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VIA University College

VIA University College
Type	Public university
Established	2008
Endowment	DKK 1.6 billion
Rector	Harald Mikkelsen
Total staff	2,100 (2023)
Students	19,000 (2023)
Location	Aarhus, Denmark
Campus	Campus Aarhus C, Campus Aarhus N, Campus Horsens (VBI Park), Campus Randers, Campus Viborg and Campus Holstebro as well as other addresses.
Website	en.via.dk

VIA University College is a university college (Danish: professionshøjskole) organisation in Central Denmark Region, Denmark, established in January 2008. It is present in the region with a total of eight campuses.

History

The university colleges in Denmark were established as a result of a series of mergers of smaller educational centres in 2007. VIA is one of those university colleges. VIA is not an abbreviation, as its name comes from the Latin word via meaning “by way of”.

From January 2008, all medium higher education in the Central Region previously under CVU (Center for Higher Education), became organized as one unit under VIA. As a result of these mergers, VIA became the third largest educational institution following Copenhagen University and Aarhus University with approximately 2,000 employees and 20,000 students.

Nowadays, VIA University College offers vocational bachelor courses of the following types: pedagogical, health professional, and technical-commercial. In addition, VIA also offers a two-year high school exam. Overall, VIA offers more than 50 higher educations in Danish and a number of courses in English. VIA also participates in various research and development projects. VIA is headquartered in Aarhus, but the activities are anchored on eight campuses spread across 39 locations throughout the region. VIA's annual turnover is 1.6 billion DKK.

Applicants and enrollment

Most of the educations, VIA University College operates, enroll students twice a year, that is in February and September. The statistics below encompass both enrollments. The number of students VIA University College can enroll is determined by the Ministry of education through among other an average of unemployment statistics. Thus, a local VIA University college institution might have its enrollment reduced if the unemployment rate within its area of operation is higher than the average and vice versa.

Organisation

VIA is organised like most universities. At the very top there is a board of directors, which selects the rector. The rector heads the executive board together with the deans. There is one dean per faculty. The largest faculty measured in terms of students and turnover is the faculty of Education & Social Studies followed by the faculty of Health Sciences and the School of Business, Technology and Creative Industries and finally the faculty of Continuing Education. The faculties are serviced by a series of departments such as marketing, corporate finance, student administration etc. They are organised between the executive board and the faculties.

Campuses

VIA University College has several campuses across Central Region Denmark and is present in Aarhus, Grenå, Randers, Skive, Viborg, Holstebro, Nørre Nissum, Ikast, Herning, Silkeborg, Skanderborg, and Horsens.

Campus Aarhus C & N

VIA University College has its headquarters in Aarhus, where it also operates two newly built campuses. The largest is VIA Campus Aarhus C, which is built in the new residential area called CeresByen in central Aarhus. Campus Aarhus C houses mainly educations from the department of Education and Social studies, but also includes assorted business, media, design and architectural and constructional vocational programmes. The smaller campus, Campus Aarhus N, is located in the northern neighbourhood of Skejby, close to the Aarhus University Hospital, and houses educations from the Department of health such as nursing and nutritional educations.

Campus Horsens

Campus Horsens holds most of the engineering, technical and business programmes of VIA University College, but soon Danish programmes in nursing and in pedagogy will also be present here to the professional multiplicity.

The increasing campus population is now around 4,000 students – of whom approx. half are international students from more than 40 different countries.

The new student housing placed directly on Campus contributes to the pulse here, as does the Student Bar, social activities and group work after classes.

Above Campus Horsens towers the newly built 8,000 m2 Vitus Bering Innovation Park, named after the famous Horsens resident and Arctic explorer Vitus Bering (1681 - 1741). The VBI Park also plays an important role in the interaction between the programmes and the companies that employ the students after graduation. Another facilitator of contact between students and companies is the Career Service Centre, also based on Campus.

A new and improved campus has just been finished and inaugurated.

Campus Randers

In Randers VIA University College offers nursing, social education and as one out two university colleges in Denmark, VIA also offers psychomotor therapy. The campus is situated in the middle of Randers in a new three story building, which houses the aforementioned educations as well as COK educations. The latter is not offered by VIA, but by a third party. Furthermore, from 2017 VIA also offers FIF-courses in Randers, which is a preparation course for refugees and immigrants. From 2017 the social education department offers a six-month 30 ECTS course in the Early Childhood-field. In early 2018 it has been decided that a part of the teacher training in Aarhus relocates to Randers from 2018. The teacher training programme is part of the qualification teacher training programme in Aarhus. Approximately 800 students attend the educations housed at campus Randers. In addition to the aforementioned educations, campus Randers also offers counselling in entrepreneurship as part of VIA's growth initiatives and in collaboration with the municipality of Randers as well as Business Academy Dania.

VækstVærket (growth forum)

VækstVærket is located on campus Randers, but has its own facilities as well as budget. VIA and Dania each have a coordinator, which coordinates activities such as courses, teaching etc. Furthermore, VækstVærket also offers students excursions to various startup villages as well as highly successful cultural get-togethers with students from different countries. In Students from VIA and Dania can use VækstVærket for study purposes as well as work on growth projects. In addition they also have the option of receiving council from a professional consultant. Finally VækstVærket also offers various courses in entrepreneurship and a chance to partake in projects about entrepreneurship.

Campus Viborg

VIA campus Viborg houses, among other departments, The Animation Workshop, which is considered one of the top animation schools in the world. TAW offers BA educations in Character Animation, Computer Graphic Arts and, since 2013, Graphic Storytelling. Apart from its educational activities, TAW hosts the Viborg Animation Festival, the largest animation festival in Denmark.

Campus Silkeborg

VIA campus Silkeborg provides programmes related to teaching and nursing.

Campus Herning

Campus Herning houses Scandinavia's largest educational center within design and business aimed at the furniture, fashion and lifestyle industry.

Campus Holstebro

Campus Holstebro is an educational institution with health, educational, social work and technical educations.

Degree Programmes

The table below lists the various programmes, VIA offers in English.

VIA Summer School

Every year, VIA offers a variety of summer schools at Campus Horsens. The courses are taught in English.

Partners universities and programmes

VIA University College is engaged in various international research and development projects as the leading institution or as a partner. Projects are initiated under a variety of funding programmes and are often interdisciplinary and cross-sectorial yet always rooted within the educational fields of VIA's Faculties and Schools.

Partners universities:

• California State University East Bay;
• Edinburgh Napier University;
• Universidad Politécnica de Valencia.

Some of the programmes VIA is participating in:

• Erasmus (Life Long Learning Programme)/Erasmus+;
• Erasmus Mundus;
• Leonardo da Vinci;
• EU – Australia;
• DK – USA/Canada;
• Tempus.

See also

There are several other university college organisations in Denmark:

• University College of Northern Denmark (UCN);
• UCL University College;
• West Jutland University College;
• University College South Denmark;
• University College Sealand;
• University College Capital;
• Metropolitan University College.

References

1. ^ "About VIA". VIA University College. Retrieved 10 July 2023.
2. Videregående uddannelser, Aarhus Kommune, https://www.aarhus.dk/da/aarhus/Uddannelse-i-Aarhus/Uddannelser.aspx
3. ^ "About VIA". www.viauc.com.
4. ^ Hovedtal - Den Koordinerede Tilmelding (KOT), http://ufm.dk/uddannelse-og-institutioner/statistik-og-analyser/sogning-og-optag-pa-videregaende-uddannelser/grundtal-om-sogning-og-optag/kot-hovedtal (Danish)
5. Dimensionering af de videregående uddannelser, http://ufm.dk/uddannelse-og-institutioner/videregaende-uddannelse/dimensionering (Danish)
6. ^ Students as October 1st, statistics from Statistics Denmark, retrieved June 6, 2017.
7. Continuing education is excluded from the totals.
8. ^ Organisation chart (retrieved 2017), http://en.via.dk/-/media/VIA-EN/about-via/facts/documents/organisation-chart.pdf
9. "Campus Aarhus N" (in Danish). VIA University College. Retrieved 16 December 2015.
10. "Campus Aarhus C" (in Danish). VIA University College. Retrieved 16 December 2015.
11. "Campus Aarhus N" (in Danish). VIA University College. Retrieved 26 April 2019.
12. "VIA University College". www.viauc.com.
13. "Rejsegilde uden fest i Horsens". www.dagensbyggeri.dk (in Danish). Retrieved 2021-03-11.
14. Psykomotorikuddannelsen (in Danish), http://www.via.dk/uddannelser/sundhed-og-omsorg/psykomotorik
15. COK, http://www.cok.dk/cok-english
16. FIF-courses (in Danish) http://www.via.dk/uddannelser/forberedelseskurser/uddannelser-til-flygtninge-og-indvandrere/randers
17. Early Childhood and Preschooling, http://en.via.dk/programmes/education-and-social-studies/early-childhood-exchange
18. ^ Ny meritlæreruddannelse i Randers, https://www.folkeskolen.dk/66264/ny-meritlaereruddannelse-i-randers
19. Internal figure sets the number at 785 as of 17th of February, 2017, which excludes FIF and COK students.
20. VækstVærket - Hvem er vi (Danish), http://vaekstvaerket.dk/2017/?page_id=13
21. VækstVærket (in Danish), http://www.via.dk/om-via/organisation/campusser/randers
22. VækstVærket, Til studerende (in Danish), http://vaekstvaerket.dk/2017/?page_id=15
23. "Top 25 Animation Schools and Colleges in the World - 2019 International Rankings". Animation Career Review. 25 April 2019. Retrieved 21 July 2019.

v t e Education in Aarhus
Higher	Aarhus Art Academy Aarhus University Aarhus School of Architecture Aarhus School of Marine and Technical Engineering Business Academy Aarhus Deaconal University College Jutland Art Academy Royal Academy of Music, Aarhus/Aalborg School of Media and Journalism VIA University College Kaospilot
Secondary	Aarhus Academy Aarhus Business College Aarhus Centre for Agriculture Aarhus Katedralskole Aarhus Tech Egaa Gymnasium Langkær Gymnasium & HF Marselisborg Gymnasium Risskov Gymnasium SOSU Aarhus Viby Gymnasium VUC Aarhus Århus Statsgymnasium
Libraries and Archives	Aarhus City Archives Aarhus Main Library State and University Library
List Category

56°09′22″N 10°11′26″E / 56.156°N 10.1906°E / 56.156; 10.1906

• Central Denmark Region
• Higher education in Aarhus
• Universities in Denmark
• Colleges in Denmark