National Conference for heads of degree programmes at Danish universities

Education management in everyday life and in university careers

Info about event

Time

Tuesday 2 May 2023,  at 09:30 - 16:00

Location

Bella Sky, Copenhagen

Price

1800 DKK

Welcome to the first conference, where education directors at all levels from all of Denmark's universities have gathered for a discussion of how development and operations can go hand in hand. The conference will provide a forum for experience exchange, networking and inspiration across the university.

Background for the conference

Programme management is widely organised at the eight universities in Denmark; In some places, several study programmes are grouped under a director of studies, while elsewhere it is 1:1 managerial relationship between the Department and the degree programme, and again there are several directors of studies affiliated with the same programme.

However, there are a number of conditions that degree programme directors across the universities have in common, in particular the fact that very few heads of degree programmes have a formal managerial mandate for staff and budgets. Another common feature is that the universities ' educational management has been a rather silent and well-defined management practice for many years, and in general there has been no strong tradition of thinking about education management into a university career.

Such factors have consequences for the management practice that heads of degree programmes must and can exercise. The relationship with the lecturers is, for example, not always equal to, because how do you degree programme director someone (teachers) who are led by others (e.g. the Heads of department)? The relationship with the administration is another challenge, where the new degree programme directors in particular can sometimes feel a bit in the away.

However, new times are on the way. The challenges faced by the degree programme directors have, for example, been addressed in the current framework work of Universities Denmark (2021), where management functions in teaching and education are, for the first time, explicitly highlighted as a credit part of a university career.

Audience

The conference is aimed at heads of degree programmes at Danish universities, i.e. Typically heads of studies, deputy Heads of Department, study board members, educational deans, course coordinators and the like. Other target groups with close collaboration with the heads of degree programmes are also welcome.