“We now have an Advisory Board with knowledge of a wide range of university-related subjects, and this board can provide us with advice, ideas and international points of view on what we do”, says Dean Mette Thunø, who is very satisfied with the first meeting. 

It is already clear that this will result in annual sparring with the university managers, academic staff and business people on the Advisory Board, and that a large knowledge resource has been established that can be drawn on.  Several members offered to help the faculty management team with their knowledge and skills outside the annual meetings if they need sparring or are interested in cooperation in the areas the international advisers have particular insight into.

“This is something we will make use of”, says Mette Thunø, seeing several interesting opportunities –  for example, for receiving help to develop knowledge exchange at Arts, and also for the academic environments to participate in various ways.

 One of the important points the management took away from the first meeting is that there is no need for modesty.

 “Our self-perception was challenged by the members of the Advisory Board, who told us that we have a number of fantastic opportunities and a very strong faculty which we should be proud of – it was very inspiring”, says the dean.

Prior to the first meeting, the ten members had read Aarhus University’s strategy, a fact sheet on Arts and general information about Aarhus University – and they were well-prepared when they arrived. As was the faculty management team, who had planned a tight schedule for the meeting, which took place over two days.

“It was a start-up meeting where the aim was to get to know each other, but the plan is to meet up annually and discuss the strategic lines and subjects relevant to education, research, knowledge exchange and researcher talent development”, explains Mette Thunø.

Facts:

Advisory Board

The Advisory Board functions as an advisory unit for Arts, and its purpose is to provide the faculty management with input on researcher talent development, innovation, digital humanities, practice-based teaching and research, new methods of teaching, internationalisation, language policy and recruitment. 

The members of the Advisory Board

The 11 members of Arts’ Advisory Board have agreed to provide input for the development of the faculty and its institutes and centres, initially for three years but with the possibility of extension. 

• Mag. Gunther Abuja
  CEO Austrian Centre for Language Competence
  Austria
• Prof.dr. Wiljan van den Akker
  Dean of Humanities
  Utrecht University
  Holland
• Pro-Rector Astri Andresen
  Pro-Rector for Internationalization
  University of Bergen
  Norway
• Professor Sheila Anderson
  Centre for e-Research, Department of Digital Humanities
  King's College London
  UK
• Professor Ronald Barnett
  Emeritus Professor of Higher Education
  University of London Institute of Education
  UK
• Professor Maurice Biriotti
  CEO of SHM Ltd, London
  UK
• Bolette Christensen
  CEO/director, the Child Fund Alliance, Denmark (Børnefonden)
  Denmark
• Professor Janis Jefferies
  Professor of visual arts
  Goldsmiths, University of London
  UK
• Phillip Morris
  Business Development Manager, Arts and Humanities
  University of York
  UK
• Professor Roger Säljö
  Dean, Faculty of Education
  University of Gothenburg
  Sweden
• Professor Andrew Thompson
  Chair in History
  University of Exeter
  UK