The black sheep of the SDU family

By Micho Nielsen, 10/26/2023

In August 2022, my girlfriend, our French bulldog, Leon, and I pull up our tent stakes. We leave the west coast of Jutland and the windy Wadden Sea in Southern Jutland to move to Slagelse. I had been accepted to the programme at the University of Southern Denmark which I had spent two years considering whether it was the right one for me. It was by no means an easy decision. I had similar opportunities in Kolding and Odense, and after all, they were a bit closer to my family and friends in Southern Jutland than Slagelse was. However, I chose to study International Business Communication at SDU in Slagelse because it appealed to me and my interests the most. 

The first year goes by quickly. I was thriving on campus, had taken a student job as a tutor and an event and SoMe coordinator on campus and felt at home in my new life. But suddenly, like a slap in the face, we received the news that Roskilde University and SDU had signed a letter of intent that would result in RUC taking over the campus and its activities in Slagelse. 

Don’t get me wrong: I have nothing against Roskilde University. They have their own strengths and probably also advantages, but at the end of the day, I hadn’t applied to RUC. I didn’t even know what they had to offer, and now I was involuntarily being forced to study for my bachelor’s degree at SDU and receive a RUC stamp on my diploma. That’s not what I signed up for when I was accepted. At the same time, it quickly became clear to us students that SDU had both hands tied behind its back. It wasn’t SDU who didn’t want to expand the campus; it was the powers that be who didn’t want SDU to expand on Zealand. SDU had been trying for years, but was rejected. 

 So where did that leave me? Did I move from Southern Jutland to Zealand, only having to transfer my programme to Funen or all the way back to Jutland? How do I tell my recently graduated girlfriend, who just landed her dream job here on Zealand and required more than a little persuasion to move here, that there was no reason to move here in the first place and guess what, we’re going to have to move back within the year? 

As students at SDU in Slagelse, we were left with an empty feeling of being the black sheep in the SDU family. We had become redundant in a corporate context, excluded from the negotiations about our own future, and our fate was now in the hands of a select few whom we felt didn’t have our intentions as their first priority. To the relief of many, the negotiations broke down, taking a lot of weight off our shoulders. 

I am now left with the hope that SDU’s management will look inwards and consider what it entails when making such a major announcement. Not only on my own behalf, but also on behalf of new students when SDU makes the next big decision to continue its activities in Slagelse or cancel the project.