Relocation entails heavy workload at Business and Social Sciences
In Thursday's edition of the newspaper Århus Stiftstidende, a number of articles emphasized the current relocation process at Business and Social Sciences (BSS) at Aarhus University. The students that were interviewed criticize BSS for a lack of information on the relocation and the resulting changes.
The management at Business and Social Sciences takes the criticism very seriously. We acknowledge that especially the students at the Department of Law as well as Psychology and Behavioural Sciences have been poorly informed about the initial relocation process, but we have become more aware of the great need for information prompted by the relocation, and a major effort has subsequently been made to keep the students abreast of the changes.
All available channels have been employed in the process of informing the students about the changes, and it will continue well into the new semester. All students have been informed several times via direct e-mail, special student portals (websites targeted at the individual fields of study), info screens, posters, flyers, department magazines, meetings and much more.
The relocation and the organizational changes are a complex puzzle, comprising some 14,000 students, more than 500 researchers and lecturers and about 225 PhD students. This has obviously affected how fast we have been able to inform the students about the many details of the process.
I think that there is also a need to emphasize the positive aspects associated with the changes. On 31 august, we will celebrate the opening of a new 11,000 m2, state-of-the-art building that is to reinforce learning and the study environment and create more space for the students.
On the academic front, we concentrate on enhancing the quality of teaching through an increased focus on the requirements that our graduates have to meet, better teaching and service facilities, and regular educational development courses for all lecturers. We want the changes to play a major role in creating even greater academic coherence for our departments and strong, internationally recognized research centres. So despite the challenges we are facing at the moment, we look forward to opening the doors to a new autumn semester and welcoming both current and new students. And if they should run into any problems due to the relocation, we are ready to solve them.
