A word from the Dean
Dear all
This week, departments and the various committees at SDU Science will receive a draft of the faculty's strategy for 2021-2025 for consultation. Over the autumn, various committees have drawn up three tracks for the strategy: 1. Research, 2. Education and 3. People and organization.
Now the strategy is compiled in one document, and it is for the first time possible to read the strategy in full. I would like to start by thanking the many people who have been involved in drawing up the strategy. This has given rise to many good discussions and comments - both across the various committees and at the joint committee seminar on 2 November.
I hope you will look constructively but also critically at the strategy. It is not easy to make a strategy that will embrace an entire faculty five years ahead. Therefore, there are many compromises, but it is important that the whole strategy makes sense and is clearly formulated.
Once we are in place with the comments from the consultation, the next step starts with identifying and prioritizing the actions needed to reach the goal of the strategy. This work will commence in the spring and is an inclusive process where employees are involved.
It will be important to look at the tasks and actions that we are already doing to make room for new ones. We are already experiencing great work pressure, and it is important that the new strategy does not mean increasing work pressure, but on the contrary creates space to handle both existing and new tasks.
Here, as an employee, you are an important piece, as you have a sense of everyday life at the faculty and have first-hand knowledge of the tasks that can be phased out.
Several have asked whether it is solely an internal strategy or whether it should also be used externally. The strategy deals with i.a. the values we want to promote throughout the faculty. It also focuses on the activities and initiatives that we would like to do jointly across the departments, and where e.g. the faculty secretariat is central in supporting these activities.
The vast majority of themes in the strategy are thus cross-cutting and relevant to all departments. However, the strategy is just as much directed externally. It is relevant for our students, for partners at SDU and in the rest of society and the world, and the strategy must be made visible to our external partners.
Therefore, the strategy will be an important part of the narrative of SDU Science e.g. on websites and in recruitment material.
I look forward to reading the responses to the consultation - as I said, both the constructive and critical comments.
I wish you a cheerful and wonderful December.
Marianne Holmer, Dean