No. 8, 24 February

New Director of Administration

As of 1 April, a very experienced and routined leader will spearhead the administration at Aarhus University. On the recommendation of Rector Lauritz B. Holm-Nielsen, the University Board decided at a meeting on 23 February to offer Jørgen Jørgensen, CEO at Rigshospitalet, the position of Director of Administration at Aarhus University. Mr Jørgensen (58) has many years of leadership experience in the public sector, the last 13 years of which as CEO at Rigshospitalet – Copenhagen University Hospital.

“I’m pleased that we’ve once more succeeded in attracting one of the very best public sector leaders in Denmark to Aarhus University. I have great confidence in Jørgen Jørgensen, who will definitely strengthen the strategic management and make the university an even more attractive workplace with an inspiring study and research environment. These are strengths that are crucial for a university that intends to reach out to all sectors of society and mingle with the top international universities,” says Rector Lauritz B. Holm-Nielsen.

Mr Jørgensen looks forward to making a start on the strategic challenges at Aarhus University.

“This is a very active and exciting workplace, with a strong academic environment, and I’ll be delighted to be part of it,” says the new Director of Administration in the media release just issued.

See the media release here

Take part in the debate

Evaluation of the universities

From Monday 2 March, students and staff at Aarhus University can take part in a digital brainstorm about co-management, the free academic debate, degrees of freedom, freedom of research and the university’s mergers. Conclusions derived from the digital brainstorm will be included in the report that Aarhus University submits to the international panel responsible for the overall evaluation of the Danish universities.

The digital brainstorm will take place on AU’s website from Monday 2 March up to and including Sunday 8 March.

During the same period, the rectorate has initiated a number of broadly composed focus group interviews, and these will also add input to the report from Aarhus University.

The university’s evaluation is also on the agenda when Rector Lauritz B. Holm-Nielsen gives his summer speech on 17 June in the Lakeside Lecture Theatres at 14.00–16.00. Part of the time has been allocated to debate.

Free research and freedom of research

A current topic of intense discussion is whether freedom of research at Danish universities is under threat.
Freedom of research and free research are important – not only for the individual researcher’s sake, but also because freedom ensures the independence and quality of the research carried out by the universities.

Calculated in proportion to the number of inhabitants or GNP, Danish research is currently doing very well. To have four universities among the top 300 in the most important ranking lists is an outstanding result. The question is whether the decisions we make and the focus areas we select today will enable us to remain in the international top league in 10 to 20 years.

The answer to this is not entirely clear. There is certainly very good reason to be pleased that a real boost to our research grants has finally been achieved in recent years in connection with the Danish Globalisation Strategy. This has resulted in significantly more funds for strategic research and innovation incubators in particular. There is nothing wrong per se with either strategic research or research funds in free and fair competition. However, the combination of more competition, more strategic research, basic funds in competition, new mechanisms for distributing basic research funding, and incentive and co-financing requirements (where the university itself is obliged to continue financing research projects when the funding expires) makes up a dangerous cocktail for free research and freedom of research. The individual researchers, heads of research, heads of departments, deans and management are tempted or forced to take into consideration the location of potential external funds when selecting fields of research and allocating positions and resources.

In practice, this means that the strategic research themes given top-down priority by politicians spread to the entire research system and thus drag free research funds and basic funds over to the themed areas. This is probably the most important threat in practice to real freedom of research.

Read Nina Smith’s leading article (in Danish only) in the latest edition of CAMPUS .

Management seminar

On Wednesday 25 February, the management is holding a seminar at the Koldkærgård Conference Centre. The focus here will be on the administrative change process, progress made by the individual tracks and projects, and dilemmas arising from the process.

Kind regards
The Rectorate
24 February 2009

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/2009.