International tenure-track assistant professors, associate professors, professors, managers as well
as permanent technical and administrative staff are to be offered paid, targeted Danish-language
courses, preferably on campus. This offer must be clearly articulated during the job interview. It is
necessary that management allows for devoting the necessary time during working hours for taking
Danish-language courses. This may, for a period of time, replace other duties, for example teaching.
2. International employees’ Danish-language skills
The UCPH language policy consists of 10 sections divided into principles on "Language and employees" and "Language and students". Below you can find our take on the principle 2.3 regarding International employees' Danish-language skills.
Principle 2.3
Principle 2.3 complements the Danish language requirement introduced in Principle 2.1. Whereas Principle 2.1 stipulates that tenure-track assistant professors, associate professors, and professors are expected to be able to contribute to teaching in Danish 3-6 years after their employment, Principle 2.3 makes it clear that the responsibility for achieving this goal does not rest with the individual employee. It is the responsibility of the hiring department to provide the framework necessary for employees to be able to develop language skills that will enable them to contribute to teaching in Danish within the specified timeframe.
As presented in our discussion on Principle 2.1, the environment needed to support successful language learning goes well beyond offering generic off-the-shelf Danish language courses, as employees will benefit more from language courses that target the communicative skills necessary to cope with the specific communicative demands at the workplace. Principle 2.3 refers specifically to the need for free access to work-related language courses and the importance of making sure that language learning activities do not detract from research time.
Importantly, Principle 2.3 also allows for cases where non-academic permanent staff will need to acquire skills in Danish to be able to do their job. In these cases, the conditions are identical to the ones described above for tenured academic staff.
To implement Principle 2.3, departments and other organizational units at the university will need to have clear and detailed policies for how non-Danish-speaking members of staff are welcomed into the department and for how they will be given the necessary opportunities to acquire the Danish skills needed for their job.
In addition to relevant language courses, this task involves providing opportunities for new colleagues to become integrated in the department; it is also important that the necessary amount of time is allowed for them to focus on language learning in informal and formal settings. Ideas for how this can be achieved in practice are outlined in our comments on Principle 2.1.
At CIP, we offer Danish language courses that help develop language skills that are relevant for meeting specific communicative demands in an academic context rather than the development of general language skills.
CIP can also facilitate workshops for departments or other units at UCPH that would like inspiration for implementing the language policy locally. We have developed various workshop formats that are useful for facilitating what can be quite difficult conversations about language. If you’re interested in knowing more about what we offer at CIP, please contact us at cip@hum.ku.dk or +45 35 32 86 39.