THE VOTER TURNOUT INCREASES SLIGHTLY AT THIS YEAR'S UNIVERSITY ELECTION, EVEN WITHOUT AN ELECTION FOR THE BOARD

Only students and PhD students were to vote in this year's university elections. Despite that, the overall turnout increased a little this year. And this is even in a year when, for the first time in many years, there are no elections for the board positions at Aarhus University. 

19.99 per cent of the students and PhD students cast their vote in the election, which this year concerned representatives for both boards of studies, academic councils, and PhD committees. This is more than last year, when 18.24 per cent voted. At that time, the stakes were even higher, as the students also had to vote for representatives for the two board positions at AU reserved for students. 

But even without elections for the board positions this year, there was still a bit of election drama with close contests for several positions. For example, the election for student representatives on the board of studies for Law at Aarhus BSS, where four seats were at stake. Here, the final seat went to Filip Vestergaard from the Association of Conservative Lawyers by a margin of 0.16 percentage points. 

"It's a relatively close election, one must say," said Ole Terkelsen, associate professor of law and chair of AU's election committee, when he reviewed the election results in the Nobel Park on Tuesday morning. 

Another election that was also relatively close was the election to the Academic Council at Aarhus BSS. Here, Statsrådet (the Student Council's degree programme council for Political Science) with ten candidates received 620 votes including both list and personal votes. The Conservative List at BSS - a list pact consisting of the Association of Conservative Lawyers and Conservative students - received a total of 563 votes. Here, Statsrådet ended up with two seats, Conservative students got a single seat, while the fourth and final seat went to the Oecon Council (the Student Council's degree programme council for Economics), which received a total of 293 votes and thereby had its only candidate elected to the Academic Council. 

More cancelled elections

On Tuesday morning, Election Committee Chair Ole Terkelsen highlighted the slightly higher voter turnout, but also the number of cancelled elections. These are the elections that cannot be held because no candidates have been nominated. This year, there were 19 cancelled elections, compared to 14 last year, where employees also had to vote, and 11 the year before that. 

"Of course, this is something that we in the election committee and election secretariat take note of, because it’s something that needs to be paid attention to. There should preferably not be too many cancelled elections," Ole Terkelsen says.

Among other things, the three newly established degree programmes at AU Viborg all ended with cancelled elections for the Board of Studies of Agriculture, Food and Veterinary Sciences. No students from Veterinary Medicine, Animal Science, or Plant and Food Science stood for election. However, there’s currently a single student from one of the mentioned degree programmes on the board of studies. This is Frederik Berg Olsson, who is studying animal science. 

"It’s definitely a problem that the degree programmes are not represented on the board of studies. Especially at this time when future elective course and Master's degree programmes need to be approved," Frederik Berg Olsson explains in a written response. 

The lack of interest in running for the board of studies is primarily since there’s no existing system or tradition that handles the task, Frederik Berg Olsson says. The students haven’t had time to establish a student association for the new degree programmes in Viborg before the election. 

"When the three new degree programmes were started, a student association wasn’t at the top of the priority list during the students' start-up period. Everyone has focused on being a new university student and put a lot of energy into getting good social bonds. Without an association taking responsibility for appointing potential students to the various councils or explaining the tasks of the Committee on Education or the board of studies, there hasn’t been enough focus on recruiting students for the positions," Frederik Berg Olsson explains.

In February, his seat expires, but he wants to stay on the board of studies. 

"I forgot that I was going to run again, so it's actually a mistake that I don't continue. Therefore, we have talked about creating a temporary observer position for students, so that I, or other students interested, can sit in on meetings, but without voting rights, as they haven’t been elected," he explains.

The Student Council's chair Daniel Hjort recognises that it can be difficult to create student democracy and association life, as you know it from Aarhus, when you are not rooted in the city. 

"In retrospect, I think we in the Student Council could’ve done more to get something started in Viborg. Not to decide what should be done, but to invest some resources in helping students engage in student politics. Because they’ll probably get Friday bars and student social committee, but the basic democratic representation is a bit of a challenge when it isn’t already up and running," Daniel Hjort says. 

CONSERVATIVE STUDENTS AND THE STUDENT COUNCIL ARE SATISFIED 

The university election also exposes the balance of power between the political student organisations at AU. The Student Council, which is broadly organised across AU, will receive a lot more votes and seats than is the case for Conservative Students. 

Both the Student Council's chair, Daniel Hjort, and Conservative Students’ chair, Søren Schrøder Richel, believe that this year's election largely paints the same picture as earlier ones

Conservative Students is satisfied with the election result, explains chair Søren Schrøder. It’s as expected.

"We’re very proud of our victory at Law, where we have won three out of four seats in collaboration with the Association of Conservative Lawyers. We’ve secured the seats we were aiming for. Anything else would have been a surprise," Søren Schrøder Richel says.

The Student Council is also satisfied. 

"Overall, it has gone very well for the Student Council's degree programme council. It shows that the students at the university can see great value in the joint and broad academic representation you get in a degree programme council. So we’re very pleased with this year's election," Daniel Hjort says. 

TOO LOW VOTER TURNOUT

Conservative Students and the Student Council have also considered this year's voter turnout. Although it has increased, it’s too low, they both admit. 

"In general, the voter turnout must be increased. It's a bit weak. I’m starting to think it’s a democratic problem that the turnout isn’t higher, because is the democracy representative? It should be representative of the broad crowd and not just the few who vote," Søren Schrøder Richel says.

He has a feeling that the students feel alienated in the university system. It’s too difficult to see where the decisions are made, he believes. 

Daniel Hjort notes, among other things, how close the election was for the last seat on the board of studies for Law. This is a good example of why you should vote, he believes.

"It shows that as a student, you can't just sit back and not vote, because a vote matters. Even if you have an idea that the people you want in will be elected, that's not necessarily what's going to happen," Daniel Hjort says. 

In order to get more people to vote, you may have to look at the digital system in which the students stand for election and vote, he explains.

"If you want more people to vote, it's also about designing systems that make sense. Right now, we have a system that doesn't work so well. Today, students must go to a separate page they have never encountered before, first locate their university on the list, and then figure out how the system works. On the other hand, we have a good platform such as My Studio, along with several other options that could make voting easier,” Daniel Hjort says. 

The newly elected representatives will take up their positions on 1 February 2026.

This text is machine translated and post-edited by Lisa Enevoldsen.