"November, November, November, November"

According to the Danish poet and University of Copenhagen alumnus Henrik Nordbrandt, the year in Denmark has 16 months. In his poem, Nordbrandt says that after October comes “November, November, November, November”. It is an often cited poem and to some Danes it might seem a bit trite. Having experienced many autumns in Denmark, however, it still makes perfect sense to me. November is when autumn turns into winter; it gets colder and the days are shorter. This year, November was blessed with two events that lit it up tremendously; one was visiting Singapore with an academic delegation and the other was celebrating the recipients of our Novo Nordisk International Talent Programme.

Shortening the Danish autumn by visiting Singapore
Over the last few years, we have been working with the concept of “super partners” within student mobility. To us a “super partner” is comparable in terms of research, education and global footprint, and a partner who shares our ambition to lift student mobility from 25 to 50 students each year. We have been heading academic delegations of heads of studies to visit our “supers” once a year. In 2015 we visited the University of Toronto, last year the University of Sydney and this year the National University of Singapore.  

The visit to Singapore brought home a lot; an expansion of the law agreement, discussions on curricula integration, summer school programming, interesting ways of how to lift student mobility together and a new agreement with Yale-NUS College – to mention but a few.

Learning from our international partners is a valuable way of improving, while reflecting on our learnings in a peer group. As one head of studies said: “This trip has really opened my eyes to what students can learn here, and I’m excited to go back and dig deeper into other international partners and student opportunities.”  

Should you be curious to learn more on how we work with “supers”, I invite you to join us for the session 'Beyond Words; A Three Continent Perspective on Building Strategic Partnerships ’ during the APAIE conference in Singapore in March.

Academic advocacy for student mobility
Another highlight in Singapore was meeting our own students currently on exchange. Besides taking full advantage of the geographical location to do some traveling; they all described their personal experiences as transformative and said that some of their key learning points were being exposed to another culture, learning another academic tradition and living in an international and residential setting.

The discussions amongst students and heads of studies have led us to run an academic advocacy for student mobility campaign to be launched in early 2018. Using small films and short notes, the heads of studies will explain why they believe going on exchange provide students with international learning skills, a global mindset and abilities to reflect on their already acquired knowledge. We look forward to sharing the material next spring both in the International Partners’ Newsletter and on social media.

Future-ready students – moving beyond the classroom
November also saw our third annual celebration of recipients of the Novo Nordisk International Talent Programme (NNITP). 54 international and University of Copenhagen students were awarded scholarships to our IARU partner universities or to Harvard. At the ceremony, three students gave personal presentations on what they had learned during their study-abroad experience. Other than academic progression and interdisciplinary learning, all of them highlighted the soft skills, such as improved communication skills, intercultural awareness, and increased self-esteem. One student also mentioned that his experience taught him to “take Science outside the classroom”. What a remarkable message to pass on to fellow students particularly as Science students seem more hesitant to study abroad. While NNITP supports our ambition to change this, completely turning the numbers around, have required a change of culture as explained by NNITP advisory board member and vice-dean of Education Grete Bertelsen on how the Faculty of Science successfully have grown their student mobility.

December
Having left November behind, Christmas lights and decorations are now making the streets of Copenhagen seem a little lighter and more welcoming. 2018 will bring a new semester and yet another cohort of in- and outbound students. On behalf of the University of Copenhagen, I would like to thank you for receiving our students and providing them with global mindsets and international learning experiences.

Season's greetings - and hoping to connect again in 2018.