Figures and facts about SLU

Page reviewed:  08/06/2026

Here you will find a summary of SLU’s annual report for 2025.

  • The number of full-time students at SLU was 4,251, a slight increase compared with 2024. The forecast indicates that the targets for 2025–2027 will be met.

  • Just over 70 per cent of full-time students at SLU are women and just under 30 per cent are men. This applies at both undergraduate and Master’s level.

  • The number of students starting a programme at SLU in autumn 2025 decreased slightly compared with 2024.

  • In the international admissions round, the number of fee-paying students applying to and being admitted to programmes increased. However, the number of registered fee-paying students remained largely unchanged compared with autumn 2024, reflecting the difficulty of predicting how many will actually take up their places.

  • In the spring of 2025, SLU decided to launch a new Master of Science in Bioresource Systems Engineering, starting in the autumn of 2026.

  • SLU is one of nine higher education institutions participating in the government initiative on short courses for professionals focusing on the green transition. In 2025, eight professional short courses received funding for development and delivery under this initiative.

  • A new internal project on AI for teachers started at the beginning of the year and has attracted a total of 950 participants to various seminars, on-site and online.

  • The expansion of the veterinary nursing and veterinary medicine programmes continued. From 2025, all years of the veterinary nursing programme will be fully rolled out, and the veterinary medicine programme will be fully rolled out in 2028. In addition, the veterinary medicine programme was accredited to EAEVE standards in 2025.

  • The need for study support for students with disabilities continues to grow. The increase is particularly high for the group of students with neuropsychiatric disabilities, where the number of students with diagnoses has increased by 140 per cent since 2020 and by more than 800 per cent in the last ten years.
  • In 2025, SLU admitted 94 doctoral students, which is slightly fewer than in the previous year. Over the past five years, an annual average of 106 doctoral students were admitted.
  • During the same period, the number of active doctoral students has varied between 568 and 607. Around 47 per cent of active doctoral students were foreign.

  • Doctoral studentship is the predominant funding method, with 84 per cent of SLU’s doctoral students being employed by the university. The remainder have other forms of employment at SLU or with external organisations. The number of students receiving scholarships decreased during the reporting period.

  • Of the doctoral students, 87 per cent of women and 80 per cent of men were employed by SLU. When it comes to other forms of income, there are some differences between the sexes. However, it is difficult to draw any conclusions based on these differences, as they are small groups where some individuals may combine different funding types.

  • 93 doctoral degrees were awarded. This number is slightly lower than in 2024 and 2023, but higher than in previous years. 

  • Women are in the majority both in terms of the share of newly admitted doctoral students (57 per cent) and active doctoral students (59 per cent). Women were also in the majority among those who completed a doctorate (61 per cent). 
  • SLU’s scientific publication output increased by roughly 4 per cent between 2024 and 2025. In 2025, around 2,000 articles and reviews were published. The proportion of scientific articles that are among the 10 per cent most cited in their respective subject areas was slightly over 14 per cent.

  • In 2025, turnover in research and doctoral education totalled just over SEK 3.1 billion, with external funding accounting for 58 per cent. Grant and contract payments from external funders decreased by SEK 27 million compared with 2024. External funding came largely from research councils and scientific foundations, with Formas being the largest single funding body at just over SEK 340 million.

  • Interest in participating in the EU Framework Programme remained high. In 2025, 105 projects in Horizon 2020 and Horizon Europe (HEU) were fully or partially active at SLU. That year, SLU participated in 180 HEU applications, 47 of which were coordinated by SLU. In 2025, 19 new HEU projects were launched, 8 of which were coordinated by SLU.

  • The strategic recruitment initiative SLU Futures was further developed in 2025. As part of this initiative, a coordinated recruitment process was carried out for eleven associate senior lecturers in the three thematic areas of future sustainable crop production systems, resilient ecosystems and One Health. By the deadline, more than 370 applications had been received.

  • In 2025, work continued on strengthening SLU's research infrastructures of particular importance. The focus was on further developing research and environmental data infrastructure, improving e-infrastructure and increasing support for data management and making research data available. SLU also continued to participate in several national and international research infrastructures in collaboration with other higher education institutions and research funding bodies.

  • In 2025, SLU continued to conduct research of key importance to food security and the national food strategy. This research contributed to strengthening the productive capacity of agriculture and the food system in peacetime crises, heightened preparedness and, ultimately, war, in accordance with the government's mandate.

  • Work on open science intensified in 2025. SLU strengthened its national and international engagement through, among other things, participation in the European Open Science Cloud and membership of the Coalition for Advancing Research Assessment (CoARA). Work on open access to publications and research data was further developed, as was the application of SLU's policies on scientific publishing and data management. 
  • The long-term financial trend shows an increase in external funding, reflecting the continued demand for SLU’s environmental assessment services.

  • In 2025, environmental monitoring and assessment improved the accessibility of climate reporting statistics, conducted a new pilot programme for monitoring biodiversity in farmland, and updated the Swedish Red List.

  • For 2025, the government increased the appropriation to the Swedish National Forest Inventory by SEK 7 million. The funds have been used for data collection and measurements that underpin Sweden’s climate reporting, and to make the relevant statistics available more quickly and reliably.

  • SLU has contributed to the national work on environmental data in the Geodata Council, as well as through the development of SLU's environmental data catalogue and strengthened work on SLU's valuable data sets (High Value Data, HVD).

  • In 2025, SLU also strengthened its capacity to carry out environmental assessment in urban environments.

  • Furthermore, SLU’s environmental assessment programmes collaborated with several authorities to promote sustainable social development, health, and food security, while supporting a competitive Sweden.
  • A very high proportion of SLU's research, education and environmental monitoring and assessment is carried out in collaboration with various stakeholders, both public and private.

  • In the process of establishing the node for knowledge on sustainable food production in northern Sweden, collaboration with regional actors is an important tool. By establishing this centre, SLU can coordinate and showcase its expertise, strengthen the knowledge base for developing sustainable production systems, and provide a basis for societal actors’ work on the food strategy.

  • One third of SLU's scientific articles are co-published with researchers based in low- and middle-income countries. Of these articles, 19 per cent are highly cited, which is significantly higher than the SLU average of 14 per cent.

  • The SLU-led conference Agri4D 2025 brought together 440 participants from 40 countries, 200 of them in Uppsala, to discuss how climate change can be addressed in food systems.

  • The influx of innovative ideas from researchers and students continues to grow. In particular, ideas from students increased in 2025.
  • SLU had 3,296 full-time employees in 2025. Compared with 2024, this is an increase of 35 FTEs. 
  • SLU's staff numbers increased by 93 full-time employees over the period 2021–2025.

  • Over this period, the number of FTEs among research and teaching staff increased by 93.

  • The number of professors decreased by 25 FTEs over 2021–2025, corresponding to 11 per cent. 

  • Of SLU's 3,296 full-time employees in 2025, 56 per cent were women and 44 per cent were men.

  • Among research and teaching staff, the gender balance has become more even over time.

  • Among professors, 34 per cent were women and 66 per cent were men.
     
  • The average sickness absence rate was somewhat lower than in 2024. 
  • SLU has a turnover of SEK 4.8 billion and reports a surplus of SEK 81 million for 2025. The opening balance was SEK 694 million, resulting in a closing balance of SEK 775 million.

  • SLU continues to enjoy strong finances. The majority of the closing balance is held within the research reporting area, which accounts for SEK 623 million, or 81 per cent of the total. In addition, SLU has unspent grants totalling SEK 1,365 million.

  • Staff costs increased by 5 per cent, while premises costs remained largely unchanged. Meanwhile, other operating expenses decreased by 4 per cent compared with 2024.

  • The university maintains strong external funding, with grant and contract payments totalling nearly SEK 1.9 billion in 2025. Formas is by far the largest of SLU's external funding bodies. 
  • Intensive development work is underway on the premises and surroundings at SLU’s main campuses. This includes new campus plans for Alnarp and Umeå, as well as preparatory work for the tramway in Uppsala.

  • The result for SLU’s University Animal Hospital improved significantly in 2025, from SEK -30 million in 2024 to SEK +14 million in 2025. This was due to both increased patient volumes in the small animal clinic and higher appropriations under the public service agreement.

  • A major investment is underway to upgrade SLU's IT infrastructure, increasing performance and security.

  • SLU has advanced its position in the THE Impact Rankings, which assess how effectively the university’s activities align with the UN Sustainable Development Goals of Agenda 2030.

Printed copies of annual reports can be ordered and picked up from SLU’s service centre.

Contact