BSS
Before you submit a course proposal
We’re very happy that you’re considering offering a course under AU Summer University. Below you’ll find a number of things that might be useful to know, before you suggest your AU Summer University course to your institute.
Your options will vary based on affiliate institute, so before you start developing a course, it might be a good idea to contact your institute leader to hear if they’ll support you and whether or not they’re interested in hosting your course.
How to get started and general considerations
Do you have a good idea, but are you unsure how to proceed? Then please do contact us. We’ll help you and put you in contact with the right people.
Other than thinking about what kind of teaching you want and at what level you want it, there are a few things that make these courses different from the courses you normally teach and that you should consider in connection with the development of your course.
Target Audience
Who is the target audience for your course? Is it primarily external international students, is it current AU students or is it a mix? Overall, there are approximately 20% international students in 2017, but the distribution of these vary a lot from course to course and are everything from 90-100% external international students in some course to 100% current AU students in other courses.
What time
Another thing to consider is whether the course should take place in term 1 (early July) or term 2 (late July/early August). If your course is directed primarily towards international students, it’s our experience that bachelor courses in July are the ones with the largest international draw and primarily from overseas students. Term 2 attracts mostly Europeans – both at the candidate and bachelor level. AU students and Danish students from other universities pick courses in both terms.
The title of your course
Over the past years we’ve observed that the students often look at the courses with interesting titles that contain some good buzzwords. Course content needs to live up to its title of course, so there needs to be a clear connection, but we’re seeing an increase in interest for courses with great titles. They sell themselves. This is a factor that should be considered and one that we’ll be happy to advise on.
Registering a course
Registering a course at BSS is done via the faculty or the institute. That means that AU teachers can’t register courses to IU themselves, but only via their institute or faculty.
You need to contact your faculty or institute in the period from May 1 to September 1 in the year prior to the course.
Course descriptions should contain the same information as the regular semester courses do.
Deadline for registration of courses to IU is September 15.
Teaching
Since all Summer University courses are regular courses, they also follow common practice at the institute. It is possible however, that there are special considerations that might deviate from common practice due to room conditions or other limitations. No course is to be easier to take over the summer than in the regular semesters.
The following is a guideline for the common practice:
5 ECTS need a minimum of two weeks of teaching with a total workload of 125-150 hours.
10 ECTS need a minimum of three weeks of teaching with a total workload of 250-300 hours.
IU will find rooms for the courses based on the teacher’s wishes. It’s an aim to keep all teaching gathered at Campus Aarhus.
IU will provide information for those who are accepted about introduction day, Blackboard, digital exams, wi-fi access and other practical aspects.
Exam
IU is in cooperation with the administrative centre and teachers responsible for the planning and holding of exams and re-exams at AU Summer University, as well as the administration of grades and grade certificates.
Digital exams in wiseflow is now fully implemented at BSS and all tests are therefore conducted via this platform.
Process after the course has been registered
What happens now?
First and foremost the course description needs to be accepted by the board of studies in order for it to enter the course catalogue. In connection to this you’ll be asked to fill in a template for the course description, in case you didn’t already do so when the course was registered.
In addition your course will have its own page at www.au.dk/summeruniversity with text, illustration and contact information. For this page we’ll need a short, sales text and maybe an illustration. This page is primarily directed at the international students.
Once the course is in the course catalogue and the page is on the website, the course needs to be marketed in order to attract a many students for your course as possible.
Below you can read about all the things we do, but also what you can do yourself.
Marketing your course
What we do
Marketing is partly directed towards AU students and other Danish students, partly towards international students from AU’s partner universities and free-moving international students. We produce posters, postcards, conference folders as well as various merchandise for use in recruitment on an international level. In addition we also make ads for facebook, produce newsletters, make campaigns for study portals and upload courses to online databases, which attract students both internationally and from other Danish universities. We have regular contact with previous students and lecturers as well as the international coordinators at our partner universities. We also participate in and promote AU Summer University at EAIE, APAIE, NAFSA as well as Tilvalgsdagen, International Day and Kandidatdagen locally at AU. Additionally we also receive regular visits from partner universities where the courses are promoted. We primarily market AU Summer University as a brand and usually not the individual courses.
What can you do
It might be relevant to supplement our broad marketing strategy, with a more dedicated campaign targeted at certain audiences, which might be a specific university or within a narrow area of study if your course is directed at a specific audience. In that case it’ll require a determined effort from the lecturers or the international coordinator on a professional level to ensure that there’ll be an adequate number of applicants for the summer school. As a lecturer you could therefore use your international network and you could inform current students or send materials we produce to relevant colleagues abroad.
Conducting your course
When it has been confirmed that your course is being held, we’ll make sure that you can focus on the subject matter in regards to planning and executing your course and having a positive experience over the summer without having to think of the practical things. In the beginning of April you’ll receive more information about when you can access the course and the students on Blackboard and which room you’ll have assigned.
