A word from the Dean

The new study year is underway, and we have welcomed 591 new Bachelor students and 194 new Master students to our faculty. The Bachelor intake is the same as last year, but we have seen a significant increase in the Master intake. I am very pleased about this.

It is always a special pleasure to stand before the expectant new students on their first day at SDU. Their meeting with the university is something very special - a whole new beginning. At last, they can immerse themselves in a subject they are passionate about. As well as this, the new students will meet teachers and researchers who for many years ahead will become their role models and idols. We staff members should be very conscious of this responsibility.

While politicians and government officials try to finalise the expected taximeter reform - which will likely be something of a patchwork quilt consisting of the old Student FTE taximeter, completion bonus, a new occupation taximeter and perhaps a basic funding that will support the universities' regional presence - we at the Faculty of Science have implemented a new budget model. This budget model determines how the Faculty's income is to be distributed to the departments. The need for the new model has arisen as a result of SDU's new budget model and the wish to find a more incentive-driven model. With the new model, the departments' income is much more dependent on performance than before. Strategic initiatives and new sources of income - both education income and external research income - will now have a direct influence on the departments' finances. Predictability is one of the principles of the new budget model - and we need predictability in these turbulent times at the universities.

I wish you all a good study year!

Martin Zachariasen, Dean