At the beginning of October Mathias Titelbech, who is in his fifth semester and studying English as his supplementary subject, was standing quietly in the lunch queue at the cafeteria when he overheard a comment that he just had to tweet:

"Uni-guy with denim jacket and Avicii hair: When you visit Germany you just HAVE TO have sausage one way or another. #hørtpåau #sausages." (translated from Danish, red.)

Not interested in women, only likes

At home in his apartment in Viby, Mathias Titelbech was chatting with room-mate Silas Lauritsen, who is studying English on his third semester, about the newly invented hashtag #hørtpåAU (#heardatAU). Silas Lauritsen suggested turning it into a Facebook page.

"I thought about the Facebook page ‘Heard in Denmark’ but that it would be great to make it more local so it was only for the university."

They created the page, shared it with their friends, and things took off from there.

"It's crazy to get a message saying the page has a thousand likes after only a few days. We’re not interested in women, only likes," adds Silas Lauritsen with a smile on his face.

"Can you argue that the raspberry bar isn’t cake?”

When asked what makes a good Heard at AU post, the two students are not in doubt. You have to be able to see the situation for yourself or be able to relate to the quote.

"I really like seeing prejudices about the different subjects come into play. It’s fun to focus on what we all have in common and the prejudices we’ve got about each other. We laugh at each other and at ourselves," says Mathias Titelbech and continues:

"A good example is a post where one philosophy student says to another, ‘Can you argue that the raspberry bar isn’t cake?’ That really encapsulates all the prejudices about students from philosophy."

Silas Lauritsen adds:

"It’s also great if our posts get people to think about something funny. After all, you can relive your own experiences through others. And that’s what our followers do when they tag their friends in the comments field."

Only for Aarhus University

Despite considerable success they are not planning to alter the original concept. They are strictly non-profit and only doing it for fun.

"It’s by the people for the people, so it only exists as long as people contribute. Mathias and I can’t invent all this stuff by ourselves," says Silas Lauritsen.

However, they emphasise that it must be a local page which is only has to do with the university. Having said that, they think that if there were more followers then there would also be more suggestions for their entries.

Mathias Titelbech adds:

"The more people we reach, the more people will contact us. Although we won’t compromise quality, you can never have too many suggestions. Our posts should be funny."

All suggestions are welcome

Mathias Titelbech and Silas Lauritsen don’t have any strict requirements for a Heard at AU post.

"It doesn’t have to contain anything specific. If you hear something funny then write to us. If we also think it's funny then we’ll post it."

Translated by Peter Lambourne.