Students eat pizza with Vice-Chancellor

The mood was free, as were the pizzas. KI students assembled last Monday to ply Vice-Chancellor Anders Hamsten with questions.

“It’s easy for a vice-chancellor to become invisible, so every opportunity to come and talk to the students is good,” said Professor Hamsten.

The students were enticed into the Huddinge campus university library with free pizza, and as they munched their capricciosa and veggie slices, they listened to the Vice-Chancellor answer questions about KI’s new strategy, Strategy 2018.

“I came for the combination of a free lunch and an interesting Q&A session,” said medical student Magdalena Lublin.

The questions concerned contact with business, a smoking ban, a gym, computer support and much more besides.

When it came to IT support, Professor Hamsten didn’t mince his words:

“KI slaps its brow, you could say. This is a huge problem right now. Our own IT platform is sub-standard and security is poor. But we’re aware of this and are working on it. But then the county council’s own network must also work properly, but that’s up to them, not us.”

Medical student Michael Plattén raised the paradox that while it’s KI’s mission to promote health, there’s no smoking ban outdoors or a gym.

“We really should lead by example, and show that we take our own health seriously too,” he said.

There’ll be a gym, but not for another two or three years, promised the Vice-Chancellor, who also said that it would be impossible to ban smoking outdoors.

Biomedicine Master’s student Peter Solsjö, the moderator for the afternoon, wanted to see closer contacts with the business community – ideally some kind of corporate fair – to give KI students a better view of the entire labour market.

“Yes, that’s a good idea,” agreed Professor Hamsten. “In fact, a committee has been set up with the pro-Vice-Chancellor to look at things like how doctors and engineers in Huddinge can come together to learn from each other. Maybe we need some kind of common student union building.”

Afterwards, a dozen or so people remained behind to ask further questions.

Photo: Erik Cronberg