Almost nine thousand would-be students have applied for a place at Aarhus University as their first choice, 480 fewer than in 2013. The applicants are distributed widely across the study programmes, and the final intake is expected to be roughly on a par with previous years.
With 755 applicants, Medicine is the most popular choice this year, followed by Economics and Business Administration, Law, Psychology and Political Science. In the humanities, there is a particularly high level of interest in Comparative Literature and English. Within the technical and science subjects, the number of applicants for degree programmes in for example Biology, Computer Science and Civil and Structural Engineering has seen a marked increase.
With 840 first-choice applicants, applications for Aarhus University's engineering degree programmes are at the same level as in 2013, and most of the classes starting after the summer holidays are expected to be full.
Employees and students are invited to contribute to the work of shaping Aarhus University's development contract for 2015-2017.
The development contracts oblige institutions of higher education to meet a number of quantitative goals. In the forthcoming contract, five of these goals must relate to themes determined by the Danish Minister for Higher Education and Science, while AU is expected to define a further three to five goals.
The Minister's wishes with regard to the mandatory goals, which are all concerned with education, have the following headlines:
Last week, the Main Liaison Committee, the academic councils, the boards of studies and a number of other bodies received the detailed memo which the Ministry of Higher Education and Science has sent to the universities. All employees and students are welcome to contact their representatives on these bodies and to comment on and make suggestions for both the mandatory goals and the goals chosen by AU.
Aarhus University must submit its draft for the development contract to the Ministry of Higher Education and Science by 23 September. Before then, comments from students and staff need to be discussed by the senior management team, and the final draft must be approved by the Board, for which reason the internal deadline for contributions is Monday 18 August at 12 noon.
The senior management team would like to supplement this process with a consultation on the draft, and has consequently been in contact with the Danish Ministry of Higher Education and Science with a view to postponing the deadline. However, it has not been possible to negotiate a new deadline which would sufficiently change the framework for the process. Instead, the senior management team will provide an account and reasons for the chosen indicators in its proposal for a the new development contract.
AU is inviting staff and students to a reception to mark the appointment of Berit Eika as Pro-Rector for Education. The reception will be held on Tuesday 12 August at 15-17 in the Museum of Ancient Art.
Berit Eika took up her new position on 1 July 2014.
The deadline for registration is 7 August.
The senior management team's newsletter is being published just this once in July. The newsletter will be back at the beginning of August with, among other things, the new figures for the number of student places which have been offered to applicants.
With best wishes for a very enjoyable summer,
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/2014.