Rector and pro-rector on the Master's degree reform: ‘No use fighting it – it’s here to stay’

Friday morning, the Committee on Education offered coffee, croissants, and an update on the university’s work to implement the Master’s reform to staff and students.

"It's a grey morning, but I feel good – we need to get the energy up!"

This was the message from rector Brian Bech Nielsen as he stood up in front of the assembly. It wasn’t just any potential morning tiredness that the rector was trying to shake off, but also the frustration over the Master’s reform. However, the rector made no secret of the fact that he can certainly relate to the frustration – and, as a member of the government’s Master’s Committee, has also made the politicians aware of the many challenges the reform brings, including in the committee’s report.

"But there is a political desire to change the education sector, and the politicians have a good right to do so. Fortunately, we have democracy," said the rector.

“Now we need to bring energy into it, so the outcome is as good as possible. We owe it to the new students to ensure that these become excellent degree programmes," said the rector, who also made it clear that the reform is a reality universities must face, regardless of whether they agree with the political objective behind the reform.

"There is broad support for the agreement, so it is not something that goes away so it’s not going anywhere: the agreement has been settled through political negotiations.”

Brian Bech Nielsen also expressed some scepticism about whether the political goal of having 20 percent of future Master’s students pursue a Master’s degree programme for working professionals can be achieved. Additionally, since the number of students in these programmes is linked to the number of students in one-year Master’s programmes, the rector expects that the number of students admitted to one-year Master’s programmes will exceed the 10 percent stated in the agreement.

"We should expect that number to be higher – we might as well be honest about it."

Pro-rector Berit Eika took over after the rector and explained how the Committee on Education has been working on the reform. The pro-rector also made it clear that many uncertainties remain in the work on the reform – for example, a ministerial order has yet to be issued, and there is no political clarity on how students with a short Master’s degree can be guaranteed the opportunity to pursue a PhD.

"And will it be clear to students what the same degree looks like in different parts of the country?" she asked.

Nevertheless, next year is all about implementation, the pro-rector said. To illustrate her point, she brought along a graph she was first introduced to back when she studied medicine.

“It’s a graph showing the phases people typically go through when facing, for example, a life-threatening illness or the death of a loved one – and it’s also used to describe how we process change,” she explained. The graph illustrates how people move through phases such as shock, anger, denial and depression before eventually reaching acceptance of the new reality.

"We need to stop resisting it and start moving forward," was the call from the pro-rector, as she switched to a slide of students in the park.

"Because this is what it's all about."

"We’ve had enough time to curse the reform"

After the senior management's presentation, participants had the opportunity to visit various stands where they could listen to speed presentations and exchange experiences with others from AU.

Jacob Schach Møller, head of the Department of Mathematics, participated in the dialogue meeting and recognises the graph shown by the pro-rector in her presentation. As a member of the faculty management team, he has been involved in selecting the short Master’s degree programmes and is now part of the working group responsible for developing one of the faculty’s new short Master’s programmes, Applied Data Analytics.

"The graph fits very well with the process we have been through at the faculty. Now, we’ve rolled up our sleeves and we’re focusing on solutions. But the discussion began almost a year ago, so we have had plenty of time to sit and curse the reform," Jacob Schach Møller says, and explains that the turning point came during the autumn of last year, when the faculty specifically started designing the new degree programmes.

"It became a constructive task to create a product that makes sense for students."

The Faculty of Natural Sciences was among the first to announce how it would implement the Master’s reform. In addition to a one-year Master's programme in Computer Science, the faculty plans to create three short, interdisciplinary Master’s degrees of 75 ECTS, focusing on science communication, natural resource management, and applied data analytics.

"We aim to create interdisciplinary programmes with an independent profile and a broad recruitment base – not just light versions of existing programmes," Jacob Schach Møller says.

But it is not an easy task, the department head emphasises:

“To attract 10 percent of incoming students, maybe more, the programmes need to be genuinely appealing to students. Other departments also have to see them as a valid path for their students, and employers must find them relevant too,” says the department head.

“And only in 2026 and 2027 will we know if we’ve succeeded, when we can see if students actually choose the short Master’s programmes and Master’s degree programmes for working professionals,” he concludes.

Not ready to sing 'I feel good'

Christina Fiig is an associate professor on the English-language Master's degree programme in European Studies at the School of Culture and Society, Faculty of Arts. Together with the Master's degree programme Human Security, the programme will be converted into one-year Master's programmes of 75 ECTS. Christina Fiig also took part in the dialogue meeting, where she, together with vice-dean Niels Overgaard Lehmann, discussed the work on restructuring the programme.

When asked about the mood in her academic environment in light of the leadership's call to start moving forward, she responds:

“We haven’t quite reached the rector’s level of enthusiasm. We’re working with the mandate and scope we’ve been given, but we’re not ready to sing ‘I feel good’, like the rector did in his speech. We’re not that far along on the graph yet,” Christina Fiig explains, adding:

"We’re sad about having to reshape a programme that we’ve offered for 30 years. It’s a Master’s programme where two-thirds of the students are international. So, it was a bit unexpected that, along with Human Security, it was chosen to be transformed into a one-year Master’s degree.”

"We’re concerned about what the restructuring will mean for the internationalisation at Arts, as we’re part of an international education market, and there aren’t many other countries where a Master’s degree is one year. The question is whether international applicants will apply to us to the same extent as before."

Christina Fiig explains that they are currently discussing how to plan the 15 ECTS thesis over a summer break and what opportunities there will be for students to do an internship.

"We’re not concerned about the content of the new programme; that will be fine, as we’re used to developing high-quality degree programmes. But we are concerned about recruitment – whether both Danish and international students will apply for the new, shorter programme," she says.

From panic to 'it will work out'

One of the few students who participated in the dialogue meeting was Mathilde Vadsager, who is studying classical philology (MA), which is one of the degree programmes that will be discontinued as a result of the implementation of the Master's degree reform at the Faculty of Arts. As a student representative at the Faculty of Arts, she was invited to the meeting, which she thinks gave a good insight into the thoughts and ideas that AU has about how to create new Master's degree programmes after the reform.

Even though neither she nor other current students at the university will be directly affected by the new reform, it has still raised concerns among students about how it will impact their fields of study and future degree programmes.

"There are several students who are worried, and although we at Arts have been presented with the overall plan for the faculty, there are still many unknowns. But I sense that the mood among students is starting to shift from panic to the belief that it will all work out," Mathilde Vadsager says.

"I've also become more positive over the past few weeks, even though I’m on a programme that’s being closed. My fellow students and I have been worried about what it will mean for our academic environment, but I also think there are exciting prospects in the new plan and, not least, a willingness to listen to us students."

She can’t help but get involved in student politics. Mathilde Vadsager is a member of the departmental forum at the School of Culture and Society, the academic council at the Faculty of Arts and AU's Academic Environment Council. She is also active in the Arts Council, which is a degree programme council under the Student Counci

This text is machine translated and post-edited by Cecillia Jensen.