You must be able to be genuinely happy about the success of others
Jens Ringsmose is the new Rector at SDU, and his clear goal is to make his academic home an even better place to be. Therefore, he will start by listening.
Jens Ringsmose is SDU’s new head of everything – and is now in charge of almost 3,800 employees and 28,000 students at the university’s six different campuses. And you clearly feel Ringsmose’s commitment to the organisation as soon as you meet him at the Rector’s Office.
- I am both happy, proud and humble to sit here as Rector. SDU is a university that I care about a lot. At the same time, I am extremely proud that we are a strong university with highly qualified academic environments and quality education programmes throughout the Region of Southern Denmark. Therefore, I also bring a large portion of humility with me into the job, where I represent so many talented colleagues, says SDU’s new Rector.
Listens to the organisation
In connection with his appointment, Ringsmose has been praised for his visionary view of the future of the university and its continued development in the region. He himself also places great emphasis on the fact that he wants to be a Rector who listens very carefully to his organisation.
- One of the things that is really important for me as a leader is to carry with me the ability to be genuinely happy about the successes of others and be interested in what all the dedicated people at SDU feel strongly about, says Jens Ringsmose.
Therefore, it is also a high priority for SDU’s new Rector to go and visit all campuses, faculties, departments and administrative units at the university during the coming months and meet with as many of SDU’s external stakeholders as possible.
A world of aha moments
Since Jens Ringsmose in 1995 for the first time rode his bike to campus in Odense to start studying history, he has spent his days at SDU both as a student, a PhD student, a popular lecturer and a recognised researcher in international politics, as Head of Department, Dean and now Rector. During his managerial detour to the Royal Danish Defence College, he also continued to visit his academic home often.
Because SDU is very special, he emphasises:
- For me, the university is a completely unique opportunity to take part in a world of wild realisations, a world with new aha moments every day and new understandings of contexts in the world. It’s great to be surrounded by talented people who are all passionate about generating and sharing their knowledge from widely different subject areas.
An even better place to be
SDU has strong traditions of collaboration across subject areas as well as solid regional roots and collaboration with external partners. As a Dean at the Faculty of Business and Social Sciences, Jens Ringsmose built on these strengths fostering for instance collaboration with Media City Odense and SDU’s new Business School.
And it is exactly these key strengths that SDU must build on in the coming years, Jens Ringsmose emphasises.
- As Rector at SDU, I want to contribute to SDU moving towards becoming an even better place to be. Together, we at SDU will create even stronger research, high-quality education programmes and value for our partners – also by strengthening SDU’s regional presence, he says and elaborates:
- Some people talk about the contradictions between creating excellent research and being regionally anchored, but we can and must do both. Poor knowledge is indifferent at best and harmful at worst. High quality in research and education programmes is absolutely crucial for us to be able to provide relevant knowledge and highly qualified candidates to Southern Denmark, the rest of the country and the world.
SDU’s new Rector believes in SDU and the university’s robustness to continue to provide knowledge and value to society, even when a changing world makes the navigation more difficult. The future will bring both great opportunities and great challenges, which Jens Ringsmose looks forward to tackling together with the rest of SDU.
4 things you may not know about Jens Ringsmose
- He is interested in military history, and over the years, he has dragged his family along to military history museums around the world. The military history museum in Dresden is the museum which has impressed him the most so far. The museum reflects on the German military throughout history – from the firebombings of Dresden to the central ethical concept of Innere Führung.
- Ringsmose is – for a little while still – coach for his daughter’s handball team in Odense Handball because it is important for him to be part of his teenage daughters’ everyday life. - It’s a special feeling to be able to celebrate triumphs and defeats with your children, as he puts it.
- He is currently reading Joshua Yaffa’s critically acclaimed ‘Between Two Fires’ about modern Russia and the internal struggles of the people living in the shadow of Putin’s rule.
- He often signs his emails with the initials JR and the explanation is simple: “Because everybody loves Dallas.”
A few words on Jens Ringsmose
Jens Ringsmose is 48 years old and grew up in Tønder.
He has an MA in history from SDU and a PhD from the Department of Political Science and Public Management at SDU.
He has previously been Head of department (Department of Political Science and Public Management), Dean at the Faculty of Business and Social Sciences at SDU, Head of the Institute for Military Operations and Vice Dean at the Royal Danish Defence College.
He is married and has three children aged 19, 17 and 14.