04 April 2025

Linköping University is celebrating its 50th birthday and this will be highlighted in various ways throughout the year. In May, LiU will be celebrating in earnest during an intensive party week with lectures, a festival and a birthday reception. King Carl XVI Gustaf, who inaugurated the university in 1975, is the guest of honour.

The Swedish king and queen in a carriage
In May 2023, the King visited Linköping as part of the celebrations of his 50 years on the throne. Now he is coming to celebrate LiU’s 50 years as a university. Photographer: Clément Morin/Kungl. Hovstaterna

The idea of a university in Linköping had long been discussed and in the 1960s it began to take shape. On 28 May 1975, Linköping University – the sixth in Sweden – was inaugurated in the presence of the King.

Promotion Linköpings domkyrka 1975.
King Carl XVI Gustaf at the 1975 doctoral conferment..Photographer: Arkivbild Linköpings universitet
Celebrations will take place throughout the whole of 2025. In May, LiU will give a little extra for an entire week that will begin with the Academic Celebrations, in an unusually festive form, and end with the Nordic Student Singers’ Summit. Many of the events are open to the public, including the birthday reception at Studenthuset on Campus Valla on 26 May, when the King will make a speech.

“We are very happy that King Carl XVI Gustaf wants to pay us a visit. A lot has happened since the inauguration of Linköping University 50 years ago and we want to show that we are continuing to develop through innovative education and excellent research. LiU is the university with the courage to think freely and innovate,” says Vice-Chancellor Jan-Ingvar Jönsson of Linköping University.

During his visit the King will be shown the National Academic Infrastructure for Supercomputing in Sweden (NAISS). He will also be given an insight into several of LiU’s leading research areas such as AI, circular economy, treatment of mental health problems and climate policy research. The visit also includes a walk through the sculpture park at Campus Valla with representatives of Linköping University’s student unions and a ride on the self-driving bus.

Translation: Simon Phillips


50 years of free thinking shaping the future

Since its inception, LiU has worked to contribute to solutions to contemporary challenges through its highly ranked education, boundary-breaking research and collaboration with societal actors in many sectors. With the power of almost 50,000 students and co-workers, there is no need to be complacent, so we will continue to think freely and innovate.

More information about the celebrations

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