News from the senior management team no. 39/2014

Re-election and new election of student reps to the University Board

Andreas Olsen was re-elected, while political science student Sarah Askholm Junge is the new student representative on the University Board as of 1 February 2015. This means that the Student Council retains both student seats on the University Board.

This was one of the results of this year's university elections which ended on Thursday afternoon.

In the elections, students could vote for candidates for the University Board, academic councils, PhD committees and boards of studies, while the academic staff could vote for candidates for the PhD committees and boards of studies.

All in all, a turnout of 18.07 per cent was registered for the 17 contested elections for which votes could be cast. 137 elections were uncontested.

  • Read more about the elections and see the results

Quality Committee debated report at AU

Earlier this week, the Ministry of Higher Education and Science's Expert Committee on Quality in Higher Education presented its second report at a conference at Aarhus University.

Committee chairman Jørgen Søndergaard and committee members Nikolaj Lubanski and Jakob Roland Munch presented and discussed the report's recommendations and listened to presentations by students and teachers from various higher education degree programmes.

This second report from the Quality Commission focuses on the students' learning and not least the framework for their learning.


Quality debated by academic councils

At the management's annual seminar with the academic councils, the Quality Commission's report was also on the agenda.

Here, it was agreed that good research and good teaching go hand in hand, and that the management, teaching staff and students at Aarhus University have a joint responsibility for increasing the amount of time and energy students put into their studies. At the same time, there was widespread resistance to the idea of establishing a national education council to administer basic funds allocated through competitive mechanisms.

Involving the academic councils to a higher degree was the second major theme of the seminar. The chairs have emphasised that the councils want to be involved at earlier stages of the decision-making processes, and that the management should also ensure feedback which highlights the influence exercised by the councils.


The university does not want charges brought against students

Rector Brian Bech Nielsen has just informed East Jutland Police that the university does not want charges brought against the students, but that they will be handled in the same way as the protesters who were removed from outside the Rector's Office last week. This means that the students risk being reported to the police if they engage in any further blockading of events, offices or the like at the university.

“Our reason for calling in the police was simply to ensure that the conference at Stakladen could go ahead as planned and to ensure the attendees unimpeded access to the conference,” says Rector Brian Bech Nielsen.


Calendar

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.