The Student Ambassador’s newsletter Q1 2024
The Student Ambassador’s quarterly newsletter keeps you updated on how the Student Ambassador and many others are working to improve students’ legal rights and promote dialogue and understanding between students and the University.
Counselling needs in Q1
In Q1, the Student Ambassador received 190 enquiries, of which the majority can be divided into two categories: exam appeals and exemptions. In total, 104 enquiries were related to these two categories, meaning more than half of all the enquiries. Each year in Q1, we spend a lot of time on guidance within these specific categories due to the many exams in this period.
The many exams lead to a large number of enquiries about exemptions for special exam adjustments, extra exam attempts, postponement of deadlines etc. already before the exam period starts. During the exam period, we receive quite a few enquiries about exam appeals. Typically, because the student is dissatisfied with their grade.
Enquiries:
Exemption: 27.4 %
Exam appeals: 27.4 %
Legal complaints 12.6 %
Bullying: 10.0 %
Admission: 6.3 %
Suspected exam cheating: 5.8 %
SU: 3.2 %
Sick leave: 2.6 %
Other: 2.1 %
Student counselling: 1.6 %
Thesis delay: 0.5 %
Credit tranfer: 0.5 %
Meetings in February with the faculties’ programme managements and Education and Students
Every year in March, the student ambassador sends his annual report to the university director. Before that, and no later than February, the Student Ambassador Bo Gad Køhlert meets with the programme management of each faculty and Education & Students from the Central Administration to discuss the enquiries from students received during the year.
Representatives from the programme management and student politicians attend the meetings.
In February 2024, discussions included:
- Special guidance of students at risk of dropping out (section 42 of the University Programme Order (in Danish only))
- Guidance on medical certificate when applying for dispensation on the study information pages
- Frameworks for decisions and for actual administrative activities at educational institutions under the Ministry of Higher Education and Science based on the Ombudsman's statement in June 2023 (FOB 2023-18 (in Danish only))
- The University’s procedure for submitting students’ complaints about legal issues to the Danish Agency for Higher Education and Science following the Ombudsman's statement of 10 February 2023 on internal complaint procedures in connection with students' complaints about legal issues (In Danish only).
UCPH course in October: Write clearer decisions and emails to students
On 10 October, the student ambassador offers the fourth UCPH course on writing clearer decisions and emails to students.
Would you like new inspiration for how to clearly communicate decisions or email messages to students? Are you often unsure about how you can express yourself in the clearest way? Have you experienced a dialogue with a student come to a deadlock? Or do you just want to become even better at avoiding misunderstandings when you communicate in writing? Then this course is for you!
Since 2021, 44 employees have taken the course. At the bottom of our 2023 Q4 newsletter, you can see how the course participants in 2023 evaluated the course.
In the course catalogue , you can read more about the course content and register. The registration deadline is 13 September.
New report from the Danish Evaluation Institute (EVA) on SPS organisation
In January 2024, EVA published a report that maps the organisation of special educational support (SPS) at all Danish institutions of higher education. One of the report’s conclusions is that many SPS case workers find that the support system is complex for students to understand.
The student ambassador agrees with that conclusion. We often receive enquiries from students with functional impairments who describe the process of applying for aids and adjustments as a huge extra workload, where they need to keep track of deadlines, meetings and applications alongside their studies.