University of Skovde

The University of Skövde (in Swedish: Högskolan i Skövde, HIS) is a state university in Skövde, Sweden. The University of Skövde was granted university status in 1983 and is now an academic institution with general and specialised educational programmes in topics like Business, Health, Biomedicine and Computer game design. Research, education, and PhD training at the university are divided on four schools; Bioscience, Business, Health and Education, Engineering Science, and Informatics. The university has approximately 9,000 students (4,000 FTE) in 50 undergraduate and 10 graduate programmes.

The foundation for the university was laid in the 1970s by an act of the Swedish Parliament. The university was established in 1977. In its first year, the university offered 300 educational places. University status was achieved in 1983. The university moved to new premises in the mid 1980s in order to accommodate for a growing student body. The new campus was housed in the barracks of the former Göta Logistic Corps (T 2) in central Skövde. In the following decade, new buildings were added to the campus as the university grew in student count and the integration of the, until then, separate School of Health Sciences (Swedish: Hälsohögskolan) as the Institute for Health Sciences.

In later years, the university has established itself as a modern higher education institution with programmes video game development, bioinformatics, and data science. Something that has contributed to establishing Skövde and the university as a hub for Swedish computer game development with initiatives like Sweden Game Arena, and for research and development in IT with initiatives like the start-up incubator Gothia Science Park, considered to be an interface for science and local business.

Ranking

In a quality assessment study of Swedish higher education conducted by the Swedish Higher Education Authority, the university ranked seventh in Sweden.

Schools

The university's operational activities are organised into five thematic institutions:

• The School of Bioscience
• The School of Business
• The School of Health and Education
• The School of Engineering Science
• The School of Informatics