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Fig. 1. General Outline of the present Master of Science in Engineering Curriculae at KTH. The 
horizontal lines divide the students into groups following the same curriculae. 
In the first and second year emphasis is put on 
mathematics, mathematical statistics, numerical 
analysis, computing, informatics, physics, 
mechanics, but basic courses in engineering and 
applications are also given, so as to introduce the 
students into the subjects of their future selectives 
(branches). It is typical that each school has 
designed their own contents of courses in 
mathematics, calculus, etc. The teaching is given by 
the departments of mathematics, physics, 
numerical analysis, mechanics. The boards of the 
schools decide the compositions of the curriculae, 
budgets, and general policy. The schools "buy" 
teaching from the departments, which "deliver" the 
services according to the specifications. 
The system of "buying" and "selling" teaching has 
lead to a situation where e.g. the departments of 
mathematics and physics teach several different 
courses with almost the same contents to different 
schools. It is realized that teaching the 
fundamentals of sciences and mathematics could be 
done more cost-effective and with a better quality if 
students from several schools followed the same 
courses. 
There has also been a clear tendency that the boards 
of the schools have favoured their own departments, 
ie. they prefer to include more courses from applied 
disciplines in the curriculum, rather than buying 
courses from departments of other schools. The 
members of the board represent many different 
categories: teachers, undergraduate students, PhD 
students, employees, and external representatives of 
the profession. No one group can have a majority of 
votes. In this system, and particularily in Sweden, 
everybody wants to make everybody happy. 
Department heads propose new courses, the board 
says yes, equal distribution of money, etc. leads to a 
large number of small courses in applied subjects. 
291 
Students get a splintered and divided impression of 
the knowledge communicated to them. There is, 
however, big variation between the schools in this 
respect. The School of surveying has been able to 
avoid splinting the curriculum into too many and too 
small courses. 
NEW POLICY FOR CURRICULAE AT KTH 
We live in a changing society. The development is 
faster now than before. New needs and problems will 
present themselves more frequently in the future 
than today. Industry and government 
representatives talk about life-long continued 
learning. Universities should teach for competence 
rather than profession. To meet the future needs and 
requirements on engineers, KTH has decided a new 
general structure of curriculae. 
The new policy says that emphasis will be on 
fundamentals, more mathematics, physics and 
computer science. More about the role of engineering 
in society, i.e. environmental issues, economy, 
languages (Swedish is a small language), resources, 
management. Less of applications, and less of 
training of professional skills. A few large courses, 
rather than many small ones. 
The new policy will make it possible for the students 
to change from one school to another, and to select 
optional courses up to certain number of credit 
points and include them in their curriculum. The 
diploma project report will be of higher quality and 
comparable to a MSc thesis. 
The first 1 - 1,5 years of study will be a base program 
in mathematics and science. There will be only two 
or three such programs. The next 1-1,5 years will be 
a base program in a school of engineering. There 
will be 11 - 12 such programs. The last part of the 
curriculum is a competence program, which