AU’s rector on the relocation proposal: “There aren’t any more relocation options in a secret drawer”

Rector Brian Bech Nielsen has said it before. And he says it again: The agreement to relocate student places approved by all parties in Parliament except Liberal Alliance and the Danish Social Liberal Party back in July is by no means a flower that sprouted in his garden.

The senior management team has – backs against the wall – come up with a plan for how Aarhus University intends to live up to the terms of the agreement, under which the university either has to relocate or cut student places to the tune of up to ten percent of the 2019 intake by 2030. In AU’s case, this amounts to up to 1,245 places. And the senior management team has put a lot of emphasis on precisely those two small words: ‘up to’. The senior management team’s proposed plan is divided into two phases, the first of which will involve concrete closures and relocations corresponding to six percent of student places at AU. However, the plan doesn’t state in detail how the second phase – which would involve a six-percent reduction in student places – would be implemented.  

The senior management team isn’t trying to pull a fast one by phasing the cutbacks and relocations in this way; as the rector explains, the ministry itself gave the universities this option, and it’s a strategy that CBS has also adopted.

A difficult exercise  

The senior management team’s proposal not only specifies how many student places each faculty will have to cut and which students places will be relocated to AU’s Herning and Foulum campuses. It also details which degree programmes will be shut down entirely. It’s been a difficult exercise, admits the rector.

“Because at the moment you get specific in relation to which degree programmes have to be scaled back or shut down as a consequence of our plan for living up the agreement, you’re holding the fate of these subjects in your hands, and it becomes clear to the lecturers and researchers that they’re under the microscope,” he explains.  

But now the plan has been finalized and submitted for comment. 

“I believe that our draft for the first phase lives up to the intentions set out in the agreement. We present a balanced, reasonable proposal. And I hope that our politicians will acknowledge that we deliver on the parameters outlined in the agreement to the letter,” the rector says. 

READ MORE: Relocations and closures: Deans discuss how the draft will affect the faculties

Expects Parliament to walk back some of its demands for shutdowns and relocation

In the proposal, the senior management team writes that it expects that Parliament will walk back some of the relocations and cutbacks the relocation agreement calls for, on the grounds that the full ten percent reduction would have serious consequences for higher education in Denmark.

What do you base that prediction on?

“The agreement states that in special cases, it’s possible to argue that the ten percent reduction should be scaled down as low as five percent, and I think we have good arguments in favor of doing this,” the rector says, with reference to a number of mitigating factors described in the proposal. 

These factors include consideration for the viability of small language subjects and area studies at Arts, and similar considerations are described for the other faculties.

Not possible to relocate more student places

In the event that Parliament directs AU to deliver the full ten percent, the university could potentially be forced to cut back or relocate up to 500 additional student places. And in this event, the only solution will be cutting student places or shutting down even more degree programmes.

“There aren’t any more relocation options in a secret drawer,” the rector asserts.

“The process we’ve been through is painful enough. If we have to deliver more than what we’ve proposed, we’ll have to take a broad view of the whole, and that means some of the subjects that were exempted in the first phase would also come into play. And then it get even more painful,” Bech Nielsen says. 

When asked why the senior management team doesn’t believe that it’s possible to relocate more than the 415 student places included in the proposal for the first phase, the rector replies that the senior management team has placed a high priority on safeguarding the quality of the degree programmes as well as ensuring that graduates are able to find work locally. 

"There are already strong research programmes to build on at both our existing campus in Herning and the campus we want to establish in Foulum. The degree programmes we’re proposing to move to these two locations will be able to benefit from the research expertise available there. But at the same time, we need to be aware of the capacity for how many students these degree programmes can absorb, and we don’t have the funding to expand their capacity further,” the rector explains, adding:

“What’s more, there has to be a local job market for a degree programme for it to make sense to move student places there.” 

Risk of empty desks?

In the proposal, the senior management team also points out that the demographic trend in western Central Denmark Region puts limits on the recruitment base for the degree programmes that are relocated, because the population here is shrinking.

In light of the fact that the existing degree programmes in Herning are already having trouble attracting enough applicants, is there a risk that AU will end up with even more empty desks there than is already the case?

“Yes, intake is a genuine concern. And this is also one of the reasons that we don’t believe it’s realistic to relocate more than what we’re proposing in the first phase. However, we do believe that we can get young people in the area interested in the degree programmes we are relocating. But this will also take an extra effort on our part, as well as on the part of the municipality in relation to providing attractive facilities for these students in the form of student housing and infrastructure – and that there are exciting social and recreational opportunities for young people.”

One thing is providing this in Herning – but isn’t it more uphill to establish this kind of a campus in Foulum?

“That’s precisely why we think that it would be an advantage for more degree programmes to come to Foulum than just the veterinary programme that Parliament wants to establish there. In addition, I’m sure that the newly re-elected mayor of Viborg will be prepared to make commuting to and from Viborg attractive, and in general create good conditions for students in Viborg,” Bech Nielsen says.

Arts must tighten its belt

Just as at the University of Copenhagen, the humanities faculty at AU will have to tighten its belt the most when it comes to reducing student places. 315 of the 819 student places AU is proposing to cut must come from Arts – about 40 percent. 

What is the rationale for cutting significantly more places at Arts than at AU’s other faculties? 

“All faculties will contribute a reduction in student places. Relocating student places will also reduce the number of student places in Aarhus and Copenhagen. If we look at the total number of students places we’re proposing to relocate or cut, Arts only accounts for 35 percent of that total. This should be held up against the fact that at in 2019, the benchmark year, Arts had 31 percent of all student places at AU. But it’s correct that according to the proposal, Arts will reduce and relocate most, corresponding to nine percent (against the faculty’s intake in 2019, ed.) This is due to high unemployment for many of the faculty’s degree programmes,” Bech Nielsen explains. 

When asked whether cutting back such a large number of student places at Arts communicates that society can do without humanities degree programmes, which in turn contributes to giving these programmes a negative image, the rector replies emphatically:

“Anyone who believes that humanities degree programmes are superfluous should be ashamed of themselves! We need humanities graduates. We can discuss how many, but not whether we need them. So we’ve also put up a barricade around several humanities subjects, precisely because they play a central role in the development and transmission of culture in our society.”   

More cooperation between Danish universities 

But at the moment, all of this is just words on paper. AU’s proposal is not set in stone as yet; students, staff and the board can still submit input and comments on the plan, which will be submitted to the board along with the plan at the board meeting on December 6th. The senior management team will then have a few weeks to revise the plan before forwarding it to the Ministry of Higher Education and Science by December 31st. Then the ball will be in Parliament’s court.   

But every cloud has a silver lining. And in the process of working on the relocation agreement, the country’s eight universities have strengthened their collaboration under the aegis of Universities Denmark, explains the rector. The universities are collaborating on a ‘sector plan’ which will be presented to Parliament. Under the plan, the universities will discuss the possibility of offering joint degree programmes, as well as the possibility of transferring a degree programme from one university to another. 

"In all modesty, we believe that the universities are best positioned to explore possibilities of this nature, and so far our discussions have been characterised by seriousness of purpose and substance. We’ve moved from the somewhat competitive situation that characterized our sector ten years ago to a much higher degree of collaboration. And that’s positive,” Bech Nielsen says.

Translated by Lenore Messick