Aalborg University (AAU) was founded in 1974 from a merger of several well-established higher education institutions with roots going back to the late 18th century. From initially 3 000 students, AAU grew to approximately 16 000 students, who can choose from more than hundred study programmes, at bachelor, master and doctorate levels, and three different geographic locations across Denmark. AAU's three campuses are very different in terms of size,research areas and industry partnerships. The Esbjerg campus is located on the west coast of the Jutland peninsula in southwest Denmark, and is with approximately 600 students and 110 employees the smallest campus. Teaching and research focuses on energy, chemistry and biotechnology, oil and gas, civil engineering, mechanical engineering, electronics and medialogy. The Copenhagen campus, AAU-Cph, hosts approximately 3 500 students and employs 550 staff. The steady increase in research activity, covering a range of areas, including virtual reality, mobile communication, sustainable energy sources, and organisational communications, resulted in an expansion of the Copenhagen AAU campus. The main campus is located in the city of Aalborg, in northern Denmark; with approximately 11 500 it is the largest of the three campuses, offering a wide range of study and research programmes. Teaching and learning at AAU are centred on problem-based and project-organised pedagogies. The so-called "Aalborg model" trains students in independent learning, which is often embedded in the local business community, and thus close to real-life problems. Students learn to identify and analyse problems, to work result-oriented and successfully in teams. Most of these learning objectives are similar to what is required starting up and developing one’s own business. Hence, entrepreneurship is an integral part of AAU's core strategy and elemental to its innovation approach as a knowledge-generating and culture-bearing institution that contributes to technological, economic, social, and cultural innovation. AAU's entrepreneurship, innovation, and knowledge exchange activities are coordinated by AAU Innovation across the three campuses. Its main unit working on entrepreneurship promotion is SEA (Supporting Entrepreneurship at Aalborg University), which works across all faculties. It was established in 2002 and has 6 non-academic staff.SEA's budget is financed by one-third from the AAU main budget and by two-third from external sources.

Innovative Features

• The Entrepreneurial HEI as an internationalised institution

Internalisation plays an important role for university development and building international links is considered a priority at AAU. Internationalisation is also a key component of entrepreneurship support at AAU, as underlined in the university strategy: “AAU will work to promote knowledge intensive entrepreneurship and innovation … in cooperation with local and regional companies and business development agencies and with science parks, enterprises and universities nationally and internationally in order to promote knowledge based enterprises.”

The understanding of being a network university, with three campuses, helps promoting the notion of having peers and colleagues elsewhere. Staff is encouraged to invest time and efforts into establishing relationships and connections worldwide. International partnerships exist both on an informal level, that is at the level of staff members, and on a formal level, through agreements. Since its foundation in 1974, AAU signed more than 800 collaboration agreements universities and educational institutions worldwide.

Facilitating internationalisation for university members and key partners

AAU is a very active member of the European Consortium of Innovative Universities (ECIU). This consortium of research universities is focused on collaboration in innovative teaching and learning, enhancement of university-society interaction, internationalisation of the student and staff experience, and active engagement in policy development and practice within the evolving European Higher Education Area. AAU's collaboration with the ECIU is centred around the following areas: Human Resource Development, Knowledge Triangle and EU Policy.

AAU’s Grants and Contracts department is very active in sharing knowledge with other ECIU members. This, for example, helped to better understand the rules and prerequisites (or do’s and don’ts) regarding companies co-locating on campus, since the University of Strathclyde in Scotland, faced similar issues. Hence, the ECIU is considered a valuable source of knowledge and know-how in areas which are still new to the university.

AAU also has a Fundraising & Project Management team which supports researchers in the identification of relevant international projects and with the project application process. This service is also offered to business partners. Having a professional and dedicated team at AAU has been highly appreciated by the external stakeholders.

Promoting student mobility

AAU has created a partnership with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Denmark’s six Innovation Centres in Silicon Valley, Shanghai, Munich, Seoul, São Paulo and India. This collaboration shall strengthen collaboration in the areas of research, development and innovation activities. This initiative targets both AAU internal potential for commercialisation as well as AAU's current and new business, that is, open up new markets for Danish companies working with AAU. Part of this is also an internship programme for AAU students (and students from other Danish universities) at these Innovation Centres as integral part of their education.

Crucial for many economies and universities is the attraction and retention of internationally connected talents. This is also the aim of theCopenhagen Talent Bridge  project, which brings together AAU, several other universities, city governments and industry representatives in the Copenhagen area. One of the objectives is to support SMEs in hiring and managing international talents. There are both the demand for and supply of international skilled labour, but there are several barriers related to recruitment, language, daily work life, etc. which render employment difficult, especially for smaller firms. AAU and the other local universities have been important match-makers through their business links. The Copenhagen Talent Bridge project shall coordinate and upscale these initiatives, and function as a "talent pipeline in key sectors such as Cleantech, LifeScience and ICT". Part of this is the Youth Goodwill Ambassador Corps, a global network of international students who, on a voluntary basis, represent Danish universities globally by sharing their personal experiences and organising events internationally.

AAU Innovation is making sure that there are increasing synergies between the internationalisation agenda and the entrepreneurship activities. A recent example is the visit of the R&D Director of Volvo Göteborg to the AAU campus in Copenhagen in spring 2013. Volvo has its Human-Machine Interface & Infotainment Attribute Center co-located on the new campus, formerly Nokia. Part of the visit was an informal gathering of students and researchers, who are involved in the center. While presenting their prototypes the idea was born to create smaller workshops for radical innovation, drawing from AAU's research competences and international links and its cross-industry collaboration.

Results/Achievements

The understanding of being a network university, with three campuses, helps promoting the notion of having peers and colleagues elsewhere. Internationalisation is thus close to AAU's organisational nature. A challenge, which has been mastered well at AAU, is to link the internationalisation agenda with the entrepreneurship activities. AAU Innovation has been crucial for this, and the following practices have been particularly enhancing:

• Offering researchers support services for international projects, and, in this way, embedding an emphasis on entrepreneurship (AAU Fundraising & Project Management)
• Building opportunities for international staff and students to consider the option of retaining after their stay (Copenhagen Talent Bridge)
• Making use of international networks, e.g. European Consortium of Innovative Universities (ECIU), to increase knowledge and know-how in new areas of strategic importance, such as for example co-location of companies on campus.

Source

This case study was prepared by Jakob Stolt from AAU in collaboration with the OECD Secretariat, through collection and analysis of broad documentation about AAU and interviews with key university representatives.

Contact

Morten Sand Henriksen

Head of Section

msh@adm.aau.dk