The University of Southern Denmark and Kolding Municipality sign partnership agreement

The University of Southern Denmark and Kolding Municipality are boosting their joint ambition to promote Kolding as an attractive city of studies and a strong SDU Kolding with relevant education programmes that meet the needs of the labour market and the demand for labour.

To this end, they have signed a partnership agreement that runs until 2028. The agreement contains five goals with corresponding initiatives:

1.  SDU’s presence must be strengthened and the recruitment of students to SDU Kolding must be increased
2. Recruitment and retention of international students must be strengthened
3. Even better support for graduates’ transition to the labour market
4. Strengthened collaboration with the local and regional business community in the Triangle Region and the Region of Southern Denmark
5. The development of research and education activities in Kolding must be supported in terms of financial sustainability
   
   

Partnerships provide optimal conditions for quality and growth

According to Jens Ringsmose, Rector of the University of Southern Denmark, the educational offerings in Kolding Municipality are flourishing, and this development will now be underpinned by increased efforts towards the local and regional labour market.

- I am very pleased that we have entered into a partnership agreement with Kolding Municipality so that SDU maintains and expands its position as the university of the entire Region of Southern Denmark. Maintaining a close dialogue between the municipality, the business community and the university has worked well for us before, and this is crucial in our efforts to create great value for and with society. A very positive development is taking place in Kolding, where new education programmes have been approved – and I would like to express my thanks to Kolding Municipality for their great efforts so far and in the work with the new agreement, he says.

Merete Dissing, Municipal Director of Kolding Municipality, is also enthusiastic about the new agreement, as it helps cement the long-standing close collaboration on the campus and Kolding as an attractive city of studies.

- I consider our campus area to be one of Kolding’s key strengths, and SDU is of course a key player here. It is crucial that the municipality’s and the region’s businesses can continue to recruit the necessary labour – and for that reason we are very excited that new, attractive education programmes will be available at SDU in Kolding already this autumn. At the same time, it is a great pleasure that we have agreed to work to establish new health and engineering programmes at SDU Kolding in the coming years, says Merete Dissing.

Ongoing evaluation

The agreement officially enters into force on 1 June 2024 and automatically expires at the end of 2028. By Q2 2028 at the latest, a decision will be made on whether to extend and/or renegotiate the partnership agreement.

The partnership agreement is evaluated on an ongoing basis in connection with annual meetings between SDU and Kolding Municipality in which both the Rector and the Municipal Director participate.