Mid Sweden University (''Mittuniversitetet'') is a

Swedish Swedish or ' may refer to: Anything from or related to Sweden, a country in Northern Europe. Or, specifically: * Swedish language, a North Germanic language spoken primarily in Sweden and Finland ** Swedish alphabet, the official alphabet used by ...

state university located in the region around the geographical center of Sweden, with two campuses in the cities of Östersund and

Sundsvall Sundsvall () is a city and the seat of Sundsvall Municipality in Västernorrland County, Sweden. It has a population of 58,807 as of 2020; more than 95,000 live in the municipal area. It is Sweden's 21st largest city by population. History Th ...

. The university closed a third campus in Härnösand in the summer of 2016.

History

Created on 1 July 1993, the institution was originally called Mid Sweden University College (Mitthögskolan) and was the result of a merger between the University College of

/ Härnösand (''Högskolan i Sundsvall/Härnösand'') and the University College of Östersund (''Högskolan i Östersund''). The two university colleges had been founded in 1977, with roots in the School of social work that started in 1971 in the city of Östersund, and in the Folk high school teachers' seminary and the nautical training/naval school that were launched in 1842 in the city of Härnösand. On 1 July 1995, the

/ Örnsköldsvik and Östersund Colleges of Health Sciences (''Vårdhögskolor'') were also incorporated. In 2001 Mid Sweden University was awarded university status in the

natural science Natural science is one of the branches of science concerned with the description, understanding and prediction of natural phenomena, based on empirical evidence from observation and experimentation. Mechanisms such as peer review and repeatab ...

s area of research including IT, and was thus entitled to issue doctoral degrees. Employees that were carrying out doctoral studies before then were enrolled at other universities, where they had their main supervisor, but also locally supervised at Mid Sweden University College. Effective 1 January 2005, the

government of Sweden The Government of the Kingdom of Sweden ( sv, Konungariket Sveriges regering) is the national cabinet of Sweden, and the country's executive authority. The Government consists of the Prime Ministerappointed and dismissed by the Speaker of the ...

granted the institution the right to call itself a university and the school's name changed to Mid Sweden University (Mittuniversitetet).

Organization

Mid Sweden University has two authorised areas of research (''vetenskapsområden''), organized under the

Faculty Faculty may refer to: * Faculty (academic staff), the academic staff of a university (North American usage) * Faculty (division), a division within a university (usage outside of the United States) * Faculty (instrument) A faculty is a legal in ...

of Science, Technology and Media (since 2001), and the Faculty of Human Sciences (since 2005) respectively. Education and research is also organized under the Faculty of Educational Sciences (''lärarutbildningsnämnden''). The university was organized into eight departments, of which four are multi-campus departments: *Faculty of Human Sciences: **Department of Humanities **Department of Social Sciences **Department of Social Work **Department of Health Sciences **Department of Economics, Geography, Law and Tourism *Faculty of Science, Technology and Media: **Department of Information Technology and Media **Department of Natural Sciences **Department of Engineering, Physics and Mathematics *Faculty of Educational Sciences: **Department of Education

Education

The university has offered bachelor's degree (''kandidatexamen'') and Swedish master's degree (''magisterexamen'', one year) in a wide range of subjects since 1994, doctoral degree (''doktorsexamen'' and ''licentiatexamen'') since 2001, and International master's degree (''masterexamen'', two years) according to the Bologna model since 2005. Mid Sweden University also offers professional degrees within Master of Science and Engineering (''civilingenjörsexamen'', similar to German Diploma engineer) since 2003, and as engineer, teacher, nurse, specialist nurse,

social worker Social work is an academic discipline and practice-based profession concerned with meeting the basic needs of individuals, families, groups, communities, and society as a whole to enhance their individual and collective well-being. Social work ...

/welfare officer (''socionom''), journalist and, from 2008,

Psychologist A psychologist is a professional who practices psychology and studies mental states, perceptual, cognitive, emotional, and social processes and behavior. Their work often involves the experimentation, observation, and interpretation of how indi ...

. The university's two main campuses have different focuses but with some overlap. The Sundsvall campus has a school of education and offers various courses in the humanities and arts. It also has a wide range of courses and degrees in the technical and natural sciences and journalism. The Östersund campus focuses on graduate degrees in tourism, health care, social work and public administration. Campus Östersund also has Sweden's only ecotechnology programme. Besides the above, education and research within digital printing technology is located to the city of Örnsköldsvik. The institution is also well known for a wide range of web-based distance education.

Number of students and employees

In school year 2009/2010, the university had 21,476 undergraduate students (including master students) with 4,000 of them based in Östersund, 4,000 in Sundsvall, 2,000 in Härnösand and the rest are learning on distance. The university has 235 doctoral students, about 800 teachers, of which 80 were employed professors, and totally more than 1000 employees.

Past
rector Rector (Latin for the member of a vessel's crew who steers) may refer to: Style or title Rector (ecclesiastical), a cleric who functions as an administrative leader in some Christian denominations Rector (academia), a senior official in an edu ...
s (
Sundsvall Sundsvall () is a city and the seat of Sundsvall Municipality in Västernorrland County, Sweden. It has a population of 58,807 as of 2020; more than 95,000 live in the municipal area. It is Sweden's 21st largest city by population. History Th ...
)

*1993–1994 Alf Gunnmo *1994–1999 Kari Marklund *1999 (acting) Alf Gunnmo *1999–2003 Gunnar Svedberg *2003 (acting) Pia Sandvik Wiklund *2003–2008 Thomas Lindstein *2008 (acting) Håkan Wiklund *2008-2016 Anders Söderholm

Past prorectors ( Östersund) :sv:Mittuniversitetet

*1993–1999 Alf Gunnmo *1999 (acting) Sture Pettersson *1999–2002 Mats Ericson *2002–2005 Pia Sandvik Wiklund *2003 (acting) Sture Pettersson *2005–2006 (acting) Sture Pettersson *2006— Håkan Wiklund *2008 (acting) Sture Pettersson

Honorary doctorates at Mid Sweden University

*2001 – Thorbjörn Fälldin *2002 – Kenway Smith *2004 – Sverker Martin-Löf *2006 – Bodil Malmsten and Bengt Saltin *2008 –

Magdalena Forsberg Magdalena "Magda" Forsberg (née Wallin; born 25 July 1967) is a Swedish former cross-country skier and biathlete. She was the dominating female biathlete from 1997 to 2002, when she retired, winning the Biathlon World Cup for six years straight. S ...

and Lars Näsman *2010 – Kenneth Eriksson, Erik Fichtelius, Björn Fjæstad and

Jan Stenberg Jan Stenberg (1939–2015) was a Swedish businessperson and chairman of the board of Stepstone, Cygate Måldata, Service Factory, Marratech, Spring Mobil, Q-matic and Tific. Stenberg was educated with a law degree from the University ...

Famous alumni

Here is a list of people who have received attention from national media, and have studied either at Mid Sweden University, or one of the colleges that later formed Mid Sweden University. *Jerry Ahrlin,

cross-country skier Cross-country skiing is a form of skiing where skiers rely on their own locomotion to move across snow-covered terrain, rather than using ski lifts or other forms of assistance. Cross-country skiing is widely practiced as a sport and recreation ...

* Abir Al-Sahlani, Member of Parliament * Berit Andnor, former Minister for Social Affairs and member of parliament *

Helena Jonsson Helena Ekholm (née Helena Jonsson) (born September 6, 1984 in Helgum) is a former Swedish biathlete. She was born in Helgum, Sollefteå Municipality. She is the 2009 world champion in pursuit and the 2011 world champion in individual. She al ...

, biathlete *

Mari Jungstedt Mari Jungstedt (born 31 October 1962, in Stockholm) is a Swedish journalist and crime fiction author. Jungstedt worked as a reporter on Swedish national public radio and television, and was an occasional presenter on TV4's daily talk show F ...

, journalist and author *

Jan Helin Sveriges Television AB ("Sweden's Television Stock Company"), shortened to SVT (), is the Sweden, Swedish national public broadcasting, public television broadcaster, funded by a public service tax on personal income set by the Riksdag (national ...

, journalist and the editor-in-chief of

Aftonbladet ''Aftonbladet'' (, lit. "The evening paper") is a Swedish daily newspaper published in Stockholm, Sweden. It is one of the largest daily newspapers in the Nordic countries. History and profile The newspaper was founded by Lars Johan H ...

since 2008 * Anna-Karin Kammerling, swimmer * Mikaela Laurén, swimmer and boxer *

Melodie MC Kent Lövgren, () better known as Melodie MC, is a Swedish recording artist, performing as a rapper on Eurodance tracks, who was active in music between 1992 and 1998. Biography He went to school with classmate Erik Svensson (Alias Stattik.) They ...

(Kent Lövgren),

Eurodance Euro-Dance (sometimes referred to as Euro-NRG, Euro-electronica or Euro) is a genre of electronic dance music that originated in the late 1980s in Europe. It combines many elements of hip hop, techno, Hi-NRG, house music, and Euro-Disco. This ...

rapper *

Ylva Nowén Ylva Hjördis Sofia Nowén (born 5 January 1970 in Östersund) is a Swedish former alpine skier who competed in the 1992, 1994, 1998 and 2002 Winter Olympics The 2002 Winter Olympics, officially the XIX Olympic Winter Games and commonly k ...

, Alpine skier and expert commentator * Linda Olofsson, TV journalist *

Anna Ottosson Anna Helene Ottosson (born 18 May 1976 in Östersund, Sweden; married name Ottosson Blixth) is a Swedish former alpine skier who won an Olympic bronze medal in the giant slalom race at the 2006 Winter Olympics in Turin. She stands 1.66 meters ...

, Alpine skier *

Roger Haddad Roger is a given name, usually masculine, and a surname. The given name is derived from the Old French personal names ' and '. These names are of Germanic origin, derived from the elements ', ''χrōþi'' ("fame", "renown", "honour") and ', ' ( ...

, Member of Parliament * Fadime Sahindal *

Anders Sodergren Anders is a male name in Scandinavian languages and Fering North Frisian, an equivalent of the Greek Andreas ("manly") and the English Andrew. It originated from Andres via metathesis. In Sweden, Anders has been one of the most common names fo ...

* Åsa Torstensson, Member of Parliament and former Minister for Transport 2006–2010 *

Fredrik Wikingsson Lars Filip Hammar (born March 26, 1975) and Fredrik Wikingsson (born August 16, 1973), commonly known as Filip and Fredrik, are two Swedish writers, television hosts and journalists both known for their youthful, though intellectual, humour and un ...

, journalist and TV host * Gina Dirawi, comedian and TV host

References

External links

Mid Sweden University
– Official site
Courses for exchange students
– Courses taught in English
Study programmes taught in English
– International programmes
Mid Sweden University Students' Union (Östersund)
– Official site
Mid Sweden University Students' Union (Sundsvall)
– Official site {{authority control Härnösand Östersund Educational institutions established in 1993 Buildings and structures in Jämtland County 1993 establishments in Sweden Buildings and structures in Sundsvall Municipality Higher education in Sundsvall