No. 36, 28 October 2008

Notice of position as university director

Niels Højberg commences his new job as Municipal Director in the Municipality of Aarhus on 1 December 2008. See the media release issued (in Danish only). Since the rectorate and the Board received the message last Wednesday, extraordinary meetings have been held with the administrative heads on Friday and with the circle of deans on Monday.

An overhead with briefing from these meetings is available (in Danish only) here. The rectorate has also sent a briefing to the Main Liaison Committee.

Before the end of November, the rectorate will decide who is to take over the tasks of the director of administration in the forthcoming period. Relevant parties will be involved and kept informed.

At the Board meeting on 10 November, the rector will submit proposals regarding the appointment, job advertisement and recruitment process.

Climate conference for all on 13–14 November 2008

Aarhus University celebrates the 10th anniversary of the signing of the Aarhus Convention with the conference: The Role of Information in an Age of Climate Change on 13–14 November.

The Aarhus Convention assures public access to information regarding the environment, participation in decision-making processes, and access to courts of justice. The democratic principles at the foundation of the Aarhus Convention have now been adopted by the climate convention.

Speakers include Troels Lund Poulsen, Danish Minister for the Environment, Bérengère Quincy, French Ambassador to Denmark, Svend Auken, former Danish Minister for Environment and Energy, Jeremy Wates, Secretary of the Aarhus Convention, and Jacqueline McGlade, Executive Director of the European Environment Agency.

The conference is planned in collaboration with the French Embassy because of the French Presidency of the European Union Council, the Danish Ministry of the Environment, the Danish Ministry of Climate and Energy, the European Environment Agency, the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE), the Danish Society for Nature Conservation, Central Denmark Region and the Municipality of Aarhus.

Attendance at the conference is free and registration is now open via: www.klima.au.dk

Visit from Bergen, Norway

The University of Bergen is currently visiting Aarhus University, where both parties are exchanging best practice experience within the area of PhD education. The visit is an offshoot of the benchmarking collaboration with a number of Northern European universities in which the PhD area has been selected as a theme. A PhD action plan has been drawn up for the entire university in Bergen, and some of this experience was passed on at a meeting of AU’s circle of heads of graduate schools to provide inspiration for further work at Aarhus University. During the visit, our Norwegian partners are also being introduced to initiatives at Aarhus University. The Norwegians have shown interest in measures such as AU’s FUA project (PhD programme administration system).

Kind regards
The Rectorate
28 October 2008

The rectorate publishes Rectorate News every Tuesday – apart from holidays and public holidays. 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 Rectorate News, please go to http://info.au.dk/medarbbreve/index.asp?sprog=en. The English version of Rectorate News is published every Wednesday and is available at http://www.au.dk/en/uni/rectorate/newsletter.

You can read previous editions of Rectorate News at http://www.au.dk/en/uni/rectorate/newsletter/2008 .