It’s always interesting to ask other people what they think of you.

At Aarhus BSS, we asked this question in an extensive awareness and image study, which we conducted in the spring.

It’s one thing that we think we’re doing a lot of things right. The real question is what other people think. To find out, we asked academics in Denmark, company managers in Jutland and on Funen, our partners and our alumni.

The results are now in, and let me start by saying: They aren’t half bad. Naturally, however, there are still many areas in which we can become even better.

Following the 2012 merger between Aarhus School of Business and the Faculty of Social Sciences, the school changed its name to School of Business of Social Sciences. And in 2015, we introduced the shorter and more idiomatic name and brand, Aarhus BSS.

The analysis showed that in the target groups without a current or former affiliation with Aarhus BSS, one third of the respondents were aware of our brand name Aarhus BSS. This is actually quite impressive considering that the name is only two years old.

An additional third of these respondents know us under one of our former names such as The Faculty of Social Sciences and Aarhus School of Business.

This means that we must continue to work on increasing awareness of the brand name Aarhus BSS.

But it’s one thing to be known. We also want to be known for something positive. And in this connection, you as our alumni are some of our most important stakeholders. In fact, you know us better than anyone else.

When we ask our alumni what you find important in relation to Aarhus BSS, you emphasise five main areas: Valuable knowledge, openness towards the business community, a broad understanding of society, academic depth and an academic research environment.

When we ask you to rate Aarhus BSS’ performance in these areas, I’m delighted to see that you rate us highly.

More than anything else, we would like to be known for providing graduates whose skills match the needs in society, and you - our alumni - are the best examples of this. As a result, we find that our alumni represent the most natural starting point when we wish to nurture our relationships, when we attempt to increase awareness of Aarhus BSS, and not least when we continue to work with our image.

We would also like to invite you inside Aarhus BSS as guest lecturers, student mentors or participants in our many events throughout the year. As an alum, you can commit yourself in various ways.

For this reason, I also hope to see many of you at our 2017 Summer Festival, which takes place on 18 August this year. I look forward to this day as it’s usually both very cosy and educational.

If you haven’t already signed up, you can do so here.

I hope to see you on 18 August - have a great summer!