Two new strategic project managers are to strengthen graduates’ position on the job market
Aarhus BSS has appointed two new strategic project managers for coordinating projects within two of the school’s cross-departmental focus areas. Camilla Kølsen Petersen will head the project Digital Competencies and Charlotte Christiansen the project Retention and Internationalisation. The projects are to support the school’s goal to educate highly skilled graduates who perform well on the job market.
The mission of Aarhus BSS is to deliver high-quality research and research-based degree programmes within and across the fields of business and social sciences.
“We believe this to be the best way to educate highly skilled graduates who will have great career opportunities after graduation and who will become part of the future workforce, developing our society,” says acting vice-dean for education Morten Rask, and adds: “For this reason, we continue to focus our efforts on increasing the job prospects of our graduates.”
These efforts are reflected in a plan currently under preparation by Aarhus BSS and the rest of Aarhus University – a plan to help students acquire digital competencies relevant to their disciplines and valuable in the competition on the job market.
The school also directs its efforts at reducing the dropout rates on multiple degree programmes and at retaining its international students in Denmark, among other things by highlighting career paths on the Danish labour market and by establishing new contacts in business and industry that might help graduates secure a job after graduation.
On this basis, Aarhus BSS has identified two strategic focus areas.
Digital competencies and retention and internationalisation
Specifically, two new strategic projects have launched and are to continue for the next three years:
- Digital Competencies focuses on developing the digital competencies among students as well as supplementing in-person teaching with digital solutions in a meaningful and productive way.
- Retention and Internationalisation focuses on ensuring that the vast majority of first-year students are retained across all Aarhus BSS degree programmes and that the majority of international students across all these programmes find employment in Denmark after completing their studies.
The executive team has appointed two project managers to head the important, strategic projects and the related activities across the school:
Camilla Kølsen Petersen
Postdoc and PhD Camilla Kølsen Petersen from the Department of Management will head the project Digital Competencies.
"Camilla has experience with research, teaching and consultancy within the area of digital competencies. Her approach is focused and inquiring, a mix that will be of great use in this context,” deems Morten Rask.
Charlotte Christiansen
Professor and PhD Charlotte Christiansen from the Department of Economics and Business Economics is to head the project Retention and Internationalisation. Morten Rask says:
"I know Charlotte from my time in the Oecon board of studies. In her capacity as chair of the board, she always took care to understand the situation in-depth, including from a student perspective. She is also focused on integration and very solution-oriented, which will be necessary when solving the retention issues.”
Organised under the executive team and part of new steering committee
The two strategic projects are organised under the executive team and will be implemented across the departments at Aarhus BSS. For this reason, the point of reference regarding the management of these projects will be the vice-dean for education at the school. The two project managers will involve relevant people at the departments when necessary.
In addition, the two strategic project managers are members of the steering committee for university teaching development at Aarhus BSS, which will help set the direction for the projects together with the faculty management team and with due consideration of department needs.
Morten Rask is pleased that Camilla and Charlotte have accepted the roles as project managers. He looks forward to the work ahead:
“When the implementation of these projects begins, it is important that we all keep an open and exploratory approach, seeing as these strategic projects should reflect the local contexts of the individual degree programmes. At the same time, we should share positive experiences across the degree programmes by way of dialogues and reflection that create a sense of responsibility and progress.”