Newsletter from Arts - 15 April
This week's newsletter includes news from Dean Thunø about the new department names, new managers, staff transfers and the decrease in unemployment among humanities graduates.
Dear Arts staff and students
The names of the faculty's new department-like centre and departments have been decided. They are as follows:
- Institut for Kultur og Samfund / Department of Culture and Society
- Institut for Æstetik og Kommunikation / Department of Aesthetics and Communication
- Institut for Uddannelse og Pædagogik (DPU) / Department of Education
- Center for Undervisningsudvikling og Digitale Medier / Centre for Teaching Development and Digital Media
Three out of four names have been modified in relation to the proposals in the 9 March report after over 150 posts from staff and students on the homepage, discussions with department heads and a Dean's Office meeting. The final decision was made by the senior management group on Monday.
The issue has attracted considerable interest, and over 50 different names were proposed; but ultimately it was necessary to limit ourselves to four. Staff and students at DPU were practically unanimous in their desire to include the words udannelse (education) and pedagogik (educational theory and practice) in the new name, and the new name respects this wish. I hope that most of you will be able to identify with the new names, and that they will be well received outside the university's walls.
Either during or immediately after the Easter holidays, I hope to be in a position to announce the names of the two new vice-deans, who will be responsible for research and education respectively. In May I expect to announce the names of the three department heads and the centre director. We began interviewing applicants this week, and we have just concluded the final interviews with the candidates for the vice-dean positions. I also participated in number of the first meetings in the new implementation committees. About 100 of the faculty's students and staff are now working together to formulate ideas about the future organisation of the faculty. An impressively large proportion of the faculty's staff are directly involved in this process, and I value these contributions. I am certain that this process of exchanging our experiences across the whole faculty will help us determine the best organisational structure for Arts. I look forward to the final results of this work.
On Tuesday, we were able to inform the academic staff members at DPU who will be transferred to the Aarhus campus. Individual agreements will be made, but the general framework is for the transfers to take effect as of 1 January 2012. In order to ensure a gradual transition, these staff members will be offered an office at the Emdrup campus for a two-year period after the transfer.
A recent article in Berlingske Business was headed 'Humanities graduates are pouring onto the labour market'. Secretariat Head Jens Mølbach, The Danish Confederation of Professional Associations (AC), explains that the private sector 'has realised that humanities graduates create growth too, because they're good at developing the companies they work for'. At the same time, the unemployment rate for humanities graduates is declining despite the stagnant economy, which is still producing high rates of unemployment in other professional groups. This is good news - and the article's praise of humanities graduates is well-deserved. The article also mentions the reform of humanities programmes at AU in positive terms.
Happy Easter!
Dean Mette Thunø
Arts