Season’s greetings from the Rectorate of SDU
A hearty season’s greetings to everyone at SDU with the desire for a lovely time of fun and relaxation.
Dear all,
Soon, Christmas peace will descend upon SDU’s campuses, and we can look back on a special and important year in SDU’s history.
2021 turned out to be quite different than expected when we said goodbye to 2020. On the contrary, this year has seen changes in every conceivable way. The lockdown, restrictions, stage of adjustment, reopening, appointment of a new Rector and the regionalisation plan were very taxing and placed great demands on all of us.
Nevertheless, we have made it through 2021 together. It has been anything but easy, but you have demonstrated an impressive ability to tackle the challenges and navigate our university safely through these turbulent times. We as management are deeply grateful for that. It emphasises to us that SDU stands together, even in difficult times.
Constructive cooperation on regionalisation
This has also been evident in the very constructive collaboration with all of SDU’s collegiate bodies about SDU’s regionalisation plan – the plan for relocation and reduction of student places, which has just been approved by the Board.
SDU has been asked to prepare this plan following the political agreement in June which means that SDU must cut up to 10% of its student places in Odense by 2030, either by relocating them to other cities or by closing them completely.
Thank you very much for your many excellent suggestions and arguments for the final plan. You can read much more about it at sdu.dk/en/regional, where we have gathered all communications about the regionalisation plans.
Things are looking brighter
In Old Norse, ‘jul’ (Christmas) means both parties and turning, and in our northern latitudes, Christmas time has also marked for millennia that the light is now slowly returning.
We hope that this holiday season is a bright spot for all of you and allows you time for fellowship, fun and relaxation with family and friends, as far as the restrictions allow. You deserve it after a hectic year full of change.
We look forward to a new and exciting 2022 together with you, where we will hopefully also reach a turning point in relation to the pandemic, which has now left its mark on our university for almost two years.
We hope your holiday season is full of peace, joy and happiness.
Best regards,
Jens Ringsmose, Rector
Sebastian Mernild, Prorector
Thomas Buchvald Vind, University Director