Charlotte Ringsted has spent a whole working life on improving medical programmes and other health science programmes – for the past five years as vice-dean for education at Health. Now she is ending her career and retiring. Kind of.

2019.12.10 | Mette Louise Ohana

Charlotte Ringsted is passionate about education – and has been since before she actually graduated as a medical doctor. While still studying medicine at Odense University, she threw herself into getting the academic regulations changed. And learned that was not something you could just do.

But she never lost sight of her wish to improve the medical degree programme, and after completing her education as an anaesthetist, this remained a secondary interest simultaneously with her work. In 1993 – only two-years after becoming a medical specialist – she swapped anaesthetics for medical education and pedagogics for good.

In 2015 she landed at Health. Previously, she had spent twenty years with responsibility for the pregraduate and postgraduate medical degree programmes at the University of Copenhagen, while also gaining a Master’s and a PhD degree from Maastricht University in medical education, and acting as professor and head of one of the World’s most recognised centres for educational research, the Wilson Centre in Toronto.

At Health there was no doubt that the faculty had got a scoop.

A bird’s-eye view of all of Health’s degree programmes

The institutional accreditation was the central topic when Charlotte Ringsted began at Health. She had to systemise all the processes that ensure the quality of Health's 16 different degree programmes. A major task that was a real administrative burden, but which was finally achieved to the satisfaction of both AU and the Accreditation Council.

Charlotte Ringsted is known for being both full of ideas and, at the same time, impatient. So even before the Accreditation Council had made its final decision, she had begun on an even bigger project. This time focused on what she sees as her actual role, which is to future-proof the degree programmes. In 2017 she took a good look at all of the faculty’s degree programmes and insisted on dissecting them. Do the students get enough out of the teaching? Does the content match the future the students will find themselves in? How do we think the healthcare system will develop? And what will be most important for a medical doctor, dentist or public health science graduate to be able to do in forty years?

She involved lecturers, students, employers and a wide range of special interest organisations and collaborative partners, and the amount of work involved was enormous. This resulted in a report – Vision and strategic basis for degree programmes at Health – which has since been the guideline for changes to the academic regulations.

“Charlotte took the initiative to a faculty-wide strategy for education which had a decisive influence on the revision of the medical degree programme and which has led to significant changes. She is very visionary and open to new ideas. And she has been constructive and supportive in the enormous amount of work involved in the revision process. After all, she has carried out her own research in medical education and come with relevant professional input which has left a direct imprint on the Master’s degree programme. And what’s more, she has been easy to work with and is always in a good mood,” says Per Höllsberg, director of studies for the medical degree programme.

Evidence behind the pedagogics

One of Charlottes Ringsted’s key issues is that there must be evidence behind the way in which we teach. During her career, she has been author or co-author of 229 publications on education, with 45 articles coming in her time as vice-dean.

”Charlotte is one of the leading researchers in the field of medical educational research, and she always fights her corner for a research-based approach to the content of the degree programmes. But also for the research into how we educate actually coming to influence the way in which we educate our students. She is generous and always willing to share her knowledge, experience and opinions. And she is fun to work with and always ready to challenge a more conventional educational approach. In the Education Committee we’ve benefitted from her good ideas and ability to create relations,” says Pro-rector Berit Eika.

During her time as vice-dean, Charlotte Ringsted has therefore ensured that CESU (Centre for Health Sciences Education) was better integrated with the degree programmes, so that the educational research was close to the practice.

Visionary and one step ahead

As an anaesthetist, you need to be action-orientated and able to make decisions. A skill that Charlotte Ringsted has never given up despite her change of career direction.

”Charlotte has made sure that the educational field has never been still at Health. She’s always had her ear to the ground in terms of which tendencies we should be keeping an eye on so that our degree programmes remain relevant and up to date. She is good at looking forward. At the same time, she has been an outstanding and tireless campaigner for ensuring that good teaching staff enjoy prestige and respect, and that our university degree programmes must be research-based,” says Dean of the Faculty of Health, Lars Bo Nielsen. 

Health has also benefitted from Charlotte Ringsted's extensive network abroad. Over the years, international education researchers have visited Health and brought inspiration about how best to educate coming healthcare professionals.

A researcher does not retire completely

Charlotte Ringsted managed to initiate the revision processes for all of the academic regulations, and several of the new academic regulations will be completed before she stops work. However, it will be up to her successor to implement the academic regulations in practice. 

"As I discovered already as a medical student, changing academic regulations isn’t that easy. And I can now confirm that this is also the case as vice-dean. It’s been a big task, but we’ve succeeded in looking at all the degree programmes in a future perspective, and this has led to some exciting ideas and changes which I’m really happy with," says Charlotte Ringsted.

The work has not only been noted at AU, but also at educational institutions in Denmark and abroad, where the results from Aarhus have been followed with interest.

While there is no doubt that she is finished with developing Health’s degree programmes, she is more in doubt about whether research will also be completely left behind.

“I probably won’t be able to stop completely,” says Charlotte Ringsted, who from the turn of the year will not only be a pensioner but will also enjoy the title of emeritus professor at Aarhus University.

Goodbye and thank you

Health will hold a farewell reception for Charlotte Ringsted on 17 December between 15:00-17:00 in the Chemistry cafeteria at AU.

At the turn of the year, Lise Wogensen Bach will take up the position as the new vice-dean for education.

About Charlotte Ringsted

Before taking up the position of vice-dean, Charlotte Ringsted (born 1953) worked as professor and director of the Wilson Centre for Research in Health Professions Education at Toronto University in Canada. Prior to that, she spent two decades working at the Rigshospitalet and the University of Copenhagen, from 2007 until 2013 as professor of medical education and head of the Centre for Clinical Education, which was the University of Copenhagen’s counterpart to AU’s CESU. Since 2007 she has also been an honorary professor at Maastricht University. In the mid-1990s, she was one of the driving forces behind the Laboratory for Clinical Skills at Rigshospitalet and the University of Copenhagen, which trained students clinical skills with simulated patients. It was the first of its kind in the Nordic countries.
Charlotte Ringsted has three children and three grandchildren, all of whom live in Copenhagen, where she will now also be living.