Universitetsavisen
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University of Copenhagen
Independent of management
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Professor of physiology, Flemming Dela, calls for a board that is more visible in the public conversation, less concerned with politics, and more concerned with gaining the trust of researchers and faculty members.
Associate Professor Ravinder Kaur calls for more democracy at University of Copenhagen and is looking to take a stand against short-term contracts and what she calls the equality paradox.
History student Niklas Zenius Jespersen is the mastermind behind the students' confrontational and activistic line in occupying the management corridors at the Faculty of Humanities.
The University of Copenhagen was more complicated and far more time-consuming to manage than the Chairman of the Board Mads Krogsgaard Thomsen had ever imagined. It is the arm wrestling with the politicians that has been the most demanding, he says in this retrospective.
»Financially, urbanites will need to contribute more, if Western democracy is to avoid falling victim to populists on the right and on the left,« says professor of economics and public policy Paul Collier.
New representatives are to be elected for the Board, academic councils, study boards and PhD committees – and there is a lot at stake this year.
Alex Vanopslagh says that young people today are too focussed on looking successful. He recognises this in himself. But the problem is not that there are too many requirements and expectations, he says. The problem is that there are too few.
The university must appear politically neutral. So 1 May should no longer be a paid day off, the management argues. Moreover, says the university director, the University of Copenhagen cannot afford to have more off-days than other universities. Staff representative says that its abolition will backfire.
Staff representatives at the University of Copenhagen are worried that management is planning to abolish employees' rights to take the day off on 1 May. »This is a punch in the face to the staff that are really dedicated,« say critics.
Stories of sexism, drinking and crazy initiation rituals, a global #metoo movement and a set of guidelines on how to deal with offensive behaviour made the University of Copenhagen the centre of a stormy debate last year.
