At the new year, AU will have to submit a plan for relocating or cutting up to 10% of student places before 2030. Rector Brian Bech Nielsen stresses that while this is no easy task, AU has structured a process which will begin with dialogue between the Rector’s Office and the deans.

2021.09.23 | Thomas Sørensen

"This isn’t going to be an across-the-board model which affects all programmes equally. We’re currently looking at several different scenarios, and it’s still too early to say anything concrete. But our dialogue in the senior management team is positive and constructive, and we’ll broaden it when we start to have some concrete proposals that we believe comply with the Ministry's requirements," says Pro-rector for Education Berit Eika. Photo: Ida Jensen

A majority of the Danish Parliament has asked Danish universities, and therefore also Aarhus University, to come up with a proposal for how to relocate or cut up to 10% of student places in the four major cities (read the political agreement on the Ministry of Higher Education and Science’s website). The base line is 2019 admissions, and this means that the proposal will affect a maximum of 1,245 places. The phase-in is expected from 2023 and then gradually towards 2030.

"It’s clear that the effects of the intervention will be felt, but the long phase-in period up until 2030 means we can develop reasonable solutions for the programmes that will be affected."

This is Rector Brian Bech Nielsen's early assessment of how the political agreement on degree programme decentralisation will affect Aarhus University.

A broader dialogue

In this first phase, the dialogue is between the Rector's Office and the deans, with discussions about how Aarhus University can meet the government’s demands. Along the way, the senior management team will also involve the academic councils, the Main Liaison Committee and upper management before the board approves the plan which will be submitted to the ministry and the parties to the agreement.

"This isn’t going to be an across-the-board model which affects all programmes equally. We’re currently looking at several different scenarios, and it’s still too early to say anything concrete. But our dialogue in the senior management team is positive and constructive, and we’ll broaden it when we start to have some concrete proposals that we believe comply with the Ministry's requirements," says Pro-rector for Education Berit Eika.

She explains that the Ministry of Higher Education and Science has asked the universities to take into account jobs, quality and financial sustainability.

"In addition, our own strategy will play a role in relation to our priorities," Berit Eika stresses.

The political initiative requires that universities across the sector ensure a good geographical spread and the necessary academic breadth in their overall portfolio of degree programmes. Therefore, the plans from the individual universities will also be discussed by Universities Denmark.

The upcoming process at AU to develop the university’s own plan was also addressed at the academic councils’ seminar on Monday 20 September when the rector briefed the members of the councils.

Decentralisation is not the right tool

Even though discussions have got off to a good start at Aarhus University, Rector Brian Bech Nielsen makes it clear that, in his opinion, decentralising student places is the wrong tool to strengthen development in rural Denmark:

"Of course, we’ll respect the decision taken by a large majority of the Danish Parliament and we’ll do the job we’ve been assigned. But it will take more to improve the balance between rural and urban areas. We have a good working relationship with the municipalities on research, education and innovation, and we’ll continue this relationship, regardless of the decentralisation agreement. This is where the real benefits lie," Brian Bech Nielsen stresses.

Here he’s referring to the fact that the majority of AU graduates find jobs outside the city they studied in, and outside neighbouring municipalities. Furthermore, most students' business theses and project collaborations are also with partners outside the major cities. He also points to the new Digital Transformation Lab which was recently opened in the rural Ringkøbing-Skjern municipality, and more are being planned in other municipalities in the Central Denmark Region.

"AU will still be an equally good university in 2030, even though we’ll have fewer students than now. However, it’s clear that fewer student places at universities, as entailed by this proposal, will mean that young people of the future will have fewer opportunities when choosing what to study. But we’ll still have important social tasks – also after 2030 – and we intend to perform these with the same high quality as we do today," the rector concludes.