Employees and students to be sent outside - ministers to take control of UCPH Board of Directors

Staff and students have until now helped find and appoint the chairman and the external members of the Board of the University of Copenhagen (UCPH) , but their involvement will soon be over.

This can be seen in the law proposal ‘a better framework for the management of universities’ that Minister for Education and Research Søren Pind (V) has submitted for consultation.

According to the university statutes, staff and students at UCPH have until now had three members of a nominating committee which in turn finds possible candidates.

The Board, where staff and students have 5 out of 11 seats, will then make the final decision.

We are completely disconnected from the process.

Joan Lykkeaa, staff representative for the HK union’s laboratory assistants at UCPH.

Externals are to do the appointing

But Søren Pind wants to stop this. According to the bill, a nominating committee’s internal board members, that is staff and students, will share 1 of the 6 seats. The Ministry for Education and Research will have one representative and two will be external members.

A final choice between the candidates will then be made by a nominated body consisting of a chairman appointed by the Minister and 5-7 members from business, public authorities, educational institutions, etc..

None of the members should be employees or students at the university, and the minister must also give final approval to the new chairman of the board, according to the bill.

Staff out of the loop

Joan Lykkeaa, representative for the HK union’s laboratory assistants at UCPH and former employee-elected Board representative reckons that the politicians are once again taking influence and involvement away from staff.

“We are completely disconnected from the process. There is the risk of a problem of legitimacy at the university because nobody will bother to take any notice of the Board’s work if staff feel that their influence has been taken from them,” she says.

Joan Lykkeaa is a member of the nominating committee that is to find a successor to the current Chairman of the Board Nils Strandberg Pedersen and the external member Jannik Johansen, who will both resign from the Board on 15th September.

The committee has held its first meeting. But after the bill she is unsure about whether the work will be stopped.

“We are discussing who we consider to be a good candidate, and what we need in terms of skills for the board, so it is important that we as staff have the opportunity to give in our input. There should, as a minimum, be at least one employee and one student in the nominating committee,” says Joan Lykkeaa.

Worries about exaggerated focus on research

Marie Thomsen, deputy chairman of the Student Council at UCPH, says that the ministry is intensifying its “micromanagement” when it wants even more influence on both the nomination and appointment of university managers,   and that it at the same time virtually eliminates students and staff from the selection process.

She is nervous about a future board’s agenda.

My fear is that the new board members will not have the students’ interests in mind, when we, who shape and create the university every day are excluded from the process. It becomes easy to only focus on research, so that everything drowns in elite research prizes or the number of articles in prestigious journals,” she says.

Regulated too tightly from the ministry

Thomas Vils Pedersen, representing scientific staff at UCPH, is also skeptical about Søren Pind’s bill.

He says, however, that it is appropriate to do away with the self-perpetuating boards, because there is the danger of it becoming socially exclusive when the board has to find their own replacements.

But he thinks that staff and students have too little influence in the nominating body.

“It would be reasonable if both groups could provide input,” he says.

In addition, he wants to make it clear that the nominating body should be diverse, so it not only consists of business people, but also people from high schools, trade unions, etc.

“The big problem with the bill is that the chairman of the nominating body must be appointed by the minister. The chairman in these kinds of bodies wields enormous power, so it does not live up to the arm’s length principle. It is regulated too tightly by the ministry,” says Thomas Vils Pedersen.

Pind: Bill is to strengthen dialogue

The bill is to be submitted for consultation with the deadline 24th March.

In this connection, Søren Pind writes in a press release:

“I sent a bill in today for consultation, which provides for stronger boards and strengthens the dialogue between the boards and the minister. The bill clarifies the universities’ importance to society and their responsibility, with respect for the autonomy of universities. The bill provides a good foundation for even better education and research in the future.”