60 years with LTH, Lund University’s faculty of engineering and research
In 2021, LTH has been in existence for 60 years. Since 1969, LTH has been a faculty of Lund University. During this time, it has developed from faculty of one class of students to providing at least 43 different educational programs.
After the second world war, discussions began concerning the introduction of new universities within the county of Skåne. A motion was proposed by the Malmö City Council for both a business and a technical college. The engineering association of Skåne also made similar proposals and received further support from the management of the shipyard Kockums and Skånska Cement (now Skanska). The Royal Institute of Technology (KTH) in Stockholm and Chalmers University of Technology (CTH) in Gothenburg were the only university faculties of engineering that existed in Sweden during that time. Consequently, there were twice as many young men who were civil engineers in those cities than there were in Malmö.
Since the rector of Lund University shared a similar opinion, a committee was formed which proposed a new undergraduate program in Lund in 1957, with special courses in Malmö.
In 1960, the government decided to appoint a committee led by KTH’s rector Ragnar Woxén and a college, very similar to KTH, was subsequently formed. In the autumn term of 1961, the first class began consisting of 30 students studying a four-year technical physics course.
The college comprised six departments: technical physics, electrical engineering, mechanical engineering, road and water, architecture and chemistry. A new program was introduced each year (including two in 1965) so that all six began in that same year. The first professor at the college, appointed in 1961, was Bertram Broberg who also appointed its first rector.
Architect Klas Anselm was asked to design the buildings and SIAB was appointed as the main contractor. Woxén’s intention was that it should function as a technical college independent of Lund University. Attending the first class was a total of 30 students, including one woman, Inger-Lena Hultberg. As it initially had no premises of its own, the old primary school teacher-training college at the hospital was used for the purpose. Laboratory work was conducted in a building located behind the Zoological Museum.
During the early 1960’s and whilst the premises were still under construction, six different courses were introduced consecutively. In 1965, both the premises (except for the Chemistry Centre) and the course program were completed and on 28 October the college was inaugurated in the machine hall. At that time, 28 new professors were “mass-installed”. And, as with the very first class, a woman, Carin Boalt, was included in the group of professors. The number of freshmen was by this time 435.
LTH became Lund’s first cohesive campus situated within a park environment. Three of the departments were shared by the Faculty of Science. The premises covered 44,000 square meters housed within five buildings, all in the same strict brick architecture, after which the even larger Chemistry Centre was also added.
A student union, TLTH,was formed completely independent of the university. Initially, its headquarters were housed in a basement and an abandoned farmhouse was used for festivities. A popular activity of the technology students was “Data Date” as in 1967 when all the invited couples were paired via a computor program. With traditional antics, all freshmen are welcomed.With great press coverage in 1980, a freshman prank became famous when a delegation from Bahrain visited Lund´s new bathhouse.Only later did the public learn that the exotic Bahrain princes involved were students from the LTH freshmen fraternity.
In 1994, the Union building, the first new extension of any significance, was inaugurated. It was designed by Göran Månsson and Marianne Dahlbäck and comprised the union premises, a festivity room, an assembly hall, a restaurant and also the new college registrar “headquarters”.
Klas Anselm also participated with the creation of the fountain ”Fontänen” immediately adjacent to the lake, Sjön. Nowadays without water, it remains today as a symbol of the college. A new university library was built on campus, which, in the beginning of the twenty first century, was transformed to a study centre for the students of the college and to be joined later from the Mathematics annex situated close by.
During the 1960s, 548 civil engineers and architects graduated from LTH. However, according to the technology magazine ORDO, the number would have been much higher had not so many dropped out or been sent down due to poor results. Later, programs were introduced both for the students and for the teachers in order to reduce these numbers. With the exception of Architecture and Chemical Engineering, there was also a shortage of female students at the college. Over the years, the numbers have increased but generally rather slowly.
Faced with accusations of being too benevolent towards the business community, many professors at LTH expressed a desire to work within environmental protection and environmental research as well as development aid. This resulted in the inclusion of an additional educational program. Among the architects, radical elements appeared during the “68 wave”, however, at LTH these were rare events.
On 1 July 1969, LTH became incorporated within Lund University (LU) functioning as a technical faculty, something very much regretted by technologists and teachers alike. However, it became less so following an increase in elements of interdisciplinary science.
Resulting from discussions in 1984, it was decided to merge the two faculties: LTH and Natural Sciences. Mathematics, physics and chemistry were already divided between the two faculties. A common “area” should be formed each with its own rector. The two chancelleries were merged under the name LNTH with constructional engineering professor, Ove Pettersson, as principal rector, succeeded by chemist, Bertil Törnell. At the same time, the two faculties had their own dean (Skotte Mårtensson for LTH). In 1990, it was decided to abolish this co-ordination.
From the beginning of the 90’s, LTH has also trained engineers on a three-year program in Malmö and similarly in the year 2000 at what is called, Campus Helsingborg.
In the early 2000s, a meeting took place between rector Thomas Johannesson and Ingvar Kamprad. The result was a donation from the IKEA foundation which constituted the basis for the Ingvar Kamprad Design Centre. As a result, a course in industrial design was introduced, which in 2002 moved to new premises designed by the LTH-educated architect Gunilla Svensson. Its original style incorporated a concrete and larch wooden frame with large sections of glass.
Research
Over the years, research has been carried out at all 19 institutes and the importance of research concerning the college finances has grown significantly. Many innovations from LTH have since been further cultivated at the research village Ideon situated close by. Examples of innovations from LTH include medical ultrasound, developed by Helmut Hertz, who also had the idea for the inkjet printer, which however was developed commercially in other countries. Bluetooth, a radio technology named after the Viking king Harald Bluetooth developed amongst others by Sven Mattisson and Ericsson AB. Sven-Olof Öhrvik laid the foundation work at an early stage for today’s mobile telephony later continued by other computer scientists. Research on zero-energy housing, starting as early as the 1960’s by Bo Adamson. Sven-Gösta Nilsson, a mathematical physicist, who was predicted for a Nobel Prize for his calculations of particle orbits in the atomic nucleus. Later, Lars Samuelson and other nano-physicists specializing in atomic-scale nanowires, revolutionizing both solar cells and LED lighting. Technology within medical applications has also been developed here. At the Chemistry Centre, a centre for food science was created where beneficial intestinal bacteria have been developed for sour milk, amongst other food products.
In 2021, LTH will have 16 different civil engineering degree courses and programs for architects and industrial designers (all of five-year duration) as well as 5 programs for engineers at Campus Helsingborg, a degree program for fire engineers, two bachelor’s degree programs and a preparatory program in Helsingborg. In addition, 16 master’s degree programs (of 2-year duration) in English for primarily foreign students.
Text: Mats Nygren