About SDU Takeover
Visits change young people's perceptions of SDU
Status of SDU Takeover
The 2023/2024 school year is nearly over. In a new initiative, 17 upper secondary schools in the Region of Southern Denmark were visited by SDU Takeover this year.
The visits took place throughout the region as well as in West and South Zealand, and the upper secondary schools represented STX, HHX, HTX, HF and IB pupils.
The SDU Takeover has been very well received at the schools, both by the management during the planning phase and by the pupils on the visit days.
Evaluations put wind in SDU’s sails
Approx. 5,000 pupils completed an evaluation at the end of the visit, and when asked how much they had enjoyed the day, about 87% of them responded ‘to a great extent’ or ‘to some extent’. When the pupils are asked about their considerations regarding applying to the University of Southern Denmark before they met SDU Takeover and after meeting the student teachers, 19% of the pupils move away from the ‘not at all’ category. This means that the visit changed the perception of over 900 young people about SDU as a potential place of education.
Here’s the plan for the coming school year
In the coming school year, SDU Takeover plans to visit 25 upper secondary schools. At the time of writing, 23 school visits have been booked. SDU Takeover has recently completed another recruitment process to ensure there are enough student teachers for next year's visits. It’s a big puzzle to piece together. On the one hand, there should be an equal distribution across faculties, with as broad a programme portfolio as possible. On the other hand, we must employ enough students to make the job attractive, so that the students can sign up for visits to the upper secondary schools and still keep up with their studies.
Fortunately, many talented students have applied for a job with SDU Takeover, and the SDU Takeover secretariat are very happy about that. Project manager Anne Søndergaard states: ‘The collaboration with the faculties works like a charm, and we have received invaluable help with sharing the job ad and, not least, selecting the right candidates for the job as student teacher.’ And that’s a must, Anne notes, ‘because without the students, SDU Takeover wouldn’t exist’.
Having just hired 62 new students, SDU Takeover now has 96 student teachers in total. The SDU Takeover team is now looking forward to training the students in August and September, so that they are all set for the autumn term’s first visit on 2 October.
Would you like to know more?
Read more at sdu.dk/sdutakeover to learn more about:
- What SDU Takeover offers and how student teachers are trained
- How a visit by SDU Takeover takes place and is planned
- Where and when SDU Takeover visits schools around the country