Ingegerd Palmér, former Vice-Chancellor, and Margareta Groth, former doctoral student at the Doctoral School.
15 September 2025
30 years since Sweden's first Doctoral School for women started in Luleå
In September 1995, Luleå University of Technology started Sweden's first Doctoral School for women. It was an important step to increase gender equality in academia and create better conditions for women as doctoral students, researchers and teachers.
The Doctoral School was a three-year project and brought together fifteen women who were doctoral students in the then nine departments of the Faculty of Science and Technology. The aim was to increase the number of women as research supervisors, teachers and leaders in the technical sector and to strengthen the recruitment of women to technical education and research.
Luleå at the forefront
Ingegerd Palmér was Vice-Chancellor at the time and one of the forces behind the Doctoral School, which was the country's first for women and also placed at a technical faculty.
“The background was that we had few women in leading positions. One reason was that not many women were doing doctorates. This was a time when gender equality issues began to get more and more focus and Luleå University of Technology was far ahead”, says Ingegerd Palmér.
“What pleases me most is that the Faculty of Science and Technology played a leading role. They wanted the opportunity to recruit more.”
Got the courage to dare
The doctoral students had their regular research at their respective departments. They gathered for joint courses, seminars, development projects and exchanges of experience. Margareta Groth, who is now Head of the Department of Engineering Sciences and Mathematics (TVM), was one of the accepted doctoral students.
“The Doctoral School gave me a lot. A sense of security in myself as an individual and, above all, the opportunity to dare to do things. To dare to be brave in my professional practice, my career and my leadership”, says Margareta Groth.
Leadership in focus
With the Doctoral School, the university wanted to help develop a model for well-functioning doctoral education that looked at the individual doctoral student's conditions and needs. The overarching theme of the Doctoral School was 'competence for leadership in research organisations'. The choice of theme and content was a conscious attempt to take a different and new approach.
“We wanted to bring leadership development into the training program. It was not so common at the time to think about leadership skills in doctoral education”, explains Ingegerd Palmér.
The 30th anniversary was celebrated with a reunion at Luleå University of Technology where Ingegerd Palmér and Margareta Groth participated together with several of the Doctoral School's former doctoral students and others involved.
Published:
Updated: