Students keep universities alive and up-to-date. Outstanding content and research-based teaching keep degree programmes relevant and beneficial to society, industries and innovation.

In this presentation, you will get a double Danish perspective on student recruitment and engagement, stakeholder engagement and protection of interests. One will focus on reaching for the sky in terms of attracting new students by creating a much more sustainable recruitment platform with potentially less drop-outs. Being on ‘a burning platform’, the other will focus on how to avoid hitting rock bottom in order to secure vital competences for the future in Denmark and to prevent further fields of study and of research from being closed down.

Part #1: From more students to …. students
Recruitment of students is a task that is constantly being worked on and over the years the focus has shifted from attracting as many students as possible to the university to now where our goal is to attract the most suitable students who have the right expectations to their education. What does it mean for the way we work with student recruitment and the offers we have for teachers and students in e.g. high school? At the University of Copenhagen, over the past 10 years, we have had two large strategic projects across the entire university with the aim of improving our recruitment efforts and our brand vis-à-vis upper secondary schools in particular. In this part of our presentation, Rikke will dig into the matter and present some of the various initiatives taking place in terms of student recruitment, student engagement and how the university seek to work with social mobility and how we work with internal communication to support a united communication about the university towards e.g. the high schools.

Part #2: Hilfe, au secours ! – The house is on fire
Foreign languages are under pressure as teaching and research disciplines in Higher Education across Europe. Several countries experience a severe fall in student intake and face a crucial lack of foreign language teachers and educators at all teaching levels in the very near future. Consequently, bachelor’s and master’s programmes are at risk of being closed down. Since 2005, almost 50 academic programmes in foreign languages have ceased to exist in Denmark. In this second part of our presentation, Morten zooms in and gives a Danish perspective on the matter. With a national strategy supported by government funding of approx. DKK 100 million (EUR 13.3 million), the Danish National Centre for Foreign Language – NCFF – was set up in 2018 at Aarhus University and University of Copenhagen with the purpose of strengthening and support foreign languages in the entire Danish educational system. We look at various initiatives and strategic efforts taking place in NCFF in terms of awareness, student recruitment, student and stakeholder engagement, and how the centre seek to develop change in the educational sector and in the discourse regarding foreign languages in the public debate thoroughly backed by new knowledge and data in the field.

All issues being key to a successful change in stopping this particular fire.

This is a Presentation (low to medium interactive) held with Morten Moesgaard Sørensen taking place in ROOM E3 (CLE first floor)