Summer status from the Dean

The summer holidays and a well-deserved break are just around the corner. I would therefore like to take this opportunity to take stock of the first six months of 2023 at Tech, and also thank every employee who, in their own way, help make our faculty a fantastic place to study and an inspiring place to conduct research and provide public sector consultancy to the benefit of society as a whole.

Tech plays a major part in ensuring that Aarhus University is one of the best universities in Europe when it comes to taking home grants from Horizon Europe. Tech's success in Horizon Europe underscores our strength within mission-driven research and our strong profile within the green transition. At the time of writing, Tech has 71 grants totalling DKK 311 million, and the faculty is the coordinator on 14 of those projects amounting to DKK 114 million. It's an incredible achievement, and a testament to what we can accomplish when we work together. As dean, I'm pleased that Tech is such a strong and collaborative faculty. I’m proud of our focus on outreach and the impact that our degree programmes and research have on the business community, government agencies and society as a whole.

The development of the campus at AU Viborg is well underway. At the beginning of June, the final course descriptions and academic regulations for AU Viborg's new study programmes were ready, and I look forward to welcoming students to our new programmes in veterinary medicine, animal science and plant and food science in the summer of 2024. While the degree programmes take shape, we’re also working to ensure that the students have optimal housing, transport and study conditions at the new campus. The level of commitment being demonstrated by the different branches of our organisation is impressive. It's lovely to see, and I'm looking forward to welcoming the first batch of students to Foulum in 2024. The development of AU Viborg can be followed via this link.

We will maintain our focus on engineering and on the consolidation of the departments. It is a process that will take time but which is also an important part of creating a solid foundation that supports our common direction and ambition to create a green and societal impact through our education and research. Throughout the rest of 2023, we will continue our efforts to attract new students to our engineering departments. We expect to reach our intake limit cf. the relocation agreement in 2024, which is why it is so important that we work hard to reduce dropout rates and graduate unemployment in the coming year.

With regard to public sector consultancy, we expect Tech's quality management system to be recertified in September. An external audit was carried out in June, and it was very successful. The auditor praised the way the system is used by the organisation and commented that the ongoing service check of public sector consultancy will strengthen the system. For many years, funding of the area has suffered from the two per cent reallocation contribution that erodes our framework contracts. We were able to get through 2022 by the skin of our teeth thanks to extraordinary compensation. We’re therefore pleased that a large subsidy from the research reserve funds in 2023 will more than make up for this year's reallocation contribution. We continue the fight to abolish the reallocation contribution and to restore the research base. This will be one of our most important goals at Tech going forward.

The long-awaited education reform was released this week. We do not yet know the final plan for  implementation of the reform, but it is quite clear that our sector is facing a major overhaul. Click here to read the senior management team's comments on the agreement. Regardless of how the plan will be implemented, we can expect to spend a great deal of resources on it – particularly the business-oriented Master's degree programmes.

I would like to thank everyone who helped highlight Tech in the public debate, including at this year's Political Festival on Bornholm.  As dean, I feel so proud when I see how everyone pulls together when necessary and when I see the level of commitment displayed across the entire faculty.

I look forward to seeing you all at the Summer Hangout on 18 August. We’ve already surpassed last year’s sign ups but you can still register by clicking here.

Until then, I would like to wish you all a very happy and well-deserved summer holiday.

Eskild Holm Nielsen

Dean, Faculty of Technical Sciences