HoD News - 30 April 2018

Dear colleagues,

Gladly, it seems that the possible legal labour dispute that was previously announced will be cancelled after an agreement of negotiations was made this weekend. This is good news.

Let us await to see how the department budget for the coming years will develop in light of the salary increases that have been agreed upon as part of the agreements. My prediction is that we need to put an increased focus on attracting external funding in order to make the financial situation of the department even more robust and able to absorb the year to year budget volatility and the general development of basic funds (basismidler).

These days it is again time to provide input regarding the teaching plans for the next semester. I guess that you have already been asked by the department’s programme administrators to give notice regarding specific academic demands that should be met by BSS Studies together with potential constraints about the scheduling of your own teaching.

As you know, the Faculty Management has decided on a set of principles for the scheduling of teaching, see http://medarbejdere.au.dk/en/faculties/business-and-social-sciences/teaching-and-examination/.

You may agree or disagree on these principles. However, presently these principles need to be addressed by all of us. I am fully aware that the principles may seem rather strict and with very little (or no) possibility of influencing your teaching schedule, and I know that for some of you it may be a challenge to combine your professional life with your family life. However, when deciding on the principles it was necessary to account for the shortage of auditoriums and other teaching facilities that we face at Aarhus BSS and at Campus Fuglesangs Allé in particular. I hope for your understanding in this matter.

By now, these principles have been in effect for a number of semesters, and thus it has been decided to perform an evaluation (scheduled for the fall 2018). You will be involved in this evaluation, and hopefully (but there is no guarantee) it will be possible to revise the principles and make them more flexible and teaching-/family-friendly.

Niels Haldrup