Independent University Newspaper
Copenhagen Business School
Independent University Newspaper
Copenhagen Business School
How do universities stay attractive? How do they educate business students for the 21st century? Tommy Ahlers, the Minster for Higher Education and Science, Gregor Halff, the Dean of Education at CBS, Anita Monty, Learning Consultant at CBS, and Barbara Sporn, Professor at Vienna University of Economics and Business, offer their insights.
We are facing the biggest transformation of mankind if we want to meet the UN’s 17 sustainable development goals by 2030, points out Lise Kingo, CEO and Executive Director of United National Global Compact and CBS’ newest distinguished alumna.
All new students enrolled in the Bachelor of Business Administration and Psychology will not be given any grades during the first year of their bachelor’s degree. They will be given a lot more feedback instead. The three-year project is an attempt to limit the pressure and stress that students experience from having to perform well.
In the wake of the Facebook scandal and the recent hearings involving one of the greatest IT geniuses of our time, CBS’ new bachelor program, BSc in Business Administration and Digital Management, has grown in significance. Through this program, students will have the chance to learn from Mark Zuckerberg’s biggest mistakes and why there are serious dangers involved in “moving fast and breaking things”.
50 percent of the jobs in 50 years are unknown to us as of yet. How do we prepare for that? This is one of the questions that Gregor Halff, the new dean of education at CBS, seeks to answer along with a lot of other questions in the coming future. CBS WIRE paid the new dean a visit to talk about the future and what the students and staff can expect. Read also, about how Gregor Halff wants to keep an eye on the study environment, which is currently making the students feel stressed out and anxious.
When politicians and stakeholders start to ask questions about the necessity of internationalization, CBS has to be prepared to answer. Martin Jes Iversen, Dana Minbaeva, and Tom Dahl-Østergaard make up CBS’ new international troika, and they going to be the ones who find those answers. This spring, they will investigate CBS and its stakeholders’ opinions on internationalization, and the value of exchange programs.
Week 9 is upon us. Two CBS students, Jeppe Tranekær and Mathias Bohn, who are heavily involved in the case competition, Janie Huus Tange, Head of Business Relations and Career Services, and the co-founder of Qvartz, Hans Henrik Beck, all agree that case solving skills are indispensable, and should extend far beyond week 9. What do you think?
If we want to accelerate the transition towards a sustainable society, we need to start with the kindergarteners. Education and teaching in sustainability is the prerequisite to finding the solutions to the problems our planet is facing, argues Professor Donald Huisingh from the University of Tennessee. The solutions could include better design of the systems and machines that surround us.
Teaching material on sustainable business models is a scarcity. But CBS wants to change that together with the Norwegian School of Economics and the Spanish ESADE Business & Law School, as they are planning to launch an open source and online educational material about sustainable business models in 2019.
Sustainability isn’t just a trend that’s about to pass. Teachers are experiencing that students demand to be taught more about sustainability. Two students from OIKOS think that CBS needs to introduce more mandatory courses in sustainability if it wants to be in tune with the future of businesses and consumer behavior.
Devika Singla believes there is a lot of inequality in the world and she always wanted to change that. Now she is doing just that by being a part of Student Refugees, an organization that helps refugees in Denmark get into universities.
To prevent the international graduates from leaving Denmark, companies such as Novo Nordisk and IIH Nordic want it to be easier to attract and retain the international graduates. And this is something CBS can help out with, they argue. Losing out on the international graduates is regrettable, says the vice president of the Confederation of Danish Industry.
It has come as a surprise for the Director of the Dean’s Office, Wilbert van der Meer, that the Ministry of Higher Education and Science didn’t approve three new educational programs at CBS. “It’s a misjudgment on our part,” says Wilbert van der Meer about the reason for not receiving the approvals.
The start-up, Lix, has made what aspires to be the “Spotify for textbooks”, an online platform from which you can already access more than 70 percent of CBS’ curriculum. Lix wants to revolutionize the textbook with online features such as instant messaging and quizzes. However, the digitalization of textbooks might lead to us learning less, in the end, argues Jakob Ravn, Chief Consultant at CBS.
Financial Times ranks CBS as the 51st best business school in this year’s top ranking European Business Schools. That’ is a drop of 16 places when compared to last year. Although there is a technical reason for the drop, a member of the Academic Council thinks that CBS could do a lot better. The director of the MBA programs at CBS also finds the drop unfortunate and emphasizes the importance of good placings in rankings.
Jan Molin, the Dean of Education at CBS, is about to say goodbye to the title after 11 years on duty, and will return to the Department of Organization. He himself graduated from CBS, has worked at the university spanning the time of three directors of the board, four presidents, four university directors, and three deans of research. CBS WIRE has asked him six questions about his time at CBS and showcases his farewell speech.
CBS got off cheap after a new national funding system affecting all higher education institutions has been announced. The new system will not cause a deficit in CBS’ budget, but it will not solve some of the financial challenges that CBS is facing. The University Director and the President of CBS Students describe the new system as “opaque” and “complex”.
It is a bad sign that international graduates tend to leave Denmark, and Wilbert van der Meer, the Director of the Dean’s Office, describes the tendency as ”unfortunate” and ”worrying”. Because of this, CBS is about to launch different initiatives which include a Job Search Academy and a review of all the programs to ensure that the chances of getting a job and retaining the students becomes higher.
Lectures in sustainability and CSR are not worth much if CBS itself does not set a good example, argues Maribel Blasco, Associate Professor at CBS. According to her, students will only take responsibility and sustainability seriously if CBS shows that it does so itself as well. “Students spot hypocrisy right away,” she says.
Students need to be better prepared for changes in order to cope with the fast development of society. For this to be so, Søren Pind, the Minister of Higher Education and Science, during his visit to CBS on the 30th of November, argued that students should take a course that embraces subjects such as philosophy, ethics, tech, and culture. Students are hesitant about the idea.
The clock is ticking. On Thursday morning (5 October), CBS employees will know if they are up for dismissal or not. But what will happen on the day? What emotional stages are you likely to encounter? And who will be there to pick you up when you are feeling the blow of being laid off? CBS WIRE has talked to HR and the consulting agency Actief Hartmanns to provide you with answers.
03 Oct 2023
There are many approaches to finding your first job. Three recent CBS graduates talk about how they landed theirs. Their approaches were quite different, yet they all highlight networking as a key element.
02 Oct 2023
In these final days of September, the fate of a number of CBS employees is being decided. The final amount of money saved on salaries via voluntary severance agreements (aka redundancy packages, Ed.) and senior agreements will be known. After this, the actual number of employees up for dismissal will be decided by management – and then the individuals will be selected.
30 Sep 2023
CBS is laying off a number of employees soon, which will affect our university in different ways. When employees are fired without having done anything wrong, it shatters the trust between the organisation and employees, while also taking a toll on productivity, according to a CBS expert. Layoffs also affect the ‘survivors’, who are forced to adapt to a changed workload and the loss of cherished colleagues.
27 Sep 2023
Exam anxiety? Lost student card? I’ve wedged my car between a Fiat 500 and a lamp post, can you help? You never know what you’ll be asked next. But that’s just how the Campus Desk team like it. And if they can’t fix your problem, they’ll know someone who can. CBS WIRE asked the team about the whole range of topics they advice on every day.
22 Sep 2023
A successful university environment such as CBS is often associated with academic pursuits, but campus life extends far beyond the classroom. At CBS Quiz Time, a student society motivated by creative thinking and social engagement, students join in a refreshing range of creativity, excitement, and social interaction. CBS WIRE talked to Celine Møller-Andersen to find out about the society’s vision, strategies and the factors that are driving its rapid expansion.
22 Sep 2023
Employees and union representatives have posed many questions in the wake of the 17 August announcement of a firing round. In this interview, University Director Arnold Boon explains how Senior Management has been working with the budget and a change of financial strategy since the fall of 2022, and why layoffs are now necessary.
11 Sep 2023
Qiuzhi Huang
If you believe that going on exchange is difficult, you might be surprised to learn that there is a space for everyone. Grades and points from extra-curricular activities do matter to some extent, but even with grades at the lower end of the spectrum, an exchange trip is within reach.
18 Nov 2022
Algorithms have a hold on the stock markets that has fuelled the need for regulation. But how do we regulate what we don’t understand? The second generation of trading algorithms are designing their own investment strategies – and they are so complicated that we are unable to understand them.
12 Sep 2022
BOOK REVIEW: Read about new methods for managing stress in working life.
22 Oct 2021
Two researchers tell the story of how the pandemic completely altered their research topic and how they dealt with it.
23 Sep 2021
BOOK REVIEW: Scapegoating the finance sector has become a national sport. Imagine, banks are daring to charge negative interest. But much of the criticism is based on prejudice, claim two professors.
17 May 2021
