2010.01.14 | Jens Holbech

As everyone has noticed, we are in full swing with carrying out changes to the administrative structure, including the allocation of tasks between the faculty and the departments. The background is that we would like operations that are as rational, professional and sound as possible.
This initially involves a reorganisation of the financial, IT, HR (Human Resources) and PhD areas.
During the course of spring 2010, the organisation of the degree programme and library areas will also be considered.

Heads of the administrative areas affected to date provide a brief status of the changes below. 

Kind regards
Niels Damgaard Hansen,
Administration Manager,
Secretariat for the Faculty of Science

23 December 2009

Financial Department

The Financial Department, Science was in place in organisational terms by the end of the year, but the practical development of the centre will continue gradually up to summer 2010.
The department will actually be located in two places. From February until summer 2010, most of the staff will move in together in building 1520, while a smaller contingent of finance staff will continue at the Department of Computer Science.
Most users will still be served by familiar faces, but the working procedures will change in line with the staff being located together. When changes occur, the units concerned will be notified. However, until such time, everything will continue as usual.
The actual transfer of both staff and tasks will take place in collaboration with the departments where these employees have had their workplace until now, and we hope for a high degree of involvement on the part of the departments during this transition.
Once we get well into 2010 and the winter holidays are over, the Financial Department will close for two days at the end of February/beginning of March for all the staff to attend a seminar about identifying the best practice procedures for as many areas as possible, so that we can benefit from the economics of scale and increased strength resulting from setting up the department.

HR Department

During autumn 2009, the HR Department, Science took over the work of preparing letters of appointment from the central personnel office at Aarhus University. Along with the introduction of PeopleXS for receiving and processing applications electronically, this has made procedures considerably easier and smoother. The work involved in adapting PeopleXS for our purposes has drawn considerably on our staff resources both within and outside the department, but has already provided relief.
The HR Department has already taken over dealing with personnel matters from the Department of Biological Sciences, the Department of Computer Science and iNANO. This has been a positive experience, and from January on, these tasks will be taken over from the remaining departments.
Handing over these tasks has necessitated additional staff resources, and we are currently almost fully staffed. We expect to appoint two more members of staff in 2010, and will subsequently be able to manage both the classical personnel matters for the departments and HR tasks in recruitment, career planning, conflict resolution and staff development.

NFIT

NFIT will be located in two places: at the Department of Physics and Astronomy, where Windows installations will be serviced, and at the Department of Computer Science, where server operations and Linux systems will be attended to. All members of the NFIT staff will have their workplace at either the Department of Physics and Astronomy or the Department of Computer Science. In future, there will only be a few members of research staff in the IT area at the departments.
As far as users are concerned, we will provide a whole range of services, consisting of a service desk, local IT support and remote support from one of the centres. The type of service offered is user-driven and depends on the specific task. You can keep up to date with news and service status at our website.
Collaboration with IT operations will mainly take place via day-to-day contact with user support, but a user committee will also be appointed with representatives from all units.
Approval of an overall list of priorities regarding tasks, resources, etc. will be made by the faculty management, i.e. the dean and the heads of departments.
The transition of tasks to NFIT will take place gradually during the next few months, and the mantra until NFIT is fully operational is that unless you hear to the contrary, everything goes on as usual for users. Whenever local conditions change, the affected units will be notified.

AGSoS

In the PhD area, the Aarhus Graduate School of Science, AGSoS, is in full swing with streamlining and making flexible the administrative tasks regarding PhD studies and appointments. We have already taken over tasks from iNANO, the Department of Biological Sciences and the Department of Sport Science, while the remaining departments are waiting to hand over tasks until early 2010. The changes and the procedures have already been agreed with the departments, and will be implemented in close collaboration between the departments and AGSoS.
In addition, we have almost completed a revised set of regulations and guidelines for the PhD area, which will be published early in 2010. These have been expanded on regarding information about flexibility in connection with study periods abroad, for example.
We regularly develop and update our website at science.au.dk/en/studies/phd-studies. Here you can already find lots of information for applicants, current students, staff and supervisors.
AGSoS is located on the ground floor of building 1521. Four members of staff are each responsible for a number of departments, so PhD students and departments will be served by a particular member of staff.