News from the Senior Management Team no. 31/2013

Policy for AU email addresses being revised

To give the employees as much influence as possible on the design of their new email addresses, the senior management team has decided to change its former decision on how email addresses and unit names are combined.

AU IT is now in the process of adapting the technical solution, and a date for releasing new email addresses will be announced as soon as possible.


Newspaper debate on researchers' other paid employment

An article in last Friday's edition of the Berlingske newspaper discusses whether researchers are entitled to engage in paid outside consultancy work or other services conducted outside normal working hours.

Aarhus University's personnel policy from 2011 addresses the issue and specifies, among other things, that other paid employment is permitted for the university's employees, unless one or more of the following applies:

  • if other paid employment means that the employee is unable to perform his or her duties at the university while attending to other paid employment duties (performance and availability)
  • if the other paid employment is in competition with the university's activities
  • if the other paid employment leads to conflicts of interest issues
  • if the other paid employment is incompatible with the respect and trust which is required in order to be employed at the university, or
  • if the other paid employment is in conflict with internal rules and instructions.

In the first instance, it is up to the individual employee to assess, in dialogue with his or her immediate superior, whether the specific outside employment conflicts with the above.

The senior management team supports researchers in their activities as private individuals to provide private sector consultancy, as long as it complies with the guidelines in the AU personnel policy.


BSS denied EQUIS re-accreditation

BSS has initially had its application for EQUIS re-accreditation turned down. The issue at stake in the denial of the application was not the faculty's academic standards or quality, but rather whether tomorrow’s business school can be based on a broader academic foundation than previously.

BSS has been offered the option of a visit by a new peer review team from the European Foundation for Management Development (EFMD). BSS would then have the opportunity to present arguments in favour of a broad academic business school model, which was not possible during the most recent visit. This means that BSS may be re-accredited within next twelve months. The main academic area's management will decide on whether it wishes to accept this oppportunity in the near future.

BSS has just acquired the five-year AACSB accreditation. It emphasises the importance of high academic quality and places less emphasis on the institution's formal structures.

BSS has just received positive feedback from another accreditation body, the Associations of MBAs (AMBA). There was a high level of satisfaction with the main academic area's emphasis on research, its teachers and facilities. AMBA pointed to some structural factors concerning the main area's MBA degree programmes, which will now be looked at more closely. The final AMBA accreditation has therefore been postponed for a year.


Star researcher honoured by Carlsberg Foundation

At an evening event on Tuesday 17 September, Professor of Astronomy Jørgen Christensen-Dalsgaard was awarded the Carlsberg Foundation's Research Prize for his internationally recognised work with, among other things, stellar physics.

The prize of DKK 1 million is made up of DKK 250,000 as a personal award, with the remaining DKK 750,000 takes the form of funding for a research project. The Carlsberg Foundation's Research Prize is awarded on the recommendation of the Royal Danish Academy of Sciences and Letters to researchers who have made significant contributions to basic research in their field. 

The evening's other prizewinner was Professor of Psychology at the University of Copenhagen, Claus Bundesen.


Growing intake on Master's degree programmes

7,312 undergraduate students, 6,230 Master's degree students and 4,526 students in further education programmes – these are the numbers of new students at Aarhus University according to a provisional statement from AU Studies Administration.

The growing intake of students on the Bachelor's degree programmes in recent years is now being reflected in the figures for admissions to the Master's degree programmes, which are up more than 13% compared to 2012. This growth can also be attributed to the three new Master's programmes established over the past year.

More than 2,000 of the newly started Master's degree students have been admitted with a degree from another institution than Aarhus University.

The official key figures are expected to be published on the study figures site at the end of October (link in Danish).


Aarhus University popular with ERASMUS students

Aarhus University is currently the sixth most popular university to study at in Europe for ERASMUS students. This is the highest ranking ever for a Danish university in an ERASMUS context.

Since 1987, three million students have used the EU's ERASMUS programme. With the newly launched ERASMUS programme, four million students are expected to study abroad over the next seven years.

Figures from the European Commission show that six Danish educational institutions feature in the top 100 list of the most popular institutions in Europe among ERASMUS students.


Profile brochure 13/14 published online

Published on the same day as the university's annual celebration, Aarhus University's profile brochure for 2013/2014 is now also available in electronic form. The brochure includes articles on a wide range of Aarhus University's current projects, and presents several activities within, in particular, the three strategic priorities under the university's strategy up to 2020: research, education and talent development as well as internationalisation.

The profile brochure is currently being distributed to all the departments and administrative units


Wreaths laid at founders' graves

As the annual celebration marked the university's 85th anniversary on Friday 13 September, wreaths were laid that day on the graves of three of the university's founders: Jakob Jensen, Carl Holst-Knudsen and Victor Albeck.

The annual celebration was celebrated throughout the day at the university.

See photos from the students' sports day, from Denmark's biggest Friday bar in the University Park and from the evening event at Concert Hall Aarhus


Calendar

  • 24-25 September: University Board meeting and seminar at Sandbjerg
  • 24-27 September: Ministry of Housing, Urban and Rural Affairs at Aarhus University
  • 9 October: Senior management team meets with the Department of Culture and Society
  • 6 November: University Board meeting
  • 13 November: Senior management team meets with the Department of Business Communication
  • 11 December: Senior management team meets with the Department of Biomedicine



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.