On Monday 18 February, Minister for Science, Innovation and Higher Education Morten Østergaard will visit Aarhus University to debate the Education Grant and Loan Scheme (SU) with students.
The Government's forthcoming SU proposal is attracting considerable attention, and questions about completion times and study activities have been extensively debated in the media in recent weeks.
Recently the Student Council at Aarhus University expressed their views at a demonstration outside the Rector’s Office, and now the students have been given the opportunity to hold a debate face to face with the Minister for Science, Innovation and Higher Education.
Everyone is welcome to participate in the debate which is taking place on Monday 18 February at 16-18 in Stakladen on Ndr. Ringgade in Aarhus.
Two researchers from Aarhus University were among the five recipients of the prestigious EliteForsk awards which were presented on Thursday 7 February.
In addition to the EliteForsk award, Professor Steen Hannestad, Department of Physics and Astronomy, and Associate Professor Ove Christiansen, Department of Chemistry, each received a sum of DKK 1.2 million.
There were also awards for five talented PhD students from Aarhus University, who each receive a travel grant of DKK 300,000, which will be used to fund a stay at a foreign university.
The event was also an opportunity to honour last year's recipients of the Danish Council for Independent Research's Sapere Aude grants which saw sixteen AU researchers on stage.
The results of the psychological workplace assessment (WPA) will be available in Danish to all employees on Thursday 21 February. The study was conducted at the end of 2012, since when considerable work has gone into compiling the results in a general report for the entire university as well as sub-reports for the main academic areas and the administration, and a special report for part-time employees.
An ideas catalogue has been prepared to provide guidance on how to follow up in the best possible way on the results in the organisation, with plans for holding dialogue meetings locally and at main academic area level.
An English version of the psychological WPA report will be ready on 1 March.
The ongoing dialogue between the senior management team and the four academic councils is being supplemented with an annual all-day meeting, which will provide an opportunity to discuss selected academic themes in more depth.
This year's meeting has provisionally been arranged to take place in connection with the management seminar at Sandbjerg Estate in mid-November.
In addition to the senior management team, the chairs of the four academic councils also hold a meeting each year with the Aarhus University Board.
On Monday 4 February, Rector Lauritz B. Holm-Nielsen was interviewed on the Danish radio programme "Krause på tværs" on the channel P1. On the programme, the rector explained his views on how a university can simultaneously serve both the broader student population and the elite.
The rector also spoke in some detail about his eight years at Aarhus University, a period characterised by considerable changes. These were changes which Lauritz B. Holm-Nielsen spearheaded as well as changes in society at large, and which now mean that today the university operates under completely different conditions to ten years ago when the Danish University Act was significantly revised.
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.