News from the senior management team no. 24/2019

Professor Karl Anker Jørgensen receives H.C. Ørsted Gold Medal in chemistry

For the first time in 30 years, a gold H.C. Ørsted medal has been awarded. Congratulations to Karl Anker Jørgensen, professor of chemistry at AU, who has been honoured with the award. He has been awarded the medal for his internationally ground-breaking research in the field of catalytic chemistry and his exceptional ability to communicate scientific results to a broader audience.

The prize is awarded by the Society for the Dissemination of Natural Science in collaboration with the Royal Danish Academy of Sciences and Letters, and will be officially presented by Her Majesty the Queen on 16 October 2019 at the Royal Danish Academy of Sciences and Letters.   

The gold H.C. Ørsted medal has been awarded just 17 times in 110 years, including to the Nobel laureates Niels Bohr and Aage Bohr.


AU’s rector welcomes the government's proposal to abolish the reallocation contribution

The government is proposing to end the cutbacks resulting from the reallocation contribution in the entire educational sector.

Rector Brian Bech Nielsen welcomes the proposal. Like all other educational institutions, every year since 2016 Aarhus University has had to save two per cent on degree programme grants. It now seems that the university will be able to say goodbye to these cuts from 2020.

"This is very welcome news. It won’t give the university more money, but it will slow down demands for cost reductions and give us a more financially stable framework. This will make it easier for us to plan for the years ahead," says Rector Brian Bech Nielsen.

However, there is still a great deal of uncertainty about universities' total programme revenues. In particular, there is uncertainty as to whether the government will continue the increased taximeter funding for the humanities and social sciences, and the university is looking for clarification of this issue.

"The taximeter increase has a major economic impact on the quality of our humanities and social sciences degree programmes. Therefore we’re very much looking forward to seeing the full Finance Bill from the government and we’ll be following the negotiations in the autumn very closely," says Brian Bech Nielsen.

The Finance Bill will be presented at midday on Wednesday 2 October.


AU enters collaboration with Randers Municipality     

On 24 September, Rector Brian Bech Nielsen and the Mayor of Randers Municipality, Torben Hansen, signed a collaboration agreement to build bridges between AU students and the business community in the municipality. Part of the agreement also covers research collaboration within sustainability and plastics, health, and continued collaboration on Randers Rainforest. The agreement was signed during a career day in Randers, at which AU students could meet the local business community.


University director: SDD dialogue is an important cornerstone

Autumn is Staff Development Dialogue (SDD) season. University Director Arnold Boon encourages even more at AU to conduct the SDD dialogue. According to the director, the SDD is a cornerstone for continued development at the university.


Royal Danish Library online system to close temporarily for inter-library lending

On 19 November 2019, the Royal Danish Library will launch a new, shared library system with just one gateway to all library resources. From 14 to 19 November some library services will be unavailable while the system is being implemented. From 1 October, inter-library loans (borrowing materials from other libraries) will be unavailable. Get a list of all the important dates you may need to know in connection with the transition to the new system. 


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