At Health we are facing the same financial challenges as the rest of AU. This means that we must balance our budget and, at the same time, ensure a minimum of room to manoeuvre in financially. New initiatives are therefore necessary.

2013.12.05 | Allan Flyvbjerg

To all members of staff at Health

Last Wednesday morning the senior management team made an announcement about AU's serious financial situation and some of the measures that need to be brought into play, both now and in the near future, to balance AU's finances. This information can also be found on AU's website.

On Wednesday information emails were also sent and/or staff meetings were held at the departments/School for Dental Assistants, Hygienists and Clinical Technicians (SKT), where the heads of department and the other managers provided more information and initiated the discussions with staff on the challenges faced by each unit.

Health is in the same situation as the other main academic areas and the administration. If we fail to act, our costs will exceed our revenues and we will end up in an untenable financial situation. We are therefore facing the same financial challenges as the rest of AU, which is that we must balance the budget and at the same time ensure a minimum of room to manoeuvre in financially.

The Dean's Office has discussed this in depth in the faculty management team and with the heads of department and the head of school at SKT. There is no doubt that the situation is serious and will entail considerable savings in all units. The work to find these necessary immediate and lasting savings will be ongoing in the near future - and in particular after AU's board meeting on 18 December 2013, when Health's final overall budget will be known.

As the Dean at Health I have to recognise that we must be able to live up to the requirements, in the same way as the other main areas and AU Administration.

I also share the opinion of the faculty management team as a whole that even though it appears we will not be able to avoid redundancies, we must examine all the possibilities for minimising this measure, which will otherwise be carried out with the utmost care and consideration.

There are other financial instruments that must be carefully examined and included in the cost reduction plans for the departments and other units. However, there can be no discussion about this - we will achieve our result and meet the cost reduction targets.

In the difficult times we are facing I need everyone to contribute in different ways.

Firstly, the university and Health needs everybody to loyally contribute to finding initiatives that can permanently improve the financial situation by making use of the knowledge that each of you has about your own area.

Secondly, there is a need to be patient, thoughtful and to act with due care when queries and uncertainty arise in discussions with managers and the in liaison committees of the units. In this way we will get through the difficult processes as smoothly as possible.

I will be available for discussions etc., and I know that all the other managers at Health will be too. I also urge that the liaison committees are actively used to clarify doubts and provide input for other discussions.

Health has a fundamentally healthy balance between its activities and finances and is also experiencing positive development in all of the significant academic areas.

But right now we must make a concentrated effort to ensure that this continues to be the case.

Sincerely,

Allan Flyvbjerg,

Dean