DANISH UNIVERSITIES TO BE MERGED

UNIVERSITIES: The number of universities and state research institutions will be more than halved from 2007. Mergers will strengthen competition and put Denmark among the international leaders

The University of Copenhagen

The Danish university system is set to change. Today there are 12 universities and 13 sector research institutions. From 1 January 2007 there will be just three large universities, five smaller universities, and three national research institutions.

The three large universities will be concentrated around the University of Copenhagen, the University of Aarhus and the Technical University of Den-mark in Copenhagen. The University of Copenhagen will merge with the Danish University of Pharmaceutical Sciences, and the Royal Veterinary and Agricultural University. The University of Aarhus will merge with the Danish Institute of Agricultural Sciences, the National Environmental Research Institute and Aarhus School of Business. Finally, the Technical University of Denmark will merge with Risø National Laboratory, the Danish Institute for Food and Veterinary Research, the Danish Space Center, the Danish Institute for Fisheries Research and the Danish Transport Research Institute.

The University of Aarhus

The three universities will be among Europe’s largest in terms of resources. This will strengthen the opportunities to keep and attract talented students and researchers, says the Danish Minister of Science, Technology and Innovation, Helge Sander. In the future, two thirds of all public sector research will be conducted at these universities.

Among the five small universities, Aalborg University will merge with the Danish Building Research Institute, while the University of Southern Denmark will merge with the National Institute of Public Health. The IT University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen Business School and Roskilde University continue as independent units.

Strengthened Danish building research

The merger between Aalborg University and the Danish Building Research Institute raises Danish building research to an international level. The two institutions will have 281 research scientists and PhD students in this specific area. The merged institution will not just be a leader in building research in Denmark but also match other leading international knowledge institutions in e.g. France and Great Britain.

Continuing on its own

Copenhagen Business School (CBS) will continue on its own. Rector of CBS, Finn Junge-Jensen, says this is because the school would not gain any professional advantages from a merger. He commented to national newspaper Berlingske Tidende that the institution’s autonomy is more important than a merger.

“CBS has more than 300 collaboration partners all over the world and is today Europe’s third largest business school. The collaborations we already have can be expanded with economies that outweigh the financial advantages we could gain from a merger,” he says.

 
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