Faculty of Arts: Dean Johnny Laursen remains calm

“A large faculty doesn’t rush into things, because hasty decisions often end up being really expensive. After all, this is a long-term task. And the Faculty of Arts is going to be affected more than anyone else by the changes, so we’re going to need a proper dialogue about reductions in student admissions, for instance.”

This is the reply given by the dean of the Faculty of Arts, Johnny Laursen, when asked why his faculty, unlike ST and Aarhus BSS, has not yet presented a specific model for how to cope with the resizing initiative and the significant loss of revenue to which it is expected to lead.

Arts is the AU faculty that will be hardest hit by the resizing initiative. A total of 440 Bachelor’s degree places will be lost. It is also estimated that the faculty – with a budget of DKK 1 billion – may lose more than DKK 60 million a year until 2023 because revenue is generated based on the number of students that pass exams, and fewer students will mean fewer exams being passed.

To deal with this challenge, Laursen launched a review of degree programmes at each school of the faculty with a view to discussing and reaching a joint agreement about what to do about the resizing initiative. Various plans are now in the pipeline.

Cutting costs – and merging degree programmes

In general terms, the faculty will reduce its costs and strengthen its financial situation, explains the dean.

“For instance, we’re looking into the potential for merging degree programmes. There are initiatives for closer collaboration among the language degree programmes. And we’re considering mergers of certain degree programmes or subjects at the Department of Archaeology.”

In addition, working groups have now been established to look into supplementary subjects, subsidiary subjects, Master’s theses, better utilisation of rooms, and a reduction in the numbers of examination methods and academic regulations.

Redundancies ahead?

With the faculty altering its degree programmes and reducing its costs, it seems reasonable to fear that this will result in redundancies among administrative staff and/or teaching staff. The dean does not accept that this is inevitable:

“We already have a certain level of staff turnover, and we’re adopting a long-term perspective with regard to the new situation. But in the long run it’s true that some positions may not be re-advertised.”

What about the quality of our degree programmes?

The quality of the faculty’s degree programmes won’t suffer either, despite the cutbacks and efficiency drives, says the dean.

“I can’t see any sign of the degree programmes being weakened. We will continue to focus firmly on quality.”

The merging of certain degree programmes will mean bigger classes, but this doesn’t worry him either.

“There won’t be many class mergers, and I think bigger classes can actually improve the study environment. The worst thing for the students is if the classes become too small,” he says.

Some economies are false economies

It’s tempting to ask whether the resizing initiative actually makes sound financial sense. After all, if the faculty can contemplate losing DKK 60 million a year without making anyone redundant or reducing the quality of its degree programmes, then surely the government was right to insist on the changes.

But Laursen does not accept this argument.

“The faculty was already demonstrating great restraint long before the resizing initiative in terms of the number of admissions to our Bachelor’s degree programmes. So we’ve already made cuts. But we’d rather spend the money we’ve saved on strengthening our degree programmes and focusing on academic development. The resizing initiative also comes with an academic price tag – less internationalisation and less mobility, for instance.”

The resizing initiative makes it difficult for the universities to compete in terms of quality, as well as inhibiting the internationalisation of our degree programmes, explains the dean.

Tackling the challenges

Johnny Laursen regards the resizing initiative as a major academic and financial challenge for the faculty.

“But I believe we can cope.”

And he adds:

“During the discussions we held in the spring there was a strong determination to meet the challenges together. Our forecasts up until 2019 look reasonable, and all else being equal we will have made a lot of progress by then.”

The study progress reform – an element of risk

But he does acknowledge that there is no room for major surprises.

“The resizing initiative puts us under so much pressure that other risk factors such as the study progress reform might have an impact. So we will continue to expect our students to complete their degree programmes within the allotted time scale.”

The study progress reform means that AU needs to reduce the students’ degree completion time by 4.6 months by 2020. If the university fails to live up to this goal, it will be punished financially.

Facts: Degree programme resizing at AU

AU has to cut a total of 650 Bachelor’s degree places over the next four years.

It was no surprise that ST quickly announced its plan for how this was to be achieved (ST only needs to cut 38 places).

At Aarhus BSS, the dean at the time, Svend Hylleberg, decided last year to stop enrolling students for the Bachelor’s degree programmes in Arabic and Communication, International Communication and Multimedia, International Business Communication and European Studies. In addition, the Department of Business Communication is currently reducing the range of degree programmes it offers.

Facts: The resizing initiative – what’s it all about?

The previous government is behind the degree programme resizing initiative at Danish universities. The previous Minister for Higher Education and Science, Sofie Carsten Nielsen, argued that it made no sense to produce graduates who would never be able to find jobs. So the ministry designed a model to reduce the number of student places (and the number of admissions) for groups of degree programmes with high rates of unemployment for graduates.

When the ministry cuts the number of student places, it also cuts down on the revenue granted to the universities every time a student passes an exam.