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Lifelong learning

Lund University recognises both a demand and a need for new skills and interdisciplinary knowledge to meet a changing labour market and complex societal challenges. Lund University is to meet this need by developing its range of lifelong learning courses.

Lifelong learning at Lund University

As in most countries in the Global North, the proportion of older people is increasing in Sweden. An ageing population puts more pressure on health and social care, but also means a higher retirement age and longer working lives. Given this lengthening of careers and the development of new technologies and practices, people will increasingly need to supplement their skills in order not to find themselves outside the labour market. Reforms and new laws on flexibility, adaptability and security have come into force. This includes student finance for transition and retraining that opens up more opportunities for professionals to develop their skills. Lund University is to meet this need by developing its range of lifelong learning courses. This work must be developed in close collaboration with businesses, industry and the public sector.

Lund University’s Platform for Strategic Work 2023-2024

EduLab experimental platform

The EduLab experimental platform is made up of two parts. 

  • Idea and course development
  • Development of organisational and administrative development processes as well as the systematic collection of ideas for the handling of new educational initiatives

The purpose of EduLab is to create a flexible platform with the freedom to experiment with different ideas, forms of education, methods and collaborative opportunities in the context of lifelong learning. This in turn will complement, facilitate and support course development and the administration of courses across faculty boundaries. The project has been allocated funds for both course development and implementation and has been delegated responsibility to make decisions.

Idea and course development

This part of EduLab is about stimulating and exploring new ideas for courses. The aim is to quickly transform ideas into courses and thus explore what the University can achieve with the flexibility offered by EduLab. Our appetite for risk makes EduLab special. The project is tasked with experimentation and, therefore, is allowed to fail. Our remit also includes administrative processes, communication and marketing.

From idea to course – how it works

EduLab is a complement to the work already been carried out in the faculties and departments. This means that EduLab talks to teaching teams, research teams and other staff to collect course ideas and provide funding for the ideas that result in new courses. You are welcome to contact EduLab if you have an idea for a course!

If you or your team have an idea for a course that you would like to test, contact EduLab and we will organise a first meeting to go through the idea together. EduLab is there to support you through the whole process – from idea to course. 

Contact information

Mikael Sundström
Project manager EduLab
+46 46 222 49 93
mikael [dot] sundstrom [at] svet [dot] lu [dot] se (mikael[dot]sundstrom[at]svet[dot]lu[dot]se)

The course format may take different forms depending on the subject. For courses aimed at professionals who wish to broaden or deepen their expertise, shorter online courses offered at a rate of 50% of full-time study are usually a good starting point. This is not a requirement – some subjects require more credits or campus teaching, for example.

In this stage, we discuss how to produce the course. It is important at this point to gain support from the department and faculty management.

When the planning is finished, EduLab guarantees operational funding for the course as long as there is funding remaining for lifelong learning (up to and including 2024), plus a development budget per course. After that, the course is to be produced in the same way as other courses at the department or faculty.

EduLab follows up through the process and an evaluation is conducted at a later stage to capture learnings and any potential challenges.

Visionary and systematic work

EduLab has also been tasked with a more long-term investigative role. This part of EduLab examines the opportunities for developing new organisational models that can complement the University’s current administrative and organisational development processes. The project is also investigating the University’s systematic work on collecting new ideas within the framework for new educational initiatives.

Administrative and organisational development processes

Lund University is increasingly allocated new external initiatives for specific educational projects with funding attached. EduLab is investigating how the University can better handle these kinds of initiatives, as they often demand the crossing of administrative boundaries between different units. These new organisational models are to function alongside existing solutions already in use by the faculties and departments. In order to investigate the options open to the University, EduLab is building different scenarios in which organisational structures, management and financial conditions are discussed with the University Management.

Systematic collection of ideas

Educational initiatives demand collaboration, analysis of what is happening around us and the collection of course ideas. In order to ensure no ideas for courses slip through the cracks, EduLab is examining the possibility of developing a systematic and continuous procedure for the collection and testing of ideas, both internally and externally.

This includes the collection of ideas that appear:

  • Internally within Lund University,
  • In the grey zone between Lund University and external stakeholders, such as in different research areas,
  • Among external stakeholders, such as industry, the public sector and unions.

Development work within communication and marketing

As new courses are developed, the need to target communication and marketing to professionals also increases. EduLab’s development work involves both reinforcing the visibility of the University’s breadth of education in professional development on lu.se and testing various marketing strategies on e.g. social media.

Contact

Mikael Sundström
Project manager EduLab
+46 46 222 49 93
mikael [dot] sundstrom [at] svet [dot] lu [dot] se