ReseaRch Quality assuRance foR the futuRe a ... - Lund University

Panel 17 – LTH | Building
should be vigilant and act to ensure that their institute remains vital,
innovative, and productive as the topic becomes more central to so many
other departments and disciplines.
The department’s goal of developing a second new area, green chemistry,
is more difficult to understand based on the written background information;
given the competencies of the department its contribution could be
only marginal to this field. However, the discussions during the site visit
revealed that the term green chemistry is a poor description of planned
new activities. Life cycle analysis would be a better term. Therefore, we
consider the plans to be realistic.
Grade: After the new information obtained, we grade the future plans as
very good.
4.7 Gender and equal opportunity issues
The percentage of women on the academic staff has decreased from 45%
in 2003 to 28% in 2007; this mainly reflects a decrease in the number of
female research fellows and researchers (from 4 to 0), that is, those with
the most unstable employment conditions. Slightly more than half of
the current doctoral students are female. Only 17% of the professors and
44% of the senior lectures are female. Thus, the department demonstrates
the usual gender composition of universities today: women are mainly
represented in junior and lower positions. The increasing portion of
employed female doctoral students (as much as 75% in 2007) is, however,
a sign of balancing development.
5. DEPARTMENT OF DESIGN SCIENCES
5.1 Overall assessment
The department consists of five divisions. It is evaluated by two panels.
Here the following three divisions were evaluated: Rehabilitation Technology,
Ergonomics and Aerosol Technology, and Industrial Design.
The divisions evaluated here consist of about three quarters of the total
personnel of the department. The divisions are in different phases of
development. The Division of Ergonomics and Aerosol Technology is a
well-established and well-known research unit. Rehabilitation engineering
also has a long and successful history in LU. On the other hand,
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