The Danish Agency for Universities and Internationalisation (UI) has just published a new supervisory report for Aarhus University which describes the university as 'a very well-run university which is seeing strong development within all its core activities and which is now entering a consolidation phase after the university's change process'.
UI has also acknowledged that, between 2011 and 2012, the number of academic years of full-time study increased by 122, while the growth in the number of scientific publications has been higher than the national average. As far as education is concerned, UI is satisfied with the efforts being made to reduce the drop-out rate among first-year students, and with the university's ambition to acknowledge teaching development work to a greater extent.
At the same time, the agency criticises the fact that Aarhus University has not managed to correct the imbalance in the number of incoming and outgoing exchange students.
In its review of Danish universities, UI focuses in particular on three themes:
Discussions centred on academic dishonesty when Health organised a symposium on health science research practice last week. The symposium is one contribution to the main academic area's forthcoming guidelines on responsible research practice for researchers working within health and disease.
The work on the guidelines has been initiated to prevent dishonesty and to have a clear and transparent action plan if any individual or group is suspected of dishonesty.
There were presentations by experts from the USA, Germany and Norway at the symposium.
The guidelines and action plans being developed at Health will provide inspiration for subsequent work at Aarhus University.
A new partnership between the City of Aarhus, VIA University College and Aarhus University aims to enhance children's and young people's learning through technological possibilities in education.
By collaborating on knowledge and research, the parties want to demonstrate and highlight educational IT for children aged 0-18 years both in Denmark and internationally. At the same time, the new collaboration will be established as an open network which can create a platform for involving other parties, for example more local authorities.
The partnership agreement is provisionally lasting three years, and entails, among other things, the City of Aarhus making institutions/schools available for the research, while AU and VIA give the municipality access to the latest know-how within IT in educational contexts for children aged 0-18 years. There is also the possibility of financing for PhD students/postdocs or organising joint conferences.
This year, the S Building on Fuglesangs Allé will house the Festival of Research at Campus Aarhus. The auditoriums and foyer will see speed talks, workshops and exhibitions being staged by Aarhus University researchers from different academic environments. The overall theme for the event is 'Smart Energy', which covers environmental law, climate communication, hydrogen cars and much else besides. Admission is free to all the events.
The Festival of Research will also take place at Aarhus University's other sites in e.g. Roskilde, Årslev, Foulum and Emdrup.
Aarhus University is hosting the Festival of Research on 3 May at 13-18, while the event is being staged throughout Denmark on 2-4 May.
More than 3,000 users have now registered at the online database ResearchFunding.net, which provides an overview of sources of research funding and forthcoming application deadlines.
The database contains information about the individual foundations and the aims of those giving the grants, deadlines, application requirements, budget frameworks, websites, contact info etc. In addition, the database gives researchers the possibility of creating their own personal profile so they can receive reminders automatically about the funding pools which are intended for their particular field.
Examples of financing possibilities with the following application deadlines:
The database was developed by the Research Support Office at Aarhus University Hospital and Aarhus University. The Research Support Office provides assistance in connection with the database and applying for external funding.
The Senior Management Team publishes a newsletter every week. This newsletter includes a brief description of current activities and discussions. You can sign up for the Danish version of the newsletter at http://info.au.dk/medarbbreve, after which you will receive an e-mail whenever the newsletter is issued.
If you would like to subscribe to the English version of News from the Senior Management Team, please go to http://info.au.dk/medarbbreve/index.asp?sprog=en. The English version of News from the Senior Management Team is available at http://www.au.dk/en/about/uni/seniormanagement/newsletter/. You can read previous editions of News from the Senior Management Team at http://www.au.dk/en/about/uni/seniormanagement/newsletter/2013.