A summer greeting from the dean

Dear staff

The summer holiday is just around the corner for many people, and last week I had the great pleasure of attending two graduation ceremonies – one for Pharmacy and one for our Science programmes.

There was a great atmosphere and both student speakers and keynote speakers did a great job. The students often emphasise the development they have gone through over the five years, with due praise for lecturers and the university.

Personal relationships are also highlighted as an important part of the course of study and are expected to last a lifetime. The speakers often talk about the winding road to their various dream jobs, emphasising the many valuable skills that the graduates bring with them.

Besides congratulations, they always say: Remember to be proud of your education, which is so much needed right now.

They also point to the personal relationships and networks from their time of education as a very valuable thing in working life. I also think we can be proud. This year we're celebrating 297 Science graduates, which is a record high.

It has been a busy, but also a great spring. Several new education programmes are on the drawing board and two new programmes will start after the summer. Just a few days before this year's application deadline on 5 July, we are 9 percent above last year's number of applications, which was a record high at the time.

We have opened DARA, are well underway with SDU Vejle and many have received great grants. The external turnover on projects continues to grow, which makes us busy, but also creates many dream assignments.

These weeks I am participating in many interviews as we have positions open for SDU Vejle and in DIAS. There are many strong candidates and it is very difficult to choose among the applicants.

It is my feeling that there has been a lot of networking and the DIAS brand also provides extra applicants and high quality. In the administrative area, interviews are also underway, for example in DARA, where we also get super-qualified applicants.

Now we have a task ahead of us to integrate the many new employees and get them into the relevant networks. I think we are doing well, as we have also had several interviews with assistant professors who have accepted associate professor positions at our faculty.

Thank you all so much for your many different contributions to teaching and research at the faculty. I wish you all a very good summer, where you might run into an old study mate in the summer countryside and have a good chat about the old days.

Marianne Holmer, dean