New graduate school in health sciences will help ensure teaching capacity

Together with Karolinska Institutet, Uppsala University and Sophiahemmet University, MDU has received funding from the Swedish Research Council to jointly establish a new graduate school in health sciences and physiotherapy. The initiative will help ensure teaching capacity in healthcare and medical study programmes.

To increase the availability of health care workers, the Government has earmarked funds to secure access to teachers who can give tuition in health and medical care study programmes.

“The Mälardalen region’s graduate school in health sciences” is expected to open during 2023 with the overall purpose of offering a multi-disciplinary, high quality doctoral education, integrated with tuition in health and medical care programmes.

“The graduate school will offer doctoral students specialised courses with the key theme that the students will be expected to work in higher education when they are finished. Furthermore, it will provide a strong network for both research and education through the international focus of the participating higher education institutions,” says Lena Marmstål Hammar, Associate Professor of Health Sciences and responsible for applications at MDU.

“The goal is to ensure the availability of teachers in the long term and bolster the research basis in teaching. The graduate school will have great potential to attract employees to us and strengthen teaching ability, but clearly also our research competence due to the high-quality research that will take place in the form of doctoral student projects.”

Partnership between four higher education institutions

The graduate school will be established thanks to a cooperation between the four higher education institutions in the Mälardalen region. All four HEIs have extensive funding agreement targets for health and medical care study programmes and a great need for teachers.

“The four higher education institutions' expertise and their specialisations in health sciences programmes will both unite and enrich the cooperation. The graduate school and its network will be significant for the doctoral students, but also offer collaborative opportunities for researchers in the third-cycle subject areas of health sciences and physiotherapy which are topical for MDU,” says Lena Marmstål Hammar.

A prioritised area in health science

The doctoral students in the graduate school will be offered a comprehensive structure of courses and targeted activities, as well as allocated time for teaching. Thereby, the doctoral students can gain an interest in pedagogical work and be equipped early for a future career as teachers in the School,” according to Lena Marmstål Hammar.

“Skills supply in health and medical care study programmes, primarily those focusing on health sciences, is a top priority for us and the new graduate school will contribute to ensuring the much needed teaching capacity. Recently graduated nurses are in short supply, both in the region and nationally, and to manage the funding agreement targets in the future, we simply need more doctoral graduates and competent teachers.”

“It is fantastic that the Swedish Research Council have granted us this funding. The initiative is important both for our research and our health science programmes, and not least for health services and the healthcare sector,” says Lena Marmstål Hammar.