Rector’s tour included visits to Foulum and Flakkebjerg
Despite the government’s warning of cutbacks on education and research funds, Rector Brian Bech Nielsen was relatively optimistic.
Dressed in his signature light blue shirt, Rector Brian Bech Nielsen cut a relaxed, calm and down to earth figure on his annual tour of Aarhus University’s widespread locations. He was in Foulum on Friday, 2 October and in Flakkebjerg on Monday, 5 October 2015.
Brian Bech Nielsen spoke of a university that comprises possibilities and limitations. There are many possibilities in an environment that includes research, policy advice, education and industrial collaboration. The limitations are political and financial decisions that are not under our control.
The government has given notice of cutbacks on funding for education and research. Brian Bech Nielsen pointed out that Science and Technology is not the faculty that is most dependent on income from the degree programmes but that the cutbacks in research funds can affect the growth layer and the level of activity in the future. Since the grants are multiannual the cutbacks will be phased in over a period of years and the savings that the university initiated on its own a couple of years ago will help us. Therefore, there is no reason to be anxious at the present time.
- In the short run there is no need to worry and in 2016 we expect that the bottom line will balance out. In the course of 2016 we will lay a plan for how to deal with the challenges from 2017 and on, he said.
Focus in the near future
The senior university management will in the near future place particular focus on the contracts regarding policy advice, promotion of the engineering programmes, and the government’s desire to save on education.
Policy advice is an area that is close to the heart of AGRO. Now that the Ministry of Food, Agriculture and Fisheries has merged with the Ministry of the Environment the question is open as to how future contracts regarding policy advice will be put together. Will there be a common contract? Can some of the funds be set aside for basic funding? Brian Bech Nielsen ensured that he will enter into a dialogue with the Ministry of the Environment and Food in which he will emphasize that the funds help to ensure the infrastructure that we have and that it is not a good idea if the funds are subject to competition.
In the discussion following Brian Bech Nielsen’s talk in Flakkebjerg, it was mentioned that the Agrobiology programme needs to have a higher profile. As is the case with engineering graduates, the job market needs Agrobiology graduates and it is easy for them to find employment. The problem is that not enough people know of the existence of the degree programme.
Another item that was raised by the audience was that there are not enough homes for Master students and visiting scientists in Flakkebjerg. The local municipality and the region were pleased about the news that the research activities will not be moved from Flakkebjerg after all, so perhaps the senior university management could contact the chairman of the regional council or the mayor regarding this problem. In answer to this the rector suggested that AGRO prepares a proposal.
A third topic close to the heart of AGRO is the improvement of the possibility to employ scientists on a permanent tenure from among our own PhD students and postdocs. Aarhus University has a desire to recruit new permanent scientific staff from outside, particularly from abroad. AGRO is already very international and if we do not have better possibilities to recruit from among our own junior VIP, then we risk training scientists that will take their knowledge and skills away from Denmark and back to their homeland. Instead, AGRO would like to take advantage of the fact that these junior VIP, in the course of their time with us, have gotten to understand the context in which our area of research lies.
Yet another point that was brought up was the recurring problem that scientists are merited almost exclusively on the basis of published articles and citations. Collaboration with the industry, policy advice and teaching are areas that take up a lot of time and which the senior management prioritises highly but which are not "rewarded" accordingly. Brian Bech Nielsen agreed and said that we need a model that can measure and credit these efforts. He imagines that it would be based on peer review in the same fashion as with publications.
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