The Rectorate’s Column

Season’s greetings from the Rectorate of SDU

We wish everyone at SDU a Merry Christmas and a cheerful and relaxing festive season.

By Jens Ringsmose, Helle Waagepetersen and Thomas Buchvald Vind, 12/18/2024

As 2024 draws to an end, the Rectorate would like to express our sincere thanks for your efforts of the past year. Soon there will be room to wind down and enjoy some festive cheer with friends and family. Maybe – and hopefully – there will be ample time to read an extra novel and dabble in some ‘trivial pursuits’. Something that stimulates the imagination, provides space for reflection and nourishes thought; pursuits that may not be so trivial after all – as a very insightful woman famously put it.

Amidst the not-so-trivial pursuits, we can look back on a year in which the pace was fast. Sometimes furious. Fortunately, hard on the heels of the exertion and the fast pace followed the results. It is easy to feel astounded and dumbfounded when you try to get an overview of what we have achieved together in the past year.

In any case, it would be a fool’s errand to attempt to list all the achievements in a Christmas greeting that must comply with SDU Communications’ strict requirements for text length and word count.

Suffice it to say that we in the Rectorate are unreservedly proud to be part of a University that, without sacrificing quality and academic depth, manages to keep up with the times, seize new opportunities and act constructively when challenges arise. Always with an ambition to create value for and with the surrounding society. This applies to our research, our education programmes and our collaboration with the surrounding society.

Overall, SDU is in a better position at the end of 2024 than we were at the end of 2023. So once again: A big and heartfelt thank you for your efforts. Efforts that have moved SDU and have made the University even stronger than it was a year ago. It is much appreciated!

What does 2025 have in store?

SDU is well prepared for a new year that will undoubtedly offer considerable – but also exciting and meaningful – tasks. We will be challenged, but we are also convinced that 2025 will offer great opportunities that we must seize and utilise.

With regard to research, we have developed in a very positive direction in recent years. We are conducting more and better research, which is crucial to the success of our research-based activities in the categories ‘education’ and ‘collaboration with the surrounding society’. A significant part of the explanation for the positive development is a substantial increase in the securing of external funding. Over the past four years, we have increased our consumption of external research funding by an average of around 10 per cent per year. This is an almost radical development that strengthens our research in crucial ways, but which at the same time shifts some major tectonic plates under the University and is forcing us to think through the consequences.

With regard to education, much of 2025 will be devoted to the Master’s Degree Reform. At the time of writing, we do not know the final wording of the reform, but it is our clear expectation that the last adjustments will be finalised before Christmas. As most people will know, the Master’s Degree Reform was not of our own making. Nevertheless, it is here now – passed by a majority in the Danish Parliament – and we will genuinely strive to make it work as well as possible.

And let us be clear about this: The Reform also offers great opportunities that we must know how to exploit. This is true particularly in relation to the Reform’s prioritisation of education for people in employment/Lifelong Learning (LLL). For this same reason, in 2025, the Executive Board will develop a ‘Sub-Strategy for LLL’ so that we are well prepared to realise the potential of the Reform.

In addition to the Master’s Degree Reform and the LLL, we are facing a great deal of work in developing and launching new educational programmes on all campuses. Not least the work to establish SDU Vejle will take up a lot of time.

When it comes to the wide range of activities we usually group together under the heading of ‘collaboration with the surrounding society’, 2024 has seen many fine initiatives. A huge number of start-ups and spin-outs from our students and researchers have emerged from the University, and SDU researchers qualify the public debate daily with expert opinions and contributions aimed at the general public. At the same time, the collaboration with public and private organisations has flourished throughout 2024.

We believe that we will see even more of this type of activity in 2025. Whether the question is asked in the government offices or in Brussels, the message is clear: The universities are key players in the endeavour to regain European and Danish competitiveness – and the universities are indispensable when it comes to safeguarding public debate against ‘alternative facts’, ‘fake news’ and attempts to undermine the ‘authority of reason’.

It is positive that the universities are set to play an even more central role in the coming years. And it is also likely that – at least at the European level – significantly more funds will be allocated to research, education and innovation. But if we are to meet the new expectations for the universities, innovation, dedication and hard work are required. SDU has all of this – and we are ready for the new challenges that await us.