Two departments become one at Aarhus BSS
The Department of Business Communication will merge with the Department of Management as of 1 January 2017. This is the decision of the Aarhus University Board.
This means that the Department of Business Communication will be dissolved as an independent department as of 31 December 2016, and that corporate communication will become a section at the Department of Management. Earlier this year, the Board decided that the language programmes at the Department of Business Communication are moving from Aarhus BSS on 1 January 2017 and will be gathered with the rest of AU’s language programmes at the Faculty of Arts.
“Thus the Department of Business Communication would have become a very small and financially vulnerable department. The merger also strengthens the interaction between the academic environments in the fields of management and corporate communication, which in real-life are also closely intertwined,” says Dean Thomas Pallesen.
Agreement on terms and conditions
The current corporate communication degree programmes will be transferred to the new Department of Management and will, among other things, get their own board of studies, director of studies and PhD degree programme. In addition, the new Department of Management will secure support for the student’s degree programme council, the Communication Council, while the section will receive DKK 1 million per year for the next five years to develop the field and its collaboration with the other sections at the departments as well as with external partners.
These terms and conditions are the result of negotiations between the Executive Team at Aarhus BSS and the two departments. Subsequently, they have been treated in different forums for collaboration with the management, employees and students. Here, there has been broad support for the agreed terms and conditions.
From seven to six departments
Dean Thomas Pallesen is therefore pleased that the Board has accommodated his recommendation.
“It has been a very long process, and I fully recognised that many emotions are in play when a decision like this is made. But from an academic as well as operational perspective, I believe that this is the right decision, and I am happy that we have agreed upon the terms and conditions in advance. This is the best starting point for a good and fruitful future collaboration,” says Thomas Pallesen.
The decision means that as of 1 January 2017, Aarhus BSS consists of six departments:
- Department of Management
- Department of Economics and Business Economics
- Department of Political Science
- Department of Business Development and Technology
- Department of Law
- Department of Psychology and Behavioural Sciences
