International students the mystery voters

In past elections, it has been the norm for the university elections to be mostly about a Danish vote for Danish candidates.

But this time round, an English-language election website, the University Post coverage and the growing realisation that international students are ripe for convincing arguments has candidates vying for the international vote. This is in contrast to earlier elections where international students were isolated from being ‘in the know’ about who their representative actually is.

As Students Council candidate for the Board of the University, Emilie Nayberg, puts it: »Internationalization is more than just having a program thought in English. To be truly internationalized we need to improve the conditions for both incoming and outgoing exchange and full degree students, both in terms of housing, administration, social and learning environment.«

Your election candidates

Policies put forward by candidates range from a demand for a more democratic student voice, a digital revolution in the way University of Copenhagen operates, higher impetus on student social activities to the number of hours in lectures. And now, for the first time, a take on what the University of Copenhagen does in terms of internationalisation.

»International students are able to provide a different perspective on a subject, and thus increase the quality of education for everyone,« says Philip Groes, a candidate for the Board of the University from the ‘Social-Liberal Students’ group.

Ultimately, this year’s vote is about the future running of the Board of the University, the individual study programmes ‘study boards’ and the Academic Council bodies.

Calls for change

The University Post profiles several candidates for the key Board of the University election. Each answered five questions on their manifestos and visions upon being elected to office, especially related to international student and scientist life..

They range from Frit Forum’s Jarl Feyling, who calls for increased digitalisation of studies, with lecturers being recorded and offering a more modern study experience, to Student Council’s Emilie Nayberg who favours more internationalisation of the University of Copenhagen and increased and better support to housing, to Social Liberal’s Philip Groes’ ambitions to increase the quality of the education through better English taught degrees and workshops.

Ultimately it is up to the voter to decide which of the candidates will make it.

Voting will be on KUnet.dk

In the meantime, check out the University of Copenhagen’s internal website KUnet.dk’s election pages. This is also where you vote.

The English-language election page on Kunet.dk is here.

universitypost@adm.ku.dk

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