New code of conduct to ensure a good start to studentlife
A new start-of-studies code of conduct is to help both staff, tutors and new students to create the best framework for a good start to student life at Health.
“We are there for the new students,” “We create communities”, and “We are a team” - these are the three main headlines in the brand new start-of-studies code of conduct at Health. The code is to be a unifying guideline for all the staff and students who are involved when new cohorts of students first step over the university’s threshold and have to find their way in the new student life.
“In the development of the code, it has been important that it is targeted at everyone who has to do with the start of studies. It is therefore not only the tutors’ code, but also the teachers’ and all the administrative staff’s code,” says Eva Kvistgaard Arent, department head in Education Service and Guidance at Health, who has coordinated the work with the code.
The idea with the start-of-studies code is indeed to build a bridge between the introduction days, where the tutors are ready to welcome students with events, good advice and cabin trip, and the first teaching, where everyday life and student life slowly begin to take shape:
“For some time we have been working to make the start of studies a joint responsibility, where tutors and staff should see themselves as a team. It is important with a broad, common understanding of how we best tackle the start of studies, so we can create a safe and coherent onboarding of the new students, because we know, the students often think everything can seem a bit overwhelming and confusing in the first time,” says Eva Kvistgaard Arent.
Created from values
The idea for a start-of-studies code came from the Vice-Dean of Education, Lise Wogensen Bach, and it is precisely the cooperation between students and staff that is important, she says:
“We, who are used to life here at the university, may well forget how much the ground shook under us when we ourselves were completely new students. They have to find their feet in a new social context, live up to their own great expectations and hopes and navigate new study-subjects and different teaching forms than what they have experienced in high school, for example. It’s a big mouthful, and a good cooperation between tutors and staff can help alleviate this a bit.”
One thing is to decide that Health should have a code for the start of studies, something else is to develop it. Here, the tutors and representatives from the study boards were invited to bid in with the most important values for a good start to studies. The proposals were then put to a vote in the group, and it resulted in not just the three main headlines in the code, but also six very concrete actions.
But, as is known, even the best values and codes do not lift themselves. Therefore, chief tutors, the study guidance and the teachers of the first semesters from all the faculty’s educations have held meetings, where they together have talked about code and actions, and agreed on expectations and responsibility before the start of studies. And Lise Wogensen Bach hopes that the cooperation and the code will be noticeable when the new students soon arrive on campus:
“Two years ago, the social associations landed a party code of conduct, which ensures that there is room for everyone in the social arrangements, and we know, it has been taken really well received. Now we have a code of conduct, which should remind us all that we have a joint responsibility to create a safe, open, inclusive and good start to studies for all our new students.”
Read more about the social associations’ party code here
Contact
Head of Section, Eva Kvistgaard Arent
Aarhus Universitet, Health Administrative Centre, Studies Support and Student Guidance
Phone: +4560202681
Mail: Eka@au.dk