By Lea Laursen Pasgaard, AAU Communication and Public Affairs.
File photo: Lasse Møller Badstue, AAU.

In December, the political parties behind the Master’s programme reform adopted a supplementary agreement to the reform that adjusts the original agreement. With the new agreement, AAU and the other universities have been given an extra six months to work on institutional plans for which programmes can be converted to Master's degree programmes of 75 ECTS and/or Master's degree programmes for working professionals (75-120 ECTS).

"I am pleased that with the new agreement we have more time to incorporate the new types of programmes for working professionals into the institutional plans and the opportunity for greater involvement of the organization than has previously been possible. It is important that we make well-considered decisions on what the future degree programmes will look like at AAU. So, we’ve made a process plan where we have time to revisit the rough outlines that were prepared for the national committee," says Pro-rector Anne Marie Kanstrup.

Faculties at the forefront of the next steps

The Executive Management on 24 January adopted a new plan for the organization’s work on the design of AAU's institutional plan. Plenty of time has been set aside for the task at the faculties as they themselves are organizing the processes around qualifying the faculty's institutional plan.

The work will build on the rough outlines that AAU previously sent to the Ministry of Higher Education and Science. Deans, vice deans for education, vice heads of department, directors of studies, and study boards participated in the rough outlines, and the deans have coordinated and exchanged experiences across the universities on the upcoming restructuring.

The new supplementary agreement to the Master's programme reform provides universities with new opportunities in some areas. For example, five percent of the future students in Master’s programmes for working professionals in Engineering and STEM/IT will have the opportunity to start their education with both a state education grant (SU) and a full year of study at the university, before they go out to a company and study part-time. The early completion of studies in the new short Master's degree programmes has been cancelled, which means that the programme is no longer starting in August.