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Politics

Your guide to the 2023 university elections

Elections 2023 — You want to be a good university citizen. And you want to exercise your democratic right to vote. Here is a guide to the University of Copenhagen's elections.

Every year, during the fall semester, the university holds its annual elections.  The process can be confusing and complicated. Don’t worry! The University Post is here to give you an overview so you have the best possible starting point to cast your vote.

Here is your University Elections 2023 FAQ:

Sorry, what are we voting on again?

At the university elections, you will be voting for faculty academic councils, the University Board, study boards, and PhD-committees. These are all democratically elected offices at University of Copenhagen. Don’t worry, we’ll explain what they are all for in a minute.

Am I eligible to vote?

You might be! All students at University of Copenhagen are eligible to vote at the university elections. Full-time employees — defined as employees with no less than 18½ hours per week — employees in scientific positions (the VIP’s) as well as technical administrative personnel (the TAP’s) are also eligible to vote.

You cannot cast your vote in every election, however. Students vote for student representatives; employees vote for employee representatives. You vote for the representatives in your own department/faculty—if for instance you a history student, you are eligible to vote for the Academic Council at the Faculty of Humanities, but you cannot cast your vote in the Academic Council election at the Faculty of Social Sciences. This year, all students are eligible to vote for student representatives in the University Board election.

So…

Are you a student? You are eligible to vote in the elections for the study board, the academic council and the University Board.

Are you a PhD-student? In 2023 you are eligible to vote for the PhD-committee and the University Board.

Are you an employed scientist (VIP)? In 2023 you are eligible to vote for the University Board.

Are you technical/administrative personnnel (TAP)?  In 2023 you are eligible to vote for the University Board.

So, what do all the board, councils, and committees actually do?

We’ve put together a very brief introduction to every one of them below. Of course, we encourage you to click on the links for a more in-depth description of the various offices at the university, their responsibilities, and mandates.

University elections 2023

Elections are taking place at the University of Copenhagen. There are elections for:

The Board of University of Copenhagen is the university’s highest authority. The board has 11 members who have the power to dismiss and hire rectors. The board decides how the university is organized. Five members of the board are democratically elected, while the six remaining external members are appointed. Here is a Danish-language guide to what the Board does.  Every year one of the two student representatives is up for election. On the Board, the students’ have a term of two years.

The academic councils represent each faculty at the university and have an advisory function. The councils advise the deans and affect the faculties’ development and they are responsible for the research that takes place. A council will form a committee that is responsible for hiring professors and lecturers and admitting PhD-students. Find out more here [in Danish].

The study boards are housed at and represent every academic subject at the individual departments. The study board at a department is in charge of planning and developing degree programmes. The board reviews course evaluations, creates study programmes, and processes dispensation applications. If you’re trying to pass a particular exam that you’ve already failed three times before, you are going to want to make a favourable impression on the study board at your department. Find out more here [in Danish].

The PhD-committees operate on the faculty level, just like the academic councils. The committees ensure the highest educational standard in a PhD-programme by devising guidelines for the education of PhD’s, educational counselling, and relevant course work. Find out more here [in Danish].

Which ‘parties’ can I vote for?

There are many candidates and parties on the ballot at the university elections, and finding the right candidate to vote for can seem like an impossible task when you’re scrolling through the massive list of all candidates at the elections (University of Copenhagen has chosen to display ALL candidates including those who have appointed them. We encourage you to Ctrl+F your way through it if you don’t want to be discouraged immediately.)

The student councils on the individual degree programmes typically have one or more candidates running for seats on the study board, and there are lots of student councils at the university. It is not uncommon for the student councils to decide on a candidate to vote for prior to the election as it is very rare that several parties are fighting for the same seat on a study board.

When students vote for candidates in the elections for the academic councils, it is typically the student councils that run for the seats. That means the Humanities Council, the Social Sciences Council, the Science Council, United Jurists, and the Faculty of Theology study council (which is also a faculty council, as if things weren’t complicated enough already). Every faculty council oversees the individual student councils.

In addition, there are two party political student associations that you will find on most of the ballots: the social democratic Frit Forum and the conservative Konservative Studerende.

Important dates

20 November: Election starts on KUnet at 10 am.

24 November: The digital voting on KUnet closes at 3 pm.

29 November: The election result is announced at 12.15 p.m.

Frit Forum and Konservative Studerende both run candidates for the board elections, as does the Student Council (which oversees the faculty councils and represents all students at the university).

How do I vote?

You don’t have to line up in the rain outside your local school/retirement home/library. In fact, the voting itself is quite easy. You can log into KUnet and cast your vote starting at 10 am on 20 November and ending at 3 pm on 24 November.

All parties administer their votes in one of two ways. A ranked list of candidates means the top candidate receives all votes until a seat is secured. That means the candidate likely to win a seat is the top candidate on the ballot. Alternatively, on a parallel ballot, the parties administer votes based on how many personal votes individual candidates receive—regardless of their position on the ballot.

With ranked lists it is, however, possible for a low-ranked candidate to ‘blow the list’, if he or she receives enough personal votes.

When is the big election party?

University of Copenhagen doesn’t have a war room or the latest exit polls, and the elections aren’t broadcast on national tv either. However, the final result is announced at a ceremony which takes place at the Board of University of Copenhagen’s lovely offices at Lindegården by Frue Plads. This is also where candidates draw straws if they have received the same number of votes. It’s definitely something to see and it all goes down on 29 November at 12:15.

Remember to vote!

You can vote via KUnet here. (Go through the KUnet log in process. Click on ‘Click here and vote in the UCPH elections‘ then ‘Klik for at gå til stemmeseddel‘ – then ‘Fold alle lister ud‘ – then choose and click a name, then confirm with ‘Stem på den angivne liste/kandidat‘.)

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