NOVEMBER 2011 AARHUS UNIVERSITY RECTOR LAURITZ B. HOLM-NIELSEN AARHUS UNIVERSITY MERGERS AND COOPERATION STRUCTURES IN DENMARK RECTOR LAURITZ B. HOLM-NIELSEN, AARHUS UNIVERSITY

WCU Shanghai RECTOR LAURITZ B. HOLM-NIELSENNov NOVEMBER 2011 CPU PARIS RECTOR LAURITZ B. HOLM-NIELSEN THE NORDIC KNOWLEDGE REGION

WCU Shanghai RECTOR LAURITZ B. HOLM-NIELSENNov NEW FRAMEWORK CONDITIONS IN DENMARK AND EUROPE 1998/99, Intergovernmental agreement: Governmental push for convergence of HE systems by , Bologna Declaration: Key principles adopted by Ministers of Education of 29 European countries 2003 – 2007, Danish sector reforms: New University Act (2003) (2011) Reorganising HE&R institutions (2007) Modernising the funding compact 2008, Aarhus University’s Strategy: Research Talent development Knowledge exchange Education 2010, The AU Academic Development Process: Unified management Interdisciplinarity CPU PARIS NOVEMBER 2011 RECTOR LAURITZ B. HOLM-NIELSEN

NOVEMBER 2011 AARHUS UNIVERSITY RECTOR LAURITZ B. HOLM-NIELSEN 4 UNIVERSITY GOVERNANCE – ACT OF 2003  Autonomy – from state institutions to autonomous bodies within the public sector  Accountability through the use of university performance contracts  Governing boards with a majority of external members Safeguard the university’s interests as an educational and research institution and determine guidelines for its organization, long term activities and development  Appointed leaders in university governance structures (rector, deans and department heads)

NOVEMBER 2011 AARHUS UNIVERSITY RECTOR LAURITZ B. HOLM-NIELSEN 5 UNIVERSITY MERGERS – 2006/7  Before the mergers Denmark had:  12 universities and 13 government research institutions  As a consequence of the mergers, Denmark now has:  8 universities and 3 government research institutions

NOVEMBER 2011 AARHUS UNIVERSITY RECTOR LAURITZ B. HOLM-NIELSEN 6 WHY MERGERS? Background:  OECD deemed Danish public research environment too fragmented  Government ambition:  more interdisciplinary cooperation in education;  more flexible and relevant offerings of degree programmes for the Danish students;  greater success for Danish universities in their applications for EU research funding;  higher quality (in the sense of impact) of the Danish university research output;  better cooperation between the universities and the private sector with respect to innovation;  more effective knowledge relationship between the public research sector and the sector ministries. What made it possible?  Political pressure supplemented by free choice of merger-partners (and not all were forced to merge)  Took place in a time of increasing funding (2006: Globalisation Agreement)

NOVEMBER 2011 AARHUS UNIVERSITY RECTOR LAURITZ B. HOLM-NIELSEN DANISH CITATION IMPACT CPU PARIS Source: Comparing Research at Nordic Universities using Bibliometric Indicators, A publication from the NORIA Net, NordForsk 2011, p. 61 WORLD AVERAGE NOVEMBER 2011 RECTOR LAURITZ B. HOLM-NIELSEN

CPU PARIS DANISH UNIVERSITY RANKS 2011 University of Copenhagen Aarhus University Technical University of Denmark University of Southern Denmark Aalborg University ARWU QS Ranking THE HEEACT NOVEMBER 2011 RECTOR LAURITZ B. HOLM-NIELSEN

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WCU Shanghai RECTOR LAURITZ B. HOLM-NIELSENNov A SINGLE UNIFIED MANAGEMENT CPU PARIS NOVEMBER 2011 RECTOR LAURITZ B. HOLM-NIELSEN

WCU Shanghai RECTOR LAURITZ B. HOLM-NIELSENNov THANK YOU FOR YOUR ATTENTION RECTOR LAURITZ B. HOLM-NIELSEN