The recently held elections of student representatives to the Board of Aarhus University meant farewell to the men and welcome to the women.

Maja Viola Buskbjerg and Anna Juul Bager, both of whom represent the Student Council, received more votes than anyone else in the recently held elections, and will work alongside the other members of the Board of Aarhus University for a period of one year from 1 February 2010.

Ms Bager was elected for the first time. In addition to general work aimed at improving the financing of degree programmes, she focuses on establishing a better work environment for students.

“A major part of creating a good student environment involves ensuring that the students have a place to hang out – one that they can arrange as they like and make it their own. I’ll therefore make sure that we students can co-determine the rooms we use on a day-to-day basis. As regards the psychological workplace environment, I’m focused on our getting even better than we are today at following up on the surveys carried out,” explains the 22-year-old political science student.

Ms Buskbjerg was also elected to the Board for the first time, but she is not entirely without experience in this type of work. In her role as substitute for Christian Jølck, she has replaced him since 1 September. He completed his degree earlier this year and was therefore unable to continue for the entire election period.

“Within the Student Council, we’re really pleased with the continuity inherent in my being able to continue,” says the 24-year-old history of ideas student in her opening remark. “I’ve only had the post since September, but it’s nonetheless given me an opportunity to come to grips with the other Board members and get a feel for how to influence the process.”

Ms Buskbjerg began her career in student politics as a member of the History of Ideas Student Committee, and subsequently moved her way up through the system so that she can serve all student interests to a greater extent.

“What I’ve really been hammering is for students to have a say. You can clearly see that students aren’t included in all the decision-making processes, and this is particularly clear when you get down to subject level. We students are the ones who are experts on everyday matters, so we should have more to say.”

The Elections Committee is satisfied with the running of the elections, and Chair of the Elections Committee Michael H. Jensen, says:

“We’re pleased there’s been a high turnout to a number of the local elections, among both students and the academic staff. We also note, however, that the turnout among students voting for Board members was slightly lower than last year.”

More information

Professor Michael H. Jensen, dr.jur. , Chair of the Elections Committee, +45 8942 1466