171 current and former students of Comparative Literature have put their names on a petition to keep two respected lecturers. This was just before students and staff left for the Christmas break.<\/p>\n
The two lecturers have found themselves tangled up in red tape in a way that has real, human consequences: Due to University of Copenhagen (UCPH) rules on temporary contracts, neither Michael H\u00f8xbro Andersen nor Agus Djaja Soewarta will be likely to be able to continue teaching when their contracts expire this summer.<\/p>\n
\u00bbWe students believe that all teaching in Comparative Literature is, and should be, based on research. This is why we are calling for decent working conditions for our lecturers \u2014 so that the high standard of teaching expected at a university can be maintained,\u00ab it says in the petition.<\/p>\n
We students want qualified and up-to-date teaching \u2014 and our lecturers want to provide it.<\/p>\n
Sigurd Baag\u00f8e Jensen, student of Comparative Literature<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n
No research time<\/h3>\n
Sigurd Baag\u00f8e Jensen elaborated on the students’ motivations for the petition over the phone:<\/p>\n
\u00bbWe want to keep our excellent lecturers. They do an incredible amount of work, with much of it unseen. They are both incredibly supportive of new students, make everyone feel welcome in the programme, and always help to ensure that the teaching runs smoothly, even when they themselves are under pressure,\u00ab he says.<\/p>\n
\u00bbA lot of people have signed the petition \u2014 including many alumni \u2014 because Agus and Michael are really popular and well-liked lecturers,\u00ab says Sigurd Baag\u00f8e Jensen.<\/p>\n
Both Michael H\u00f8xbro Andersen and Agus Djaja Soewarta have been employed at the department as so-called teaching associate professors \u2014 a position primarily focused on practical subjects. These positions come with no research time, and were in this way allowed to only teach courses that are not research-based.<\/p>\n
In 2024, both were hired administratively as assistant professors with<\/em> research time \u2014 a one-year position that can be extended once. These contracts are set to expire this summer. The department now wants to rehire them as teaching associate professors without research time.<\/p>\n
Our lecturers need decent working conditions<\/h3>\n
It is specifically this type of employment \u2014 with no time allocated for research \u2014 that Sigurd Baag\u00f8e Jensen and Samuel Krogh are objecting to.<\/p>\n
In the study board, where Sigurd Baag\u00f8e Jensen is a member and Samuel Krogh is a substitute, they have been tasked with assessing which courses in the programme \u00bbare not based on current research\u00ab.<\/p>\n
But this makes no sense, they argue.<\/p>\n
\u00bbWe believe that all teaching at a university should be based on the latest research. We want our lecturers to have decent working conditions, which means they must have research time as part of their job \u2014 and we want the teaching that we get to be research-based,\u00ab says Sigurd Baag\u00f8e Jensen.<\/p>\n
Teaching associate professors are generally used on programmes with practical subjects, like musicology where students get piano instruction.<\/p>\n
But Comparative Literature has no practical subjects.<\/p>\n
\u00bbAll our courses are research-based,\u00ab says Samuel Krogh.<\/p>\n
It means a great deal to me that the students have taken up this cause.<\/p>\n
Associate professor Agus Djaja Soewarta<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n
Sigurd Baag\u00f8e Jensen and Samuel Krogh launched the petition for two reasons: To safeguard the quality of their education and to fight for decent working conditions for their lecturers.<\/p>\n
As representatives on the study board, they help plan teaching and degree programmes. They say Comparative Literature suffers from \u00bbstructural understaffing\u00ab and that several lecturers are on sick leave due to the high-pressure working environment. They say the department is struggling to cover all teaching obligations.<\/p>\n
\u00bbI think the idea behind reappointing Michael and Agus as teaching associate professors is to have them teach full-time \u2014 that way, you can load them up with teaching without giving them time for research. These are incredibly poor working conditions,\u00ab says Sigurd Baag\u00f8e Jensen.<\/p>\n
\u00bbWe students want qualified and up-to-date teaching \u2014 and our lecturers want to provide it. That means they must be given time within their work hours to conduct research and keep up to date with their discipline. Their academic integrity depends on it. Of course they could teach full-time, but this is about the conditions that the university is offering its staff,\u00ab says Sigurd Baag\u00f8e Jensen.<\/p>\n
Touched by student support<\/h3>\n
Agus Djaja Soewarta says he was deeply moved when he learned about the students’ letter of protest.<\/p>\n
\u00bbIt means a great deal to me that the students have taken up this cause. As a lecturer, this is the best kind of recognition you can get.\u00ab<\/p>\n
Given the department\u2019s financial difficulties however, he is uncertain what practical effect it will have.<\/p>\n
\u00bbRegardless of the outcome, it has meant an awful lot to me that they did this,\u00ab he says.<\/p>\n
In a follow-up email, Samuel Krogh and Sigurd Baag\u00f8e Jensen write that they have raised the issue of the petition at a study board meeting and plan to make the department leadership aware of their criticism also.<\/p>\n
They say that the invisible labour done by lecturers \u2014 the kind that keeps the teaching schedule running smoothly, and that gives students someone to turn to with their concerns \u2014 should be recognised and rewarded.<\/p>\n
\u00bbAs coordinator for first-year students, Agus has been a familiar face to everyone starting at university. He is the first to step up when students need to talk. Michael has stepped in several times during staff absences and even taken over parts of a course at short notice this semester. These are lecturers who have meant a lot to students over a long period of time,\u00ab says Samuel Krogh.<\/p>\n
Or, as one student put it in a Facebook comment when the petition was shared in a Comparative Literature student group:<\/p>\n
\u00bbAgus was the highlight of my time at university.\u00ab<\/p>\n
The University Post will continue to follow this story.<\/p>\n
This article was first written in Danish and published on 9 January. It has been translated into English and post-edited by Mike Young.<\/em>
\n<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Bureaucracy is preventing two popular lecturers from being rehired in Comparative Literature. Students push back: \u00bbAgus was the highlight of my time at university.\u00ab<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":109,"featured_media":186171,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4539],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-186186","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-arbejdsmiljoe-en","expression-feature_article"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"yoast_head":"\n
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","name":"unavngivet-1750-x-1080-px-1","status":"inherit","uploaded_to":186169,"date":"2026-01-09 08:55:38","modified":"2026-01-09 09:19:32","menu_order":0,"mime_type":"image\/png","type":"image","subtype":"png","icon":"https:\/\/uniavisen.dk\/wp-includes\/images\/media\/default.png","width":1750,"height":1080,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/uniavisen.dk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/unavngivet1750x1080px1-150x150.png","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/uniavisen.dk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/unavngivet1750x1080px1-480x296.png","medium-width":480,"medium-height":296,"medium_large":"https:\/\/uniavisen.dk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/unavngivet1750x1080px1-768x474.png","medium_large-width":768,"medium_large-height":474,"large":"https:\/\/uniavisen.dk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/unavngivet1750x1080px1-1280x790.png","large-width":1280,"large-height":790,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/uniavisen.dk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/unavngivet1750x1080px1-1536x948.png","1536x1536-width":1536,"1536x1536-height":948,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/uniavisen.dk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/unavngivet1750x1080px1.png","2048x2048-width":1750,"2048x2048-height":1080,"featured-soft":"https:\/\/uniavisen.dk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/unavngivet1750x1080px1-290x179.png","featured-soft-width":290,"featured-soft-height":179,"featured-hard":"https:\/\/uniavisen.dk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/unavngivet1750x1080px1-290x180.png","featured-hard-width":290,"featured-hard-height":180,"narrow":"https:\/\/uniavisen.dk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/unavngivet1750x1080px1-700x432.png","narrow-width":700,"narrow-height":432,"extended":"https:\/\/uniavisen.dk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/unavngivet1750x1080px1-990x611.png","extended-width":990,"extended-height":611}},"style":"extended","text_placement":"metadata-below","image_link_url":"","image_link_title":"","caption_prefix":"","enable_alternative_caption":true,"alternative_caption":"Sigurd Baag\u00f8e Jensen (right) and Samuel Krogh have launched a petition to fight for high-quality teaching and decent working conditions for the lecturers."},{"acf_fc_layout":"Standfirst","subject":"","text":"This is a story about what will follow","use_post_excerpt":true},{"acf_fc_layout":"Byline","is_author":true,"contributors":false},{"acf_fc_layout":"Content","content":"<p>171 current and former students of Comparative Literature have put their names on a petition to keep two respected lecturers. This was just before students and staff left for the Christmas break.<\/p>\n<p>The two lecturers have found themselves tangled up in red tape in a way that has real, human consequences: Due to University of Copenhagen (UCPH) rules on temporary contracts, neither Michael H\u00f8xbro Andersen nor Agus Djaja Soewarta will be likely to be able to continue teaching when their contracts expire this summer.<\/p>\n<p>\u00bbWe students believe that all teaching in Comparative Literature is, and should be, based on research. This is why we are calling for decent working conditions for our lecturers \u2014 so that the high standard of teaching expected at a university can be maintained,\u00ab it says in the petition.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>We students want qualified and up-to-date teaching \u2014 and our lecturers want to provide it.<\/p>\n<p class=\"quotee\">Sigurd Baag\u00f8e Jensen, student of Comparative Literature<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<h3>No research time<\/h3>\n<p>Sigurd Baag\u00f8e Jensen elaborated on the students’ motivations for the petition over the phone:<\/p>\n<p>\u00bbWe want to keep our excellent lecturers. They do an incredible amount of work, with much of it unseen. They are both incredibly supportive of new students, make everyone feel welcome in the programme, and always help to ensure that the teaching runs smoothly, even when they themselves are under pressure,\u00ab he says.<\/p>\n<p>\u00bbA lot of people have signed the petition \u2014 including many alumni \u2014 because Agus and Michael are really popular and well-liked lecturers,\u00ab says Sigurd Baag\u00f8e Jensen.<\/p>\n<p>Both Michael H\u00f8xbro Andersen and Agus Djaja Soewarta have been employed at the department as so-called teaching associate professors \u2014 a position primarily focused on practical subjects. These positions come with no research time, and were in this way allowed to only teach courses that are not research-based.<\/p>\n<p>In 2024, both were hired administratively as assistant professors <em>with<\/em> research time \u2014 a one-year position that can be extended once. These contracts are set to expire this summer. The department now wants to rehire them as teaching associate professors without research time.<\/p>\n<h3>Our lecturers need decent working conditions<\/h3>\n<p>It is specifically this type of employment \u2014 with no time allocated for research \u2014 that Sigurd Baag\u00f8e Jensen and Samuel Krogh are objecting to.<\/p>\n<p>In the study board, where Sigurd Baag\u00f8e Jensen is a member and Samuel Krogh is a substitute, they have been tasked with assessing which courses in the programme \u00bbare not based on current research\u00ab.<\/p>\n<p>But this makes no sense, they argue.<\/p>\n<p>\u00bbWe believe that all teaching at a university should be based on the latest research. We want our lecturers to have decent working conditions, which means they must have research time as part of their job \u2014 and we want the teaching that we get to be research-based,\u00ab says Sigurd Baag\u00f8e Jensen.<\/p>\n<p>Teaching associate professors are generally used on programmes with practical subjects, like musicology where students get piano instruction.<\/p>\n<p>But Comparative Literature has no practical subjects.<\/p>\n<p>\u00bbAll our courses are research-based,\u00ab says Samuel Krogh.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>It means a great deal to me that the students have taken up this cause.<\/p>\n<p class=\"quotee\">Associate professor Agus Djaja Soewarta<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>Sigurd Baag\u00f8e Jensen and Samuel Krogh launched the petition for two reasons: To safeguard the quality of their education and to fight for decent working conditions for their lecturers.<\/p>\n<p>As representatives on the study board, they help plan teaching and degree programmes. They say Comparative Literature suffers from \u00bbstructural understaffing\u00ab and that several lecturers are on sick leave due to the high-pressure working environment. They say the department is struggling to cover all teaching obligations.<\/p>\n<p>\u00bbI think the idea behind reappointing Michael and Agus as teaching associate professors is to have them teach full-time \u2014 that way, you can load them up with teaching without giving them time for research. These are incredibly poor working conditions,\u00ab says Sigurd Baag\u00f8e Jensen.<\/p>\n<p>\u00bbWe students want qualified and up-to-date teaching \u2014 and our lecturers want to provide it. That means they must be given time within their work hours to conduct research and keep up to date with their discipline. Their academic integrity depends on it. Of course they could teach full-time, but this is about the conditions that the university is offering its staff,\u00ab says Sigurd Baag\u00f8e Jensen.<\/p>\n<h3>Touched by student support<\/h3>\n<p>Agus Djaja Soewarta says he was deeply moved when he learned about the students’ letter of protest.<\/p>\n<p>\u00bbIt means a great deal to me that the students have taken up this cause. As a lecturer, this is the best kind of recognition you can get.\u00ab<\/p>\n<p>Given the department\u2019s financial difficulties however, he is uncertain what practical effect it will have.<\/p>\n<p>\u00bbRegardless of the outcome, it has meant an awful lot to me that they did this,\u00ab he says.<\/p>\n<p>In a follow-up email, Samuel Krogh and Sigurd Baag\u00f8e Jensen write that they have raised the issue of the petition at a study board meeting and plan to make the department leadership aware of their criticism also.<\/p>\n<p>They say that the invisible labour done by lecturers \u2014 the kind that keeps the teaching schedule running smoothly, and that gives students someone to turn to with their concerns \u2014 should be recognised and rewarded.<\/p>\n<p>\u00bbAs coordinator for first-year students, Agus has been a familiar face to everyone starting at university. He is the first to step up when students need to talk. Michael has stepped in several times during staff absences and even taken over parts of a course at short notice this semester. These are lecturers who have meant a lot to students over a long period of time,\u00ab says Samuel Krogh.<\/p>\n<p>Or, as one student put it in a Facebook comment when the petition was shared in a Comparative Literature student group:<\/p>\n<p>\u00bbAgus was the highlight of my time at university.\u00ab<\/p>\n<p>The University Post will continue to follow this story.<\/p>\n<p><em>This article was first written in Danish and published on 9 January. It has been translated into English and post-edited by Mike Young.<\/em><\/p>\n"},{"acf_fc_layout":"ArticleEnd"},{"acf_fc_layout":"Newsletter","lang_select":"en","identifier":"Newsletter","headline":"Get an email with upcoming events and top University of Copenhagen stories","button_text":"Sign up here","class":""},{"acf_fc_layout":"OtherStories","headline":"","hand_picked_posts":false,"references":false,"category":false,"theme":false,"number_of_posts":"4","style":"default"}]},"taxonomyData":{"category":[{"term_id":4539,"name":"Working environment","slug":"arbejdsmiljoe-en","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":4539,"taxonomy":"category","description":"","parent":0,"count":95,"filter":"raw"}],"post_tag":[],"post_format":[],"expression":[{"term_id":18,"name":"Feature Article","slug":"feature_article","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":18,"taxonomy":"expression","description":"","parent":0,"count":1200,"filter":"raw"}],"translation_priority":[{"term_id":5468,"name":"Optional","slug":"optional-en","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":5468,"taxonomy":"translation_priority","description":"","parent":0,"count":672,"filter":"raw"}]},"featured_media_url":"https:\/\/uniavisen.dk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/unavngivet1750x1080px1-1280x790.png","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/uniavisen.dk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/186186","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/uniavisen.dk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/uniavisen.dk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/uniavisen.dk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/109"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/uniavisen.dk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=186186"}],"version-history":[{"count":16,"href":"https:\/\/uniavisen.dk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/186186\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":186268,"href":"https:\/\/uniavisen.dk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/186186\/revisions\/186268"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/uniavisen.dk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/186171"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/uniavisen.dk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=186186"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/uniavisen.dk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=186186"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/uniavisen.dk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=186186"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}