University of Southern Denmark

• 1. Introduction

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  The University of Southern Denmark, known in Danish as Syddansk Universitet, or SDU, hosted a visit from the queen of Denmark in October of 2016. That visit came only weeks after the university marked its 50th anniversary on the 15th of September. The anniversary dated itself back to Odense University's founding in 1966. The institution the queen toured bore little resemblance to a single school built around one city. It had spread across islands and a peninsula, absorbing a series of older institutions along the way. It answered to a governing board where students held a formal seat at the table. How did one university come to operate across two islands and the Jutland peninsula? Why does it have no body resembling a faculty senate? And what pushed several hundred students to walk out on their own canteen?

• 2. A Chain of Mergers

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  In 1998, Odense University merged with the Southern Denmark School of Business and Engineering and the South Jutland University Centre. Together they formed the University of Southern Denmark. The University Library of Southern Denmark was folded into the new university in that same merger.

  In 2006, the Odense University College of Engineering joined the university and was renamed the Faculty of Engineering. The following year, in 2007, the Business School Centre in Slagelse, known as Handelshøjskolecentret Slagelse, merged into the university. The National Institute of Public Health, known as Statens Institut for Folkesundhed, joined in the same year.

  The Faculty of Engineering itself had been scattered across different parts of Odense for years. A new building opened in 2015, physically connected to the main Odense campus for the first time. Each merger folded more staff and students under one administration, one that, from the start, answered to an appointed board rather than an elected senate.

• 3. Governance Without a Senate

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  Nine people sit on the board that governs the University of Southern Denmark, and the students appoint two of them. Five of the nine seats go to members recruited from outside the university, giving outsiders a built-in majority. One seat is appointed by the scientific staff and one by the administrative staff.

  The nine-member board appoints the university's rector. The rector, in turn, appoints the deans, and those deans appoint the heads of individual departments. No faculty senate exists anywhere in that chain, and faculty play no formal role in choosing a rector, dean, or department head.

  Jens Ringsmose currently holds the rector's post. Helle Waagepetersen serves as pro-vice-chancellor, known in Danish as prorektor. That board's decisions apply the same way whether a department sits in Odense or somewhere farther along the coast.

• 4. Campuses in Flux

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  Campus Odense occupies the island of Funen, while campus Slagelse and campus Copenhagen sit across the water on Zealand. Three more campuses sit on the Jutland peninsula: Kolding, Esbjerg, and Alsion in Sønderborg.

  The university's buildings covered 181,450 square meters in 1999, shortly after the founding merger. By 2007, that figure had expanded to 272,554 square meters.

  One of the six campuses will not survive this growth story, though. The Slagelse campus is officially set to close in 2027. The university has said it could not find another institution willing to take the campus over. For now, students in Slagelse know their campus has an expiration date the other five do not share.

• 5. Policy and Protest

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  In June of 2009, the University of Southern Denmark banned smoking during written examinations. The following August, the university also tightened its policy on alcohol. Freja Brandhøj, who led the student group Syddanske Studerende, publicly opposed both changes.

  On the 28th of November that same year, several hundred students carried the disagreement further. They boycotted the university canteen, demanding lower prices.

  That same year, Princess Marie became a patron of the university. She took part in its annual party during several of the years that followed.

• 6. Rankings and Reach

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  By 2016-29,674 students were enrolled at the University of Southern Denmark, making it the third-largest university in Denmark. Its roots trace back to Odense University, which also makes it the third-oldest Danish university, or fourth if the Technical University of Denmark is counted.

  Ranking systems that factor in university age began in 2012. That year, the Times Higher Education World University Rankings placed SDU 36th on its Top 100 Universities Under 50 list. The ranking shifted in the years that followed: 38th in 2013, 37th in 2014, and 44th in 2015.

  The QS World University Rankings also included the university among its Top 50 Universities Under 50 for the years 2012 to 2015.

  Joint programmes link the University of Southern Denmark with the University of Flensburg and the University of Kiel. The university keeps strong contacts with regional industry and the international scientific community too.

  The University of Southern Denmark is also an active member of the University of the Arctic, a cooperative network centered on the Circumpolar Arctic region. More than 200 universities, colleges, and other organizations belong to that network, sharing an interest in education and research across the Arctic. Through UArctic's mobility program, called north2north, SDU students can study at other member institutions in different parts of the North.