A holiday greeting from the Dean
Thank you for a - despite challenges - great and exciting 2023. Merry Christmas and happy New Year to all!
Dear staff
There are still Christmas presents on their way to our faculty – this time from the Ministry of Higher Education and Science, which has approved two new degree programmes. The Master's Degree Programme in Data Science in Kolding and a Professional Master programme in Data Stewardship in Odense. Congratulations to IMADA and many thanks to all of you who worked hard to get the programmes approved.
It is a landmark for us, as we are now represented with our own degree programmes outside Odense for the first time. This also means that a great deal of work is underway to establish Data Science in Kolding.
Fortunately, we have been received very well by the colleagues in Kolding, who are ready to help us. It is planned that both the Faculty of Humanities and the Faculty of Business and Social Sciences will contribute to the programme with profiles within these areas.
Kolding Municipality also supports us and will help provide student accommodation and ensure the integration of international students in the municipality. We must find solutions for teachers, administration and the study environment, all of which require the presence of employees in Kolding.
IMADA has started hiring employees to teach the courses, with the first group of students to begin in September 2024.
The Professional Master in Data Stewardship has been developed in collaboration with the university library and is mainly aimed at people in jobs who want further education. It is the first degree programme of its kind in Europe.
Therefore,it will be exciting to see how the programme is received. There is no doubt that there is a great demand for skills in many different industries. However, we won't open the programme until September 2025.
Last Friday, Christmas was celebrated with Christmas parties at the departments and the faculty administration. There was a really good atmosphere all around – in some places with live music and in other places with a DJ or Christmas music from a playlist.
Some places, the "old" went home early and in other places they stayed out for a long time, while the young employees of course partied all evening.
Short or long Christmas party - it's perfectly OK - as long as it was enjoyable and you had the opportunity to have a good chat with a colleague or a student.
It has been a busy autumn with many tasks and regrettable initiatives from the government, with an upcoming Master's degree reform and a troubled world order. It can wear on relationships, and a Christmas party with time for a good chat over the table can be redemptive.
Fortunately, there are also close things that we can be happy about. We have had a terrific intake of external funding and now we got two new degree programmes. I hope that everyone will recognize each other for the great effort that everyone has put into the many tasks throughout the year.
I would like to say thank you for the great support for our faculty and wish everyone a Merry Christmas with time for family, friends and reflection.
Marianne Holmer, dean