The dividend from these shares is to form the basis of a prize awarded to “a person who is making, or who has made, a major contribution to education and its development at Linköping University, with a lasting effect on student learning.”
“Linköping University is to be a pioneer and role model, and this is the case also with respect to encouraging and rewarding good teachers. The teachers at a university are just as important as the researchers. The most important thing that a university does is to educate people, and teachers who stimulate others to learn are worthy of all the encouragement we can give them,” says Ingemar Ingemarsson.
The Ingemar Ingemarsson Prize is to be awarded once a year, preferably during the academic celebration in which new doctors are promoted and professors installed.
“I am extremely happy and grateful for the prize and the fact that we can make the award at the academic celebration. This means that it is not just a festival for newly promoted doctors, newly installed professors and honorary doctors, but also a time when we focus on our talented teachers. It will be a celebration for the complete academic world,” says Helen Dannetun, vice-chancellor at Linköping University.
“I haven’t seen anything similar to the Ingemar Ingemarsson Prize in the university world. The prize will allow us to reward commitment, teaching expertise and the achievement of lasting results. Being chosen to award the prize is a recognition of the excellent work we do at LiU,” says Göran Hessling, previously senior adviser at Linköping University. He has participated in the work to draw up the foundation deed, and is secretary of the foundation board.
The amount of the annual prize will depend on the bank’s ability to manage the share capital.
Opportunity to take a sabbatical
“We hope that it will be approximately one year’s salary, so that teachers are given the same opportunity that many researchers have to take a sabbatical, and possibly spend time at a university abroad. There are no requirements associated with the prize, but I would like to see the money used for betterment,” says Ingemar Ingemarsson.
Candidates for the prize may be nominated by students, employees, colleagues or collaboration partners of Linköping University. A prize committee will then review the candidates and chooses the best ones. The prize winner will be selected by the board of the newly established Ingemar Ingemarsson Foundation for Higher Education. The board of the foundation currently comprises LiU professors Mille Millnert, Kajsa Ellegård and Mats Hammar.
Ingemar Ingemarsson
professor emeritus in information theory, Linköping University
Ingemar Ingemarsson founded the medical technology company Sectra AB in 1978, together with three students. The company now has more than 600 employees and is listed on the Stockholm stock exchange. He has worked extensively through the years to develop education, in particular education in engineering, and to encourage more women to enter technical professions. He was a pioneer within problem-based learning, PBL, and was principal secretary of the Council for the Renewal of Higher Education. He was also involved in the CDIO initiative, in which engineers in training learn to work in situations that are close to the day-to-day reality of the profession. He was also a driving force behind the new IT programme, which when it started in 1995 had as many as 35% women applicants.
As early as 2005, Ingemar and Margareta Ingemarsson established a foundation with the aim of contributing to projects that stimulate developments in educational theory within the Swedish schools system. Awards are made every other year, and have most often been given in recognition of work in the younger age groups. The Margareta and Ingemar Ingemarsson Foundation made six awards in 2016 with a total value of more than SEK 500,000.
