In the coming weeks, 5,000 new students will start their studies at the University of Southern Denmark. The university has worked hard to make room for everyone and provide a good setting for the students and teachers.
An expanded canteen, a bigger bakery, cooperation with a transport company and better organisation of classroom booking. These are some of the new initiatives that will help give SDU’s many students – both new and “old” – a good setting for their studies.
Another record-high number of admissions has put added pressure on the university’s physical environment, and over the summer, university staff have worked diligently to exploit as many square feet as possible.
The high numbers of students present a particular challenge when it comes to booking classrooms. Therefore, the university is introducing a booking system that provides a virtual overview of bookings to make it easier to allocate classrooms equally, so that small groups are assigned small rooms and large groups are assigned larger rooms.
SDU’s biggest campus in Odense has chosen to expand the canteen area and double the size of the bakery. SDU has also made an agreement with the local transport company, Fynbus, to run more buses at times of day when there are many passengers from SDU.
Luxury problem
“There’s no doubt that the larger numbers of students we’re experiencing year on year presents a challenge when it comes to the university physical environment. But that’s definitely a luxury problem”, says SDU’s Rector Jens Oddershede. He is pleased about the progress of several major construction and renovation projects to create more space.
For example, the university is constructing new university buildings in Kolding, expanding the Faculty of Science and rebuilding the university library in Odense. All these projects are expected to be completed next year. The following year, a brand-new new technical faculty will be built, and in 2018 new buildings for the Faculty of Health Sciences.
03.09.2013
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