AU to downsize in the coming years: How the faculties are addressing the reductions

The net resizing, i.e. the number of places a faculty will lose on its Bachelor’s programmes, is based on the average from 2018-2022. This shows that Arts will have to lose 313 places, corresponding to 17.9 per cent of its Bachelor’s places. This will take the faculty from an average intake of 1,751 students to a cap of 1,438 from 2025.

Natural Sciences has to drop 124 student places, corresponding to a reduction of 15.4 per cent compared to 2018-2022. Aarhus BSS has to cut 218 places, corresponding to 9.8 per cent.

Looking at net resizing alone, Health and Technical Sciences come out best. Health has to lose 10 places, while Technical Sciences ends up with 120 additional places. Compared to the average intake at Tech from 2018-2022, the new seats represent an increase of 51.3 per cent. The many new places are mainly due to the faculty's new degree programmes in Foulum at AU Viborg. However, Tech still has to cut 41 places from elsewhere. Health also has to cut student places. Health will have to cut 49 places, but it will be allocated 39 new places as a result of the relocation agreement. However, Health is one of the few faculties that has had a higher intake in recent years than the basis for the calculations (the years 2018-2022) and therefore, in reality, there is a larger resizing than what appears from the figures announced.

Despite the varying extent of the resizing from faculty to faculty, according to the five deans, all the faculties are facing a challenge in pinpointing exactly which study places they will cut. Most either can't or don't yet want to say exactly which programmes will be affected. Over the next few months, the faculties have to submit their plans to the senior management team.

ARTS: MANY PROGRAMMES ARE TOO SMALL TO BE SUSTAINABLE

Arts’ goal is to retain all its knowledge areas, says Dean Maja Horst.

"This is not the first resizing of Arts. It comes on top of a long series of cuts at Arts and we’re now at a point where we have a great many programmes that are too small to be sustainable in terms of study environment, enrolment and finances. Therefore, we need to look at an overall plan for our programme portfolio. It's not just about placing the resizing across different degree programmes and then later finding out which Master's programmes have to be shortened or restructured. It’s more about finding out what kind of programme portfolio we want at the faculty," says Maja Horst.

The dean cannot yet elaborate on which scenarios the faculty is considering. She calls it "faculty development" rather than cuts, but she recognises that Arts clearly has to cut student places and she describes this as an “enormous task".

"We need to look at all our many areas and decide how we can maintain a broad programme portfolio in terms of knowledge, even though it's clear that Arts will have to get smaller. So the task is to develop while simultaneously downsizing," she says.

CANNOT RULE OUT REDUNDANCIES IN THE LONG TERM

Maja Horst cannot rule out that the resizing will result in redundancies or a recruitment freeze.

"I can't promise that there won't be cuts, but I don't see them happening just yet. There may be job losses in certain areas, but my ambition is to try to avoid major redundancies or recruitment freezes for a long time," she says and elaborates:

"Resizing will be introduced next year, but the financial impact won’t strike until the following five years. It's the same with the Master’s degree reform. This means we have time to evolve into a small faculty. We have time to think about where we are heading over the next few years."

She regrets that graduate unemployment is such an important factor in determining how the resizing will be distributed, but this has been recognised for a long time.

"Graduate unemployment is the main reason why Arts is being hit so hard. It’s been clear since the spring that graduate unemployment was the decisive factor for the distribution of the resizing, and of course we don't think this is a particularly good criterion for Arts. Still, that's what the politicians have chosen," says Maja Horst.

The faculty management team will present its resizing proposal on 18 September, after which there will be meetings in Aarhus and Emdrup to discuss the plan before a longer process of involvement begins. The first decision on resizing will be announced around 1 November.

NAT: ACADEMIC CONSEQUENCES OF MORE CONCERN THAN THE FINANCIALS

The dean of Natural Sciences, Birgit Schiøtt, says the resizing is regrettable, but she is pleased that the senior management team has decided that the faculties are to share the burden to a certain extent.

"I’m glad that we have to pull together, because we have to get the job done together. It's unfortunate that the unemployment aspect comes into it, because all our programmes are affected by unemployment to some degree. But that’s what’s been decided - also in the political agreement," says Birgit Schiøtt.

"The percentages are different for each faculty, but I think we all have difficult tasks ahead in one way or another. And yes, the alternative could have been an across-the-board approach, but in the end different parameters have come into play, and this is where the resizing based on graduate unemployment makes the difference," she says.

The faculty management team held its first meeting specifically about the reductions last week after the senior management team had made its announcement. Now there’s a lot of work to be done before the faculty has a plan in place. Hopefully in mid-September. According to Birgit Schiøtt, it's too early to say which programmes will be affected.

"It's true that we and Arts have to make the most cuts, and we’re a little concerned that the classical humanities and cultural subjects at university will ultimately suffer. As other resizing is now having a effect, our intake is already slightly lower than the starting point in the 2018-2022 figures, so our finances have been adjusted to the intake. Moreover, all this is being rolled out over five years, so we’re not so concerned about the financials just yet," she says.

However, the possible academic consequences do concern us.

"The financial drain is not nearly as bad as the possible academic consequences for our programmes. That's why it's important that we continue to educate skilled and sought-after graduates; and that's our focus right now," says Birgit Schiøtt.

DEPARTMENT OF PUBLIC HEALTH AT HEALTH HIT HARD

"Health is one of the faculties that, on paper, seems be getting off lightly, with a net resizing of just 10 student places. But it's not that simple," explains Anne-Mette Hvas, dean of Health.

This is partly due to Health's larger intakes of dental and medical students in recent years, which in 2023 contributed to a total Bachelor’s intake at the faculty of 771 students. However, as the resizing is based on the average intake for 2018-2022, which was 713, the faculty will be capped at 703 students from 2025.

"The interesting figure is the cap on the Bachelor's intake of 703, which is significantly less than the numbers we admitted in 2023 and 2024. This means that we’re impacted much more than it would seem after a first glance at the figures," says Anne-Mette Hvas and she elaborates:

"Medicine and dentistry are part of the equation, but we simply can't touch them. This means that the programmes we can adjust will be hit much harder, relatively speaking."

Specifically, this means that Health has no other option than to resize the two academic Bachelor's degree programmes at the Department of Public Health, namely programmes in public health science and sports science. This year, the two programmes have offered student places to 69 and 73 applicants, respectively.

"We’re facing the challenge that we have very few degree programmes and that our major degree programmes in medicine and odontology are locked. We don't have a large academic landscape to manoeuvre in, so the resizing will hit very hard but only in a few programmes," says Anne-Mette Hvas.

"Because the financial impact of the resizing will be spread over the next five years, layoffs are not an issue at Health right now," explains the dean.

BSS: WE’RE HAPPY WITH WHAT WE'VE COME UP WITH

Aarhus BSS expects to have a plan for reductions in student places by 5 September following a meeting of the faculty management team. Not surprisingly, Dean Thomas Pallesen is fed up with the situation, but nevertheless he is satisfied with the way the faculty is dealing with the resizing. He won’t yet say which programmes will be affected.

"Having thoroughly discussed things, we’re happy with what we've come up with," he says.

"We're weighing up the elements that were also included at university level, but there are also more local considerations," says Thomas Pallesen, who can’t say any more about the process at this time.

NO LAYOFFS AT BSS

Even though resizing at the faculty involves 218 student places, Thomas Pallesen does not consider the distribution unfair.

"I think we all feel as if we’ve got to cut too much, and if we all think like this, then it's probably not that bad," he says.

The resizing will not result in layoffs or a recruitment freeze at the faculty, the dean explains.

"Anything can happen, but on its own, this will not mean that we have to make any cuts in staff. For example, we've just been through a challenging period of high inflation, and we don't know what’ll happen politically in the future. But we can handle the current situation without any layoffs," says Thomas Pallesen.

TECH: "WE CAN HANDLE IT"

The Faculty of Technical Sciences is gaining far more student places than it is losing, as the political agreement on the relocation of study places has enabled the faculty to establish new study programmes at AU Viborg, including the veterinary medicine programme. Nevertheless, there is some resizing at Tech because all the faculties are to share the burden of establishing the new study places. As mentioned previously, the faculty has to find 41 places to cut, and these cannot be at AU Viborg. However, this will not affect the faculty for the time being, explains Dean Eskild Holm Nielsen.

"We can handle it, and of course the phase-in at Viborg is a gradual process. We expect that over the next two years we will be able to maintain our current range of programmes and that we will be able to admit students at the same levels for all programmes in 2025 and 2026," says Eskild Holm Nielsen.

"It's too early to say which programmes could be affected in the long term," explains the dean.