New situation regarding campus plans

An unexpected situation has arisen in connection with the plans to move parts of the School of Communication and Culture out of Kasernen and up to join the current Katrinebjerg departments in new premises at Katrinebjerg.

Foto Anders Trærup/AU Kommunikation

Dean Johnny Laursen was informed last week that for financial reasons, the two faculties NAT and TECH will be forced to withdraw from the agreement relating to their takeover of Kasernen. Here’s some background: Following a request by NAT and TECH to take over the premises at Kasernen, the senior management team decided in 2020 that the Faculty of Arts should gather its departments at Kasernen and Katrinebjerg in new premises at Katrinebjerg in 2025. The takeover of Kasernen and the construction of new premises at Katrinebjerg were part of a combined plan.

The new situation will affect the previous plans at NAT, TECH and ARTS, where the process involved in constructing new premises at Katrinebjerg is in full swing. For instance, a series of meetings have been planned at the School of Communication and Culture in the upcoming weeks. The dean has decided that the meetings of the vision groups to discuss the construction plans and other issues should go ahead, even though no-one knows whether the move will be carried out. At the moment, all options are open.

The situation raises a wide range of questions. The faculty management team will start by discussing the issue at their meeting on Thursday 29 April. It is not yet possible to say what will happen next, or when it will happen. The overall consequences for AU’s campus plans will be discussed by the university’s campus steering group.

“Of course it’s regrettable,” says Per Stounbjerg, Head of the School of Communication and Culture. He is disappointed that the news comes at a time when the faculty and school have already reached a relatively advanced stage of the planning process.

“We’ve invested a lot of hard work in this, and the new decision changes the whole foundation of what we’ve been doing so far. So we’ll need to pick ourselves up and dust ourselves down,” says Stounbjerg.

Johnny Laursen has told the school that he regrets the uncertainty that has arisen after all the effort invested in the vision plans by staff and students alike.

“The faculty now faces a completely open situation in terms of deciding our future campus plans. And of course we’ll be discussing this in detail with the school,” says Laursen.

The dean underlines that the three deans involved in this process are in agreement that the university must maintain its ambitions for close collaboration relating to the development of IT and digital expertise at all the faculties.

Read Nat and Tech will not be relocating to Kasernen after all