Education and Research Policy Summit

Dear staff

I attended the Education and Research Policy Summit at DTU for the first time, where there were three exciting topics for debate. Pernille Langeberg, Permanent Secretary at the Ministry of Defence, spoke about the role of universities in the new geopolitical reality.

Chair of the Carlsberg Foundation Majken Schultz made proposals for a Danish research strategy, and finally, Vice Chair of the Polytechnical Association, Diploma Student Benedicte Elgaard, gave the presentation 'How do we (educate) students in the digital golden age?

Each presentation was followed by a debate by the education and research spokespersons from Venstre, Liberal Alliance, The Alternative, the Conservative People's Party, the Social Liberals, and Green Left.

The Ministry of Defence called on researchers to contribute new knowledge, as everything is changing at a very fast pace.

Trine Bramsen encouraged the Ministry of Defence to listen more to researchers, as they often come up with good ideas very early on. She gave the example of the SDU UAS Center at HCA Airport, which was already up and running in 2012. Bramsen also had a point about supporting monoprofessionalism, as it can be crucial in crisis situations. We focus a lot on interdisciplinarity, but we must not forget monoprofessionalism.

Majken Schultz emphasised the broad basic research that private foundations, conditioned by historical foundations, can find difficult to support. It is worrying that public funding for research (read basic funding for universities) is not keeping up with the increase in private funding. This means that much research is thematised and non-current topics are down-prioritised.

Almost all spokespersons agreed that the current approach of a rapidly growing research reserve (and distribution) is not appropriate, as it often focuses on short-term goals and does not ensure longer-term perspectives. Everyone in the room, including the spokespersons, agreed that a research strategy is needed, and the timing of Minister of Higher Education and Science Christina Egelund's participation in the meeting was perfect. She joined us at the end of the meeting and was able to tell us that a research strategy is on its way, and that it will be ready in 2025.

And what do students think about the digital golden age? Benedicte Elgaard delivered a fiery speech in favour of modernising the study programmes when it comes to the digital age. The arrival of AI ran through her speech, including the frustrating process of exams just as ChatGPT hit universities in 2023.

Almost everyone in the room agreed that AI is a tool that everyone must learn to use – including lecturers – but most importantly, students must learn their subjects so they can use the digital tools critically.

It seemed that there was a lot of agreement on research policy across the spokespersons. It will be exciting to see if some of the points from the summit become part of the work in the Danish Parliament in the season that has just begun.

Marianne Holmer, dean