The internal consultation on Strategy 2030 has begun

“The strategy must capture the essence of the university and articulate where Aarhus University has ambitions to make its mark with its strengths and visions.”

This is how Birgitte Nauntofte, chair of the university board, encapsulates the draft version of Aarhus University’s Strategy 2030, which has just been released for internal consultation.

“The aim of the strategy is to spur the university’s employees to lift their gaze from their daily routines and look towards the future. It is intended to inspire every member of the AU community and encourage them to consider how they as individuals best can make a difference in the coming years and contribute to ensuring that we as a university deliver our utmost to society,” says Birgitte Nauntofte, chair of the AU board.

“We board members have had a lot of productive discussions, and it’s been quite exciting to have the opportunity to work with strategy development as well in my second year as chair. I’m very satisfied with the draft and am looking forward to seeing how it is received by the university community. In collaboration with senior management, the board have identified a small set of clear guiding principles which provide scope for professional and academic development and for making an impact, so that together, we can contribute to strengthening the university’s profile even further in the prioritised focus areas,” she says.

The board have primary responsibility for the university’s strategy, and the draft is the result of a collaboration between the board and the senior management team based on input from other stakeholders, including senior managers from across the university, the chairs of the academic councils and selected committees.

Now the time has come to invite employees and students to contribute their feedback.

Six high-priority focus areas

In the draft Strategy 2030, the board and the senior management team chart an ambitious course for the university in the coming years.

Here are a few highlights from the introduction:

“Aarhus University will not settle for merely adapting to these changes: by developing individuals, new insights and innovation, the university will be part of the solution.”

And:

“Aarhus University pushes the boundaries of human knowledge through groundbreaking research, and historically has enjoyed considerable success in attracting external funding. The university’s degree programmes are popular, and are characterised by excellent learning environments with strong communities and high-quality teaching that foster highly employable graduates. Finally, the university’s business initiative ensures that more research is translated into innovative solutions at private companies and public institutions for the benefit of society as a whole.”

The strategy is structured around a set of guiding principles and six strategic focus areas:

• Research of the highest international calibre
• Degree programmes with high academic standards
• Coherent, vibrant campuses
• Research-based innovation and entrepreneurship
• A digital trailblazer university
• Spearheading sustainable development

For each focus area, an overarching goal and a number of strategic initiatives are defined. For example, in regard to research, the strategy articulates an explicit ambition to create more attractive career paths for early-career researchers; in regard to innovation, he university will create a stronger entrepreneurship ecosystem.

“One reaction I can certainly imagine is that the strategy doesn’t address the full range of activities at Aarhus University. But it isn’t intended to. We’re standing on the shoulders of what is already a very distinguished university that plays and will continue to play a highly significant role in society. The strategy articulates our ambitions for further developing the university’s role and strengthening our contribution in prioritised areas leading up to 2030,” Rector Brian Bech Nielsen says.

Responses must be submitted through consultation parties

The AU board and senior management team have decided to conduct the consultation process through a number of AU’s official bodies for staff and students. For this reason, all consultation responses must be submitted through one of the following consultation parties:

From the consultation letter:

• The faculties
• Enterprise and Innovation
• The departments/schools (submit via the faculties)
• The administration’s leadership team (including the central administration, the administrative centres and the Rector’s Office) 
• The academic councils
• The Research Committee, the Committee on Education and the Business Committee
• The student organisations: Student Council, Conservative Students and Free Forum
• AUPA (Aarhus University PhD association)
• JRA (Junior Researcher Association)
• The liaison and occupational health and safety committees: HSU, HAMU, the FSUs, the FAMUs, AAMU, and ASU
• AIAS
• CED

There is a list of the contact persons for the consultation parties on the webpages about Strategy 2030 and the consultation. The link is available below.

Consultation parties are responsible for organising their own processes for collecting input and submitting consultation responses before the deadline of 09:00 on 24 February 2025.

All consultation responses will be available online for a limited period after the deadline.

The university board is expected to approve the final version of Strategy 2030 at a meeting on 10 April 2025.

See more at the Strategy 2030-site.