Christina Öberg awarded grant for new research project
Chrstina Öberg, professor at the School of Business and Economics, has been granted a grant of SEK 50,000 from the Magnus Bergvall Foundation for the project "Higher education for the future - Disruption and vision."
What knowledge will the economists of the future need – and are today's programmes ready to meet the new requirements? This research project investigates just that, with a focus on how universities adapt their economics programmes to a rapidly changing operating environment. AI, the decline of globalisation, sustainability issues and students' varying prior knowledge challenge both content and pedagogy.
At the same time, there are risks: that the programmes will be too superficial, too governed by accreditations or too little anchored in theory. But there are also opportunities – to shape completely new competencies that better reflect the needs of the future.
The project uses theories from neuroscience and research on how people anticipate and interpret change. By studying how teachers themselves see the future, the research can provide new insights into how education can be developed in an environment that is both decentralised and highly bureaucratic.
Christina Öberg has previously researched prediction in the social sciences, written about the future of education and participated in the debate on higher education. The goal is that the project not only contributes to research, but also raises questions about which economists we actually need – and how we best equip them for the future.