If it is up to the incoming chairman of the university\u2019s board, students will be getting a lot more facetime with researchers.<\/p>\n
Mads Krogsgaard Thomsen, the executive vice-president of Novo Nordisk and the company\u2019s chief science officer, is inspired by the British model, best known from Oxford and Cambridge, in which students work under the supervision of a tutor. The system also requires researchers, regardless of their position \u2013 including postdocs and PhDs \u2013 to take part in the teaching process. The system makes it possible for students to interact with researchers one-on-one and in small groups.<\/p>\n
The point, according to Krogsgaard Thomsen, is to condition students to think critically, and not to simply accept the explanations they are given.<\/p>\n
\u201cPeople from other countries tell me that critical thinking is something we in Denmark excel at. Developing critical thinking requires you to be in constant dialogue with your tutor, but that\u2019s not something that is the norm everywhere here at UCPH. We need to see if we can find ways to implement more didactic teaching methods. The alternative is to continue to only give students personal feedback a couple of times of year in connection with their exams. The way it is now, it\u2019s like we just spring their exam results on them without any preparation,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n
\u201cOf course it\u2019s not like that everywhere. Different faculties have different traditions, but I would like us to start adopting modern teaching methods in which students interact more closely with academic staff. It\u2019s not something we can do from one day to the next. We also need to have proper resources.\u201d<\/p>\n
Denmark, according to Krogsgaard Thomsen, has a something of a tradition for allowing certain types of academic staff to remain outside the process of instilling students with the ability to think critically. Mostly, he says, these tend to be non-faculty positions, like postdocs and PhDs.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere is some level of involvement, but at other universities I am familiar with it is much more prestigious for postdocs and PhDs to be in contact with students on a daily basis.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n
\nIn recognition of the fact that requiring PhD candidates to instruct students will take time away from their research, Krogsgaard Thomsen proposes adding an extra year to their programmes, making them as long as four years in the more technically oritented fields of study.<\/p>\n
In the short term, however, he admits that government policy towards PhD research limits what he can do.<\/p>\n
Improving contact between students and academic staff, according to Krogsgaard Thomsen, benefits student instruction, but he believes it also benefits the academic staff as well.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere is a well-known MIT researcher by the name of Robert S Langer. His h-index is in the neighbourhood of 300 (236, ed), but he likes to say that the best thing about the type of new student that gets let into top universities is that they\u2019ve learned so little that they ask dumb questions. Sometimes, it turns out that their ignorance allows them to think outside the box. They are reckless and irreverent. That keeps us on our toes, and, eventually, they do learn to stop asking dumb questions.\u201d<\/p>\n
Krogsgaard Thomsen envisions the university becoming a place that attracts a wide range of students, while at the same time continuing to turn out Denmark\u2019s best graduates.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe should be Denmark\u2019s flagship university, but that just makes it even more important for us not to lower our standards. That\u2019s why we now have a minimum requirement to get into almost all of our programmes.\u201d<\/p>\n
One of the initiatives he would like to see implemented are talent programmes for the best students, which can be funded by private-sector donations.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is in the country\u2019s best interest that we do something like this. UCPH is already an international leader. We\u2019re a part of the Newly named chairman of the board Mads Krogsgaard Thomsen promises to work to give students more opportunity to learn from researchers.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":48188,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","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":[42],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-48261","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-education","expression-feature_article"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"yoast_head":"\n
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