How it all began: Three researchers look back on starting university

The farmer’s son from West Jutland was hit by culture shock: “I came from the wilds of West Jutland, fresh off the farm”

It was by no means love at first sight when Professor Peter Teglberg Madsen started at Aarhus University in 1994.

“I came from the wilds of West Jutland, fresh off the farm. It was a huge culture shock. I had never been to Aarhus before. It was such a large city, and I couldn’t find my way around campus at all.”

Just a few weeks after his nineteenth birthday, he settled in for his first biology lecture.

“I can remember being disappointed with my degree programme. It was intense and difficult from the first page of the syllabus. None of the lecturers tried to break it down for us. We were just expected to learn how to study at university the hard way.”

Peter Teglberg Madsen hit a wall. His timetable was full of auxiliary subjects, like maths and statistics. It was far from his dream of exploring the wild animals of the Savannah.

“It was just before the internet, so all I knew about the biology programme came from a single page in a university prospectus, which I’d ordered by post. I had no way of knowing what it was all about.”

The transition from school to university was more difficult than he’d imagined. Suddenly there was no one keeping an eye on Peter Teglberg Madsen if he didn’t do the reading or participate in class.

“My grades weren’t particularly high after the first semester. It was a bit of a reality check – a wake-up call. I realised that, if I wanted to do well at university, I’d need to stop drinking more beers than I’d read pages.”

Today, Peter Teglberg Madsen is a professor at the Department of Biology and teaches first-year students himself. And fortunately, he thinks the introductory programme has improved since he started studying 31 years ago.

He strives to be the lecturer he needed back in 1994.

“When I meet first-year students, I try to remember what my first year was like. I hope I can give them a better start than I had.”

And if he were to come face to face with his younger self today, he knows exactly what reaction he’d get:

“Wow! Is it really possible for a country bumpkin from West Jutland to become a biology professor?”

“I’d also wish I’d told myself that hard work pays off a bit earlier.”

She left a steady job to start at university as a new mum: “People thought I was crazy”

Today, Cecilia Ramlau-Hansen is a professor of epidemiology and recipient of the 2025 Elite Research Prize.

She couldn’t have dreamed of this when, in 2001, she decided to quit her job and give up her stable income as a biomedical laboratory scientist to do a Master’s degree in health sciences.

“I had just had my second child, so there was a lot at stake. People thought I was crazy.”

“Most of the people on my degree programme had already been working and earning money. We weren’t exactly young. We hadn’t just left secondary school, so there was a lot at stake financially because we had to live on a student grant for three years.”

But the leap of faith paid off for Cecilia Ramlau-Hansen, who already had a family, a house and two small children. She soon realised that it was all worth it.

“It was like coming home. It was absolutely wonderful. I had amazing teachers from day one, and I immediately fell in love with epidemiology. In my first semester, I already knew I wanted to be a researcher.”

It turned out to be a perfect match, as Cecilia Ramlau-Hansen quickly achieved success in the academic world.

In the first year of her Master’s degree, she published her first article. She also got her Master thesis published.

Then she was offered funding for a PhD, which she started directly after her Master’s.

“If I had known in 2001 where I would be today, I probably wouldn’t have believed it, but of course it would have been hugely motivating. If I had to do it all again, I wouldn’t change a thing.”

“There is always more to learn. You have to keep educating yourself, take the chances that come your way, and be open to the direction you want your life to take. That attitude has got me a long way.”

. Det har bragt mig langt.”

Asser Thomsen to new students: “It will be amazing – but also a total slog”

Today, Asser Thomsen is a specialist in forensic medicine, but in 1997 he was a first-year medical student. With no idea what university life would bring.

I remember the parties most. The first week at university was purely social. There was no teaching or anything academic at all.”

But then the freshers’ parties stopped, and the syllabus began to take over.

“It was actually easier than I’d feared. When you first open an anatomy book, you think you’ll never learn all the names. But of course you do, if you work at it.”

Asser Thomsen doesn’t think that starting university in 2025 will be much different than starting in 1997.

The uncertainty is the same, and starting to study hasn’t become more difficult or easier.

“It’s like anything else you start that’s new. The leap is the same every time.”

He remembers what his father told him just before he started primary school:

“That’s it – from now on, it’s work.”

“Every time you start something new, you’re told it will be difficult. But it’s never more difficult than your first day at primary school.”

But what does Asser Thomsen mean when he says it will also be a ‘total slog’?

“I wrote my PhD on homicide. The subject I find most interesting – but even that was often tedious, hard work. Everything has its boring side.”

“My big dream is to fly an F-16. But I’m sure that would also have it boring sides – I just don’t know what they are. But if I were offered the chance to fly an F-16, I’d drop everything and do it.”

If Asser Thomsen could have seen in 1997 how his career would unfold, he would probably just say:

“That actually went quite well.”

“I always harboured a dream of becoming a forensic scientist, so I guess I’d feel lucky that it all worked out.”