Last Tuesday, November 4^th, after lengthy discussions of the so-called Scaling Model, the Ministry of education and Science and the Danish universities finally reached an agreement regarding the limitation of the number of new students admitted into the higher educations.

The new agreement, which, as its starting point, maintains that scaling must be based upon unemployment data for graduands with Master´s degrees, will be phased in from 2015 to 2018, starting at BA level.  The calculated framework for this dimensioning will be 3500 studentships, on national basis.  The phase-in of the reduction at MA level will then be carried out from 2018 to 2020.

The new model contains a larger degree of `framework management´ and flexibility, when it comes to how the universities are to implement the reduction of the number of studentships. New elements have been added, which may make the model more flexible than it was before. However, we still need further clarification of how these elements are to be interpreted.  

For the Faculty of Arts, several points have yet to be clarified, as part of the ongoing discussions between AU and the ministry, regarding the concrete implementation of the model. We have previously pointed out that it would be unwise to calculate a reduction factor, at BA level, for those MA that have no BA program with legal right of admission. This would be contradictory to the very conditions upon which the dimensioning model itself is based.

This is especially true for those MA programmes at EDU that do not recruit their students from AU, but instead, as part of their efforts to secure consistency flexibility in the educational system, recruit their students from university colleges, etc. Not until this problem has been sufficiently clarified will it be possible to assess the consequences of the dimensioning agreement.

A similar problem applies to Theology, which is found in the `classical humanities´ group, and which has a certain degree of unemployment among its graduands, due to the fact that theologians are required to attend a pastoral seminar, before being able to apply for priesthood. Surveys show that we can expect a shortage of priests in the future.  This is also one of the questions that must be discussed with the ministry.

I am pleased to see that the phase-in will be strung out over several years. The increased flexibility is also a positive thing, even though we are still dealing with a very heave and bureaucratic regulation plan, which still contains quite a few barriers, with regards to flexibility and competitions between universities, as far as the quality of educations is concerned.

I hope that the framework management can be carried even further, as a result of cooperation between the ministry and the Danish universities. This should happen in connection with the announced evaluation of the model (after a 3-year period), if not before.  However, there is no denying that AU is faced with massive, long-term challenged, due to this intervention. We will, of course, continue to keep you informed, as the negotiations with the ministry progress.