Organics degrees – stronger promotion or a new approach?
Aarhus University ought to be in a position of strength regarding the organic agriculture degree – but the reverse is actually the case.
The Master’s degree in Agrobiology has three tracks:
· Animal health and welfare
· Plant nutrition and health
· Organic agriculture
AGRO is central in the Plant nutrition and health and Organic agriculture tracks. Together with the Organic agriculture and food systems track we are a partner in the double-degree programme EUR-Organic where the other partners include the University of Hohenheim in Stuttgart, Germany, University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences (BOKU) in Vienna, Austria, University of Life Sciences in Warsaw, Poland, and now also ISARA in Lyon, France.
In the double-degree programme the students typically spend the first year of their Master’s programme at their home university, and the last year at one of the host universities participating in the programme. Here they will study specialised topics and write a 30-ECTS thesis.
The reason for specialising in organic agriculture at Aarhus University is partly that organic food production has such a prominent role in Denmark and partly that we have a lot to offer the Master’s degree programmes because of our many research projects with focus on organic food production.
Lack of interest in the organics track
The specialisation in organic agriculture and the EUR-Organic double-degree has, however, so far not been a success. Only very few students choose the organics track at Aarhus University and we receive a very small number of EUR-Organic students from the other partner universities (all told less than a handful per year).
Both at Hohenheim and BOKU they have a large student base to draw from, but the interest in spending time at Aarhus University is not particularly great. Many of the students abandon the idea of doing a double degree and instead finish their study at their home university. Others appear to deselect Aarhus University as a host university.
The lack of interest in the organics track is in stark contrast to the considerable interest for the topics we offer in organic agriculture. In the bachelor programme, many of our own students choose to study the subject Organic agriculture.
On the Master’s programme, the number of students that have taken the subject Organic production systems to the exam stage in the three years that we have been offering it is 14, 11 and 10. This number has typically consisted of a third our own students, a third EUR-Organic students and a third foreign students who selected the course as part of a semester package at Aarhus University.
Aarhus University differs from the other universities in the EUR-Organic partnership in that it is obligatory to take one of the mandatory courses on livestock or plants. This is possibly what deters students from choosing Aarhus University.
All in all, the low interest for the specialisation in organics and the EUR partnership gives us pause to consider whether we ought to discontinue this option. In the first instance we have decided to try a more intensive promotion both in relation to the Danish students and in the EUR-Organic partnership. Aarhus University ought to be in a position of strength regarding degrees in organic agriculture – so we will have to up our efforts to make this happen – or accept the consequences.