
{"id":99624,"date":"2020-01-22T12:40:09","date_gmt":"2020-01-22T11:40:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/uniavisen.dk\/det-er-ikke-nemt-at-vaere-forsamlingshus-for-baade-danske-og-internationale-studerende\/"},"modified":"2020-01-22T12:41:09","modified_gmt":"2020-01-22T11:41:09","slug":"not-easy-to-run-a-community-centre-for-both-danish-and-international-students","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/uniavisen.dk\/en\/not-easy-to-run-a-community-centre-for-both-danish-and-international-students\/","title":{"rendered":"Not easy to run a community centre for both Danish and international students"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>It is at one of the city&#8217;s best addresses. On the K\u00f8bmagergade pedestrian street with the <em>Rundetaarn<\/em> as its closest neighbour. From the busy commercial street you enter the Studenterhuset caf\u00e9, where people are sitting at most of the round tables. A smiling Jacob \u00d8rum escorts me through the caf\u00e9, up to a meeting room where we can talk in peace. He is the director, and it is he who speaks on behalf of the Studenterhuset. Through corridors, stairs, and rooms we end up in a room where coffee and water are already set up for us.<\/p>\n<p>The Studenterhuset is known by a large number of people as the place where international students meet up. Jacob \u00d8rum says that the Studenterhuset has, quite rightly, focussed on this target group at the University of Copenhagen, but that the house is for everyone.<\/p>\n<p>Eight years ago, a survey showed that one third of the international students, regardless of the length of their stay in Denmark, went home again without having made a single Danish friend.<\/p>\n<p>This figure made an impression on Jacob \u00d8rum, he says. \u00bbIn Denmark, we have a silly little language that few people understand from outside. When we are together socially in groups, you need to train to include those who don\u2019t speak Danish.\u00ab<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>We want to change the world. In a small way.<\/p>\n<p class=\"quotee\">Studenterhuset director Jacob \u00d8rum<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>The language is incomprehensible for most people travelling here, and if you spend just one semester at the University of Copenhagen, you will not necessarily be given Danish teaching.<\/p>\n<p>Jacob \u00d8rum says that people who study abroad, usually cluster together in what he calls &#8216;expat bubbles&#8217;:<\/p>\n<p>\u00bbAll the Danes I know, for example, in China, associate in groups with people from fifty different countries. In these groups, there are typically no Chinese people, because then they have that in common that they can talk about what a strange country China is. And the same applies to international students who come to Denmark,\u00ab he says.<\/p>\n<p>The Studenterhuset&#8217;s small secretariat started organising activities for international students in Copenhagen that could go beyond the typical expat bubble. Now, nearly a decade later, the Studenterhuset has more than 300 volunteers from more than 40 different nationalities.<\/p>\n<h3>Green student associations drawing people in<\/h3>\n<p>It has not been all plain sailing. How do you get Danes to understand that the Studenterhuset is for all students, at the same time as you try to get the international students to feel welcome?<\/p>\n<div class=\"factbox\">\n<p class=\"factbox-header feature-color\">The students\u2019 own house<\/p>\n<p>The Studenterhuset is independent, associated with the University of Copenhagen, and is directed by a volunteer board consisting of students.<\/p>\n<p>The Studenterhuset works to engage students at the university, and in society. The association is behind initiatives like studentrefugees.dk, which helps refugees apply for study programmes, the climate project recycleindenmark.com and the law student well-being project to Pusterummet JUR.<\/p>\n<p>The Studenterhuset is also one of the driving forces behind the University of Copenhagen\u2019s annual Spring Festival.<\/p>\n<p>Find more information <a href=\"https:\/\/studenterhuset.com\/en\/om-studenterhuset\/\">here<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>The Studenterhuset opted to start off just communicating in English. But \u00bbwe have a communication challenge,\u00ab says Jacob \u00d8rum, \u00bbso we have actually begun to communicate in both Danish and English. There are a few events which are only in Danish, so there are things that the international students find it hard to participate in. But we have chosen to do this so that the Danish students also see this place as their place,\u00ab he says.<\/p>\n<p>The Studenterhuset managed to reach this wider audience when it, in the autumn of 2019, invited the University of Copenhagen&#8217;s Katherine Richardson, Denmark&#8217;s member of the UN climate panel, and various green student organisations at university to its sustainability day.<\/p>\n<p>\u00bbThere was a queue for a long way down the corridor, and people were pretty much hanging out of the windows,\u00ab Jacob \u00d8rum remembers. The event attracted upwards of 150 guests even though the largest meeting room of the building can accommodate 90.<\/p>\n<p>\u00bbIt was a good example of how students \u2013 including Danish students \u2013 also want to engage with society. Sustainability and the SDG\u2019s have therefore become our next core areas,\u00ab says Jacob \u00d8rum.<\/p>\n<h3>Quiz, people\u2019s kitchen, and flea market<\/h3>\n<p>The Studenterhuset, which calls itself &#8216;the students&#8217; house for activities, parties and ideas\u2019, has 250-300,000 annual visitors \u2013 almost as many as Rosenborg Castle in the city centre. This is probably also due to the Studenterhuset&#8217;s 100 weekly opening hours, which include reading spaces, a caf\u00e9 and a wide range of offerings.<\/p>\n<p>\u00bbWe try to organise activities based on the fact that people encounter each other across nationalities, and across study programmes,\u00ab says Jacob \u00d8rum. There is, for example, a quiz every Monday, swing dancing Tuesday evening and a people\u2019s kitchen on Wednesdays. Friday is party day. The first Sunday of every month there is a flea market, and the place is jam-packed.<br \/>\n<!-- end of module 1 --><br \/>\nAll activities work from the same premise: They offer students the opportunity to meet new people, because the loneliness of young people is a problem that is now at boiling point, according to Jacob \u00d8rum:<\/p>\n<p>\u00bbWe try to promote the meeting up of new people, because the university is so huge. And it&#8217;s incredibly easy to get lonely.\u00ab<\/p>\n<p>Jacob \u00d8rum hits a nerve. The large-scale study environment survey at the University of Copenhagen showed in 2019 that one fifth of all of the University of Copenhagen&#8217;s 40,000 students feel lonely in their daily lives.<\/p>\n<h3>In Roskilde there were \u2018no lonely people\u2019<\/h3>\n<p>Jacob worked with loneliness among young people as head of secretariat in the volunteer group <secret text=\"A volunteer group that prevents and helps loneliness among young people.\">Ventilen<\/secret> when the organisation grew from being local to national in the late 1990s.<\/p>\n<p>Over the past decade, multiple negative reports focussing on the loneliness of young people has broken the taboo, and today the problem has finally reached the Danish parliament buildings where the Ministry of Higher Education and Science has now earmarked DKK 25 million to the study programmes&#8217; efforts to enhance students&#8217; well-being. Not least because poor well-being means that students drop out.<\/p>\n<p>Back in the 1990s, Jacob \u00d8rum called the town of Roskilde\u2019s municipal authorities to tell them that they were considering setting up a meeting place for lonely young people in Roskilde. The answer was: I don\u2019t think we have any here, Jacob \u00d8rum remembers.<\/p>\n<p>\u00d8rum and his friends stood their ground however, and they ended up partnering with the local authority on the project. However, there is a big difference between the Ventilen\u2019s target group and that of the Studenterhuset, according to Jacob \u00d8rum:<\/p>\n<p>\u00bbThe Ventilen works with people who are aware that they need help. Here, in the Studenterhuset, we to a far greater extent use prevention as our contribution to a diverse university.\u00ab<br \/>\n<!-- end of module 2 --><br \/>\nThis diversity is obvious when you skim the Studenterhuset programme which, in Jacob \u00d8rum\u2019s own words, is \u2018eclectic\u2019. He says that the Studenterhuset is the only \u2018campus neutral\u2019 place at the University of Copenhagen, where you can meet people who are different from you, and he sees this as an advantage:<\/p>\n<p>\u00bbI personally believe that you become a better student, employee, and, at one point, a better person from not just dealing with people who are identical to yourself. I believe that it is a good thing to meet someone who has another academic outlook, and another worldview,\u00ab he says.<\/p>\n<p>This is his own experience: \u00bbI studied law, and you quickly get into legal practice with this. I did not finish the programme. I have my education from Copenhagen Business School , but I have also studied economics. As soon as you are admitted to university, you hurry to find an academic identity. Then three months pass, and you can barely talk to those who you went to secondary school with, or who are doing something else.\u00ab<\/p>\n<h3>Being small at the huge University of Copenhagen<\/h3>\n<p>We talk about how many of this year&#8217;s just-started students may find themselves in the middle of their search for an academic identity. And how you can feel alone in the crowd as you struggle to digest the aftermath of the intro course.<\/p>\n<p>The Studenterhuset works from the precept that you not only study a subject when studying at the University of Copenhagen. You are part of a community, and our community centre on K\u00f8bmagergade street would like to help.<\/p>\n<p>The University of Copenhagen has had the ambition of creating a common university identity as part of its strategy since the mid-1990s. But how can a centre contribute to this sense of community when you are dealing with a giant like the University of Copenhagen?<\/p>\n<p>Jacob answers: \u00bbWe would like to be the good karma of UCPH. It&#8217;s a fun job, because we want to change the world. In a small way. We would like to help ensure that all the students are happy and productive, that they get a job at the other end, and become happy people\u00ab.<\/p>\n<p><em>Translation: Mike Young<\/em><br \/>\n<!-- end of module 3 --><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Danish students reacted when they realised the international students were going home without making Danish friends. But then the Danes forgot that the caf\u00e9 was for the Danes too. Yet Studenterhuset director Jacob \u00d8rum insists on bringing the two groups together. Because \u00bbyou become a better human being by not only being around people who are like yourself.\u00ab<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":99626,"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":[2177,44],"tags":[752,1375],"class_list":["post-99624","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-academic-life","category-campus","tag-stress-en","tag-studenterhuset-en","expression-feature_article"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.3 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Not easy to run a community centre for both Danish and international students<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/uniavisen.dk\/en\/not-easy-to-run-a-community-centre-for-both-danish-and-international-students\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Not easy to run a community centre for both Danish and international students\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Danish students reacted when they realised the international students were going home without making Danish friends. But then the Danes forgot that the caf\u00e9 was for the Danes too. Yet Studenterhuset director Jacob \u00d8rum insists on bringing the two groups together. Because \u00bbyou become a better human being by not only being around people who are like yourself.\u00ab\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/uniavisen.dk\/en\/not-easy-to-run-a-community-centre-for-both-danish-and-international-students\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"University Post\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/uniavis\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2020-01-22T11:40:09+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2020-01-22T11:41:09+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/uniavisen.dk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/oerum5.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"4512\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"3008\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Gry Bartroff Gaihede\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" 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director Jacob \u00d8rum"},{"acf_fc_layout":"Standfirst","subject":"Studenterhuset","text":"Studenterhuset har frivillige fra 40 lande, og mange tror, at det er de internationale studerendes kulturhus. Men huset er for alle, der vil v\u00e6re lidt mindre ensomme, siger direkt\u00f8ren.","use_post_excerpt":true},{"acf_fc_layout":"Byline","is_author":false,"contributors":[{"use_registered_user":false,"user":false,"contributor_name":"Maaike Hazen","contributor_title":"Student reporter","contributor_image":{"ID":98867,"id":98867,"title":"Maaike Hazen","filename":"maaikehazen.png","filesize":18579,"url":"https:\/\/uniavisen.dk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/maaikehazen.png","link":"https:\/\/uniavisen.dk\/en\/det-er-ikke-nemt-at-vaere-forsamlingshus-for-baade-danske-og-internationale-studerende\/maaike-hazen\/","alt":"","author":"5","description":"","caption":"","name":"maaike-hazen","status":"inherit","uploaded_to":98866,"date":"2020-01-06 14:28:36","modified":"2020-01-06 14:28:36","menu_order":0,"mime_type":"image\/png","type":"image","subtype":"png","icon":"https:\/\/uniavisen.dk\/wp-includes\/images\/media\/default.png","width":182,"height":158,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/uniavisen.dk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/maaikehazen-150x150.png","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/uniavisen.dk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/maaikehazen.png","medium-width":182,"medium-height":158,"medium_large":"https:\/\/uniavisen.dk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/maaikehazen.png","medium_large-width":182,"medium_large-height":158,"large":"https:\/\/uniavisen.dk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/maaikehazen.png","large-width":182,"large-height":158,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/uniavisen.dk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/maaikehazen.png","1536x1536-width":182,"1536x1536-height":158,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/uniavisen.dk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/maaikehazen.png","2048x2048-width":182,"2048x2048-height":158,"featured-soft":"https:\/\/uniavisen.dk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/maaikehazen.png","featured-soft-width":182,"featured-soft-height":158,"featured-hard":"https:\/\/uniavisen.dk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/maaikehazen.png","featured-hard-width":182,"featured-hard-height":158,"narrow":"https:\/\/uniavisen.dk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/maaikehazen.png","narrow-width":182,"narrow-height":158,"extended":"https:\/\/uniavisen.dk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/maaikehazen.png","extended-width":182,"extended-height":158}}}]},{"acf_fc_layout":"Content","content":"<p>It is at one of the city&#8217;s best addresses. On the K\u00f8bmagergade pedestrian street with the <em>Rundetaarn<\/em> as its closest neighbour. From the busy commercial street you enter the Studenterhuset caf\u00e9, where people are sitting at most of the round tables. A smiling Jacob \u00d8rum escorts me through the caf\u00e9, up to a meeting room where we can talk in peace. He is the director, and it is he who speaks on behalf of the Studenterhuset. Through corridors, stairs, and rooms we end up in a room where coffee and water are already set up for us.<\/p>\n<p>The Studenterhuset is known by a large number of people as the place where international students meet up. Jacob \u00d8rum says that the Studenterhuset has, quite rightly, focussed on this target group at the University of Copenhagen, but that the house is for everyone.<\/p>\n<p>Eight years ago, a survey showed that one third of the international students, regardless of the length of their stay in Denmark, went home again without having made a single Danish friend.<\/p>\n<p>This figure made an impression on Jacob \u00d8rum, he says. \u00bbIn Denmark, we have a silly little language that few people understand from outside. When we are together socially in groups, you need to train to include those who don\u2019t speak Danish.\u00ab<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>We want to change the world. In a small way.<\/p>\n<p class=\"quotee\">Studenterhuset director Jacob \u00d8rum<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>The language is incomprehensible for most people travelling here, and if you spend just one semester at the University of Copenhagen, you will not necessarily be given Danish teaching.<\/p>\n<p>Jacob \u00d8rum says that people who study abroad, usually cluster together in what he calls &#8216;expat bubbles&#8217;:<\/p>\n<p>\u00bbAll the Danes I know, for example, in China, associate in groups with people from fifty different countries. In these groups, there are typically no Chinese people, because then they have that in common that they can talk about what a strange country China is. And the same applies to international students who come to Denmark,\u00ab he says.<\/p>\n<p>The Studenterhuset&#8217;s small secretariat started organising activities for international students in Copenhagen that could go beyond the typical expat bubble. Now, nearly a decade later, the Studenterhuset has more than 300 volunteers from more than 40 different nationalities.<\/p>\n<h3>Green student associations drawing people in<\/h3>\n<p>It has not been all plain sailing. How do you get Danes to understand that the Studenterhuset is for all students, at the same time as you try to get the international students to feel welcome?<\/p>\n<div class=\"factbox\">\n<p class=\"factbox-header feature-color\">The students\u2019 own house<\/p>\n<p>The Studenterhuset is independent, associated with the University of Copenhagen, and is directed by a volunteer board consisting of students.<\/p>\n<p>The Studenterhuset works to engage students at the university, and in society. The association is behind initiatives like studentrefugees.dk, which helps refugees apply for study programmes, the climate project recycleindenmark.com and the law student well-being project to Pusterummet JUR.<\/p>\n<p>The Studenterhuset is also one of the driving forces behind the University of Copenhagen\u2019s annual Spring Festival.<\/p>\n<p>Find more information <a href=\"https:\/\/studenterhuset.com\/en\/om-studenterhuset\/\">here<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>The Studenterhuset opted to start off just communicating in English. But \u00bbwe have a communication challenge,\u00ab says Jacob \u00d8rum, \u00bbso we have actually begun to communicate in both Danish and English. There are a few events which are only in Danish, so there are things that the international students find it hard to participate in. But we have chosen to do this so that the Danish students also see this place as their place,\u00ab he says.<\/p>\n<p>The Studenterhuset managed to reach this wider audience when it, in the autumn of 2019, invited the University of Copenhagen&#8217;s Katherine Richardson, Denmark&#8217;s member of the UN climate panel, and various green student organisations at university to its sustainability day.<\/p>\n<p>\u00bbThere was a queue for a long way down the corridor, and people were pretty much hanging out of the windows,\u00ab Jacob \u00d8rum remembers. The event attracted upwards of 150 guests even though the largest meeting room of the building can accommodate 90.<\/p>\n<p>\u00bbIt was a good example of how students \u2013 including Danish students \u2013 also want to engage with society. Sustainability and the SDG\u2019s have therefore become our next core areas,\u00ab says Jacob \u00d8rum.<\/p>\n<h3>Quiz, people\u2019s kitchen, and flea market<\/h3>\n<p>The Studenterhuset, which calls itself &#8216;the students&#8217; house for activities, parties and ideas\u2019, has 250-300,000 annual visitors \u2013 almost as many as Rosenborg Castle in the city centre. This is probably also due to the Studenterhuset&#8217;s 100 weekly opening hours, which include reading spaces, a caf\u00e9 and a wide range of offerings.<\/p>\n<p>\u00bbWe try to organise activities based on the fact that people encounter each other across nationalities, and across study programmes,\u00ab says Jacob \u00d8rum. There is, for example, a quiz every Monday, swing dancing Tuesday evening and a people\u2019s kitchen on Wednesdays. Friday is party day. The first Sunday of every month there is a flea market, and the place is jam-packed.<\/p>\n"},{"acf_fc_layout":"Image","image":{"ID":99113,"id":99113,"title":"Jacob \u00d8rum Studenterhuset","filename":"oerum3.jpg","filesize":722526,"url":"https:\/\/uniavisen.dk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/oerum3.jpg","link":"https:\/\/uniavisen.dk\/en\/det-er-ikke-nemt-at-vaere-forsamlingshus-for-baade-danske-og-internationale-studerende\/oerum3\/","alt":"","author":"71","description":"","caption":"","name":"oerum3","status":"inherit","uploaded_to":98866,"date":"2020-01-09 09:51:56","modified":"2020-01-09 10:10:42","menu_order":0,"mime_type":"image\/jpeg","type":"image","subtype":"jpeg","icon":"https:\/\/uniavisen.dk\/wp-includes\/images\/media\/default.png","width":4512,"height":3008,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/uniavisen.dk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/oerum3-150x150.jpg","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/uniavisen.dk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/oerum3-480x320.jpg","medium-width":480,"medium-height":320,"medium_large":"https:\/\/uniavisen.dk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/oerum3-768x512.jpg","medium_large-width":768,"medium_large-height":512,"large":"https:\/\/uniavisen.dk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/oerum3-1280x853.jpg","large-width":1280,"large-height":853,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/uniavisen.dk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/oerum3.jpg","1536x1536-width":1536,"1536x1536-height":1024,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/uniavisen.dk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/oerum3.jpg","2048x2048-width":2048,"2048x2048-height":1365,"featured-soft":"https:\/\/uniavisen.dk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/oerum3-290x193.jpg","featured-soft-width":290,"featured-soft-height":193,"featured-hard":"https:\/\/uniavisen.dk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/oerum3-290x180.jpg","featured-hard-width":290,"featured-hard-height":180,"narrow":"https:\/\/uniavisen.dk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/oerum3-700x467.jpg","narrow-width":700,"narrow-height":467,"extended":"https:\/\/uniavisen.dk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/oerum3-990x660.jpg","extended-width":990,"extended-height":660}},"style":"full","text_placement":"metadata-below","image_link_url":"","image_link_title":"","caption_prefix":"","enable_alternative_caption":true,"alternative_caption":"Jacob juggles 300 volunteers from 40 nationalities."},{"acf_fc_layout":"Content","content":"<p>All activities work from the same premise: They offer students the opportunity to meet new people, because the loneliness of young people is a problem that is now at boiling point, according to Jacob \u00d8rum:<\/p>\n<p>\u00bbWe try to promote the meeting up of new people, because the university is so huge. And it&#8217;s incredibly easy to get lonely.\u00ab<\/p>\n<p>Jacob \u00d8rum hits a nerve. The large-scale study environment survey at the University of Copenhagen showed in 2019 that one fifth of all of the University of Copenhagen&#8217;s 40,000 students feel lonely in their daily lives.<\/p>\n<h3>In Roskilde there were \u2018no lonely people\u2019<\/h3>\n<p>Jacob worked with loneliness among young people as head of secretariat in the volunteer group <secret text=\"A volunteer group that prevents and helps loneliness among young people.\">Ventilen<\/secret> when the organisation grew from being local to national in the late 1990s.<\/p>\n<p>Over the past decade, multiple negative reports focussing on the loneliness of young people has broken the taboo, and today the problem has finally reached the Danish parliament buildings where the Ministry of Higher Education and Science has now earmarked DKK 25 million to the study programmes&#8217; efforts to enhance students&#8217; well-being. Not least because poor well-being means that students drop out.<\/p>\n<p>Back in the 1990s, Jacob \u00d8rum called the town of Roskilde\u2019s municipal authorities to tell them that they were considering setting up a meeting place for lonely young people in Roskilde. The answer was: I don\u2019t think we have any here, Jacob \u00d8rum remembers.<\/p>\n<p>\u00d8rum and his friends stood their ground however, and they ended up partnering with the local authority on the project. However, there is a big difference between the Ventilen\u2019s target group and that of the Studenterhuset, according to Jacob \u00d8rum:<\/p>\n<p>\u00bbThe Ventilen works with people who are aware that they need help. Here, in the Studenterhuset, we to a far greater extent use prevention as our contribution to a diverse university.\u00ab<\/p>\n"},{"acf_fc_layout":"Quote","quote":"We would like to be the good karma of the University of Copenhagen.","quotee":"Studenterhuset director Jacob \u00d8rum","style":"extended"},{"acf_fc_layout":"Content","content":"<p>This diversity is obvious when you skim the Studenterhuset programme which, in Jacob \u00d8rum\u2019s own words, is \u2018eclectic\u2019. He says that the Studenterhuset is the only \u2018campus neutral\u2019 place at the University of Copenhagen, where you can meet people who are different from you, and he sees this as an advantage:<\/p>\n<p>\u00bbI personally believe that you become a better student, employee, and, at one point, a better person from not just dealing with people who are identical to yourself. I believe that it is a good thing to meet someone who has another academic outlook, and another worldview,\u00ab he says.<\/p>\n<p>This is his own experience: \u00bbI studied law, and you quickly get into legal practice with this. I did not finish the programme. I have my education from Copenhagen Business School , but I have also studied economics. As soon as you are admitted to university, you hurry to find an academic identity. Then three months pass, and you can barely talk to those who you went to secondary school with, or who are doing something else.\u00ab<\/p>\n<h3>Being small at the huge University of Copenhagen<\/h3>\n<p>We talk about how many of this year&#8217;s just-started students may find themselves in the middle of their search for an academic identity. And how you can feel alone in the crowd as you struggle to digest the aftermath of the intro course.<\/p>\n<p>The Studenterhuset works from the precept that you not only study a subject when studying at the University of Copenhagen. You are part of a community, and our community centre on K\u00f8bmagergade street would like to help.<\/p>\n<p>The University of Copenhagen has had the ambition of creating a common university identity as part of its strategy since the mid-1990s. But how can a centre contribute to this sense of community when you are dealing with a giant like the University of Copenhagen?<\/p>\n<p>Jacob answers: \u00bbWe would like to be the good karma of UCPH. It&#8217;s a fun job, because we want to change the world. In a small way. We would like to help ensure that all the students are happy and productive, that they get a job at the other end, and become happy people\u00ab.<\/p>\n<p><em>Translation: Mike Young<\/em><\/p>\n"},{"acf_fc_layout":"ArticleEnd"},{"acf_fc_layout":"Newsletter","lang_select":"Dansk","identifier":"Newsletter","headline":"Receive a weekly newsletter in your inbox ","button_text":"Tilmeld nu","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":2177,"name":"Academic life","slug":"academic-life","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":2177,"taxonomy":"category","description":"","parent":0,"count":67,"filter":"raw"},{"term_id":44,"name":"Campus","slug":"campus","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":44,"taxonomy":"category","description":"","parent":0,"count":1547,"filter":"raw"}],"post_tag":[{"term_id":752,"name":"Stress","slug":"stress-en","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":752,"taxonomy":"post_tag","description":"","parent":0,"count":16,"filter":"raw"},{"term_id":1375,"name":"Studenterhuset","slug":"studenterhuset-en","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":1375,"taxonomy":"post_tag","description":"","parent":0,"count":3,"filter":"raw"}],"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":[]},"featured_media_url":"https:\/\/uniavisen.dk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/oerum5-1280x853.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/uniavisen.dk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/99624","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\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/uniavisen.dk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=99624"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/uniavisen.dk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/99624\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":99645,"href":"https:\/\/uniavisen.dk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/99624\/revisions\/99645"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/uniavisen.dk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/99626"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/uniavisen.dk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=99624"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/uniavisen.dk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=99624"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/uniavisen.dk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=99624"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}