Administration reform: University's finance staff reveal contrasting journeys

After a contentious debate, the new organisation of the administration at the University of Copenhagen (UCPH) was rolled out in March 2025. Staff and students have now had six months to get used to the new post-reform reality.

In a series of articles on the university’s intranet KUnet, UCPH deputy directors of eight central units share how they have experienced the first few months and provide an update from their area of administration.

At the University Post, we are now launching a similar series, this time speaking with staff and union representatives from across the university.

The first area was UCPH Education [in Danish here]. This week, we turn to UCPH Finance.

Moved against her will

The last time Bettina Starup Mentz was happy with her job was in the summer of 2024. She had otherwise loved her work at UCPH for all of the 12 years that she has been employed, most recently at the Biotech Research & Innovation Centre (BRIC), where she had worked since 2017 and served the past two years as a procurement officer.

But in the fall of 2024, everything changed.

»I was called in to a meeting and told I was being moved. Not partially like some of the others — I was being moved completely.«

Her new role was to be in the internal webshop at UCPH, based in the Panum buildings. New workplace, new colleagues, and entirely new responsibilities.

»It really took me by surprise. I had no idea I could be one of the ones they moved. But you can’t say no. That just wasn’t an option.«

Before the meeting, she had no indication that her position was at risk. It didn’t make sense — not even within the logic of the reform, she felt.

It was the wrong decision, and they also ended up realising it

Bettina Starup Mentz, former employee at BRIC

»The role was a key part of my unit, and it made no sense to move those tasks. It was the wrong decision, and they also ended up realising it.«

Bettina Starup Mentz says that in the end her old position was not discontinued — it was filled instead by another employee who took over Bettina’s responsibilities. This meant that she had to train up her own replacement in the role that she herself had wanted to keep before being moved against her will.

»It was an absurd, and humiliating, situation. The webshop team hadn’t even been told that I was coming. There was poor communication and poor decision making all the way through.«

Her new colleagues were nice, she says. But once she was in the new job, the pressure that she had been under for months came to a head in the form of a stress reaction.

»They gave me a warm welcome. They were really the kindest people. But when I sat down to take on my new tasks, my brain just wouldn’t work. I’d had thorough training, and I am a quick learner. But I couldn’t remember anything. I just couldn’t.«

She then took stress-related sick leave – and after six months she was laid off.

»Looking back, it just seems so pointless. I was still there, and the job was still there. And I really, really loved that job. It just wasn’t going to be me. I don’t get it.«

If she had to point to one thing that could have helped, it would have been if she had felt a greater sense of agency:

»Being moved around like a game piece on a Ludo board, with no regard for your own wishes — it just gets you down.«

The University Post put Bettina Starup Mentz’s criticism to the head of administration at BRIC, Bitten Dalsgaard. She states that she had been instructed to move one employee to the webshop at Panum, and that Bettina was the only one with the right qualifications. She does not recognise the claim that the webshop staff were unaware that Bettina was coming, but says that she is sorry to hear about her experience.

Budgets that didn’t follow

The experience has been very different for senior consultant and economist Søren Kristoffer Jensen. He is highly enthusiastic about the opportunities that the reform has led to:

»The administration reform has definitely been a big win for me. And I do believe it will be for UCPH in the long run as well,« he says.

»I really enjoy the new tasks I’ve taken on, and we also have a fantastic sense of camaraderie in the central finance unit, even though many of us are new here. There’s good energy, lots of ambition, and a lively atmosphere.«

Most of his colleagues, he says, have come from other units. But unlike Bettina’s experience, he believes everyone in his team moved voluntarily — and that, he says, makes a big difference:

»It clearly matters whether you’ve chosen to move. And I’m not blind to the fact that others have had a much less positive experience than I have — both in terms of the scale of the changes and the impact of being relocated against your will.«

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Søren Kristoffer Jensen is not uncritical of the reform, he adds. In fact, one of the reasons he applied to work in the central finance unit was because he saw they might need his skills.

»As an economist, it’s important to me that it’s not just about cutting budgets — there needs to be changes that ensure that the administrative support for the core tasks of UCPH remains at least at the same level, ideally better. What we do has to work its way to the end users,« he says, and continues:

»I could see there were general issues with the financial management where my skills could be put to better use than where I was before.«

So you basically asked to join central finance and put out some fires?

»That’s one way to put it.«

He hasn’t been impressed with the pace of implementation — both in the decision-making and the communication, and in resolving the uncertainties along the way.

»There are still remnants of operational budgets scattered across the faculties for example — communications activities, educational initiatives and so on,« he says.

»Those budgets should have been moved long ago. But there’s been no clarity about what belongs where — and that should have been sorted out much earlier.«

1 March — a lousy transition date

In addition to the budget transfers being delayed, Søren Kristoffer Jensen also questions the reform’s start date:

»It’s just not good to implement something like this on 1 March, rather than 1 January,« he says.

Large organisational changes and budget handovers should take place at the turn of the financial year, he believes.

It’s just not good to implement something like this on 1 March

Søren Kristoffer Jensen, senior consultant, Corporate Financial Managment, UCPH

»There are so many operating costs tied to annual one-off payments — like subscriptions, system licences and the like. So it’s a real hassle to shift budgets in the middle of all that,« he says.

»I mean, you end up with two months of budget in one place, and 10 months in another.«

Why do you think the reform launched on 1 March rather than 1 January?

»Because they weren’t ready,« Søren Kristoffer Jensen replies without hesitation.

He doesn’t believe it had major financial consequences — it just made everything more difficult.

»It’s mostly just created administrative hassle for everyone involved.«

This article was first written in Danish and published on 20 October 2025. It has been translated into English and post-edited by Mike Young.