Dear all

The time has come for the dean’s traditional Christmas message. As always, I hope that the true spirit of a peaceful Christmas will now descend on us all, and we can look forward to 2017 with confidence. We might not get a white Christmas in Denmark this year (the chance of this happening is less than 2%), but even so the year is ending on a positive note for the Faculty of Arts.

We completed some pretty major projects in 2016, and there were a great number of reforms in the research and education sector. The top priority for the faculty has been the big task of developing long-term plans for dealing with the academic and financial consequences of the government’s degree programme resizing initiative, and for coping with the cuts that have been imposed on the education sector in general.

As you know, we plan to continue to appoint new permanent academic staff. But staff will also be leaving us (either to take up other positions, or because they are retiring). The plan is that the two things combined should result in a gradual, long-term net reduction in the number of permanent academic staff between now and 2023. We expect to make further necessary cuts by saving on the costs of administration and buildings, and by implementing the results of the review of our degree programmes.

Another important factor in our long-term planning concerns the university’s strategic funds, which have been granted to the faculty to give our language degree programmes a boost, to appoint new staff while adjusting to the degree programme resizing initiative, and to launch the National Centre for School Research. And finally, it looks as if we can continue our excellent, steady growth in terms of attracting research funding – something which has been going on for several years now.

In other words, we can face 2017 and indeed the years to come with confidence. The faculty continues to improve its results in terms of research and education, and this has a positive effect on the financial situation of our faculty and schools alike. We made a profit of DKK 14 million in 2015, which can be reserved for use on a rainy day. We also expect to make a profit in 2016, and this will bring us up to the maximum figure which the board will allow us to carry forward. So the faculty now has a very healthy safety margin.

Another reason why we can face the future with confidence is that great efforts have been made to get the students to register for exams, as required by the study progress reform – including many students who started their degree programmes a long time ago. The study progress reform is still a huge challenge. A good deal of the financing provided for the education sector now depends on the students finishing their degrees on time, so the new demands are here to stay. But so far the faculty’s students and staff have coped very well. The faculty management team know that everyone has made a great effort, and people outside the faculty also have great respect for what we have achieved. And the same thing is true of the faculty’s contribution to the institutional accreditation process. I’d like to thank all the staff and students who have contributed so much to the careful preparations and taken part in all the meetings.

While our academic staff have been teaching, studying, supervising, examining, publishing, communicating, applying for external funding and much else besides, the management have been involved not only in dealing with the study progress reform and the degree programme resizing initiative, but also in developing a national language strategy – and in giving AU’s language degree programmes a boost.

The faculty, students and staff at the School of Communication and Culture – and at Aarhus BSS and BCOM – have worked very hard to implement the planned transfer of our business language programmes to the Faculty of Arts. It has been a real pleasure to witness the constructive spirit in which the preparations have been carried out; and I am happy to report that our application for the merger of these language degree programmes was granted recently by the Danish Agency for Science and Higher Education.

Students who are currently doing a degree programme in business languages will complete their studies at Aarhus BSS; but the administrative and academic staff involved will be transferred to the Faculty of Arts with effect from 1 January 2017. We look forward to working with you. Welcome to the Faculty of Arts!

When parts of Aarhus BSS move out of the Nobel Park in 2017, CUDiM on Paludan Müllersvej and the Aarhus branch of the Danish School of Education at Trøjborg can move in to replace them. This will enable the Faculty of Arts to gather more of our staff and students in a part of the Aarhus campus in which major investments have been made to improve the study environment, the library and the outdoor environment. We look forward to this, too.

The political initiatives we are expecting in 2017 include what’s known as the taximeter reform and a governance review, and in early 2017 the national language strategy is expected as well. There will also be a major evaluation of our PhD initiatives during the past decade. The merger of the State and University Library with the Royal Library has also led to new issues which the university will have to deal with in the year that lies ahead. We are convinced of the importance of these libraries in terms of research support and the study environment. So we will undoubtedly find good solutions to any problems that may arise.

And in general we have a great deal to look forward to next year – a very special year for anyone working and studying at the Aarhus campus, because Aarhus is a European Capital of Culture in 2017. This will lead to a wide range of projects developed in close collaboration with researchers and students at the Faculty of Arts. And finally, it’s worth adding that the university has started a process with a view to collecting visions for campus 2.0. We have plenty of people with a lively imagination at the Faculty of Arts, and I hope that you will give us your ideas about the future campus.

I enjoyed my visits to the School of Culture and Society, the Danish School of Education and our Administration Centre in December. A strong sense of teamwork and realism prevailed, as well as a calm approach to meeting the challenges that face us. This bodes very well for the future. I look forward to my meetings with the School of Communication and Culture and CUDiM in January. But at the moment I’m looking forward most of all to the spirit of Christmas descending on us all – and I am sure that you feel the same.

A very happy Christmas to you all.

With best wishes
Johnny