Governing documents and decision-making

Governing documents

SLU operations are governed by both external and internal governing documents.

External governing documents

These include laws, ordinances and other provisions, such as the Higher Education Act (1992:1434), the Higher Education Ordinance (1993:100) and the Ordinance for the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences (1993:221).

This also includes parts of EU legislation, such as the General Data Protection Regulation.

The appropriation directions for SLU are the government's most important instrument for directing SLU's operations. In the second half of December each year, the government issues the appropriation directions for the following financial year.

Internal governing documents

Internal governing documents are documents approved by a body or senior official at SLU. As a rule, governing documents are approved by the SLU Board, the vice-chancellor, the chief operating officer, a faculty board or a dean.

There are six types of internal governing documents at SLU: regulation, strategy, policy, plan, rule and procedure.

• SLU regulations (in Swedish only)
  
  
• List of internal governing documents (in Swedish, organised into 11 subject areas). If you need access to a document, please contact registrator@slu.se.  

Decision-making

Decisions at SLU can be taken by an individual decision-maker or by a decision-making body. The central decision-making bodies are the SLU Board, the vice-chancellor and the chief operating officer.

They have the power to take decisions of varying degrees that apply to the whole university. The Higher Education Ordinance or one of SLU’s delegations of authority stipulate who is authorised to decide on a matter:

• The SLU Board's delegation of authority (in Swedish only)
  The SLU Board decides on overarching issues such as the university's strategic direction, organisation and the annual allocation of government funding.
  
  
• The vice-chancellor's delegation of authority (in Swedish only)
  The vice-chancellor decides on strategic and operational matters concerning university operations.
  
  
• The chief operating officer's delegation of authority (in Swedish only)
  The chief operating officer takes decisions relating to the university administration.