Blog entries

Christmas greetings from the university director

Arnold Boon wishes everyone in the administration a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year - and reminds you to take of the work gloves and put on your party clothes. Watch video and read the blog below.

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Dear colleagues,

As I share with you in my Christmas greetings video, I’m very proud and impressed about the results we have achieved together in the administration over the past year. So I’d like to revisit some of 2018’s most important results in this little Christmas card to all of you.

Digitisation is an extremely important development focus at Aarhus University, and I’m very pleased that we’ve succeeded in completing 17 high-priority IT projects this year. We’ve implemented these projects to improve the user experience, strengthen operational reliability and make our work processes even more efficient.

For example, we have implemented new digital solutions for studies administration. New self-service systems for students have made it easier to apply for dispensations and changes in SU – and we’ve also developed a study time line on mitstudie.au.dk that makes it easy for students to get an overview of their academic progress. Another exciting digitisation project I’ve seen is taking place at the ST Administrative Centre, where the project ‘our digital workplace’ has gotten off to a good start. I’m looking at forward to watching it develop in the new year.

One of this year’s major cross-university projects has been Campus 2.0. In particular the process of developing our own master plan for the project. As I explain in the video, Campus 2.0 will also be one of next year’s major projects – in fact, for the next ten years.

In the administration, we play an important role in supporting the university’s business initiative. So I’m very pleased to be able to report that that according to preliminary figures, the number of contracts concluded between external partners and AU to have increased from approximately 2400 to 2900 this year. A really great result!

We’ve also taken important steps in relation to improving our recruitment processes. As I wrote in last month’s blog post, we recently implemented a new e-recruitment system, and at HE Administrative Centre we’ve also implemented new employment guidelines and procedures that are compatible with the new system.

A new management development concept has been launched which offers activities for both new and experienced managers. This is a really exciting project that has been very well received by managers here at the university.

I can’t list all of this year’s results here, but the projects I’ve named here should give you a clear impression of what a busy, exciting and productive year we’ve had.

So once again: My heartfelt thanks for your hard work in 2018 – have a wonderful holiday with your friends and family. We’ll meet again in 2019.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Kind regards,

Arnold Boon

University Director