Information for students about the merger

Dear fellow LIFE students,

 

On Monday 19 September, the University of Copenhagen management issued an announcement regarding structural changes of the four ‘wet’ faculties: LIFE (The Faculty of Life Sciences), NAT (The Faculty of Science), FARMA (The Faculty of Pharmaceutical Sciences) and SUND (The Faculty of Health Sciences). The merger stems from a wish to use the academic resources at the four faculties more effectively. Some of the faculties cover academic areas which overlap, and there is therefore a desire to merge these academic areas with a view to further enhancing collaboration.

 

The deans of the four faculties have drawn up a plan for how LIFE and NAT can be merged to create a ‘faculty of natural science/bioscience’, and how SUND and FARMA can be merged to form a ‘faculty of medicine’, which will also cover the veterinary area. It is important to emphasise that there are no plans to transfer, discontinue or merge study programmes. In other words, as things look at the moment, we will remain at the Frederiksberg campus regardless of whether our programme falls under LIFE/NAT or SUND/FARMA.

 

The period ahead looks exciting but turbulent, and those of us in the DSR LIFE students’ association urge all students to participate constructively in the process. At LIFE DSR, we are in close contact with students and student organisations at the other faculties, and we are naturally working to ensure that LIFE’s fortes in the shape of an unusually good study environment, a tradition for open communication with the management and considerable student influence are continued. We would like to stress that these very qualities are also something to which our management attaches very great importance, and preserving them is seen as one of its main priorities.

 

At LIFE DSR we are confident that our dean and the rest of the management team are aware of their responsibilities and, as always, are working to secure the best possible conditions for their students. We are in continual contact with the management during this process, and we are discussing all aspects of the structural change to ensure that the voice of the students will be heard. DSR LIFE’s executive committee and the chairpersons of the academic associations hold weekly meetings with our dean and associate dean at which we discuss the process and focus on what is important for students, both in relation to our study programmes and the study environment.

 

This is clearly a structural change that will have considerable implications for all of the associations and committees here at LIFE. Apart from having to organise ourselves in relation to the new faculty, we will also have a campus with students from several different faculties who will be spending their days at Frederiksberg and in Tåstrup. DSR LIFE would obviously like to see all students spending their days on campus and playing an active role in student life irrespective of whether their programmes fall under NAT/LIFE or the Faculty of Medicine. In our view, one of our main tasks is to preserve the good, close study environment at LIFE, and we hope that we can all help each other with this not insubstantial exercise.

 

It is still early days, and there are many unanswered questions and challenges for which we need to find the best possible solution. Consequently, information will regularly be sent out to students by email, just as we would very much like to hear from you.

We very much look forward to a fruitful collaboration with you all.

 

Chairs of LIFE’s Students’ Association

Frederikke Lindenberg and Andreas Carstensen