University of Copenhagen to become a campus university

More space and a better environment for students and staff; more modern facilities; a markedly different presence in the cityscape: this is how the future looks for the University of Copenhagen.

While today the University is spread out across much of the city, in the future, it will be concentrated around three major campus areas. In the campus model, the University's buildings are for the most part gathered together in much the same way as at universities such as Yale, Stanford and Columbia. This ensures better utilisation of space - and gives students and staff new opportunities to meet across disciplines and faculties. There will also be more and better study areas, research service centres, meeting facilities, etc.

This is all explained in a new plan, "The New Campus University", to be presented to staff and students by Rector Ralf Hemmingsen. The plan is a vision for the situation within the City of Copenhagen of the University of Copenhagen in the 21st century.

New financial terms (the SEA government property management rent scheme) have made it necessary for the University to think creatively in terms of premises. The University management has, therefore, decided to reduce the area by 100,000 m2 to ensure healthy rent-related finances. The objective is for the University in future to spend an extra DKK 100 million or so annually on education and research - rather than on bricks and mortar.

Rector Hemmingsen is pleased with the establishment of the new campus areas, and with the fact that construction at the University of Copenhagen Amager will continue. That project is funded by a previous grant.

"We are now creating a future-oriented plan for the University that also gives us a well-defined presence in the city. We are establishing three major campus areas, with space for further growth. That way we can create the framework for a better environment for students and staff," says Rector Hemmingsen.

The next step in the plan is to open a dialogue on where to go from here in developing the campus areas.

"We need to appoint campus groups who will be the voice of the students and staff in the future design of the University. I think it is vital that the campus areas are designed to suit as many of the local needs as possible - within the limitations of the finances," explains Rector Hemmingsen.

Facts: The campus areas will comprise

• Nørre Campus - North Campus, where the natural and health sciences - with a few exceptions - will be gathered at the Panum building and Universitetsparken, Nørre Allé. This area has a large number of laboratories and needs for renovation will now be assessed.
• Søndre Campus - South Campus, where law and theology research and education will join the humanities at the University of Copenhagen Amager. The Department of Computer Science will also move to Amager to be closer to the IT University of Copenhagen and the new headquarters of the Danish Broadcasting Corporation (DR). The old KUA buildings will be replaced by modern constructions that match the new buildings at Emil Holms Kanal.
• City Campus, where the Faculty of Social Science will be gathered at the Centre for Health and Society in the old municipal hospital. The buildings have already been modernised with, among other things, a new auditorium, canteen and study centre.
• As part of City Campus, the Zoological Museum will be moved to the Botanic Garden. The objective is to bring the Natural History Museum of Denmark** together geographically in order to establish a museum of international format. Another aspect of bringing the museum together is to strengthen both the interest of young people in the natural sciences and the communication of research findings. However, the development of the museum is contingent on obtaining extra funding.

** The Natural History Museum of Denmark comprises the Botanic Garden, Botanical Museum, Geological Museum and Zoological Museum.

Posted 27 April, 2006