous quality development of our activities.
Contract education can also bring opportunities for other external engagement and research partnerships and contribute to the internationalisation of the University.
Forms of contract education
Lund University offers a wide range of open contract education courses and programmes, which participants can enrol in regardless of the organisation they belong to, provided they are working. The University does, however, also tailor programmes to specific requirements.
Contract education initiatives can range from long courses, spanning several semesters, to shorter courses of just a day or two. Contract education can be interdisciplinary, and also lead to credits and a degree, but this is not a requirement.
The University's contract education programmes are collected in a course catalogue.
The faculties are responsible for contract education
Since 1 January 2025, the faculties are responsible for the support and implementation of contract education. This means that the faculties’ responsibilities include:
- agreements and financial management
- targeted communication and marketing, for example to recruit participants
- delivery of education
- administration and coordination of education
Each faculty offering contract education has contact persons for contract education. You can find a list of these below.
School of Economics and Management
Information and contact details on the School of Economics and Management’s website
The Joint Faculties of Humanities and Theology
Faculty of Law
Information and contact details on the Faculty of Law’s website (in Swedish)
Email: uppdragsutbildning [at] jur [dot] lu [dot] se (uppdragsutbildning[at]jur[dot]lu[dot]se)
Faculty of Engineering (LTH)
Information and contact details on LTH’s website
Faculty of Medicine
Information and contact details on the Faculty of Medicine’s website (in Swedish)
Email: uppdrag_ihv [at] med [dot] lu [dot] se (uppdrag_ihv[at]med[dot]lu[dot]se)
Faculty of Science
Email: kansli [at] science [dot] lu [dot] se (kansli[at]science[dot]lu[dot]se)
Faculty of Social Sciences
Information and contact details on the Faculty of Social Sciences’ website
The University-wide node for contract education
A university-wide contract education node within the Central Administration also provides some basic support for contract education. The mission of the node includes:
- Overall responsibility for university-wide guidelines for contract education, agreement templates and corresponding regulatory and support documents. More complex contractual issues are channelled through the Legal and Records Management Division.
- Responsibility for providing an overall picture of contract education at Lund University and for ensuring that relevant information on contract education is available on the university-wide website.
- Providing an external contact point for general questions about contract education at Lund University. Relaying questions to designated contact persons at each faculty.
- Managing university-wide systems for education administration in contract education.
- Supporting admissions, partly to create expected participation in courses for credit-earning contract education in the study administration system Ladok, and partly to link the range of courses and programmes in the NyA admissions system for contract education procured by commissioning clients (e.g. the Swedish National Agency for Education).
- Supporting the internal quality assurance of contract education as part of the regular quality assurance system.
- Convening a university-wide network for contract education.
- Coordinating with EduLab to enable synergies.
Contact
Contract Education
Coordinator Samira Elmi Eriksson
contracteducation [at] stu [dot] lu [dot] se
Related information
Applicable ordinance and regulations:
- Ordinance on contract education at higher education institutions (2002:760) - Swedish Council for Higher Education
- Statute Book of the Swedish Council for Higher Education, UHRFS 2013:11 (in Swedish)
Inspection report from the Swedish Higher Education Authority:
Contract Education – a guide (in Swedish)
UKÄ's latest review of contract education at Swedish higher education institutions:
Higher education institutions' contract education (in Swedish)