The School of Communication and Culture works within Aarhus University’s vision that, through research and teaching at the highest level, we can create value through knowledge, new insights and interaction with society. The School’s strategy indicates areas in which our academic competences particularly contribute to and supplement the university’s and faculty’s strategies. It thus focuses on orientations we will adopt and areas in which we will make a concerted effort. We will do this against the backdrop of the good and competent work that is constantly delivered by the approximately 400 employees divided across nine departments within the School’s wide range of academic disciplines, which include culture, communication, language, cognition, literature, aesthetics, media and IT and which result in us being able to offer more than 50 degree programmes to approximately 4500 students.

Since the previous strategy period, the School has developed extensively. While addressing external challenges, which, among other things, have resulted in a dramatic reduction in student enrolment, the School of Communication and Culture has revised all its academic regulations, focusing on close ties with research, employment and relevance. The students’ time to degree has been significantly reduced, new quality assurance procedures have been introduced, the dialogue with the labour market has been strengthened through establishing subject-specific employer fora, the amount of external research funding obtained by our academic staff has doubled, which partly compensates for the decrease in revenues for educational activities, and staffing levels have been simultaneously maintained and strengthened through an increase in the number of women, researchers with an international background and professors. Since the previous strategy period, the School has integrated major new research and educational environments within international business communication. Despite challenges, it is a consolidated and in many ways strengthened School that now enters a new strategy period.

The School’s strategy follows that of the faculty with a focus on research at an international level, relevant research-based degree programmes, and a contribution to interactions and collaboration with society and the surrounding world. It also prioritises maintaining a well-functioning organisation with a focus on equal opportunities, diversity, sustainability and a good work environment. These core areas are supplemented in the present strategy with mention of initiatives in some of the areas in which the School, across its research, teaching and interaction with society and the world, has particular challenges and responsibilities and makes specific contributions to the AU strategy: foreign languages, digitalisation, democracy and social cohesion.