The dean, who is employed by the rector and a member of the senior management team, is responsible for managing the faculty and for ensuring alignment between the research and teaching activities. He/she also has the financial and academic responsibility for the faculty.

In addition, the dean ensures the quality of education, teaching and ministerial tasks as well as the interdisciplinary quality development of the faculty’s degree programmes and research. He is also responsible for following up on the ongoing measures aimed at assuring and developing the quality of teaching activities and degree programmes.

The dean appoints and removes the heads of department, appoints the boards of studies and appoints and removes the directors of studies on the basis of recommendations from the relevant boards of studies.

The dean approves the academic regulations subject to recommendations by the board of studies. The dean formulates and implements the strategy of Aarhus BSS in the field of education, including formulating the faculty’s objectives and focus areas.

The dean’s management is subject to the involvement and advisement of the academic council, employer panels and the advisory board.

The vice-dean contributes to developing and implementing the faculty’s educational, teaching and learning strategies and assists the dean in the daily management of the faculty.

The main tasks of the vice-dean are to contribute to developing the faculty’s degree programmes, develop new programme elements or degree programmes and strengthen the programmes’ relation to the labour market. The vice-dean performs all of these tasks in cooperation with the directors of studies and the board of studies and supported by the administration.

The vice-dean for education collaborates closely with the university’s other deans and vice-deans, the administration and teaching staff with a view to e.g. increasing the quality of the programmes and making sure the programmes remain attractive and relevant.

The boards of studies are responsible for ensuring planning, execution and development of degree programmes and teaching activities; including assuring and developing the quality of programmes and teaching activities; and ensuring follow-up on programme and teaching evaluations. 

The board of studies develops and approves suggestions and changes to the academic regulations, approves the plan for how to structure the teaching and examinations and handles applications for credit transfer and dispensations.

The board of studies performs its tasks in dialogue with relevant directors of studies and the department management team.

The chair of the board of studies is elected from among the academic staff representatives on the board of studies. Together with the vice-chair of the board of studies, the chair of the board of studies manages and coordinates the work of the board in relation to developing and ensuring the quality and relevance of the degree programmes and the teaching. The chair of the board of studies is responsible for ensuring that the board contributes to the development of the shared strategies of the departments. He or she is also in dialogue with the head of department and the director of studies.

The director of studies is appointed and employed by the dean on the recommendation of the board of studies. The director of studies is responsible for the practical organisation of teaching, examinations and other forms of assessment. The director of studies performs his or her tasks in cooperation with the board of studies and the department management team e.g. in relation to programme resources, key figures for the programme, follow-up on relevant studies and strategic goals.

The dean appoints the heads of department. The head of department represents the department externally and, on the authority of the rector and dean, is responsible for the department's academic, financial and HR management, including the planning and allocation of the department’s work assignments. The head of department is part of the faculty management team.

The head of department has the overall responsibility for developing strategy and action plans for the department and for ensuring high quality, cohesion and development in the department’s degree programmes and teaching activities, including researcher coverage, with the involvement of and in dialogue with the boards of studies and the director of studies.

The head of department appoints a departmental forum, and the head of department’s management is subject to the involvement and advisement of the departmental forum and employer panels.

The faculty management team includes the Dean's Office along with all heads of department.

The faculty management team establishes the policies and guidelines that apply to the faculty and its departments. The faculty management team ensures that the strategic activities and action plans are coordinated at faculty and department level, and that these consolidate the faculty’s overall strategic goals.

The faculty management team discusses the faculty’s overall educational profile, including key figures, evaluations etc., and in relation to the field of education.

The student is offered relevant degree programmes with high quality teaching. The student puts a great deal of work effort into his or her studies and takes joint responsibility for the teaching, own learning, group work and projects. In this way, he or she contributes to creating a dynamic and inspiring academic environment, which further promotes constructive learning processes and a good study environment. 

The student thus contributes to assuring and developing the quality of programmes and teaching at Aarhus BSS. The student’s inputs are considered in the development of the teaching, the study environment, the lecturer’s pedagogical competencies and the overall degree programmes.

The students organise themselves in degree programme councils and other academic associations. The students contribute to the strategic and practical work carried out at the faculty to ensure the quality of the degree programmes via representatives in the boards of studies, the forum for education and the academic council.

Central focus points of the continuous quality development of the teaching activities and degree programmes at Aarhus BSS are the didactic choices of the teaching staff, their level of specialised knowledge as well as their professional judgement in planning the courses and teaching and conducting examinations. The academic aspects of the degree programmes and teaching activities are discussed among the teaching staff. lecturers incorporate the most recent research in their field into their teaching and are responsible for developing their pedagogical skills, e.g. by taking courses. In the field of further and continuing education, the lecturer is responsible for ensuring that the work experience of the students is considered and included in the teaching.  

The lecturers are expected to be familiar with the contents and rules prescribed by the academic regulations for the course in question.

The lecturers are also the ones with the closest contact with the students and among other things ensure that the students evaluate and provide feedback on the teaching.

The Aarhus BSS Forum for Education consists of the chairs and deputy chairs from each of the seven boards of studies for the daytime programmes and is a joint committee with an equal number of students and representatives of the academic staff members. Directors of studies who are not chairs of a board of studies act as permanent observers in the Forum for Education.

Together with the chair and the vice-chair of the forum, the vice-dean for education coordinates the work of the committee.

The Forum for Education contributes to developing the portfolio of degree programmes at Aarhus BSS and also monitors the work done by the boards of studies in relation to planning, executing and developing degree programmes and teaching activities. At suitable intervals, the forum reports on this work to the Dean’s Office. The forum coordinates the seven boards of studies at Aarhus BSS and focuses specifically on cases where there is a problem of demarcation between the individual degree programmes.

The primary role of the employer panels is to council the boards of studies and departments on questions regarding degree programmes, including specific questions on the quality and relevance of the degree programmes to the labour market. Among other things, this covers the development of degree programmes, course components, types of instruction, examination and evaluations in light of the demands of the labour market and specific competence requirements in a national and international context.

The dean approves the composition of the panels, which must be representative of the labour market relevant to the degree programme(s) with which the panel are affiliated.

The employer panels meet with the boards of studies and other department representatives at least once or twice a year.

The administrative centre at Aarhus BSS, consisting of Finance, Studies Administration, Communication and External Relations, IT and Digitalisation, Building Services, and HR & PhD, has a central supporting function related to quality assurance and development of teaching and degree programmes at Aarhus BSS.

This function is in close collaboration with the joint administration, also consisting of the departments above.

The Centre for Educational Development (CED), which is Aarhus University’s centre for developing university pedagogics, has a supporting and advisory function related to the quality development of e.g. teaching activities, examinations, study environment and degree programmes at Aarhus BSS.

CED is involved in various development projects and cooperates with the departments and centres at Aarhus BSS with a view to developing teaching activities and the use of LMS and Educational IT. CED offers university educational theory courses geared towards lecturers at all career stages at Aarhus BSS.