Changes in campus cities

The restructuring of study administration is also being felt in the campus cities. For several years, many student secretarial tasks have already been gathered under the heads of department in SDU Education who work in the campus cities in Jutland, so the changes are less visible than in Odense – but they are there, and they will affect both collaboration interfaces and task solutions.

New organisational affiliations

With the transition, employees who previously had an organisational home in a department in a campus city will now move to SDU Education and report to the local head of department. The same applies to student counsellors, who will be based in the student counselling department in Odense.

Attention to the city perspective

The professional support is now closer to the colleagues in Planning who work with similar processes. This provides a stronger professional anchoring but requires us to pay special attention to the urban perspective. For several years, employees in the cities have harmonised tasks with faculty colleagues in Odense – often in different ways. In the future, harmonisation will take place in collaboration with Planning at SDU Education in Odense. That's why it's important that the cities have a seat at the table and are included in both process workshops and day-to-day coordination.

Working with the collaboration agreements will be a key tool for ensuring a clear framework. The heads of department in the cities are involved in concretising the agreements so that expectations and collaboration across geographies are clearly described.

One change is particularly significant in Sønderborg, where colleagues in SDU Education are handing over the task of international bachelor intake, which will be combined with the rest of the bachelor intake tasks in Odense. The handover is underway, it's a big task to pass on, and it will be fully implemented from 2027.

A voice from the cities

Birgit Jahn, Head of Department, SDU Education in Esbjerg, talks about the local work with the new organisation:

– SDU Education Esbjerg is growing and welcomes three new colleagues from SUND. The staff group will be united across SDU and Esbjerg Hospital. Three degree programme secretaries from SUND will become part of SDU Education. One will be based on campus, while two who work with the master's degree programme in medicine will remain at the hospital where the teaching takes place. This requires us to find a rhythm with both in-person and online meetings.

– The harmonisation of processes will make a positive difference because tasks no longer have to be solved so differently from faculty to faculty. It will strengthen our flexibility and robustness. At the same time, it is a strength that the student counsellors will have both a local leader and a clear professional connection.

Joint project

Even though the campus cities have been organised more cohesively than Odense, the transition to the new structure is a joint project. The coming months are about ensuring that the cities' experiences, needs and perspectives become a clear part of the joint work in SDU Education.