HoD News - 18 June 2019

Dear colleagues,

Department management
As you know, for some time the department management has been challenged by long-term leave of absence due to illness within the management team. In order to secure follow-up on various administrative tasks, Solveig Nygaard Sørensen together with Annia Hoffmeyer, who will focus on study related matters, will be the initial point of reference for inquiries related to the administrative head. Bo Sandemann Rasmussen will be the reference person regarding personnel matters, and the admin supporters within the sections will refer to the section heads. Action and follow-up on the management tasks of the administration will be in collaboration with me.

Solveig is presently acting as my PA during the maternity leave of Anne Charlotte la Cour.

In the logistics section, I will continue as the acting section head for the time being.

The department presently has three deputy heads, who have the main responsibility for our education programmes: Mogens Dilling-Hansen, Thomas Quistgaard Pedersen, and Bo Sandemann Rasmussen. I have a need for further delegation and to expand the group of deputy heads in order to make progress regarding my plans for the development and organization of the department.  Helena Skyt Nielsen is member of the management team with responsibility for external funding and the PhD area. As of 1 August 2019, she will become deputy head with an increased portfolio, as she will support me in the implementation of various strategic actions within the department in collaboration with the entire management team.

Current and future topics on the agenda
The past months we have worked on setting the frames for the future course coordination within the department. In fact, the new procedures started just two weeks ago. More detailed information will be provided in a separate email shortly. The work with the course coordination is a first step towards the future roles and responsibility of section heads and their collaboration across sections to ensure manifest ownership of our education programmes.

In the autumn, we will have a number of other large projects on the agenda. This includes the work with an adjusted norm system and the implementation of Excelsior as the interface for activity registration. With the new system we will strive for increased transparency, which I believe is a general desire, and which will be an important tool for section heads in the allocation of tasks and the documentation of resource needs. We will also initiate 1) the establishment of section councils, 2) a discussion about departmental lists of high quality journals, 3) a discussion and formulation of recruitment and promotion guidelines, and many other things.

By the end of August, the department will complete the action plan in order to follow up on the WPA/APV (Work place assessment) based on the input from sections, LSU, and the Departmental Forum.

Department lunch meeting in early September
In early September, in connection with the start of the new semester, I will invite you all for a lunch meeting to provide a status of the department and ongoing activities and plans. This will also be a good opportunity to welcome many of the new colleagues that will join our department in the new academic year. More information will follow.

I wish you all a nice, sunny, and well-deserved summer holiday.

Niels Haldrup