SDU Takeover

Project background

In November 2021, the Executive Board approved a new recruitment project: SDU Takeover.

The purpose of the project is to get more young people from Southern Denmark to choose to study at SDU. This is done by SDU students visiting an upper secondary school and taking over the teaching for a whole day. This aims to give the pupils a nuanced picture of what it means to be a student at SDU, told from the young people’s perspective.

The goal is to develop and scale up the project over a five-year period so that from 2026, 30 upper secondary schools in Southern Denmark will be visited annually, and around 150 student teachers will be employed to handle the visits.

Project start-up

As of 1 April, a project manager, a project consultant and a course coordinator were appointed to a newly established secretariat in Strategy & Recruitment, SDU Student Services. They met up for five scheduled upper secondary visits in the school year 2022/23, as well as a presentation of ideas, along with budgeted project costs. 

Since 1 April, a website has been launched, a prize workshop has been held with the Council for Education and the basis of the project has been drawn up. The team has reached out to all faculty administrations, so everyone now has a primary project contact person who has assisted the SDU Takeover Secretariat with the recruitment process of student teachers. During June, 37 students were also hired, all of whom have been interviewed, and in September, another recruitment round will be done, as the aim is to recruit 60 students in total, equally distributed between the faculties.

The project’s first round of visits

Agreements have been made with three additional upper secondary schools, so that a total of eight high schools on Funen will receive a visit this year. The eight visits encompass all types of upper secondary schools, which range from eight to 45 classes per school.

Heart of the project: student teachers

In order to prepare the students to assume the duties of a student teacher in a sixth form class, they must undergo a three-day training course. Developed in collaboration between Upper Secondary Education and the SDU Takeover Secretariat, the course includes didactic tools, presentations about physicality and voice, feedback strategies, knowledge and insight into SDU’s basic narrative as well as information on the framework of the student teacher’s faculty. In addition, there is time for immersion in a self-selected topic, which students must put together into a 90-minute lesson material. The students will be selected to present their material at two different sixth form classes per visit. Finally, the students will be taught how to talk about their student life and their own personal journey to the education programme they represent. 

The training course began on 25 August.

To read more about SDU Takeover and, among other things, view the list of planned visits, please visit sdu.dk.