New chairman: “OK if the students don’t know about the Student Council, as long as they at least know their own study council”
A better study environment at AU, local implementation of the study progress reform and studies quality assurance are just three of the issues awaiting the Student Council’s new president Allan Graversen Vesterlund. And he promises that the critical collaboration with Aarhus University's management will continue with him at the helm.
The hard core of Student Council members hang out near the Studenterhuset. This is where they prepare policy, activities, demonstrations and consultation responses. There is almost always coffee in the red Thermos, and the empty beer bottles testify to the fact that they sometimes drink an informal beer or two.
Allan Graversen Vesterlund has been an active member of the Student Council’s inner circle for several years. The past 18 months as vice-chair. Now he is taking over as chairman after Per Dalbjerg, who needs to complete his studies.
What counts are the study councils
Vesterlund wants to continue the critical collaboration with AU’s management; but while the outgoing chairman ran for office with the aim of raising awareness of the Student Council at AU in general, Vesterlund takes a more pragmatic view of the matter. He knows full well that the Council is far from representative of all 45,000 students at AU, and that many students likely get a little glassy eyed when the discussion turns to the Student Council.
“I don’t mind the fact that many students haven’t heard of the Student Council as such, because our structure means we are locally entrenched in the individual study programmes by virtue of the study councils. So if all the students at psychology know what the “Psyk study council” is, then they actually know of the Student Council that way round."
The board of studies must be prepared
Among the things that Allan Graversen Vesterlund knows he will be concerning himself with are the coming study environment assessment at AU, the implementation of the study progress reform, and the long-awaited report from the government’s Expert Committee on Quality in Higher Education in Denmark.
He has fought the study progress reform for a long time:
“It’s just too late to do anything about the overall framework now. What comes next is the decentralised work that takes place in the boards of study, which is where the reform will be implemented in the individual study programmes. So we need to prepare the boards of study for the task.”
Full-time studying
Vesterlund expects to continue studying business administration and European studies full-time concurrently with his work as chairman of the Student Council.
“I also expect to spend a lot of evenings either studying or on Student Council work. And I’m not betting on getting a top grade in all subjects, because the work of the Student Council is so important to me that I don’t mind getting an average grade in some subjects. I would also like to finish my studies in the foreseeable future.”
If everything goes according to plan, he will write his Master’s thesis in the spring of 2016.
But even though he spends a large part of his time on student politics, this does not mean he daydreams of a future in the Danish parliament.
“Not at all. It’s the day-to-day work in the council that attracts me. I have great colleagues, no two days are alike, and you end up juggling all kinds of things. I’ve also had quite a lot of organisational theory during my studies, but it’s one thing to read about it in a book and something else entirely to work in a proper organisation.”
Once his time at AU is over he hopes to avoid unemployment and perhaps find a job in an NGO.
What is the Student Council?
The Student Council at AU is the students’ voice in relation to internal student politics at Aarhus University, so it is often invited to participate in consultations.
The individual study councils are represented in the Student Council, so you can see the Student Council as some sort of joint spokesperson for AU’s study councils, and remember that the study councils are the ones who decide what the Student Council should think and do.
Translated by Peter Lambourne