ARoS Director Jens Erik Sørensen was named this year's distinguished alumnus at the traditional ceremony in the Main Hall in connection with the 2013 annual celebration.
In addition to revealing this year's distinguished alumnus,the ceremony also celebrated the university's talented employees by honouring two who have distinguished themselves in the past year:
Rector Brian Bech Nielsen presented the Queen Margrethe II Travel Grant to four of the university's talented students, and each of the four deans named an honorary doctor from their respective main academic area.
Outside in the beautiful weather, the students celebrated the university's birthday with a festive sports day. This was followed by Denmark's Biggest Friday Bar in the University Park.
In their speeches, both Chairman of the Board Michael Christiansen and Rector Brian Bech Nielsen singled out that it is Aarhus's special university spirit, the critical approach, that Aarhus University celebrates at its annual celebration. Moreover, a common theme for them both was the challenge of ensuring high quality with the strong rise in the number of student admissions.
Aarhus University wishes to focus on the responsible conduct of research, and the senior management team is therefore inviting the main academic areas to discuss the topic. To this end, a discussion paper has just been sent out for consultation. The paper, which has been drawn up by the Talent Development Committee, is intended to provide inspiration and serve as a framework for the discussions.
The intention is to get as much input as possible so that all relevant aspects are considered when drawing up joint AU guidelines for the responsible conduct of research.
The consultation period lasts until the end of the year.
Danes must improve their foreign language skills, which is why Denmark has now joined the large European language project, the European Centre for Modern Languages (ECML). As host of the Danish contact, Aarhus University is playing a key role for Denmark's membership.
ECML is a joint European network in which the countries exchange knowledge and experience within the area of language education. The centre is a Council of Europe institution, and has existed since 1994. Denmark is member state number 33.
A total of five universities and seven university colleges have joined forces in the consortium which is responsible for building up and running the Danish contact. At Aarhus University, Arts is the host faculty.
Part of the Danish government is moving to Aarhus for a week in September. The Ministry of Housing, Urban and Rural Affairs, headed by Minister Carsten Hansen, is establishing a mini-department at Aarhus University as a base for the week's activities in Aarhus and the surrounding area.
As part of the programme, Aarhus University students have had the opportunity to apply for a week-long internship at the ministry. Here, the interns will work with concrete issues before presenting their proposals to the minister.
Employees from the ministry will also discuss, for example, entrepreneurship and smart cities with researchers at Aarhus University.
The Ministry of Housing, Urban and Rural Affairs will be based at Aarhus University from 24-27 September.
Aarhus University retains its position among the top 100 universities in the new QS World University Rankings. The university has advanced in relation to most of the indicators on the list, but has nonetheless fallen two places from 89 in 2012 to 91.
The ranking list is based on six indicators, with a questionnaire survey among researchers (40%) and employers (10%) accounting for half of the universities' scores on the list. Also included are the number of citations per researcher, the number of students per researcher and the proportion of international students.
For the second year running, MIT in America takes top place on the list, followed by Harvard and Cambridge.
QS also publishes five "faculty rankings". Here, Aarhus University ranks no. 79 within the Arts and Humanities, no. 74 within the Life Sciences and Medicine, and no. 59 within Social Sciences and Management. There has been progress in all five faculty rankings since 2012.
Kind regards
The Senior Management Team
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.