From the Dean's Desk: My meetings with professors gave important input
When I started as dean, one of the first things I decided was to invite myself to an informal visit with the professors at Health. I wanted to hear more about the framework for their research: the support, the obstacles, and their desires.
"From the Dean’s Desk" – a column in Inside Health
Shortly after a meeting in the Academic Council at which we talked about involvement, I received an email from one of the members of the council. She had thought about our discussions and suggested that I write directly to employees at Health in the faculty's newsletter. She suggested that I could write about some of the initiatives currently on my desk, so that all employees can keep abreast of some of the things we’re working on at the faculty.
I think it's a brilliant idea - thank you! I intend to continue this column once a month from now on.
I’ve not been able to meet everyone yet, so I still have a lot to look forward to, in terms of valuable input and an opportunity to see all the different research environments.
But I’m writing about my tour to visit professors in this, my first column in Inside Health, because I want to share some of the input I received from the 144 meetings so far. I can’t mention everything, but can I assure you that everything is heard, and I’ve taken it "home".
Several of the inputs recurred in many of my conversations. Many professors were concerned about the long waiting times at AU's Technology Transfer Office (TTO), which has delayed our research projects and collaborations in recent years. The TTO has now mobilised everything it can, and we’re looking towards brighter times – including for our collaboration with the legal office in the Central Denmark Region.
I sense a clear enthusiasm about the faculty's six existing networks, but also a desire for support for the smaller, informal networks. Since so many have raised this issue, we at the Dean's Office have started an initiative to support small, more informal networks, because we want to promote collaboration across disciplines as much as possible.
There was also a clear desire to strengthen the collaboration between basic research and clinical research. We’ll be discussing how best to do this in the faculty management team.
With regard to our degree programmes and teaching, a number of people expressed a desire for better coherence between the Bachelor's and Master's programmes in medicine and a need for academisation of the medicine programme. Vice-dean for Education Lise Wogensen Bach has taken this on.
There were a lot more suggestions for how we can improve and develop the framework for research. There was also criticism of our efforts to reduce our climate footprint, and this has boosted incentives for the faculty to make even more effort and move even faster in this area.
My visits to professors are coming to an end for this round. In future, I’ll invite all newly appointed full-time professors and associate professors to an introductory meeting. Both to tell new employees who we are as a faculty, and so that new employees can meet some of their colleagues.
The next introductory meeting is on Thursday, 9 November 2023 – and I'm looking forward to it.
Contact
Dean Anne-Mette Hvas
Aarhus University, Health
Phone: 87 15 20 07
Email: dean.health@au.dk