The Disciplinary Board

Chapter 10, Section 3 of the Swedish Higher Education Ordinance (1993:100) stipulates that cases involving disciplinary measures must be dealt with by a disciplinary board. Every higher education institution must have a board of this kind.

The Disciplinary Board must consist of the vice-chancellor as chair, a legally qualified member who must hold or have held tenure as a judge, and a representative of the teaching staff at the higher education institution. The students at the higher education institution shall be entitled to representation on the board by two members.

Members of the BTH Disciplinary Board

Chair
Vice-Chancellor Mats Viberg

Legally qualified members
Judge Per-Anders Toresten, full member
Judge Lise-Lotte Bäckström, alternate member

Teaching staff representatives
Andreas Arnesson, full member
Boel Sandström, alternate member

Student representatives
Christopher Hellryd, full member
Moa Lanzén, alternate member

Reporting clerk/secretary
Ulrika Nilsson, permanent
Per-Olof Gunnarsson, alternate

Misdemeanours

Chapter 10 of the Swedish Higher Education Ordinance (HF) contains regulations about disciplinary measures for students.

The Disciplinary Board deals with cases where the following misdemeanours have been committed:

1. Using non-permissible aids or other measures to mislead the assessment of a student’s performance (cheating).
2. Disturbing or obstructing teaching, examinations or other activities as part of courses and programmes at the university.
3. Disturbing activities at the university’s library or other establishment at the university.
4. Subjecting another student or university employee to harassment.

The vice-chancellor must be promptly notified of any well-founded suspicion of such misdemeanours.

The disciplinary process

The vice-chancellor must launch an investigation into any complaints of misdemeanour. The Vice-Chancellor’s Office has been tasked with conducting disciplinary investigations. The process begins with notifying the student that they are suspected of a misdemeanour. The student is then given the chance to respond to the information stated in the complaint. The person to have submitted the complaint may be asked to provide a supplementary statement, depending on the nature of the details submitted by the suspected student during the disciplinary interview.

Once the case has been investigated, the vice-chancellor will be asked to take a decision regarding any further actions. The vice-chancellor can take the decision to dismiss the case without further action, issue a formal warning, or refer the case to the Disciplinary Board for review.

If the case is dismissed without further action or a warning is issued

The student will be informed of the decision.

If the vice-chancellor takes the decision to issue a warning, the student is entitled to request that the case be submitted to the Disciplinary Board for review. The student must be notified of this right (Chapter 10, Sections 9–10, HF).
If the complaint is submitted to the Disciplinary Board for review, the Board must provide the student with an opportunity to issue a statement concerning the complaint. If the vice-chancellor believes it to be significant to the outcome, they may require other people to submit information related to the case. The student is entitled to be present when others address the Board, unless there are special grounds to the contrary (Chapter 10, Section 11, HF).

If a matter is referred to the Disciplinary Board, the vice-chancellor may, after consultation with the legally qualified member, order the interlocutory suspension of the student with immediate effect from activities at the higher education institution (Chapter 10, Section 14, HF). The decision to issue an interlocutory suspension will be in force until the case has been heard by the Disciplinary Board, however for a maximum of one month.

If disciplinary action is taken

A decision to suspend will take immediate effect, unless otherwise stated in the decision (Chapter 10, Section 12, HF). The affected teachers, department or equivalent will be notified of the decision. When the decision to suspend a student has been taken, the IT and Facilities Office, library, Academic and Administration Support Office, Student Affairs Office and the Swedish Board of Student Finance (CSN) will be notified (in accordance with Chapter 10, Section 13, HF).

When the student is notified of the warning or suspension, they must be informed about their right to appeal the decision and the appeals process.