Five sections will bring together SDU’s new Business School

In December 2025, SDU’s Board decided to establish SDU Business School as an independent faculty. At the same time, a new faculty of social sciences will be established with law, political science and economics as its core areas.

The business economics environments from the Department of Business & Management and the Department of Business and Sustainability will be brought together in SDU Business School (SBS), which will have its own management responsibility and financial latitude at dean level.

Jacob Kjær Eskildsen took up the position of Director of SBS on 1 April and since then he has been tasked with building up the new organisational unit. This work is based on four guiding principles from SDU’s Board.

– We must increase our external visibility and profile SBS, strengthen our collaboration with external partners, continue the work on international accreditations and strengthen the quality of education and research. At the same time, we must increase our external research funding, says Jacob Kjær Eskildsen.

Five academic sections

SBS will not have departments; instead, it will be organised in five academic sections. The sections form the framework for both research and education, and smaller research groups will be established within each section. The research activities will be developed and anchored within these groups.

The section model will make it possible to prioritise across the overall portfolio of education programmes.

– With a department model, it can be a challenge that degree programmes span several departments, which each have their own budget. This can lead to suboptimisation. The ability to conceptualise the budget across the entire programme will enable us to make better decisions, says Jacob Kjær Eskildsen.

The five sections represent academic disciplines that are widely recognised internationally. The heads of section will be involved in the strategic management of SBS but will be responsible for smaller academic units and smaller budgets than traditional heads of department.

The sections will operate across the four campuses in Odense, Kolding, Esbjerg and Sønderborg. All sections will be represented on more than one campus and the heads of section will be located in both Odense and Kolding.

– Academic expertise will connect the campuses and at the same time we will maintain a strong local anchoring, emphasises Jacob Kjær Eskildsen.

Clear responsibility for research and education

With the new management model, the responsibility for research and education will be anchored directly in the top management of SBS. It consists of the Director of SBS, the Director of Studies, the Vice Dean for Research and the Head of Secretariat.

The Director of Studies will be responsible for the overall portfolio of programmes, quality assurance and the coherence across the campuses. The tasks of the Vice Dean for Research will include contributing to strengthening the quality of research and increasing the external research funding.

The clear allocation of responsibility will also have an impact on the work with international accreditations.

– The accreditations place great demands on quality assurance. We must run a quality assurance system according to established principles, and this is easier to institutionalise when the responsibility is anchored in one place, says Jacob Kjær Eskildsen.

The establishment of SBS has been prepared through employee involvement in the form of working groups, meetings, dialogue forums and discussions in liaison committees and collegiate bodies. From 1 September, separate academic councils and liaison committees will be established for SBS and SAMF.

A seat on the Executive Board

As dean, Jacob Kjær Eskildsen will be a member of SDU’s Executive Board. He has participated as an observer since his appointment in April.

The representation will make it easier to profile SBS internally and develop collaborations with the other faculties. Jacob Kjær Eskildsen mentions the possibilities for closer collaboration with the Faculty of Engineering.

– It is easier to have that dialogue when you are in the same forum. We will have greater independent impact as a unit at faculty level, he says.

The strategic room for manoeuvre is also important for SBS’s international position. In July 2025, SAMF obtained the AACSB accreditation. SBS will build on this accreditation and work towards also achieving EQUIS and AMBA accreditation and thus obtaining so-called Triple Crown accreditation.

The next goal is EQUIS, which accredits the entire SBS and whose requirements include a high degree of strategic autonomy. This will be followed by AMBA, which is geared towards MBA programmes.

– It would have been more difficult to achieve EQUIS accreditation if SDU had not made this strategic investment. The independence of organisation strengthens our opportunities, explains Jacob Kjær Eskildsen.

Strategy towards 2030

From January, a new strategy will set the direction for SBS towards 2030. The goals include increasing the external research funding and increasing the number of publications in the best international journals by 40 per cent. SBS will also expand its PhD programme and develop its educational profile.

At the same time, its visibility must be increased through closer contact with the business community. One example of this is the board education programme. In addition, SBS will host morning meetings with academic presentations and networking twice per semester. In June 2027, a business conference will be held, and efforts are made to establish a network for alumni and a clearer participation at Folkemødet (the People’s Festival).

In the longer term, the ambition is to host an international conference under the auspices of the European Academy of Management with around 2,000 participants.

– We want to make SBS visible through several different initiatives. I am convinced that people will notice that we are here, emphasises Jacob Kjær Eskildsen.