New internationalisation project in the pipeline

The demographic development of declining youth cohorts and political winds are forcing SDU and the rest of the Danish universities to think differently. In light of this, the University of Southern Denmark is now launching a strategic initiative to ensure a flow of talented international students. And the entire project is also intended to help strengthen SDU’s supply of graduates for companies in Denmark.

- Employment is the keyword in this initiative. We will work from a 360 degree perspective, which means that we will focus on the recruitment of future students, the connection to the business community in terms of student jobs and employment after graduation, and of course also the integration into the individual campus and the city, explains Helle Waagepetersen, pro-rector for education at the University of Southern Denmark.

International students contribute to increasing quality and diversity

The project is in line with the news that the University of Southern Denmark, along with a number of other Danish universities, has been granted a higher capacity of 180 English-language master’s students after the summer holidays.

There are several advantages to having a larger representation of international students, including that they will contribute to raising the level of the programmes, supporting SDU’s overall strategy, explains Helle Waagepetersen.

- With their high levels of academic skill and by increasing the cultural diversity, they will contribute to attractive international learning environments at SDU, she says.

Phase 1 is about to begin

The approval from the Executive Board means that the action plan, according to which a number of working groups will identify challenges and opportunities in the coming period, can be initiated. They all base their work on a shared vision describing a need for improving SDU’s ability to attract and retain talented international students.

According to Helle Waagepetersen, all parts of the University will develop initiatives, and she hopes that there will also be a high degree of knowledge and experience exchange among the campus cities and the faculties, so that we optimise the processes, ensuring that the positive experiences gained from several previous SDU efforts to build attractive study environments for international students are shared and used everywhere.

- One example of this is the job guarantee in Sønderborg. I hope that the project will also make us better at collaborating and learning from each other across the board, helping us become more agile as an organisation, which will benefit us, considering the major changes that the university sector is facing, she says.