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Sigbrit Franke |
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Sigbrit Franke is the head of the Swedish National Agency and the first woman to become Sweden’s University Chancellor. She has a long and extensive career behind her.
Born in northern Sweden, the daughter of a miner, she trained originally as a primary school teacher and then went on to study psychology in Umeå. After some time she took a doctorate in Education, the title of her thesis being “Evaluating University Teaching”. In 1978 she was appointed research fellow, became acting professor of Education in 1979, and was awarded the chair of Education in 1982. During the 1980s she chaired her department, was Dean of the faculty and held a guest professorship at Berkeley. In 1989 she became Vice President of Umeå University and President in 1992. She has also found the time to take a degree in psychology. As the head of the Swedish National Agency, Sigbrit Franke wants to encourage greater student influence, social and ethnic diversity and gender equality in higher education. She also wants to establish good cooperation with the Ministry of Education and the universities and other institutions of higher education. “My most important task is to safeguard the position of the students,” she says. |
