Johnny Laursen has been head of the Graduate School, Arts for three years. During this period he has united the three previous graduate schools (for the humanities, theology and the school of education) under a single banner. In 2011 the Faculty of Arts was the only main academic area at Aarhus University which decided to appoint a head of graduate school who was not also a vice-dean:

“We decided to invest extra efforts in the establishment of a single school after the merger. Johnny Laursen had great experience as a graduate school head, and he has managed to build up a school which is highly respected both in Denmark and abroad. The merger of the old schools succeeded, and the decision to appoint a vice-dean as the head of the school was taken to bring the Faculty of Arts into line with the other main academic areas,” says Dean Mette Thunø.

A diverse graduate school

The Graduate School, Arts is now a single school with joint standards in all subjects. Johnny Laursen underlines that the school shares the same understanding of quality, the same demands with regard to admission, and the same expectations with regard to the level of a PhD dissertation – all helping to raise the school to its current position. But the diversity of the school also makes it unique:

“We’ve got the traditional five plus three system, but we’ve also got the four plus four system, which is relatively new for the faculty. And we have an increasing proportion of international PhD students, as well as sharing double and joint degrees with other universities,” he explains.

Room for experiments

The school will have about 260 registered PhD students and eight PhD programmes when the vice-dean takes the helm. Anne Marie Pahuus knows that it’s a big responsibility, but she’s confident about the future:

“I’ve been working alongside Johnny Laursen on the Talent Development Committee, as well as being highly involved in the task of developing the school. We have a strong graduate school with room to experiment with the way we do things, transcending subject boundaries and finding the model that suits our subject environments best. Our PhD programme directors and supervisors are all highly committed experts, and I look forward to working even more closely with them,” she says.

International tasks for AU

Johnny Laursen will be taking up a position as associate professor of history at the Department of Culture and Society, as well as continuing to deal with a range of international tasks for AU – including the Horizon 2020 programme and the Coimbra Group of European universities.

“These are all fascinating tasks, but I will miss having such good contact with the faculty’s subject environments and all the enthusiastic individuals I’ve worked with during my years as head of the graduate school – including programme directors, assessment committees, supervisors and PhD students,” concludes Johnny Laursen.

See: Three-year extension for faculty management team