New Year's greetings from the dean

[Translate to English:]
In his New Year's greeting Dean Eskild Holm Nielsen reflects on the past year and looks ahead to the new one. Photo: Melissa B. K. Yildirim"

Dear all

In a few days, most of you will be going on holiday. When we meet again, we’ll have started a new year. Of course, much will still be the same, but we will also take some new steps for the faculty.

Several things that point to the future have been going on at the faculty over the past few weeks. On Tuesday, I signed a new collaboration agreement between Aarhus University and the French institute, INRAE. Together with a similar strategic agreement we already have with the Dutch Wageningen University and Research, the agreement is the foundation for cross-disciplinary collaboration between three of Europe's leading research environments within agriculture, food and the environment.

This underscores how highly we prioritise interdisciplinary collaboration here at Tech and at AU in general, and it also shows that we’re an attractive collaboration partner. I’m very much looking forward to seeing this unfold in the coming years.

The major Campus 3.0 plan also fell into place last week. The largest single projects are the expansion of AU Viborg and consolidation of engineering in Aarhus. We’re also the faculty with the most physical locations around the country, and I’m pleased to see that we prioritise development broadly, for example with the new solar-panel experimental facility in Flakkebjerg, more land for research in Auning and an upcoming building renovation in Roskilde.

In August, we opened three new programmes at AU Viborg. The rector oversaw the official opening together with the mayor of Viborg, Ulrik Wilbek. We all had a fantastic day! The new students were happy and full of anticipation, and our employees were proud (and perhaps a little relieved) at how well they had managed the preparations.

The development in Viborg is an example of our strength and how well we manage to combine education, research and science-based advice. AU Viborg will gain an increasingly stronger profile as Denmark's Green Campus when more students and new research initiatives in areas such as biosolutions arrive in the coming years.

The green tripartite agreement is a good example of how society is demanding more research into nature, the environment, climate, agriculture and food. Our contribution is crucial, whether this be new technologies to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, or monitoring of nature, the environment and biodiversity, so that work on the green transition is not fumbling around blindly with a lack of knowledge and data. Just think about how vital our research reports on oxygen depletion in Danish waters have been as a basis for important political decisions made this year.

Overall, I see great support for our science-based advice from our partners in ministries and agencies. Although it’s hard to avoid advice on matters of such great political importance sometimes getting into choppy waters in the newspapers and in debate between politicians and special interest organisations, this does not change the big picture of Aarhus University as a trustworthy advisor and collaboration partner.  I see it as a seal of approval for collaboration that the Danish Centre for Environment and Energy (DCE) in Roskilde has had its grant increased with earmarked funds from the research reserve, and that a six-year agreement has also been reached on the budget to strengthen the research environments behind our consultancy in general.

Unfortunately, not all our work is enjoying a political tailwind at the moment. Major reforms in the field of education are underway, with both the Master's reform and a reform of the professional Bachelor's degree programmes.

Both will have an impact on our programmes. As a result of the government's proposal, Bachelors of Engineering (diplomingeniør) will receive shortened programmes without the Bachelor's project, which is usually done in collaboration with a company and often leads to a first job. The shortening of programmes also means that BEng graduates will have a 15-ECTS-credit shortfall if they want to continue their studies to an MScEng (civilingeniør). And the Master's reform reduces the number of student places in the Bachelor of Science programme (BScEng) by 10-20 per cent.

I think this is entirely the wrong way to go, given that we know there’s high demand from companies for skilled engineers. Graduates have to go out and tackle society's major challenges – energy, cybersecurity, new climate-friendly materials and much more – and help raise productivity for the companies that earn revenues for Denmark. For this reason, we at AU, the business community and their organisations are doing all we can to make politicians think twice.

2025 will also be marked by strategies. AU's overall strategy for the period up to 2030 is currently under consultation. There’s also the faculty's strategy and then the departments' strategies.

Our current 2025 strategy to make Technical Sciences the collaborative and solution driven faculty creating green and digital impact has served us well. All our departments and centres have seen growth, we have a good reputation, and we’ve established a culture of strategic collaboration both externally and internally.

Therefore, we don’t need a new strategy with different ambitions and focal points. Rather, we need further implementation and consolidated growth so that we can continue to meet the demands that society makes of us.

I can see that many of you are committed to your tasks and are very gratified that our work creates such an impact for society. We contribute education, advice and research at an international level, and we show that the path to development is through curiosity, openness and collaboration.

Therefore, I also look forward to a rewarding 2025 for the faculty. There’s a lot of exciting work ahead. We have to develop the new work-integrated Master’s programmes. We have to continue with the campus plans at all our locations to forge even better frameworks for education, science-based advice and research. And we must continue to pursue our ambition to contribute to the society we’re all a part of.

I hope you have a splendid Christmas holiday, regardless of how you spend it. It's good to relax and recharge. I send my best thoughts and wishes to everyone, and I look forward to seeing you all again in 2025.

Kindest regards

Eskild