After work meeting for all staff members on the academic development process

On 22 March, the Rector's Office, the Deans and the Director General of NERI will hold an after work meeting for Aarhus University staff members. The meeting is an opportunity for staff members to learn more about the driving factors behind the recently initiated academic development process.

The after work meeting will take place in the Main Hall (Aulaen) on 22 March from 3 pm to 5 pm, and all staff members are encouraged to attend. The meeting will be streamed live on the internet to allow staff members who are unable to participate in the meeting to follow it on their computers.  

Staff members also have the option of sending questions to the university management team by email or text message. Questions which are not addressed at the meeting will be answered on the academic development process homepage. The homepage provides more information on the after work meeting, as well as providing a forum for open debate and a source of up-to-date information on the development process.

Academic development process homepage

Ministers on a study tour

On 15 March, Minister of Science, Technology and Innovation Charlotte Sahl-Madsen and Minister of Education Tina Nedegaard toured four different educational institutions: a primary school, a vocational school, a professional university college and a university. In the course of the day, the ministers visited Aarhus University and spoke with Ove Poulsen, Director of the Aarhus School of Engineering, as well as the Dean of the Faculty of Science, Erik Meineche Schmidt. The two ministers also met with Professor Lars Arge (Department of Computer Science), science student Astrid Krabbe and PhD student Adam Etches.

The ministers toured these four educational institutions to gain an impression of the connections between different levels of the educational system. Their goal is to discover ways of creating greater flexibility and cohesion, which in turn will increase the number of students who complete their programmes of study successfully.

Strategy for student guidance and career counselling

The university’s goal is to provide students with the best possible foundation for making the right decisions about their academic careers. In order to further this goal, the Rector's Office has adopted a general strategy for student guidance and career counselling to provide the university’s student counsellors with guidelines which will be in force until 2014.

Hearings about the strategy have been held at all main academic areas, and it has been the subject of broad, open debate. Plans of action based on the strategy will now be developed in cooperation with each main academic areas.

Evaluation of 'The Inner Education Market'

In January 2009, university management adopted the strategy "Towards an Inner Education Market", which was intended to promote more flexible interdisciplinary collaboration in the area of education and study programmes.

A year has passed, and it is now time to evaluate the success of the strategy thus far, so all main academic areas have been asked to submit their evaluations. The Study Committee will consider these evaluations at a meeting in April 2010, after which the university will decide how best to ensure the future quality of interdisciplinary collaboration on teaching and study programmes.

Successful U-days event

7,738 prospective students visited educational institutions in Aarhus at the beginning of March during the annual U-days event. Over 1,000 young people and their parents opted to participate in a new supplement to the U-days programme, a joint open house held by several Aarhus University departments at the Lakeside Lecture Theatres.

Over the course of the three U-days, an additional 3,000 prospective students took advantage of the opportunity to learn more about the various degree programmes offered at different sites on Aarhus campus. 4,164 guests visited Aarhus University during U-days, an increase of about 15% compared to 2009.

Internationalisation leads to greater job satisfaction

According to a new study by researchers from the Aarhus School of Business, Aarhus University, while cultural and linguistic differences among colleagues can pose initial challenges, employees at international workplaces often experience greater long-term job satisfaction and greater productivity.

The study confirms that Aarhus University's ambitious internationalisation strategy represents a positive contribution to creating a lively, dynamic environment for study and research.

Major grant to support international research

Researchers from Aarhus University have been awarded approx. DKK 2.3 million from the Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation’s International Network Programme.

Ten projects in different research fields have received funding earmarked for travel grants and participation in international workshops with the potential to lead to concrete research partnerships with researchers from countries such as China, the United States, and Brazil.

Read the list of projects on the Danish Agency for Science, Technology and Innovation website.

Calendar

• 22 March: University management meeting
• 22 March: After work meeting in the Main Hall
• 13 April: Academic development process workshops
• 22-24 April: Festival of Research
• 26 April: Minister for the Environment Karen Ellemann to visit the National Environmental Research Institute, Aarhus University (NERI)
• 29 April: Annual boat race in University Park
• 25-26 May: Two-day seminar on the academic development process for senior management team and department heads at Sandbjerg Gods
• 28 May: Rigmor og Carl Holst-Knudsens Videnskabspris award ceremony
• 17 June: Rector’s summer speech

Kind regards

The Rector’s Office

17 March 2010

The Rector’s Office 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.