On 12 December, Aarhus University’s board approved the budget for 2018-2021 and expressed satisfaction with financial projections for the university for the next four years.
Aarhus University’s financial situation is fundamentally sound, and a healthy balance between revenues and costs is expected in coming years. Although external regulatory measures such as degree programme resizing, the study progress reform and the reallocation contribution continue to pose challenges, they are offset by the positive effects of improved student graduation completion rates and increased student FTE revenues, for example from the engineering programmes. Scope to pursue strategic objectives is still anticipated.
Work is in progress on a new strategic framework contract between Aarhus University and the Ministry of Higher Education and Science (in Danish). A draft was sent for broad internal consultation a couple of weeks ago. The deadline for this is 10 January 2018. A specification of the university's current strategy has been prepared together with the draft, and this forms part of the consultation that is in progress. The framework contract will replace the development contract and is expected to be finalised by mid-2018.
Aarhus BSS has just had its EQUIS accreditation extended for a further three years, and for the first time the entire faculty is now covered by the accreditation. EQUIS accreditation for all of Aarhus BSS is a quality hallmark achieved by few of the world's business schools. Dean Thomas Pallesen highlights the fact that this accreditation recognises the faculty's ambition to exploit the potential of the strong business and social sciences disciplines – and at the point where the two meet.
Aarhus University has received approval for a Master's Degree in conference interpreting, and this is expected to begin in November 2018. This degree programme is the only one in Denmark, and it aims to train the interpreting elite. It is being offered by Arts and is part of a wider languages initiative at Aarhus University, where a decision has been made to gather together all language subjects at a single faculty, thereby creating a framework for one of the biggest linguistic environments in Northern Europe. Link in Danish.
The senior management team and the occupational health and safety organisation at Aarhus University urge staff to stand for election as occupational health and safety representatives at the faculties and within the administration. The nomination period has just begun and will continue until 8 January 2018.
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Registration for free lectures at the Danish University Extension for spring 2018 opens at 11:00 on Monday 18 December. The offer is available to all current and former employees and alumni. Read more and register. Link in Danish.
Aarhus University School of Engineering officially opened its new ORBIT Lab in Katrinebjerg on 13 December. Together with leading researchers and experts from Aarhus University and a long list of IT companies such as Google, Microsoft and IBM, ORBIT Lab aims to challenge the most talented, most creative students at the university to create innovative solutions, either as start-ups or in partnership with existing companies.
Aarhus University Hospital was awarded the title of Best Hospital in Denmark by the Danish healthcare newspaper Dagens Medicin for the tenth year in a row. Above all, the quality of treatment is the crucial factor when it comes to deciding which is the best hospital in Denmark. Link in Danish.
A team of researchers from Aarhus University are responsible for an evaluation of Aarhus 2017 – rethinkIMPACTS 2017. Read the researchers' preliminary status for the two major surveys within the project, which will be completed with a final evaluation report in late 2018. These surveys are looking at the population’s and the audience’s perceptions of the Capital of Culture project; and among other things the results show that the population in the Central Denmark Region have become more positive about Aarhus 2017 between 2015 and 2017. Link in Danish.
Lars Birkedal, Professor of Computer Science, has been appointed ACM Fellow by his colleagues in the Association for Computing Machinery, the world's biggest, most respected organisation for computer scientists and IT professionals. Lars Birkedal is the sixth Danish citizen to receive the title of ACM Fellow.
In an article on Altinget last week, Vice-Dean at the Faculty of Arts Anne Marie Pahuus and Central Denmark Region Development Director Kim Kofod Hansen highlight the fact that graduates of the humanities who can think creatively and design outstanding interaction between man and machine will be needed in future. Link in Danish
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/2015.