Strength through collaboration

Today, more and more educational institutions use benchmarking and participate in strategic collaborations with similar institutions to exchange experiences and learn from one another. Since 2012, Aarhus BSS has engaged in a benchmarking collaboration with the School of Business, Economics and Law at the University of Gothenburg (HGU), and in 2012, the Faculty of Economics and Business, University of Groningen (FEB Groningen) joined the collaboration.

The first joint meeting between the three institutions took place on 3 and 4 October 2019. Here members of the faculty management teams were to discuss and exchange experiences within two overall themes, namely Preparing students for the international job market and Attracting and retaining international faculty members.

Same challenges - common solutions

Just like Aarhus BSS, HGU and FEB Groningen are AACSB and EQUIS accredited and have a broad academic expertise. In addition, all three are public institutions and part of a reputable university. Due to the many similarities, they face many of the same challenges and will often be able to find common solutions.

At the meeting, each institution thus presented their current situation and key challenges within each theme, but also solutions and specific initiatives. Head of the Department of Management Jacob Kjær Eskildsen gave an account of the initiatives introduced at Aarhus BSS to recruit and retain international employees. He returns from the benchmarking meeting with a positive impression, as the meeting focused on making active use of one another and finding solutions that will benefit everyone:

“In future, we would like to draw more on each other in relation to assessment committees, where it is a clear advantage that the members know and understand the criteria we use,” he says. “Up to the next visit, we will be exchanging employment criteria for different positions so that we can learn from each other in this area as well. We are also working to expand our collaboration regarding PhD students making easier for them to take PhD courses and go for short stays at the collaborating institutions,” he concludes.

Facts

• The meeting was the seventh benchmark meeting between Aarhus BSS and HGU, and the first meeting attended by FEB Groningen.
• Participants from Aarhus BSS included the dean, the vice-dean for education, the administrative centre manager and the heads of the departments of Economics and Business Economics, Management and Business Development and Technology.
• The next benchmarking meeting will take place at Aarhus BSS in the autumn of 2020.

Would you like to know more?

If you would like to know more about the benchmarking activities at Aarhus BSS, please contact:

Lone Sannemann Jacobsen
los@au.dk
Direct tel.: +4587152505
Mobile:  +4530562189