Welcome to a new semester! At least the first half of it will mean digital teaching and examination, as well as working from home. There are of course exceptions from this main rule, and to those of you who will from time to time work on site, at our campus: please, be sure to follow the guidelines from the Public Health Agency, as well as the ones issued at Malmö university. Guidelines and updates on policies are found here https://staff.mau.se/first-page/puffs/recommendations-regarding-the-novel-coronavirus-covid-19/. 

Initial reports on the admittance statistics for TS indicate that all seats, including those created by our government and provided to us by our university management, have been filled. However, we must of course await all registration in class before any conclusion about the enrollment on a semester such as this could be reached. Here is a link to an article about the extra funds for education that we received around midsummer https://medarbetare.mau.se/startsida/medarbetarnyheter/extra-resurser-for-att-oka-antalet-utbildningsplatser/.

This semester we will address the the recommendations from our ERA19 panel and how to design a faculty-specific roadmap or strategy for the development of the research at TS. The question lies at the heart of our Faculty Board, but will of course be discussed in more groups and boards than that, for instance, in the next meeting of the Board of Research and Doctoral Education. The extended executive summary of the ERA19, titled Preconditions, Processes, Performances for High-Quality Research is available here https://mau.app.box.com/s/dh7wrtcy3ueds0omlv79ua92kyf5fd86. If you prefer a paper copy, please contaxt Sandip Kaur at the faculty administration to get one.

Liz Hofmann is the new studentombud for TS at Studentkåren Malmö. She will represent TS students in various meetings and boards, handle student errands and work with ways of having student voices being heard, such as through the implementation of the new course evaluation process. Liz has been in contact with programme responsible teachers and will join upprop, and if you would like to invite her to your course or discuss any student related matter with her, find her contact information here https://malmostudenter.se/en/english/representatives/. We look forward to working with Liz and wish her all the best in her role at TS.

Lastly, during this semester the video updates will be published every second week. Feedback and suggestions for the updates can be shared directly with the Dean.