Our ambition is to develop our broad base in education while developing a few strong profiles in research. Our culture is characterised by openness, i.e., to have an open and warm climate between students and faculty, to work in co-operation with partners in the local community as well as internationally, to have open and easy contacts across academic disciplines. We promote work in multidisciplinary groups in order to offer students and partners broad perspectives.

Apart from training teachers, a tradition that dates back 150 years, the University offers 50 programmes and 700 courses in the fields of the humanities, health and caring sciences, natural sciences, social sciences, teaching and engineering.

Karlstad University is in the process of a major reorganization. As of January 2006, four new faculties will take the place of the present ten divisions, and the administrative and technical support units will operate in new ways.

At Karlstad University students are given the opportunity to create a foundation for their future lives through study. Here they will learn to seek out knowledge and examine, review and apply it now and in the future. Education is to be of benefit to the individual, for his or her opportunities on the labour market and for society as a whole.

Much of the research at the University is multidisciplinary. It would seem to be self-evident that different types of competence are needed to find solutions to difficult problems. Further, the challenges facing researchers today often lie in the borderland between traditional branches of science. However, the University's research is based on activities within the various disciplines.

Karlstad University participates in the OECD-project "Supporting the Contribution of Higher Education Institutions to Regional Development".