The Jane and Dan Olsson Foundation for Science is donating SEK 10.6 million to the School of Business, Economics and Law at the University of Gothenburg. The donation is a way to mark the centenary of the School of Business, Economics and Law and will be used for a three-year project to give business and law students the digitalisation and AI skills required when professional roles and organisations evolve.
To meet society's knowledge needs as regards digitalisation and AI, leading digital excellence needs to become a part of all university courses rather than just the traditional IT-related ones. The roles and work tasks that business and law students will be expected to shoulder in their future professional lives are evolving. The ability to manage and analyse large data sets will become increasingly important, as will the ability to manage risks and opportunities.
"The business and legal professionals of the future need not be IT experts, but they do need to embrace, understand and leverage new technologies, emerging opportunities for innovative developments and the risks that these disruptive changes entail," says Per Cramér, Dean of the School of Business, Economics and Law.
Several successful initiatives are already under way at the School in which researchers use technically advanced methods and tools for data analysis, but this type of activity remains relatively rare in the School's courses.
"This donation will able us to hone our teaching staff's skills and provide them with the right tools to educate students. The skills needed as a result of digitalisation include not only the new work methods that students will encounter in their professional lives, but also the ethical, legal, technical and strategic considerations that modern organisations need to take into account," says Mari Paananen, Associate Professor and Project Manager for the initiative.
"The School already has a strong standing in the field of AI and digitalisation, and thanks to the donation from the Jane and Dan Olsson Foundation for Science, we'll be able to develop a leading environment for applied AI-based research and education in business, economics and law," says Per Cramér.
