After many years of close collaboration, AU and Deakin University in Australia have now made it official. This will be particularly beneficial for student mobility, but AU can also learn from Deakin’s digital activities.

2020.07.09 | Thomas Grønborg Sørensen

Vice-dean of Aarhus BSS, Per Andersen, signed the agreement with Deakin on behalf of Aarhus University. Photo: Lisbeth Andersen

"Deakin has good study environments and strong academic environments. Moreover, they have had a clear strategy towards becoming a leader in virtual teaching methods," says Per Andersen, vice-dean of Aarhus BSS, about Deakin University, with whom he recently signed a closer mobility partnership agreement on behalf of Aarhus University.

"Deakin University is the first overseas university that Aarhus University has entered into such a comprehensive collaboration with. At the same time, the new exchange agreement is an entirely natural step in our strategy to strengthen our ties with our partners in the international university community. We’ve collaborated with Deakin for more than twenty years, so you can say that we have created a solid foundation,” continues Per Andersen.

More traffic – both online and offline

Students at the two universities will especially benefit from the new agreement that covers all academic environments. 

Traditionally, 10-15 students have made the trip between Aarhus and Melbourne, where Deakin has most of their activities. The aim of the agreement is to increase the exchange to 40 students in 2021 and 60 in 2023. However, the outbreak of COVID-19 means that it will take a little longer to reach those goals.

"It will take some time before we are back to pre-Corona levels, so we have to expect that it will take a bit longer to reach our goals. In the meantime, we can exploit that Deakin has a very well-developed online campus that we can learn a lot from. In the long term, the online activities can help supplement the physical mobility that we expect to restore over time," says Per Andersen, who also points out that Aarhus University's management and administration will also benefit from Deakin's knowledge of data-driven processes.