AU’s institutional plan – the draft for NAT
AU's draft institutional plan for relocating and reducing the number of degree programmes will now be submitted for internal comments at the university. The draft for Nat will especially affect the degree programmes that have been resized.
On the basis of the political agreement on "more and better educational opportunities across Denmark", the universities have been asked to draft a plan for reducing and relocating study places. The senior management team at AU has drawn up a draft institutional plan, which will now be submitted for comments to the faculty management teams, the Academic Council, Main Liaison Committee (HSU), the Faculty Liaison Committee (FSU), ASU, the Administration's Management Team (LEA) and student organisations.
After the round of comments, for which the deadline is 3 December, the draft and comments will be presented to the AU Board. The final draft for an institutional plan from AU will be submitted to the Ministry of Higher Education and Science by the end of the year at the latest. The political decision on what is to happen will not be made until spring 2022.
Therefore, it is important to emphasise that AU’s draft is not a final plan.
Read more about the process in AU's news article about the institutional plan.
What does the draft entail for Nat?
The draft proposes to reduce approx. 85 study places at Nat from now and up until 2030.
The degree programmes affected by resizing requirements based on unemployment rates will be reduced in line with the resized number of graduates already known for the degree programmes.
The other degree programmes will be affected to varying degrees.
The plan proposes that special considerations are made for degree programmes covered by AU's digitalisation initiative in order for the university to be able to increase the number of natural sciences graduated IT specialists. These are the degree programmes in Data Science, Computer Science and IT Product Development.
None of the degree programmes at Nat are proposed to be relocated or closed.
Even though Dean Kristian Pedersen is not thrilled about the political initiative and the prospect of reducing the number of study places, he is confident about the future of the faculty's degree programmes.
"We’ll be particularly affected in the places we expected. The degree programme resizing was expected and will now be implemented. The reduction of study places is, of course, not positive. But the draft still leaves us room to take action. In future, it’ll be even more important that we succeed in recruiting and retaining the right students. And we must continue to make the importance of our degree programmes and research more visible. We’re already working on all of the above through various strategic initiatives and projects, and we must continue to focus intensively on this," says Dean Kristian Pedersen. "I understand if the draft gives rise to some concern. However, it’s important to remember that a lot still needs to be clarified and that the process will run until spring 2022. Only then will we know what’s going to happen, and we can start planning the implementation of the political decision."