Universitetsavisen
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E-mail: uni-avis@adm.ku.dk
University of Copenhagen
Independent of management
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Anna-Oline Grarup Hertz and Mette-Marie Nørlev are both left-leaning in their political views. They are happy to debate tax issues with centre-right voters, but when it comes to race and minorities it becomes a question of human rights, and human rights are not up for debate.
As a student with centre-right politics at the Faculty of Social Sciences at the University of Copenhagen, you have to censor yourself and your opinions to get by says political science student and active member of the Conservative People’s Party’s youth organisation, Christian Vigilius.
At the Faculty of Social Sciences at the University of Copenhagen, there are right opinions and there are wrong opinions. According to political science student Thomas Rohden people are quick to label others racists or transphobes.
Eighty percent of students at the Faculty of Social Sciences at the University of Copenhagen say they vote for parties on the left-wing. Research suggests that students who identify with centre-right political agendas have a hard time expressing their views.
Danish students reacted when they realised the international students were going home without making Danish friends. But then the Danes forgot that the café was for the Danes too. Yet Studenterhuset director Jacob Ørum insists on bringing the two groups together. Because »you become a better human being by not only being around people who are like yourself.«
One year ago, Emil Bülow Petersen dropped out of his study programme. He was badly affected by the loss of his brother. Now, after a new start at university, he has set up a grief support group for students who have also lost loved ones.
»Being an activist and fighting for a world that is more just is a fundamental condition of my existence. It only stops when I am no longer here. It is part of my existence. This is how I look at it.«
»I get upset and I get frustrated, and that's my motivation. I need hope, and I don’t want to feel powerless all the time.«
»We should not be pointing to each other, saying that what they do is all wrong and calling out people as polluters. It is better to show that we can do these things and still have an easy life.«
In the course of two years, students moved from being virtually invisible in the climate debate to capturing the agenda and making demands on both university management and the decision makers in the Danish parliament.
