Universities leader urges ‘see it, say it, sorted’ policy approach

In an extraordinary open letter Jesper Langergaard, director of lobby group Universities Denmark, has likened the government’s higher education policy to “suspicious objects” on public transport.

Langergaard criticised several policies, including shortages in social science budgets and Denmark’s habit of cutting national research funding when there is an increase in EU grants going to the country. He said that his letter is to be understood as an urgent call for attention in order to alert authorities to “fix” what he implied were policy ‘bombs’ waiting to go off.

“If you see something suspicious on your train journey, tell the authorities to sort it out and fix it,” Langergaard wrote in the letter, which was published on 4 April on the Universities Denmark website. “It sounds like a simple solution; perhaps one could advantageously transfer the concept to the government’s university policy.”