She is invigorated by the prospect of presenting the students’ objections to the politicians and hopes the fact that they are presenting their ideas in person will have more impact than social media posts and opinion pieces in the media alone.

“I hope that for 15 minutes they will listen closely to our points and arguments on the issue and not just brush us off by repeating the usual tame responses. This matter is very serious to us, and we don’t want to end up with another pat on the back for our ‘engagement’ as students. We hope our efforts will be taken seriously for once,” says Laura Friis Tørsleff.

She also hopes the committee will consider the feedback from politicians, major profiles in the cooperate world, and professors who are also objecting to the planned reform. In recent days, former party leader Uffe Elbæk, former minister of Science, Technology, Information and Higher Education, Tommy Ahlers, and captain of industry Stine Bosse have voiced their criticism of the government plan.

Due to Covid, the meeting will take place online on Tuesday at 2 pm, and the CBS students will have 15 minutes to present their case. Potentially, a less formal chat with the members of the committee concerning the issues may also be held.

Meeting with the minister

Meanwhile, the national movement Student Rebellion ’22 has just confirmed that the Minister of Higher Education and Science, Jesper Petersen, has invited its representatives to attend a meeting, though the details have yet to be finalized.

The Minister was invited to visit the up-coming demonstration in front of Parliament on Wednesday but is unable to attend. Instead, the national movement Student Rebellion ’22 has been invited to a meeting at the ministry on Friday 14 January to discuss both the plans for decentralizing universities and the reasons for the student movement.

“The big political campaign has just begun, and these meetings and our national demonstration on Wednesday are just the first steps. Many students across Denmark share the frustration of having no influence on the political decisions made about our future. We want to make some noise – not only about the regionalization plan, but also about the bigger perspective for our educational system. So, we don’t see an end to the student rebellion any time soon,” says Laura Friis Tørsleff.