News from our degree programmes

Thus approximately 50% of the students agree (and 40% partly agree) that the courses are relevant for their study programme as a whole. 50 % of the students assess the overall benefit from the courses as great, 20 % assess it as very great, and 80 % that the workload is appropriate for them. However, in a few courses the workload has been too high, and the heads of degree programmes will contact the relevant course coordinators to find a solution.

Course revisions in the ‘Course Catalogue Editor’ (CCE) are now split into two parts. Part 1 deals with master data, planning data (both teaching and exams) as well as staff allocation, and Part 2 contains academically course content and detailed exam information. The schedule for revisions has been brought forward: For courses in F25, Part 1 runs from 1 March to 31 May and Part 2 from 1 June to 15 October 2024. For courses in E25, Part 1 runs from 1 September to 30 November 2024 and Part 2 from 1 December 2024 to 15 April 2025.

The educational environment assessment (UMV) for our degree programmes

The UMV is an assessment of the physical, psychological and aesthetic teaching environment on all degree programmes at all universities in Denmark. The assessment is carried out every three years. The purpose of the assessment is to enable the programme environments to discuss and identify the areas in which an effort is needed to develop and ensure a good teaching environment for the students. UMV consists of selected results from the Ministry of Higher Education and Science’s national questionnaire survey, which was conducted in the autumn of 2023. The UMV includes the students’ responses concerning the psychological environment (well-being and perceived well-being; social environment and contact with fellow students; academic environment and interaction with teaching staff; performance; bullying, harassment and discrimination), the physical environment (indoor climate, health and toilet facilities; space and furniture and equipment; safety and security) and the aesthetic environment at the university.

This year, the UMV is conducted in connection with the annual status meeting, at which indicators related to sub-policies in AU’s quality assurance policy within the field of education (for example, first-year drop-out rate, completion time, teaching assessment, academic and social well-being). One action plan will be drawn up, containing action points for both the annual status and the UMV part where a need for special measures is considered necessary. Thus, the action plan must be drawn up before the summer holidays.

Generative AI (GAI)

AU has decided that students may now use Generative AI (GAI) in their Bachelor’s projects and Master’s theses. The general rules for source references and plagiarism still apply. Therefore, the students must clearly indicate their use of GAI. The students must therefore complete and attach a declaration as an appendix to their assignment. The declaration serves as a source for the overall use of GAI in the project, while a direct reproduction of, for example, GAI-generated text must be cited as a quote in accordance with the current rules: https://tech.medarbejdere.au.dk/en/education-and-teaching/teaching-and-exam/gai-and-chatbots

Information for lecturers for use in GAI exams can be found on the study portal: https://studerende.au.dk/en/studies/subject-portals/cae/examination/gai-and-chatbots-1GAI and chatbots (au.dk)

Advice for students with mental health issues

There has been a large increase in the number of students with mental health challenges such as word og number blindness, physical handicaps or long-term disorders. This topic has been discussed in our degree programme committee and in TECH’s forum for education. The Counselling and Support Centre (RSC) offers counselling and guidance to students who, due to a functional impairment, have been granted support under Special Educational Support (SPS). In addition to individual counselling, the RSC collaborates broadly with AU and exchanges ideas with teaching staff and supervisors. https://www.au.dk/raadgivnings-og-stoettecentret/

Status for the new degree programmes

Preparations for the start of the three new Bachelor’s degree programmes in the autumn are in full swing. Thus, ‘Byg’ has announced that the study environment will be ready in the autumn, and currently there is a large focus on the organisation of the individual courses, including scheduling, room allocation and courses. In addition, student advisor and mentor schemes must be set up and a student counsellor hired. A new students’ association will coordinate the work with the current ‘Association of Agricultural Science Students’ (SJUL) for agrobiology.

Links to the new degree programmes are listed here:

https://tech.au.dk/uddannelse/au-viborg/plante-og-foedevarevidenskab

https://tech.au.dk/uddannelse/au-viborg/dyrevidenskab

https://tech.au.dk/uddannelse/au-viborg/veterinaermedicin

A working group is currently preparing the foundation for establishing the physical and digital learning platforms that are connected to the field trials and for establishing the infrastructure for a student farm. An important part of this farm will be an experimental learning platform that will make it easier for students to understand the context of the individual teaching/learning activity and its relation to the full picture of crop and food production.  

There was a great interest in the three new degree programmes at the U-days in Aarhus and at the Open day event at AU Viborg at which about 30 employees and students participated in planning and hosting the day: https://tech.medarbejdere.au.dk/en/news-and-events/news/show/artikel/great-interest-in-the-new-study-programmes-at-open-house

The preliminary ’Quota 2’ application figures show that 317 have chosen veterinary medicine (veterinarians), 17 have chosen animal science, and 3 have chosen Plant and food science as their first priority: https://www.au.dk/fileadmin/www.au.dk/KOT/Opgoerelse_KOT_2024_Kvote_2_Ansoegertal_De_Endelige_Tal.pdf