University elections 2021 – see the results
This year’s university elections are over. The votes have been counted and the victorious candidates informed. Get an overview here.
As of 1 February 2022, a new student member will be joining the AU board. Jonathan Rossen from the Student Council replaces Hanna-Louise Schou Nielsen, who will be stepping down after her two-year term as planned. Jonathan Rossen studies educational science at the Danish School of Education and has had well-being, clear communication and good in-person teaching as his key issues.
The other student representative on the board, Mikkel Grøne (Student Council), was elected in 2020 and will serve on the board until 31 January 2023. The same applies for Jonathan Rossen, meaning that he was only elected for a single year. This is due to a change in the by-laws which means that students will only elected to the board every other year from now on – however, two student members will be chosen each time.
In addition to the new student member on the board, new student representatives have joined the faculties’ academic councils, the local boards of studies and the PhD committees.
14.76 per cent voted
This year, only students and PhD students could vote in the AU elections, and the final voter turnout was 14.76 per cent. That is the lowest voter turnout at a university election in recent times. In 2020, the turnout was about 16 per cent – a significant decrease from 2019 which was ascribed to the coronavirus situation.
There is no clear-cut explanation for why the voter turnout has decreased again – for example, whether it could be due to the lingering effects of the Covid-19 shutdowns, or whether the concurrent municipal and regional elections could have played a role.
17 contested elections out of 95 possible ones
There were 17 contested elections this year – i.e. elections in which several candidates stand for election to a limited number of seats. There are significant differences in voter turnout across the university. The top scorer was a voter turnout of 52.9 per cent for the Political Science board of studies.
52 elections were uncontested. An uncontested election means that only one candidate list was submitted and therefore an election has not taken place.
There were also 23 cancelled elections. If no candidates are nominated for an election, no representatives will be elected. Read more about uncontested elections and cancellation of elections at au.dk/election.
Need more information?
Read more about the election at www.au.dk/election, or contact the Election Secretariat at valg@au.dk.