Largest university in Scandinavia - 04.10.2006

A happy end to a long series of merger negotiations and a milestone for Danish research. This is the way The Danish University of Pharmaceutical Sciences (DFU), The Royal Veterinary and Agricultural University (KVL), and The University of Copenhagen (KU) see the upcoming merger of the three institutions into a new University of Copenhagen with DFU and KVL as two new faculties.

 

The intention is to create a major Life Science Centre encompassing research in nutrition, food science, pharmaceutical science, and health. The new University of Copenhagen will be the largest university in Scandinavia with around 6,400 employees and more than 36,000 students.

 

Life science is about the relations between food science, pharmaceutical science and health with a particular focus on the prevention and treatment of diseases. The new University of Copenhagen will focus on research in, among other things, food and health, cancer biology, lifestyle-related diseases, nanotechnology, agricultural science, landscape architecture and plant science. The new University will also be in the forefront internationally in the area of development studies, including academic fields such as food supplies, children's nutrition, development economics, and the preservation of natural resources.

 

'This merger is a great opportunity. The new University of Copenhagen will be a distinguished international university - and will include one of Europe's largest health and life science centres', says Bodil Nyboe Andersen, chairperson at the University of Copenhagen.

DFU's chairman of the board, Niels Strandberg Pedersen, is also pleased with the perspectives of the merger: 'The merger provides the setting for a better use of resources, for more interdisciplinary research, and it gives our students a wider range of courses and subjects to choose from. It gives us the opportunity to be at the forefront of more research areas, and to create new elite programmes and stronger research schools'.

 

The merger will also strengthen business cooperation and innovation. 'The University of Copenhagen has strong affiliations with the university hospitals, The Danish University of Pharmaceutical Sciences works closely together with the pharmaceutical industry, and The Royal Veterinary and Agricultural University has excellent relations with the agricultural and food indutries. These networks will now merge as well, and we will establish a central administrative unit for the support of Technology Transfer', states Erik Bonnerup, chairman of the board, KVL.

 

For further information see the merger website on www.ku.dk/fusion.

This website features, among other things, a weblog where staff and students can find information about the merger, ask questions to the three rectors, and post their own comments.

 

Contact: Head of Communications, Jacob Søby Bang Tel: +45 26 88 97 33